Total Soccer is a new to market sports betting tipster service which is operated by the WAP Tipsters stable of tipsters. As the name of the service suggests, it provides subscribers with football bets. Selections come courtesy of one Andrew Mckenna.
Introduction to Total Soccer
Football betting is an interesting affair. It is the second most popular betting market in the UK, however, the nature of the sport means that odds tend to be limited. Let’s be honest, by and large, there are only three possible outcomes on a football game. A home win, an away win, or a draw. This lack of outcomes makes it much harder for bookies to make a mistake when they’re pricing bets. Compare that to horse racing where you might have eight different outcomes and less predictability. It just makes football look like it struggles with value.
As any seasoned bettor will tell you, this can be the case. There are so many outlying markets and that is where you can really start to see some reasonable returns. And it is within these different markets that Andrew Mckenna looks to find value bets for Total Soccer. Something that on paper I am actually really quite excited about. Within the headlined for the service, WAP Tipsters show bets winning at 7/5, 11/2 and 3/1. By footballing standards, that ain’t half bad.
So, what you have here is a value based tipster service for football that seemingly has actually produced some genuinely impressive winners. Total Soccer is a sure thing then, right? Well, it probably goes without saying that this is only one small part of the bigger picture. A bigger picture that undoubtedly paints Andrew Mckenna’s tips in a much more negative light than WAP Tipsters’s sales material make it sound. And with all of that out there, let’s get right down to it.
What Does Total Soccer Offer?
There is very little denying the fact that Total Soccer is a footballing tipster service. And with that comes certain inherent elements that, generally speaking, effect large swathes of the service. From the betting markets to the logistical elements, and even to some impact the wider results.
Now, I am going to start by looking at that logistical part and how WAP Tipsters manage the service. This is one of the few areas that I think Total Soccer is beyond reproach. The fact of the matter is that it is hard to ignore that you are dealing with a tipster stable who have various tipsters under their management. This experience really shows through.
With that said, there are also aspects of Total Soccer that seem to be down to Andrew Mckenna’s approach that mean that this also isn’t your typical experience. One of the most apparent things to me is the distribution of tips. As you’d expect, you are definitely busier over the weekends with WAP Tipsters’ proofing very clearly demonstrating this pattern. But there are also a number of bets through the week as well.
As you would probably expect, these are sent out directly via email giving you a fair old amount of time to get the bets placed. Now, what I would say at this point is if you are able, an odds comparison site would go a long way here. On the lower odds less niche bets, it simply makes sense to increase your winnings as much as possible. But on those more esoteric betting markets, you can see swings of as much as 10% plus.
With the management side of things out of the way, let’s talk about those bets. Because there is a hell of a lot to talk about. Whilst we’ve just been discussing odds, let’s look at the range that you can expect from Total Soccer. One day, Andrew Mckenna might advise a bet at odds of 2.20. The next day, you might be betting on a bet wit odds of 12.00. That is a massive range for football betting.
And all of that comes courtesy of the betting markets covered. WAP Tipsters provide a list, but really, you an break it down into a few categories. These are betting on a match result (i.e. which team will win or a draw), various goals markets including over/under and BTTS, as well as a number of correct score predictions. On top of this, you can also see accas on various of these as well.
This only really leaves the volume of bets to talk about, and this is an interesting thing. In and of itself, I wouldn’t say that Total Soccer is a prohibitively high volume service. Even on the busiest days, you might see about five bets or so. But one of the things that Andrew Mckenna does do quite often (especially when it comes to correct score bets) is advise multiple bets on the same game. This works fine in theory, but it can be pricey when none of those bets come in.
With all of that out of the way, let’s talk staking. On any given individual bet, the most that Andrew Mckenna will advise you stake based off WAP Tipsters’ proofing is 5 points. When it comes to the bets with much longer odds, this is generally just a single point. However, you also have to keep in mind that things like Patent bets can (and have) be a part of Total Soccer. These involve as much as 7 points on a single bet.
Naturally, that can start to add up quite a lot if you aren’t winning. Even with a decent sized betting bank, it can be cause for concern. And I think that this point is really brought home when you consider that the average strike rate for the service comes in at just 19.11% at the time of writing. This just isn’t something that you can expect to win on very often.
How Does Total Soccer Work?
One of the things that is strongly in favour of Total Soccer is that there is a lot of information provided about what the selection process entails. To start, we are told that the service has been designed to make “long term profit from football betting” and that every tip that is provided has been “extensively and expertly researched to help give you the best chance possible of beating the bookmaker”.
Aside from this, we are also told that this research “covers a huge range of statistics, from home/away records, Current Team Confidence, head2head records, goal ratios for/against, how important the match is to each team (Eg Promotion/relegation issues) to current form, injuries, suspensions and many more”. I know that I’m just quoting extensively here, but I think that it’s quite important to show that there is seemingly some kind of system here.
As well as all of this, we are vaguely told that there is an approach to betting that is a betting equivalent of the Dutch Total Football approach (hence the name). Quite what this actually means isn’t something that is discussed, but from a marketing perspective, it certainly sounds good.
When you factor in that WAP Tipsters also provide very comprehensive proofing for Total Soccer. This means that as well as having that insight into what the service entails, you can also get a good idea of what the “ebb and flow” of the service is as well. Something that, if I’m completely honest, is incredibly important, as you will see when I get to talking about the results.
What is the Initial Investment?
There are three different options if you want to sign up to Total Soccer, each of which come with massively varying outlays and value available. The cheapest option is a monthly subscription which is priced at £40 per month. Representing somewhat better value is the quarterly subscription WAP Tipsters offer which is priced at £85.
By far and away, the best value comes from signing up to Total Soccer on a 6 monthly basis. This is priced at just £95 for 6 months which works out at a little bit less than £16 per month which honestly, seems reasonable (despite the outlay).
It is noteworthy that Total Soccer comes with no money back guarantee, something that isn’t particularly uncommon in the betting world. With that said, there is a free 14 day trial before you actually pay out for any of the these subscriptions.
What is the Rate of Return?
No matter how interesting or good a service may look, when it all boils down to it, the single most important thing is how much it makes. In the case of Total Soccer, this is where everything falls down really. At the time of writing, WAP Tipsters are showing that Andrew Mckenna has incurred a loss of 47.69 points. A number that, in theory, the service has the potential to overcome with a few good bets.
The problem that really stands out however is that this is 3 consistent months of losses. That is a concerning start for a tipster service that was only able to make a profit of 13.8 points in the first profitable month. Now, we are told that Andrew Mckenna has logged his tips with another tipster stable prior to launching Total Soccer, and presumably, it did well enough there, however, the reality of everything that we can see shows a service that is very much on the wane.
Conclusion for Total Soccer
I really really wanted to like Total Soccer. I love the idea of getting value from football betting. An area that really, doesn’t tend to exist. Unfortunately, there isn’t a particularly big difference between just backing long shots and seeing what sticks and identifying bets that actually have value for money. Something that the results suggest Andrew Mckenna hasn’t quite mastered.
What is quite interesting about this to me is the fact that the sales material does a very good job of making it sound like he really knows what he’s talking about. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that the things that are talked about aren’t necessarily common knowledge. Things like head2head records and the like aren’t something that your “Joe Average” tipster would think to talk about.
So where has it all gone wrong? Really, there doesn’t seem to be an obvious answer to this. Some of the bets that are advised seem like questionable choices to me. For example, Tottenham and Man City, backing City to win and BTTS seems like a reasonable shout at a glance.
Except City were shaky in terms of injuries. Furthermore, there is always the bad blood that exists between Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho. That isn’t the kind of bet I’d feel comfortable placing. Even speaking as a United fan, it’s a hard thing to bet against Mourinho in big games. So what did Andrew Mckenna know that I don’t?
The thing with this kind of mistake is that if you’re not staking a lot, it can be written off easily enough, But when you’re staking 3 points on that kind of bet… Well, it just seems like a recipe for disaster. Especially if you are pursuing that “long term profit from football betting”.
And with WAP Tipsters offering no real explanation for the results (despite still actively marketing Total Soccer), it’s hard to bring everything together in any meaningfully positive way. It isn’t even like it is particularly cheap. Sure, in theory, £40 is about what I would expect to pay per month for a tipster service, but definitely not for one that is losing money. Which is exactly what is happening here.
At the end of the day, the bottom line is the bottom line. And in the case of Total Soccer all that I can see from the data sample provided is a service that has shown consistent losses. Could Andrew Mckenna turn that around? Maybe. WAP Tipsters seem to believe that they’re onto something here. And perhaps if you’re an optimist, it may be worthwhile keeping half an eye on this for the future. Or even taking a punt on that 14 day free trial. But really, in its current form, I see little reason to believe that this is a service that warrants your time and effort.
