Ryan is a former mixed martial arts and kickboxing competitor. After finishing university he played online poker and taught English for a living in Thailand for a few years. Upon returning to England his focus has been on making a living from sports trading, betting and arbitrage. Over the course of 5 years he has managed to make a six figure profit using the strategies discussed on this site. Ryan runs the sports betting and trading website www.smartsportstrader.com
Recently I was speaking to a friend about sports betting. He asked me who is the “Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo” of the sports betting world.
It was an interesting question as who are the biggest sports bettors in the world?
The Biggest Sports Bettors In The World
Successful sports bettors don’t tend to glamour for the limelight.
They have their edges in the sports betting markets and make money from it. If they were to reveal their methods and how they make money from sports betting, the markets would react and they would no longer be profitable.
So there is “no world series of sports betting” or “sports betting champions league.”
There are however a few high profile sports bettors that are known among the media.
Billy Walters
Billy Walters is a big name in American sports betting. It is estimated that Walters has made tens of millions of dollars perhaps even hundreds of millions of dollars.
Walters was originally for Kentucky. He moved to Las Vegas in the early 1980’s and formed his own betting syndicate.
Walters betting operation was first described in the book “The Smart Money” by Micheal Konik.
Within the book the author goes into detail about Walters (although a pseudonym is used) betting operation. How he used multiple people to get his bets on using multiple accounts.
Difficulties he faced in getting sports books to accept his bets. Alongside the lengths and planning he had to go through to be so successful.
Although he has been largely secretive about his betting operations. He has been covered on ESPN and had a small television segment made about him.
Billy Walters has long been known as one of the biggest sports bettors in Las Vegas. However has most recently been making headlines after being convicted of insider trading.
Tony Bloom And Starlizard
Tony Bloom is the owner of UK based betting syndicate “Starlizard.”
He is well known name among sharp sports bettors. It is estimated that Starlizard can have as much as £1 million staked on a single outcome of a football match.
Starlizard are known to run their betting operation with same devotion and analytics of a major hedge fund.
Officially Stalizard describe itself as a betting consultancy. Which uses complex statistical models to generate football odds that are sharper than those offered by the Asian bookmakers and betting exchanges.
Alongside profiting from their own bets Starlizard are also known to provide winning football bets to other high rollers.
Bloom isn’t just involved with sports betting and has many other business ventures.
In 2009 he became the chairman of his hometown club after purchasing 75% stake in the club. Also investing £93 million into developing a new ground.
According to Business Insider UK the bulk of the money used in Stalizard’s operation comes from Tony Bloom. Described as a maths whiz.
He is a veteran gambler and has competed in some of the highest stake poker tournaments around. In the early 2000’s he was estimated to have made millions from setting up online bookmaker and poker websites.
Much like Billy Walters, Tony Bloom is not one for the public limelight. With most articles containing second hand information about his betting activities.
Bloom only chooses to talk with the media about his involvement in Brighton And Hove Albion.
Zeljko Ranogajec
Zeljko Ranogajec is rumoured to be one of the biggest gamblers in the world. It is estimated that his global annual turnover is more then $1 billion.
Born in Australia in a family of Croatian immigrants. Zeljko first success in gambling came from the game of blackjack.
Allegedly Zeljko Ranogajec turned a bankroll of a few hundred dollars into millions through advantage play.
He has also had notable wins in the game of Keno winning $7.5 million and in 2011 was inducted into the blackjack hall of fame.
When it comes to sports betting Zeljko Ranogajec is rumoured to bet significant amounts of money on horse racing. It is reported that his turnover accounts for nearly a third of the total for Betfair in Australia.
Ranogajec does not give any interviews.
A lot of the speculation that surrounds him comes from second hand information. As with most large scale sports bettors there is not much for him to gain from revealing information about his betting activities.
The three sports bettors above are thought to turnover hundreds of millions perhaps billions annually.
In truth though it is hard to know who the biggest sports bettors in the world are. As if you are profiting from sports betting on such a large scale it is in your interest to keep that knowledge to yourself.
Some of the biggest sports bettor in the world may also not even be winning ones!
I am sure there will a few rich oil merchants or Chinese businessman. Who bet huge amounts of money for thrills without the detailed analysis needed to be successful.
So whist little is known about the biggest sports bettors in the world.
There are at least a few individuals that rumoured to be beating the sports betting markets on a massive scale.
Interested in sports betting, matched betting, advantage play or trading?
Read my attempt at making £1,000,000 from sports betting.
Betting Gods seems almost too good to be true right?
They offer multiple tipsters on their platform who have made over £100,00k in profit!
In this Betting Gods review will look at how theBettingGods Tipster Network, covering how they operate and the tipsters they offer.
Is Betting Gods a scam?
Do Betting Gods tipsters make money over the long term?
Betting Gods are a large company with over 18k followers on the Betting Gods twitter account. Betting Gods free tips are a popular discussion point however this article will focus mainly on their paid tipsters.
Now I have previously done some Betting Gods reviews on a few of their popular tipsters. So I thought it would make a good article, here are my honest thoughts on betting gods.
The Shady World Of Betting Tipsters
It is true that the world of sports betting tipsters is a very shady one. With a very large percentage of them offering no value what so ever.
I have written about these very popular social media tipsters that make money from the loses of players they refer to bookmakers. Then there are tipsters that just outright lie about results in order to appear profitable and sell tips.
However there are a very small percentage of tipsters that actually offer some value. That record odds fairly and really do aim to make long term profits for their subscribers.
So where then does betting gods fit in?
Betting Gods Tipsters
Currently the Betting Gods Tipster Network have a total of 12 tipsters under their name. Ranging from popular betting markets like horse betting and football. To smaller markets such as boxing and European basketball.
I have had the chance to review several betting gods services in depth. A horse racing lay bet service called Cudsworth’s lays. This service really struggled during my review and is now no longer part of the Betting Gods stable.
The Football Guru (review here) a tipster which unsurprisingly focuses on the football markets. This service is showing a long term profit of over £3000 betting at £10 a point since December 2015. The Football Guru performed well during our review although one negative aspect to report was the inclusion of the Bet365 inplay offer in their results.
A service that have I have used and had success with is Quentin Franks Racing (reviewhere). This is a service that had a really stellar track record of producing profit month after month. It had tough year in 2017 but has shown to be profitable long term.
Many of the services that I reviewed are no longer with Betting Gods. The one service that remains of which I have reviewed is Premier Greyhound tips. This service was very profitable during our trial remains a standout service for Betting Gods. It is the best greyhound tipster service that we have ever come across.
Over the past few years of running this site. I have had a few emails exchanges with people regarding betting gods. Where both the negative and positives of this tipster network have been discussed. Here are some of the main points that have come up.
Betting Gods Review – Negatives
I can’t match the odds they quote and record!
This is the most common complaint I get about some of the horse racing services that Betting Gods advertise. A lot of people have emailed me asking if I can match the odds which are quoted for the Quentin Franks horse racing service.
In truth I can’t match them all the time, and I really put quite a bit of effort into making sure I am at my computer when the daily email arrives.
Now from Betting Gods point of view I can see why they advertise their results this way. When emails are sent these odds do exist but bookmakers slash most of the higher odds selections within minutes.
If you don’t have the fastest email provider or are not able to bet close to the time of receiving the emails. You are not going to be able to get close to the odds quoted.
Perhaps a fairer way of recording odds would be to wait 10 minutes after emails are sent and record odds that exist at 2 or 3 bookmakers.
The way they market their services?
So variable staking plans are quite common among tipsters. Depending on the perceived value and odds of a selection will determine your stake amount.
For example lets say we believe Man Utd at home to Preston in the FA cup at odds of 1.30 is a really strong bet. We might bet 10 points £100 on Man Utd at 1.30.
However on the same day we also think Burton at home to Brighton at odds of 8.4 is a really good bet. But due to the difference in odds we don’t bet 10 points we only bet 1 point £10.
We would do this to protect out bankroll and lessen the volatility of betting at higher odds. This is a fairly common way of staking.
However it can lead to some of the roi and results figures looking a little inflated.
An example of this was one of Betting Gods previous tipsters. Chloe’s football focus boasted some highly impressive figures. With an 89% return on investment and average monthly profit of £1286.04 to £10 stakes it sounds awesome.
However if you look at the detailed results you will see some large bets on high odds. For example 10 point bets (£100) at odds of 11.5 and 17.9 have won.
In a small sample size of 202 bets this can really give unrealistic expectations of the long term profits that can be achieved from sports betting.
Now from Betting Gods point of view. I can see why they would market this service in this way. The results are true and Chloe’s Football Focus is on a great run of results with those 10 point bets having paid off.
This potentially could be a very good service over the long term.
However from my point of view and someone that wants to educate people to be better sports bettors.
I know the pitfalls of this type of staking and understand the variance involved betting on such high odds. Personally I would like to see them include the level stakes results for the services that use variable staking plans.
This service is no longer part of betting gods
Betting Gods Review – Positives
They are pretty transparent
Out of all the tipsters networks that exist Betting Gods are one of the most transparent. I have noted issues with including bet365 offers in results and variable staking inflating some of their tipsters results. But they don’t try to hide of any of this. If you want to go and have a detailed look at any of the 12 tipsters they promote you will find detailed results.
This is a big positive for me as it really allows you to get an idea of type of odds a tipster focuses on. The volume of bets a tipsters puts out, which markets they focus on.
It gives you a feel for the service without needing to join up first.
They offer trials and money back guarantees
A lot of tipster platforms are just looking for suckers that will pay for the first month of a service and aren’t bothered about the longevity of their customers. They will just trick some new people to join and this is their business model.
Well Betting Gods do want long term subscribers and that’s why they offer 30 day trials for a £1.99. This is enables the subscriber to see whether the tipster service works for them and suits their style of betting.
You can also get a full refund within 30 days no questions asked if you weren’t happy with the service.
Professionalism and support
Like I wrote earlier the world of sports betting tipsters is a very shady one. So it is refreshing to have a tipster network that is very transparent. Offers live chat and email support. And generally runs itself like a professional business should do.
So whilst the Betting Gods tipster network isn’t perfect. It is far from a scam and if you are looking to add a betting tipster to your portfolio. You can very easily take a detailed look at any of the tipsters they offer and take a up a 30 day trial to see if they fit well for you.
If you can’t match the quoted odds or have an issue with the service you can get a refund without any issue.
Overall I think you should always do your research before joining a tipster.
Betting Gods are far from perfect and I do think some of the tipsters are not going to be profitable long term. However they do also have some solid tipsters that stake reasonably and have long term winning records.
(This article features affiliate links. This means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. I use or have used any product I review. If I recommend them it is because I believe they are helpful, useful and offer value to their customers. Please do not spend any money on these products unless you feel they will give you value or that they will help you achieve your goals.)
Limitations, bans, being asked to supply the last 5 years of your bank statements. Along with a selfie ID in front of today’s newspaper.
In order to withdraw money that they let you deposit with no questions asked.
There are many shady and unethical practices that bookmakers employ to make life difficult for the regular sports bettor.
Which bookmaker stands out as the worst in the UK?
Who are the bookmakers that you want to avoid in 2022?
In today’s article we are going to take a look at the worst bookmaker currently on offer in the UK.
Highlighting the warning signs you should look out for when trusting your money with a bookmaker!
Worst Bookmaker In The UK
High up on the worst bookmakers in the UK list is Betway.
AsCaan Berryhighlights in the video above. Betway have drawn a lot of negative attention for their unethical practices over the last few years.
My experience with Betway was opening an account. Placing one initial bet and then finding my account restricted from promotions, along with stake limitations the next day.
Recent Trustpilot reviews suggest that Betway haven’t improved as a bookmaker, since I last used them.
With several reports of Betway doing all they can to stop punters withdrawing their winnings. Blocking accounts, delaying withdrawals, settling winning bets as lost etc.
Their average review on Trust Pilot is 2 out of 5.
This is despite them running a free bet promotion, where Betway gave members who wrote a positive review free bets.
As the Times report, despite adding over 6000 positive reviews on Trustpilot through unethical measures. The average rating for Betway is still very low. Remove those 6000 five star reviews and its pretty obvious what a fair rating would be.
Unable To Withdraw Winnings
One of the most frustrating things a bookmaker can do is withhold your money!
A common theme among many shady bookmakers is they will let you deposit large amounts into an account with zero checks. However when it comes to withdrawal time woah woah woah!!!
Sir/madam can you explain where this money came from? Provide source of funds, multiple forms of ID, go through a phone interview etc
It’s a terrible practice that is unfortunately all too common with the worst bookmakers in the UK.
Betway are notorious for doing this. I know multiple people that have had no problem depositing with Betway but once it came to withdrawing that money. Were met with all the resistance that Betway legally can get away with.
That even after a high spending losing bettor had “self excluded” himself via gamstop. Betway offered him a £300 bonus bet to reel him back in.
The article really highlights the predatory nature of Betway.
There are multiple reports showing how they abuse verification and source of funds measures put in place to identify problem gamblers. Which were all used as a way to deter winning players and delay withdrawls.
However in this story we see a problem gambler of the highest order. Someone that ends up stealing to fund their betting addiction.
Being plowed with free bets and incentives. Having “VIP Managers” chatting to him regularly under the guise of being a friend. All done with the intention squeezing a father with a gambling addiction for all of the money they could get.
Where were these source of funds and affordability checks in this case?
Unfair Bonus Terms
The term bonus is usually defined in a positive way. It is something that is given as reward for good work or an additional incentive.
However something that has become more and more common practice with the worst bookmakers around is the worthless or -EV bonus.
This is something that appears at first to be appealing perhaps a £20 bonus for signing up. But when looking at the terms of conditions is actually worthless or of much smaller value.
It probably comes as no surprise that Betway use this tactic for their casino sign up.
On the face of it a £50 bonus sounds great.
You deposit £50 and then you get an additional £50.
The issue comes with the terms and conditions.
There is a 50x wagering on the deposit (£2500 wagering on £50.) With weighting requirements, which means some games won’t contribute fully to the wagering. There is also a term that states irregular game play may invalidate your bonus (Pretty much a get of jail card if they don’t want to pay out.)
If we dig into the maths of this offer. A regular bettor is probably going to try and wager through this offer on a slot.
A good slot would have a 97% return to player, meaning that for every £100 wagered on average £3 would be lost. Given that you have to wager £2500 to withdraw the bonus.
We can do the sum as -£3 (average lost wagering £100) x 25 (complete £2500 wagering) = -£75.
Showing that this £50 “bonus” offers no value at all.
Other Bookmakers To Avoid In The UK
High up on my personal list is Fansbet.
When I tried to withdraw £20 from the company. Suddenly a flurry of requests were made for ID, source of wealth etc. They would not accept my bank statements as I had blurred out personal transactions and demanded to see a full month’s worth of unedited statements.
Overall just a huge pain to deal with and a shoddy bookmaker with generally very poor odds.
Tonybet are another bookmaker with a pretty poor reputation.
Personally I have had very little to do with them. However they are are multiple reports of them using similar tactics to Betway in order to keep hold of money.
Is Betway The Worst Bookmaker In The UK?
Betway is in my opinion the worst bookmaker in the UK. Especially given its advertising presence online and the fact that its sponsors popular football teams such as West Ham.
Of the most well known bookmakers it is definitely the one to avoid.
From my experience with online betting for last ten years and running my betting as a business. I would advise caution when dealing with Betway. It is not a bookmaker I would want much money in my account with.
Given its history of holding on to withdrawals for as long as possible and making life hard for anyone that isn’t handing them over their wage slips every month.
Do you agree, who is your worst bookmaker in the UK?
Over the past few years I have made good money exploiting casino offers using various services. I did a lot of this manually before Bonus Accumulator was created and also took offers from another service.
Are Casino Offers Worth It?
Below is my profit graph after exploiting over 4892 casino offers.
A profit of over £26,639 has been made since 2019.
So the question is can Bonus Accumulator allow you to do the same?
Lets take a look!
Bonus Accumulator Review
Training
So first off the mathematics behind exploiting casino offers profitably can seem difficult at first.
It differs to matched betting as you will not always make a profit from every offer. However every offer you do will have a positive expectancy.
This means that in the long run if you keep doing offer after offer you will make money.
Sometimes you will win big!
The example that I always use for simplicity is that of a coin flip.
Lets pretend that you have a friend that believes heads is luckier then tails.
Because they believe this they are willing to pay you £1.10 every time it lands on tails. But you have to only pay them £1 every time it lands on heads.
This situation would give you a clear mathematical advantage.
Long term this is called plus EV or positive expected value.
When Tails lands in this situation the payout odds are 2.1 (real probability is 50% so the odds should be 2.0)
Heads lands and the payout odds are 2.0 (This is the true value of a coin landing on tails.)
If you flipped the coin long enough you would make money.
Casino offers work on exactly the same premise.
Bonus accumulator provides plenty of instruction for those new to exploiting casino offers.
In the form of videos and written guidelines. So which ever way you learn the best, they have it covered.
The videos and guidelines cover.
Why Should You Do Casino Offers
Types Of Casino Offer
How To Play Roulette
What Is Wagering?
How To Play Blackjack
How To Play Slots
ID/KYC Verification
Risk Free Offers
Low Risk Offers
Medium Risk Offers
High Risk Offers
How To Use The Simulator
Bonus Accumulator Offers
This was probably most interesting part for myself.
As I mentioned earlier I have been exploiting casino offers for many years now using another service.
So how does Bonus Accumulator stack up in this department?
Names of the casino are hidden to protect copyright
Extremely Well!
I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of offers that the bonus accumulator service covers.
There are hundreds of offers covering risk free, low risk, medium risk and high risk.
Sign up offers are often the most profitable but there is also a large quantity of reload offers to do.
In comparison to the service that I have been using for years it stands up very well.
Bonus Accumulator Instructions
When you choose the offer that want to exploit.
Bonus accumulator gives you step by step instruction on the optimal approach, to extract the highest value possible.
Another aspect of the Bonus Accumulator service that I really like is the in-depth breakdown of each offer.
The detail is very impressive and puts them ahead of their competition.
Breaking down the EV for example into an hourly rate is something that I really like.
A lot of people seem to think that matched betting and casino offers aren’t worth the time.
However this really highlights that if you put in the time exploiting casino offers it is still extremely profitable!
What Tools Do You Get With Bonus Accumulator
Simulator
There are several tools that come with a Bonus Accumulator subscription.
We will start with my favorite which is a simulator for casino games.
As you can see from the picture this is a really handy piece of software.
You can run a number of simulations regarding the type of bonus or cashback offer that you are doing.
Such as
Bet And Get
Sticky Bonus (Where bonus is removed and only profit from bonus counts.)
Free Spins
Second Chance Bonus
Post Wager
Cashback
It then spits out a number of metrics for you.
This is an excellent tool that is especially handy for reload offers that get sent out by casinos to specific customers. It is a very quick way of seeing if the offer is profitable or not.
The above picture is a breakdown of a cashback offer that I was sent on the slot Rick and Morty Megaways.
Below is a video of me doing this offer. I managed to hit the bonus round on my last spin. (The video length is cut due to file size)
Just to prove that the video is legitimately me completing the cashback offer.
Here is a screenshot from my gaming history (the extra £6.40 came on the initial spin before the bonus loaded.)
So although this offer only had an expected value of £3.95. The hourly rate on completing an offer such as this is £236.75.
If you look at exploiting casino offers as an hourly return then it really does hammer home how much value there is to be had.
My profit from this one offer was £566.40.
This does highlight the variance in results and it can swing both ways. You can run way above the expected profit but also below it.
It is important to focus on the long term results as you will have losing periods at times.
However I can tell you that after doing 4000 plus offers the variance does even itself out.
Slots Database
Next up in the list of tools that you get with Bonus Accumulator is the slots database.
This isn’t anything fancy it is pretty much as the name suggests. Its a database of slots that allows you to search based on
Name
Return To Player
Variance
Provider
You might want to use this tool if you get an offer that is slot specific or are just looking for high RTP (return to player) slots to complete an offer with.
Perhaps you want to look up the RTP amount of a slot in order to input it in the simulation tool.
Again its a handy tool to have and saves you manually looking for everything on google (which is something I have done in the past.)
Blackjack Calculator
Last on the list is a blackjack calculator.
Blackjack is a game that I have played for probably hundreds of hours, given its high return to player if played optimally.
Making it one of the best games to rollover a casino bonus with if allowed in the bonus terms.
Previously I have used an online template for optimal blackjack strategy but Bonus Accumulator has its own.
The blackjack calculator is extremely simple.
You input the dealer hand, then state what your own cards are.
The calculator then spits out the optimal move to make allowing you to play the best blackjack strategy possible with highest rtp (return to player.)
Bonus Accumulator Profit Tracker
When it comes to having a quick and efficient way of tracking your profits, Bonus Accumulator has this covered also.
It uses a very simple process.
Where when you have finished completing an offer you input your actual profit the software logs this then also tracks the expected profit from the offer.
The software then saves this information and allows you to track all the offers you have done.
Producing a nice graph which shows your real profit alongside your expected profit.
Having done this for a few years already I have always used Excel.
The profit tracking with Bonus Accumulator is again very simple to use and very efficient.
They have done a great job of creating functional profit tracking tools that will save you inputting everything into Microsoft Excel. It might seem like a little thing but its a great little time saver that compounds in the long run.
Bonus Accumulator Forum
There is also an active community within Bonus Accumulator.
This is in the form of a forum, where you can reach out for help or advice if you are struggling. Make suggestions for further tools to be added or adjustments which might benefit the community.
If you are wondering whether or not a recurring reload offer is profitable you can ask a more experienced member of the community for confirmation if it is value or not.
It is always good to talk with individuals that share the same interests as yourself.
So the addition of a active forum is a big positive for Bonus Accumulator.
It is a good place to learn and also take motivation from the results of other people that are looking to make money exploiting casino bonuses.
Are Casino Offers Still Worth Doing In 2021?
Below I have attached my results for the year of 2020.
As I have been asked a few times are casino offers still worth doing in 2021?
Over the course of 2020 I took part in 2202 casino offers.
A total profit of £11,946 was made.
I will be continuing to do casino offers in 2021. In my opinion I believe there is still good money to be made from casino offers in 2021.
Bonus Accumulator now comes under the umbrella of Profit Accumulator diamond membership.
£39.99 monthly subscription.
£300 a year subscription ( £25 a month.)
The monthly fee is very expensive in comparison to other services. A yearly one off payment works out at £25 a month which in my opinion is value.
Profit Accumulator Diamond membership brings together the best of matched betting and casino offers. So this remains a good option if you want to make the most of both.
However a cheaper alternative would be Profit Maximiser which covers both casino and matched betting for a fraction of the price (£115 yearly)
There are not that many products around that solely focus on exploiting casino offers.
The other notable bonus service available on the internet is Team Casino. Having tried both services I found Bonus Accumulator to be much more in depth.
Choosing between the two my recommendation would be to go with Bonus Accumulator.
Bonus Accumulator Review Conclusion
In this Bonus Accumulator review we have covered all aspects of the service and from the tone of the review you can probably tell that I have been impressed.
Like I have mentioned through out this review I have been exploiting casino bonus for a few years already.
So when I heard about Bonus Accumulator I thought initially it would just be more of the same.
However Bonus Accumulator have taken everything that was already available and improved it in every aspect.
They have delivered a really sleek and most importantly very functional service that provides a tonne of value for anyone that is looking to make money from casino offers.
Are there any negatives?
Exploiting casino offers isn’t something that is brand new but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still a lot of money to be made from doing it.
The main drawback to Bonus Acucmulator is the price tag in relation to its competitors.
However if you want combine matched betting and are new to casino bonus hunting then this is the perfect place to start.
Is there a Bonus Accumulator Trial?
There isn’t a Bonus Accumulator trial. They have now combined there casino service with their matched betting service Profit Accumulator. Under the Diamond membership service.
If you want a similar service you can trial.
My recommendation is Profit Maximiser who offer a £1 trial for 14 days which is excellent value.
(This article features affiliate links. This means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you.
I use or have used any product I review. If I recommend them it is because I believe they are helpful, useful and offer value to their customers.
Please do not spend any money on these products unless you feel they will give you value or that they will help you achieve your goals.)
Looking to start making money from your Betfair Trading in 2023?
In this article we are going to take a look at the key things you need to know in order to succeed with your trading.
It’s good to learn from your mistakes. It’s better to learn from other people’s mistake – Warren Buffet
Betfair Trading Key Advice – Learn From Others
Making mistakes in your Betfair trading will ultimately lead to you losing money. The Warren Buffet quote makes a solid point.
Wouldn’t you rather learn from those that have already lost money rather then lose your own money to find out the same thing?
Luckily when it comes to Betfair trading there are some very accomplished professional traders that have put out a lot of great information.
Caan Berry for example has been a professional Betfair trader from a number of years. Through his blog and also Youtube channel you can learn a lot about how to approach Betfair trading in 2023 with the correct approach.
Whether you are looking to trade Horse Racing, Tennis or Football. Caan has a lot of excellent information on what to look for in the betting markets.
Here is an example of a very good horse racing strategy to look at for beginners who want to profit from the horse racing markets.
The second piece of key information if your looking to improve your Betfair trading in 2022 is?
Specialize In One Sport
Find the sport you want to focus on and become a specialist.
There are thousands of markets on Betfair and it can be easy to jump around from one to the other.
Trade the horses in the morning, jump on a tennis game after your lunch. Hop over to a cricket market a few hours later, then spend the rest of the night watching and trading Serbian basketball.
The Betfair markets in general are too competitive for you to jump around different sports and be able to profit long term.
The majority of successful traders that I know focus on one sport. They spend time gaining a deep knowledge of that sport and develop successful strategies.
For example Paulo Rebelo is a very successful Portuguese Betfair trader that focuses solely on football. Psychoff is another well known trader who again specializes in football.
Both Rebelo and Psychoff have been able to make big profit by solely focusing on football trading.
Other notable names in Betfair trading are Mark Iverson who focuses on cricket. Along with Dan Weston who made his name trading tennis.
These are experts in there chosen sports and are able to make a living from their Betfair trading.
Sure spend a few weeks looking at different markets and sports. However find the one that you want to specialize in and really delve into how the markets react to different situations.
Then work on developing strategies that you think could be profitable.
Test Your Betfair Trading Strategies
Don’t do what I did, when I first started trading on Betfair!
There are some great videos available on youtube from the likes of Caan Berry and others. However don’t watch them and think that you will immediately be able to replicate exactly what they are doing.
You really have to build an understanding of the markets and understand the right situations for each strategy.
For example when I first started I would watch a video about scalping. Then immediately go and test it out on the next horse market that was starting. This would inevitably go very wrong as I didn’t have the understanding of the horse markets that I needed to.
This is why it is really important to test out your strategies. Using very small stakes.
What this does, is enable you to build your experience and knowledge of the betting markets you want to take on. Then eventually start to generate an income from your Betfair trading.
Becoming Profitable Takes Time
Pre event trading, in-play trading, scalping, swing trading, lay the server, back the server. There are so many different approaches that you can try with each individual sport.
However one key thing to keep in mind is that becoming profitable will take time.
Many people go into Betfair trading after they spent some time sports betting or have been involved with matched betting. Perhaps thinking that it is going to be a relatively easy way to make some extra money.
This isn’t true, the markets are competitive and becoming profitable will likely take some time.
Even the best Betfair traders had to start somewhere.
Don’t expect to be hitting Paulo Rebelo levels of profit within a few weeks.
Make sure you give yourself time to learn the markets. Don’t pressure yourself with an unrealistic goal of making thousands of pounds profit within a month or two.
Betfair Trading In 2023 – Conclusion
Overall the betting exchange markets offer a lot of opportunity, if you are willing to put some work into them.
In 2022 Betfair trading is still a very viable way of making money online. Within this article we have looked at 4 key pieces of advice that can really help you get started.
If you want learn more about Betfair trading a good starting place is Caan Berry’s websitewhich has a free beginners trading course.
November was the first month of my streamline more time efficient betting portfolio.
I really enjoyed spending a little less time betting. Spent more time learning about investing long term and even delved into learning more about cryptocurrency.
Cryptocurrency is something I have always though I would just leave alone. After reading more and looking into it I came to the exact same conclusion (time well spent).
Will stick with sports betting, trading and investing in the stock market.
Anyway enough rambling lets take a look at results from November (Month 56).
Value Betting
Apart from a few £5 Bet365 free bets and 1 or 2 arbitrage bets it was pretty much all value betting in November.
I get on value bets a few different ways.
Utilizing limited accounts, using betting shops and using accounts that have yet to be limited.
During November there were 107 value bets.
A profit of £619 was made.
Not Familiar With Matched Betting Or Value Betting ?
It was a losing month for casino offers this month.
Been a while since I hit a really decent win on casino’s and profit this year has been a lot less then years prior. Part of that is variance but also I have just done a lot less this year.
During November a profit of £1842 was made from horse racing tipsters.
A really strong month and betting on horse racing is something that I want to focus more on going forward.
I like the amount of volume I can get down on a daily basis, there are plenty of good horse racing tipsters around. There does seem to be some scope to profit from the exchanges also which is the big factor.
Golf Portfolio
Not the best month for the golf portfolio. Got off to a fairly good start early on but a consistent stream of losers put the month into negative figures.
Alongside that I also place a few of my own bets that are purely based on the market indicating they are value.
During November a loss of -£107 was made.
Trading/Misc
Don’t remember doing any trading this month.
However looking at my records there is an extra £10 profit for the month that has come from somewhere.
Overall not the best month in terms of profit but I was happy to salvage something. As it looked like I would be booking in my first losing month for a long time after the 21st.
Thoughts
Removing my losses from MMA the month would have been pretty solid, so happy with the more time efficient approach I took this month.
Been playing around with the highly rated tennis value betting software Winnerodds this month also. Seeing if I can get some use out of it purely using the exchanges.
Things look promising on this front and its another service that doesn’t require too much time.
In terms profit for the year again its been pretty solid. At the start of every year I think “Ok I am really going to go for it this year.”
Then end up making between £20k -£30k which has happened for the last 5 years. Which I am really happy about as I have always worked full time alongside the betting.
Long term I hope that betting will help me retire early. I don’t think its ever something I would want to solely rely on for a living.
My approach has always been about hammering volume rather then increasing my stakes quickly.
But perhaps in 2022 I should really assess my staking and be more aggressive.
Results For November
Value Betting- £619
Casino Offers – –£129
Trading – £10
SSBC/MMA – –£1220
Horse Racing Tipsters – £1842
Golf Value – -£107
Total Made In November
£1015
Overall Profit Since The Challenge Began
£125,439
Remaining Target
£874,561
Recommended For Matched Betting/ Value Betting/ Arbitrage
If you comment “Smart Sports Trader” in the chat when you sign up for a Trademate Sports trial. You will get an extended two week trial and also a 10% discount off your first month.
Subscription Cost – £105 a month (Monthly)
This blog post features affiliate links.
Which means that if you subscribe to a service through a link on this site I will receive a commission.
This does not come at any additional cost to you. In fact with some of these services I have negotiated discounted prices for readers of smartsportstrader.com.
I only recommend services I am using or have used in the past.
The year is flying by and its on to month 55 in the “Making A Million Challenge.”
For the second month running I made a very costly mistake and its made me make a few adjustments. The mistake in question was leaving a trade open that I intended to close before the start of the match.
Got wrapped up playing a board game with the kids and came back to the damage below.
Have felt recently that my approach to betting/trading is a little bit too scattered.
This year 2 silly mistakes have cost me over £1k which could have been avoided if I had slowed down a little bit. Tried to plan my days better rather then just pinging off as many bets as I can throughout the day.
I think It makes sense going forward to condense what I am doing but stake more aggressively on the edges that I am most confident about.
Let’s dig into the results from October!
Value Betting
A strong month for value betting. Still doing some arbitrage and matched betting but it accounts for a tiny amount of the volume.
Pretty interesting graph as basically didn’t really get anywhere for the first 100 or so bets. Then one decent weekend seemed to initiate a really nice upswing to end the month.
During October there were 201 value bets.
A profit of £1524 was made.
Not Familiar With Matched Betting Or Value Betting ?
A steady but unspectacular month for casino offers.
Left some money on the table by not doing every offer. Again though there has to be some balance and spending multiple hours doing casino offers isn’t the most rewarding thing.
However even smaller amounts of profit add up over the year.
Looking at official results it would have been a profitable one. However I unintentionally missed bets in the first few days of the month. Then decided that I should narrow my focus to other area’s.
Neil Macdonald – -£702 from 10 selections (Staking £200 a point)
A rough period for Neil’s service. Although his long term results are very good and I do think he will be profitable long term. His following is that big that he does move odds when selections are released. So getting on his bets do require a bit more work.
As stated before I want to narrow my focus to the area’s that I am most profitable in. Whilst also being more efficient with my time. So Neil’s service was a casualty of this and I stopped following midway through the month.
Tipster Results Overall
-£702
Horse Racing Tipsters
On to the horse racing tipster portfolio which has been performing really well this year.
At the start of this month I increased my staking to £10 on horses odds of 10.00 above and £20 on horses at odds of below 10.00.
Not the most advanced staking plan but I am turning over a lot of bets on the horses now. So fixed liability staking is an easy time saver and has been working fine so far.
This is the line up of horse racing tipsters I now use.
Not the greatest or the worst month in terms of profit but not going to complain.
What I really like about this part of the portfolio. Is it takes me about an hour in morning and I can turnover a decent amount of money.
In October a profit of £161 was made from horse racing tipsters.
Golf Portfolio
Along with the horses, golf is another area of betting that I am really starting to enjoy.
It’s easy to get bets down on exchanges or shops. I can pretty much crack on with it after I am done with horses on a Wednesday morning. Then check results the following Monday.
Another plus is there are quite a few talented tipsters in the area of golf betting.
In October I carried on using movements on the exchanges to highlight value bets with online bookmakers and shops.
If you comment “Smart Sports Trader” in the chat when you sign up for a Trademate Sports trial. You will get an extended two week trial and also a 10% discount off your first month.
Subscription Cost – £105 a month (Monthly)
Recommended For Exploiting Casino Offers
(Readers of smartsportstrader.com can get the first month half price using the link below)
Subscription Cost – £12.50 a month (Annual Subscription)
This blog post features affiliate links.
Which means that if you subscribe to a service through a link on this site I will receive a commission.
This does not come at any additional cost to you. In fact with some of these services I have negotiated discounted prices for readers of smartsportstrader.com.
I only recommend services I am using or have used in the past.
Lacked the motivation to do much casino stuff this month.
Its frustrating as some of the casinos I was getting better reload offers on have put a £200 deposit limit on my account. Which means I can usually do one reload a month where in the past I might get 4 or 5.
I could get these limits increase but the source of wealth checks are so over the top that I can’t be bothered.
This meant the month was mostly low risk offers.
In September I did 72 offers
A profit of £332 was made.
MMA/Boxing Betting Results
September was another solid month for mma and boxing betting.
The biggest value bet of the month was backing Vitor Belfort to beat 58 year old Evander Holyfield. Didn’t feel particularly great about betting against a 58 year old man in a boxing contest.
But the odds were ridiculous.
Overall 14 bets were placed and a total profit of £551 was made.
Tipsters
Let’s take a look at how the tipsters I follow performed in September.
Premier Greyhound Tips – -£351 from 34 selections (Staking £10 per point.)
Disappointing month for Premier Greyhound tips with a lot of the stronger (4 point) selections losing. Hopefully October improves.
Neil Macdonald – -£620 from 29 selections (Staking £200 per point)
Bad run at the moment for Neil’s selections. There are some missed bets as his selections do tend to shorten quickly but often rebound. Not much to add, Neil’s long term record is stellar. Feel its just a case of getting through this rough patch.
Beth Bet again proved to be very profitable this month, Quentin Franks chipped in with a 36.00. winner and Kieran Wards selections were also profitable.
(On a side note I will have a video up in a few days going over how I use Beth Bet and my results using the software.)
In September a profit of £1409 was made from horse racing tipsters.
Golf Value
I carried on with the golf value betting strategy in September.
Using the exchanges to highlight value bets with online bookmakers and shops.
In September a profit of £353 was made from 26 selections.
Trading
Been a while since I have made a big mistake with my trading or betting.
But September marked a big f*** up.
I had a pre match lay on Burnley against Arsenal which I intended to close before the start of the game. Saturdays can be a pretty busy day and that day was also my niece’s birthday party.
No problem though I thought i would just trade out on my phone and enjoy a few hours away from the computer.
What I didn’t realize was that on Smarkets when you trade out of a position it doesn’t also cancel your other unmatched bets. Which it does on Betfair.
So I returned from the party feeling refreshed and ready to get back to work. Loaded up Smarkets and saw I had a £400 bet matched on Burnley after I had traded out.
Which duly lost and was a kick in the balls but mistakes do happen.
You learn and you move on.
Other then that trading had been going really well both pre match and in-play.
Managed to hit a really nice trade on the England vs Andorra game which I went through in the video below.
In September a profit of £1042 was made from trading
Results For September
Value Betting, Arbitrage, Matched Betting – £248
Casino Offers – £332
Trading – £1040
Sports Betting – £551
Tipsters – -£971
Horse Racing Tipsters – £1409
Golf Value – £353
Total Made In September
£2962
Overall Profit Since The Challenge Began
£123,625
Remaining Target
£876,375
Smart Sports Betting Community
September also marked the first month of the Smart Sports Betting Community.
Which is something I run myself.
Covering MMA/Boxing bets, value betting and football trading advice.
Results for the first month were really positive, the graph above illustrates results staking £100 a point.
If you comment “Smart Sports Trader” in the chat when you sign up for a Trademate Sports trial. You will get an extended two week trial and also a 10% discount off your first month.
Subscription Cost – £105 a month (Monthly)
Recommended For Exploiting Casino Offers
(Readers of smartsportstrader.com can get the first month half price using the link below)
Subscription Cost – £12.50 a month (Annual Subscription)
This blog post features affiliate links.
Which means that if you subscribe to a service through a link on this site I will receive a commission.
This does not come at any additional cost to you. In fact with some of these services I have negotiated discounted prices for readers of smartsportstrader.com.
I only recommend services I am using or have used in the past.
On to month 53 in the Making A Million From Betting Challenge.
August was an interesting month, it started pretty terribly as every day I updated my P/L with a loss.
After dropping just over £1k a nicely timed family holiday gave me a welcomed break.
Returned to betting a few days later, hit a decent win on the casino offers. The Premier League returned and a good run of bets in the mma markets got things looking a little better.
Let’s dig into the results from August.
Value Betting, Matched Betting And Arbitrage
A profitable month in the end for this set of strategies.
It was pretty much 90% value betting with maybe 5 or 6 low value matched betting offers. Also hit a couple of arbitrage bets this month.
We welcomed back the Premier League in August which is always good from a value betting perspective. William Hill in particular seemed pretty generous with value bets all across Europe.
Hopefully they continue to provide this on a weekly basis.
During August there were 173 value bets.
A profit of £520 was made.
Not Familiar With Matched Betting Or Value Betting ?
Subscription Cost – £12.50 a month (Annual Subscription)
If you comment “Smart Sports Trader” in the chat when you sign up for a Trademate Sports trial. You will get an extended two week trial and also a 10% discount off your first month.
Subscription Cost – £12.50 a month (Annual Subscription)
Sports Betting Results
It was a strong month for mixed martial arts and boxing betting.
Didn’t start too great with a big bet on Hall KO at 5.4 losing. However this closed at a best price of 4.5 so was pretty happy to take a stab at it.
Bea Malecki also looked a terrible bet in hindsight as she did her best Stefan Struve impression and got blasted out int he first round.
Hit some nice winners at the end of the month. Jake Paul to win by decision at 12.0 was pretty ridiculous. Whilst these type of fights might not be for boxing purists there are often some good betting angles to look at.
There were a total of 16 bets made in August
A total profit of £584 was made.
Tipsters
Let’s take a look at how the tipsters I follow performed in August.
Premier Greyhound Tips – £120 from 22 selections (Staking £10 per point.)
Another good month from Premier Greyhound Tips. Not much to add really, an easy tipster to follow. I put up all my selections on Betfair and set to match at SP.
Neil Macdonald – -£646 from 18 bets (Staking £200 per point)
Not the best month for Neil’s selections.
He’s a popular tipster which means some of selections which are aimed are markets with lower liquidity get hammered. This meant I missed a fair few bets this month.
Booked in a losing month in August but that’s betting you can’t always win.
Still I expect that by the end of the season its likely a nice profit will have been made.
Due to the amount of selections I bet each day with Beth Bet (20 -30.)
I am just recording my horse results daily rather by each bet. This just saves me a tonne of time each day.
Stakes range from £5 – £10, on selections where two tipsters select the same horse I am doubling my stakes.
In August a profit of £403
was made from horse racing tipsters.
Golf Value
In August I started backing selections in the golf markets.
Using an approach similar to value betting.
Looking at the exchange markets to highlight value with soft bookmakers.
In August a loss of -£225 was made.
Trading
A profit of £875 was made from trading this month.
The majority of which came on from the Manny Pacquiao vs Urgas fight.
I have added a video of my Betfair P/L below for some credibility.
This video also includes profit made from arbitrage and regular betting. Which is why the Betfair profit is much more then my actual trading profit.
Results For August
Value Betting, Arbitrage, Matched Betting –£520
Casino Offers –£447
Trading – £875
Sports Betting – £584
Tipsters – -£526
Horse Racing Tipsters – £403
Golf Value – -£225
Total Made In August
£2078
Overall Profit Since The Challenge Began
£120,663
Remaining Target
£879,337
Smart Sports Betting Community
This month I also launched the Smart Sports Betting Community.
After exchanging lots of emails with people of the years. It seemed there was an interest in creating a group which focused on how I approach betting on a monthly basis.
So that was what I did at the end of the August, the “Smart Sports Betting Community” was created.
I can’t share 100% of what I do, as I follow tipsters and some aspects of my trading I can’t share due to the liquidity.
However the group does cover the majority of what I do.
Membership to the group covers.
– Mixed Martial Arts (UFC) Betting Tips – Past Results 14.9% ROI From 492 Bets
– Plus EV Casino Offers – Best Offers Highlighted Daily Via Discord
– Value Betting Opportunities – Best Offers Highlighted Daily Via Discord
– Betfair Trading Advice – Live and In-Play (In Liquid Markets, Will Highlight Best Risk To Reward Trades)
Which means that if you subscribe to a service through a link on this site I will receive a commission.
This does not come at any additional cost to you. In fact with some of these services I have negotiated discounted prices for readers of smartsportstrader.com.
I only recommend services I am using or have used in the past.
Regular readers of this blog will know that I use arbitrage betting and positive ev value betting as a big part of my betting strategy.
These are solid strategies that have allowed me to make a consistent income from my betting over a number of years.
With the United States betting markets opening up.
More and more people are looking at sports betting as an alternate way to invest their money.
Let’s dive into this Oddsjam review and take a look at whether it’s worth your money.
Oddsjam Review 2022 – The Best Arbitrage Software USA?
When you first log into Oddsjam you will see a number of options.
First off you have an odds area where you can compare odds between a few bookmakers.
5dimes
Betmgm
Bookmaker
Borgota
Caesars
Draftkings
Foxbet
William Hill
Bwin
Are the bookmakers currently covered in the odds area.
This is an area to be used when you are looking to get the best possible odds for your bets.
Next up lets take a look at the betting tools Oddsjam provide.
This is the area where we will spend the most time on in this review. As the betting tools are really where the value lies with Oddsjam.
Arbitrage Software
When you select the arbitrage tool, a list of upcoming arbitrage bets for the next few days appear.
The arbitrage software covers the bookmaker already listed along with Pinnacle.
What is an arbitrage bet?
An arbitrage bet allows you to cover all outcomes of an event to guarantee yourself a profit.
Let’s take the top selection as an example.
This is an arbitrage between Washington Nationals and Philadelphia Phillies.
In the player total RBI’s market.
The above example is a 2.62% arbitrage bet. Which means that can guarantee a profit of 2.62% n your stake.
Oddsjam provide an arbitrage calculator to work out exactly how much you need to stake. To equal your profit on both bets.
In this example a profit of $8.77 would have been made on the above bet from a total stake of $326.23.
Speed And Efficiency
One of the most important aspects of an arbitrage finder, is speed.
Overall the arbitrage software provided by Oddsjam is quick enough to get on the majority of the arbitrage bets shown.
Oddsjam doesn’t provide links to the bookmaker odds which does mean you have to spend a little time manually getting to the right event.
However using the arbitrage software I did find the odds still existed on both bookmakers. So stale arbs (arbitrage bets where the odds had already moved) did not happen very often.
Plus EV Value Betting Software
What is a value bet?
In simple terms a value bet in the sports betting markets is backing something that is estimated to have a greater chance of happening then the odds indicate.
If you are able to do this consistently then you will make money in the long term.
Oddsjam provide software which helps to identify value bets.
Using the sharp bookmaker Pinnacle.
It has been proven that by using the odds at a sharp bookmaker such as Pinnacle. You can identify value bets with other bookmakers. This is a winning strategy long term.
Oddsjam identifies bets at other soft bookmakers which currently offer value.
The percentage on the left of the selections shows the implied value of the bet.
For example the above bet has an implied value of 6.31%.
Meaning that the expected long term profit of this bet is estimated at to be $6.31, per $100 staked.
Value betting is a great strategy to use alongside arbitrage betting.
Combining both methods can allow you to make a good income from the sports betting markets.
Middle Bets Software
On to Middle Bets!
With middle betting we cover both sides of an event.
This could be a handicap market, total runs, under/over. There are plenty of markets which present opportunities for middle betting.
The great thing about middle betting is that in certain situations you can win both sides of your bet. Other middle bets you can have one bet that wins whilst the other will be a push. This means we win a full bet on one side and get money back on the other.
Lets take a look at an example.
In the above example we have a middle bet which is also an arbitrage.
As a straight up arbitrage bet there is the opportunity to make 1.48% on our stake.
However this is also a middle bet.
Draft kings are offering Chicago Cubs +6.5 at odds of -725
5dimes have Chicago White Sox -6 at +840
In this example we stake $100 on Chicago +6.5 at -725, also putting down $12.11 on the White Sox at -6.
This guarantees a small profit of $1.68.
However if the White Sox win this game by exactly 6. The first bet on Chicago +6.5 would win and our bet on White Sox would be a push. Meaning would get our money back.
So a profit of $13.79 would be won on the first bet. Whilst the second bet would return our stake.
As you increase your stake the opportunity to make a larger profit with a middle bet also increases.
Middle bets are a great low risk way of building a bankroll. If you want to make money from sports betting then middle bets are an excellent strategy to use.
Low Hold
The last tool that Oddsjam offers is one that highlights tight margins between bookmakers.
This is called “Low Hold”, it is aimed at helping you clear sportsbook bonuses with rollovers. Along with highlighting the best selections to guarantee a profit from promotional free bets.
Here is an example of the type of bonus available to American sports bettors, where a rollover is required.
It is a 125% deposit bonus with a 10x rollover.
For example if I deposited $1000, I would be given an extra $1250.
With the 10x rollover, I would need to bet $12500 before it could be withdrawn.
The low hold tool highlights the best selections for rolling over your money without losing value.
This tool can also be used for free play bets.
In the above example, a $83.33 is guaranteed from a $100 freeplay bonus.
This highlights the value of the Oddsjam software.
Oddsjame Review – Other Tools And Software
That covers the main tools that Oddsjam offers. If you are looking to succeed in sports betting then they really do provide you with the software you need.
Along with the arbitrage, middle betting and plus ev betting tracker.
You also get the following –
Arbitrage calculator
Freeplay calculator
No-Vig fair odds calculator
Alongside the calculators you also get an area to track all your bets.
Oddsjam Review – Pricing
Oddsjam offer 3 different subscription options.
Arbitrage betting, Middle bets and the Low Hold tool are all part of the Canada and US plan.
The main factor for pricing of the first two options is which country you reside in.
This will effect which bookmakers you have access to.
The benefit of the industry plan is that you also get access to the positive ev betting tool which highlights value betting opportunities.
Oddsjam Review – Conclusion
There is a lot of opportunity to make money from sports betting in the US and Canadian betting markets.
Oddsjam really provide you with all the tools to make it easy for you to make the most of these opportunities.
I have no problem in recommending Oddsjam.
If you are based in the US or Canada then Oddsjam is a great option for your sports betting needs.
Whether its arbitrage betting, middle betting, plus ev value betting or exploiting free bets and bonuses.
Tony Bloom is the owner of UK based betting syndicate “Starlizard.” 
Arbitrage betting, Middle bets and the Low Hold tool are all part of the Canada and US plan.