There is a shadowy underworld to the betting industry. Sports betting is big business. The bookmakers form the legitimate betting business providing entertainment for adults far and wide. Bookmaker’s make the prices and punter back their ideas and watch as events unfold. Whoever calls it right gets the spoils. But, there is another set of players out there who are circling like sharks waiting to take a bite out of their prey. These people are the ones who run betting scams and get rich in the process.

These are the often unscrupulous people watching all the money swashing about and want some for themselves. Some of these people are honest people trying to help punters make some money by offering good tipping services, betting manuals that work, and running betting clubs with decent systems and betting experts on hand to share advice.

Successful betting needs a lot of work, researching and making ratings of horses, football teams, or whatever. It takes a lot of time. Most punters are too busy raising a family, working or just getting on with day to day life. They enjoy sports betting but just don’t have all that time to run a research bets for a system. There is a viable market for tipping services, betting systems and betting clubs.

The problem starts when the tipping service costs a fortune in subscription fees, hasn’t given you a winner is weeks and won’t take telephone calls about getting a refund. It all comes down to misrepresentation. Sales particulars that don’t have any substance and just talk big. What ends up happening is that system you paid 349 pounds for doesn’t work or the betfair trading blueprint is just trying to get you to upgrade to something that’s more expensive.

Those sharks are doing punters like kippers. The trouble is that there’s more sharks than there are decent tipping services or profitable betting systems. It’s time for punters to take a stand. No more betting systems that appear to have been written by a child. No more guarantees that punters will get an income for life…. when in fact the only income produced is for the sharks. It’s all big talk to get punters to buy.

The rip offs, the cons, scams and lies are only seen after the event. Money has already changed hands. So how can punters spot these shysters? Let’s spot the sharks before they take a bite. Believe that there are plenty of punters who have been in a similar position after falling foul of these scammers. To learn about other peoples experiences visit a betting forum like Punters Lounge or the Betfair forum. Whether punters have been a target of betting scams on the internet, in newspapers, magazines, TV or through the post this 5 point plan will help punters ward of the sharks. Forget the blueprints, track side whispers and all that crap.


Point one. Results.

Tipsters should always provide results for the service in a publicly accessible area. Let’s face it, if he can’t show off his results then why should anyone trust what he says. Results are the best advertising a tipping service or betting manual can get. If they can’t point to results then confidence in their ability should be evaporating. There can only be a couple of reasons why there are no results, 1) that the results are poor, 2) that they don’t exist (in which case it’s just an out and out scam).

Always demand to see some evidence. Question the evidence to make sure it’s real. Look at the period of time the results are over. Do some due diligence by checking to see if a few of the horses actually ran on that day and that they where available at the odds shown. Are the results updated regularly? Do they only advertise winning bets and miss out the losers?

There will always be loosing bets. It’s a fact of life. A tipster not confident in their ability will try to gloss over the bad results by showing only a short period of time or using clever marketing ploys. All tipsters or results from systems will have periods of good and bad performance. The idea is that the good out weighs the bad. Some betting clubs research and get the best systems or tipping services and recommend them to members. Members get to follow only the best and maintain results in that period of good performance. A bit like a financial adviser telling clients to take a stock market fund and change to another when performance is better.

When it comes to systems or tipping services check whether someone else has checked the results. Sharks will go to great lengths to falsify results and make a fictitious service history. Most people don’t have time to check and that’s what the sharks want. Ask to see proof. Is there a long independently proofed track record of performance? Betting clubs perform this service and usually have a proofing website double check the figures. Something that makes a shark stand out is that the proof is only over a short period of time, they only have a short window of opportunity to take the money and vanish into thin air. Of course, they just rmaterialise later with another scam.

So, let’s recap.

Are there results?
Are they real?
Are they proofed by a third party?

Point two. Does it smell of bull? A betting scam will.

After checking the result try to get a feel for whether you trust the tipster or manual author. Turn on the bull shxxxt detector. There is no relationship between hyperbole and big talk in the advertising literature with actual results. If it lacks substance don’t bother with it.

Any tipping service or betting system is only as good as the results it produces. Forget the marketing spiel. Big headlines that read like, “this guy made 1 million $s using this system” followed by “and it only took him 5 minutes per day to do it” are just bull. This is typical of email headlines sitting in punter’s inboxes. In fact it was taken from an email in this punters inbox just before this went to press.

The more the advertising gets you going ‘wow that’s amazing how did they do it?’, the more suspicious you should be. All the fancy words mean zilch. Imagine there is a bloke standing there and actually reading that stuff to you. What would you think? Would you be backing away?

Point three. Is there a refund policy or a guarantee.

The two are really the same thing. Will the tipster give you a free trial or does the betting manual come with a money back guarantee? If the product or service is good, any decent punter wouldn’t be asking for a their money back anyway.

Point four. Do some digging to uncover betting scams.

Find out what is known about the service and if other people have been satisfied. Search engines are a great tool for this job. Type in the name of the person or service in Google. Follow it by the word scam and see what it uncovers. Also try the forums like Punter’s Lounge or Betfair to see what people are saying.

Point five. Are there clear contact details?

Last, the punter wants to know he can get hold of his man if there is an emergency. Good services and publishers will be open and honest about their whereabouts and how to contact them. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. If it looks like they are trying to hide don’t bother with them.

Five simple steps to avoid a betting scam.

1. Are there authentic results.
2. Does it feel right or can you smell a rat?
3. Do you get a guarantee and a free trial?
4. After digging does it get a clean bill of health?
5. Can the service provider or publisher be contacted?

If the betting manual author, publisher, betting club or tipster falls down on any of these points avoid them like the plague. Don’t forget to subscribe (top right) to our feed to get more posts from Let’s Compare Bets.

One response to “Five ways to avoid a betting scam”

  1. I was scammed by Neville Farrow and Bartholomew Bloodstock Agency. They had some urgent information about two horse races (one of which was due to start in 15mins). They would pay me the stakes after the race. A man calling himself Neville Farrow came on the phone and he had a plummy voice not unlike John McCririck and he said that he would soon be on Channel 4 racing. He said that they could not place bets for themselves and could I place 2 bets for him £1250 each and due to race starting soon they would pay me the stakes after the race. One horse won so there was about £3000 so he said I could have £500 commission and pay them £2500. A few days later he phoned to say that he was in Ireland sorting out with a bookmaker to take antepost bets (which are not refunded if the horse does not run) on a horse he knew was a non runner. He would collect the £2500 by courier and return 100% of any money I wanted to invest. So I gave the courier £4000. That same afternoon I got three phone calls telling me how much I had made and checking bank account details so that they could pay me later that day. Later I got a call requesting me to place two win double bets of £2000 each. I said that I would not as I thought it may be a scam but Neville was so convincing that in the end I placed the bets. Total £5000 loss to me as the mobile was disconnected and the landline number still goes to answerphone.

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