A tipster is
someone who regularly provides information
on the likely outcomes of sporting events.
In the past tips were
bartered for and traded but nowadays, thanks largely to the Internet and
premium rate telephone lines, they are usually exchanged for money, and many
tipsters operate websites. Some of them are free and some require subscription.
A tip, in gambling is
a bet suggested by a third party who is perceived to be more knowledgeable
about that subject than the bookmaker who sets the initial prices. Thus a tip is not even regarded by the
tipster as a certainty but that the bookmaker has set a price too low from what the true risk is: it is a form of
financial derivative, since the tipster himself risks none of his own money but
sells his expert knowledge to others to try to "beat the bookie".
The Tipster must
overcome the profit margin integrated into sports betting odds by bookmakers
trading teams and then also obtain an additional edge to deliver profit over
the long term.
However, many tipping
services are scam operations that play on the Behavioral addiction of betting.
Tipsters are often
insiders of a particular sport able to provide bettors with information not
publicly available. There are other tipsters who provide equally respectable results
through analysis of commonly accessible information.
Good tipsters use
statistical based estimations and extensive research about the outcome of a
game, and compare this estimation with the bookmaker's odds. If there is a gap
between the estimate odds and the bookmakers odds, the tipster is said to
identify "value", and a person who bets on such odds when they
perceive not a certainty but a "gap in the book" is said to be a
"value bettor". When value is found, the tipster is recommending the
bettor to place a bet.
A tip that is
considered to be a racing certainty, that is, almost completely certain to be
true, is also called a nap and tipsters in newspapers will tend to indicate the
"nap".
Tipping is mostly
associated with horse racing but can apply to any sport that has odds offered
on it. The relaxed cultural attitude towards gambling in the UK is increasingly
resulting in a gambling element being promoted alongside sport coverage in the
media.
Newspapers
Most National
newspapers in the UK employ a tipster or columnist who provides horse racing
tips. Rather than pick a tip for each race that occurs on a given day the
normal protocol is to provide a Nap and nb selection.
Nap indicates this is the tipster's most
confident selection of the day.
nb "Next best" and indicates another
selection that the tipster rates highly.
Both types of
selections would be counted in calculating the tipsters running profit/loss
figure which states how far in profit or loss an individual would be if they
had backed every tip with a level stake.
Television
The popular Channel 4
television programme The Morning Line previews weekend horse racing on a
Saturday morning culminating in the panel of experts and guests providing their
selections for the day. Sky Sports News runs a similar preview segment
including expert analysis of the teams and betting odds relating to Premier
League football fixtures on a Saturday.
Radio
The United Kingdom,
morning national Radio 4 Today Programme usually includes a couple of racing
tips in its short sports section but
these are not taken too seriously : but the programme tracks Richardson's
performance as a tipster for amusement value: he is usually quite well
"down" but just very occasionally is "up" after a correct
tip at a long price.
Scams
Premium tipping
services charge a fee for accessing a tip or tips by telephone, internet or
post. The more reputable companies will keep an accurate record of their
tipping activities enabling a prospective client to assess their past form and
so anticipate potential future performance. There is a lot of scope for less
reputable operations to massage these figures or even to fabricate figures in
order to attract new customers. In 2008, the Office of Fair Trading state the
figure lost to tipster scams each year is between £1 million and £4 million in
the UK alone.
Derren Brown's
Channel 4 programme ''The System exposed one method by which tipping services
operate. By giving out different tips to different people in a horse race, one person must win . The
bettor who won might then assume that they received real insight into the race
outcome from the tipster and may then pay for subsequent tips.
Australia
Australia has led the
way in the emergence of tipping competitions where the object is to win prizes
for registering virtual bets. The focus of the majority of these competitions
has been Australian rules football but the commonly referred to term for the
activity of Footy tipping now also covers Soccer, Rugby League and Rugby Union.
In the UK there are a growing number of such competitions but most relate to
the Horse Racing industry.
In theory, tipping
for prizes in a free competition provides a viable alternative to gambling for
real. However, many will take the opposite view that it makes gambling more
accessible to a wider audience by creating what is perceived to be a safe route
in. There is also a lot of scope for gamblers looking to identify good tips
using such competitions as an information resource given some competitions
publish current tips entered and historical records for the tipsters involved.
Internet
Internet forums are
increasingly being used as a means to share ideas and information within web
communities and many such forums exist in the gambling arena as a means of
discussing views on events or simply offering advice and tips.
While many in the
gambling community view this as a way in which they can earn respect from their
peers in an otherwise isolated profession, tipping services also use these
areas to attract users to their premium schemes.
Stocks and
shares
While the term
gambling is often considered to be confined to sports betting or at least the
services offered by a bookmaker, the classification can also be applied to
investing in stocks where the gamble relates to a share or commodity price
moving in a certain direction. Stock tips, as publicised in the financial
sections of the media, are largely directed at the casual investor but their
interrelation and interest to the business sector has proven to be
controversial.
The increase in
spread betting as a financial derivative also blurs the distinction between
financial investment and gambling: since in the United Kingdom a win on a bet
pays no tax, but another form of investment might require payment of Capital
Gains Tax, there may be a financial advantage to "betting".
Derivatives
Many newspapers and
other betting journals such as the Racing Post track the leading newspapers'
tipsters and see how well their predictions match the actual outcome, by
assuming a nominal £1 bet on every tip that the tipster makes, and calculating
the theoretical return. Thus, tipsters themselves can be "tipped" as
being a good or bad tipster.
Therefore, it is
actually possible in theory to bet on whether a tipster's prediction will be
correct.
Other uses
Tipster is also a
term used in the United Kingdom for a person who gives information regarding
potential news stories, particularly those involving celebrities, to
journalists, often in exchange for cash; or more generally an informant.
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