Pros and Cons of Tipping Services

Throughout our sports betting guide we try to make it very clear to aspiring sports bettors that it's not easy to be successful. Indeed, the fact is that only a very small percentage of bettors make good money on a consistent basis. Success takes a certain level of skill, a great deal of discipline, and a fair amount of time and effort.

Because of this, it's not uncommon for bettors to look for shortcuts. An example of this is the amount of people who use tipping services, or follow picks, hoping to make money without having to put in the effort themselves. It's much easier to simply bet on what someone else tells you to than it is to do your own research and apply your own decision making process.

There isn't necessarily anything wrong with using a tipping service, but it would be wrong to assume that doing so will guarantee you a regular profit. If it was that simple, there probably wouldn't be many bookmakers in business.

In this article we've taken a look at the various pros and cons of using a tipping service, and also offered our advice on the matter.

Pros of Using Tipping Services

There are definitely some pros to using tipping services or following picks. Some of these are fairly obvious, while others are less so. In our opinion, the following are the most relevant advantages.

• Plenty of services to choose from
• Services are easily available
• Most sports are covered
• Convenient and time saving option
• Potential to make money
• Can help with your own decision making

Tipping services have been around for a very long time, but they are far more common now than they used to be. This is largely because of the internet. It's very easy to start a website and run a tipping service, and it's even easier to just post tips via Twitter, Facebook, or other forms of social media. This has led to there being plenty of readily available tipping services to choose from.

The number of tipping services available also means that you can find tips and picks for almost every sport. The most popular sports get the most coverage, somewhat obviously, but it's not hard to find services that cover some of the less mainstream sports too. With lots of services to choose from, and most sports covered, it's not hard to find something that's suitable for the way you want to bet.

The fact that tipping services are so convenient to use is one of the major reasons why they are so appealing. You have to be prepared to spend time on your sports betting if you want to be successful, and a lot of people simply don't have the time to spare. Following tips can be a great way to enjoy betting on sports without having to spend hours researching and making decisions.

Of course, the biggest advantage of all is that tipping services do provide the potential for making money. If you can find a decent service that consistently picks winners, you may well be able to turn a decent profit even if you're not a particularly talented bettor. This is obviously very appealing.

There are many services that do more than just tell you what to bet on, and actually explain the reasoning behind why selections are being suggested. This can be very useful, as this level of detail means you don't necessarily have to simply follow all the tips and picks provided. Instead, you can use the reasoning provided to decide which ones you think represent the best bets. The extra information can also help to validate any selections you may have already picked out yourself.

Cons of Using Tipping Services

Using a tipping service might seem like a great idea based on the advantages alone, but it's important to note that there are several disadvantages too. The biggest of these are as follows.

• Lots of poor services
• Difficult to find the good ones
• Even decent services can have poor runs
• There may be some cost involved
• Can inhibit your own abilities
• May remove the fun factor

We mentioned earlier how easy it is for someone to setup a website or use social media to provide betting tips and picks, and how this has led to there being plenty of available services. While this is a good thing in some ways, it has also resulted in a lot of people professing to be experts when they really aren't.

The people behind many of the tipping services you'll find on the web are simply not qualified to be offering picks and advice to others. We wouldn't discourage anyone from sharing their betting thoughts with an audience if that's what they want to do, but they should be honest about their level of experience and expertise. A lot of these services make very misleading, or even completely false, claims about how successful they are. This makes it hard to determine which services are the good ones, and which ones should be avoided.

Even if you're lucky enough to find a quality and reliable service, there's still the chance that they will go on a losing streak. The most knowledgeable betting experts in the world can easily have a bad run, and if you're following them, then you are going to share in that run. You have to be prepared to take the lows with the highs.

A bad run isn't necessarily a major problem if you are using a free service, because you're not paying anything for your tips. However, many of the higher quality services do charge for their tips and picks. You probably won't mind paying such charges if you're consistently being given winners, but it's obviously harder to accept when you're not. It's also worth mentioning that these charges can have a significant impact on your overall profits even when you're winning, so you have to take that into account.

The final cons to consider are that using tipping services can prevent you from learning and developing as a bettor, and also remove some of the entertainment and fun that sports betting can provide. These may not bother you too much if you are consistently making a healthy profit of course, but they are worth thinking about.

Our Advice

Whether or not you should use tipping services is ultimately a personal decision, and one that depends on several factors. With that being said, our advice is that you are likely to do better in the long run if you focus on improving your betting skills and try to make money based on your own decisions. This approach will certainly provide more satisfaction if you are successful.

That doesn't mean you should completely disregard the idea of using a tipping service. If you manage to find a good one, or have one recommended to you by someone you trust, then you may end up benefitting. Just please make sure that you don't risk too much money on trying out paid services without having a clear idea of their past record.