Yankee Dan is a new to market horse racing tipster service operated by the eponymous Dan Kendall. As the name suggests, the service is based around betting on Yankee bets.
Introduction to Yankee Dan
Whilst I generally find that horse racing is one of the more restrictive betting markets, that doesn’t stop people getting creative in their pursuit of long term profit. And od you know what, when it is done well, I absolutely commend that. The fact of the matter is that in the continued war against bookmakers, anything that provides punters with an edge should be celebrated. The problem with adding these complications to a simple betting approach is that… Well, they complicate matters. Sometimes, for the better, but oftentimes for the worst.
Today’s review subject, Yankee Dan, uses a method that I have seen employed a number of different times by a variety of different tipsters with mixed results. Dan Kendall however seems to believe that he has unlocked the code. That his particular way of approaching this betting strategy can seemingly all but guarantee some very substantial profits for punters though. All from £1 stakes. That is the dream, surely?
Of course, there are always two sides to every coin. Dan Kendall posts some great results for Yankee Dan. He explicitly states that if you use his tips “you’ll actually make consistent profit”. This is the dream for most punters, but there are some very real and reasonable questions that exist over this. Many of which are backed up by the fact that there are some very frustrating and gaping holes in the claims that are made for this. Something that inevitably leads to some cynicism. None the less, I will get right into this and really try to keep an open mind.
What Does Yankee Dan Offer?
Whilst there are a lot of elements of Yankee Dan that are arguably different or different to the norm, there are also massive swathes of what Dan Kendall is doing here that are… Well, very average and typical, is about the best thing that I can say. Of course, average doesn’t have to be a bad thing. It is also a pretty typical indicator that there isn’t anything wrong either.
This is definitely something that you can apply to Dan Kendall’s management of the service. Because to be fair to him, it is actually quite good. Especially as far as this kind of tipster service usually goes. So, let’s cover the more obvious things first. As is the case with pretty much any modern tipster service, selections are sent out to subscribers directly via email. This takes place every day, except for Sundays.
One of the things that I like about Yankee Dan is that you also get plenty of time to place these bets. Dan Kendall typically makes selections available on the evening before racing. Around 11pm. This has a two fold positive effect. First things first, for those who are working a 9-5, you actually get the time that you need to place the bets.
The second positive of this is that it allows you to have a decent window to actually try and seek out the best possible odds. Unfortunately, this could prove to be something that takes up some time as odds comparison sites don’t tend to cover Yankee bets. As such, it means shopping around a fair while.
Moving on to the bets themselves, well, as I’ve already mentioned several times, and as the name of Yankee Dan suggests, you are dealing with those Yankee bets. For those of you who aren’t familiar, this rather exotic accumulator involves taking 4 selections and effectively backing them multiple ways. This includes 6 doubles, 4 trebles, and a 4-fold accumulator, effectively making for 11 bets placed (a point I will be picking up shortly).
Obviously, when one of these bets actually lands, Yankee Dan comes in clutch with some very big odds. For example, Dan Kendall shows £11 returning £1,511.67. This means across the full bet, it effectively worked out at 136/1. Those are some huge odds. However, they aren’t necessarily reflective of the horses that you will be backing. Here, you generally see very middling odds available.
In terms of the volume of bets, Dan Kendall makes a big show out of the fact that he only bets once per day (with that exception of Sundays). There are also only 4 selections per day, however, as mentioned, you have to get into the habit of viewing this as 11 different bets that you are placing. At least in my opinion. This is all down to the staking plan.
Which brings me back to a point I made in my introduction. Dan Kendall talks about how he has made the claimed profit using £1 stakes, but this seems a bit disingenuous to me. Because whilst you are technically staking just £1 on each bet, you are having to back 11 of them every day if you want to follow Yankee Dan. For my mind, this means that whilst you are still dealing with level stakes, those stakes are £11 per point, with you staking 1 point per day.
The reason you won’t typically see tipsters looking at it this way however is the fact that it allows them to massively inflate their results. For example, if you view Dan Kendall as using £1 stakes, then that big bet that landed is 1,510/1. Which sounds much better. But that isn’t actually an accurate representation.
It also raises questions for me in terms of what kind of betting bank you might need. In theory, you should be OK with something quite modest. But that involves taking Dan Kendall’s word on his implied strike rate. Something that I’m generally not really for.
You see, we are told that in a “typical month”, there have been 8 profitable bets. These are literally the examples that Dan Kendall provides for the month of January. Taking out the Sundays, this means that we saw 26 betting days. This means a strike rate of around 31%. A bloody strong number for this kind of service. Meanwhile, there is a suggestion February could be even stronger than this.
How Does Yankee Dan Work?
If you want to know anything about how Yankee Dan “works”, per se, unfortunately you will walk away from this disappointed. Dan Kendall has very little to actually say on this matter. Instead, he decides to take a much more narrative approach with the copy for his service. All of which I’ve seen before, unfortunately.
It starts out with talk about how Dan Kendall got “suckered in by all those crooks” up until the end of last year. That “Every single week there seemed to be a “new best system yet” been advertised or sent to me by email”. Unfortunately, we are told. None of them actually made any money for him.
So, the sales material goes on to say, he looked at all the systems that were making him money (which system is something that is never elaborated on) and “started using this selection criteria [himself]”. This supposedly started to lead to massive wins coming in on the regular.
Literally the only other insight that we are given here is a statement where Dan Kendall says that he only bets on “quality runners with a very good chance of winning!”. The bare minimum of what you would expect from a tipster service. But honestly, it also doesn’t actually tell you anything about how Yankee Dan works either.
The only thing that I think is genuine insight is the idea that Yankee bets are somehow better because you don’t need all of the horses to win to make a profit. That is a very vague notion and feels more like clutching at strings than any tangible selection process for picking 4 horses a day, 6 days a week.
What is the Initial Investment?
Dan Kendall has two options available if you want to subscribe. The first option is marketed as a “trial” of Yankee Dan.it is priced at £30 (plus VAT) for which you get access to selections for the rest of February and the whole of March. Alternatively, you can sign up on a longer term offering. This is charged at £60 (plus VAT) and runs all the way through till the end of August.
What is noteworthy is that whichever subscription you go for, Yankee Dan does come with a full 30 day money back guarantee. Not that Dan Kendall advertises this fact particularly prominently. This is backed up by Clickbank who are typically reasonably good at honouring this, so long as you don’t serially return products through them.
What is the Rate of Return?
Now we come to the real reason that Yankee Dan is so interesting, and that is the profit. Make no mistake, if Dan Kendall can deliver on his claims, then you are on to a very definite winner here. Because the headline claim of making £4,740.61 in 26 days really does make it sound like Dan Kendall can repeat this feat. Especially considering other claims of making £21,560.28 since June (using those “£1 stakes”, of course).
The issue that I really have with all of this is that, simply put, I’m not convinced about the profit potential here. Not least of which is because there is just incredibly limited evidence backing it up. For my money, simply showing a few winning betting slips is not proofing. Especially when you openly admit to supposedly having been betting since June.
Conclusion for Yankee Dan
There is a lot to unpack with Yankee Dan, and unfortunately, that isn’t in a good way. At the center of my criticisms here though is one very clear and incredibly poignant. This is a very distinctive lack of insight and evidence. And it really does have its finger prints all over this in the worst possible way.
Because here’s the thing, what does Dan Kendall actually tell you? Sure, he does a great job of painting himself as “one of us”. Those down on their look punters who are all being taken for a ride. Something that, unfortunately, I know happens all too often. I talk to plenty of people who have been left out of pocket from questionable tipsters, so he isn’t wrong about all of this.
But then let’s put this narrative aside for a moment and see whether or not Yankee Dan is actually just another one of those tipsters. The only actual evidence that we are given about… Well, anything really, is those few screenshots of betting slips. Something that I am always sceptical about because I know that they can be quite easily manipulated.
Meanwhile, let’s talk a little bit about what is lacking. Well, first things first, there is the lack of information on a system. Sure, Dan Kendall says that there is a system in place for Yankee Dan. But with nothing about what that really involves, I can’t help but recommend taking that with a very large pinch of salt. I mean, the closest we get to any real information can be boiled down to Yankee bets good.
Things like how Dan Kendall is finding 4 selections per day though? No need to worry about that though! Just believe that you’ll make a grand a week instead! After all, look at the betting slips. Except, there should be 6 months worth of them. Because let’s be honest, if I’d made £20,000 in 6 months, and I was a tipster, I’d not just be keeping records, I’d be showing them to everybody.
All of this leads me to believe that, in all likelihood, Yankee Dan probably isn’t going to perform that well. If in fact, at all. The truth of the matter is that any tipster worth their salt will talk about their system, they will talk about their results, and they will be transparent about that. Dan Kendall seems to go out of his way to avoid providing any real information.
This suggests one of two things in my mind. Either the results aren’t really as good as presented, or they simply aren’t entirely above board. Alternatively, Dan Kendall could really be genuine, but I doubt that somehow. Which really leads me quite nicely to my final thoughts on this.
Frankly, I don’t believe that you will really make money with Yankee Dan. And if you do, it will likely be down to good fortune rather than good management. I really don’t believe that there is a single thing here that warrants even the moderate costs involved. With all of this in mind, I really would recommend giving this a pretty wide berth.
