You may remember that I've recently mentioned my trialling a couple of new football betting services. Each test period was supposed to last a month, but I've made the decision to stop the trial of one of those services this week, just nine days in.
The service I'm referring to is one called Hortis' Standard Picks. Hortis is a tipster who originally "proofed" his tips on the Blogabet website prior to launching a subscription service. Specialising in the South American football markets, asian handicap bets are provided from within the Bolivian, Columbian, and Ecuadorian leagues (amongst others). His website can be found at http://standardpicks.com
When I originally looked at the Hortis service (having been given a tip off by someone whose opinion on football betting matters I hold in the highest regard) I could see some real potential for it to carve a worthwhile niche in the portfolio. The obvious plus point Hortis had going for him were the markets played in. There would be no correlation with any of my other football tipsters at all. On top of that, the guy tips throughout our summer months, and would thus provide some much needed churn at a time of year where things can go a little stagnant, and with a proven track record of a nice 12-14% roi achieved over two years, it looked well worth a go.
So why hasn't it worked out? Why have I pulled the plug so soon? One reason. It has already proven to be completely impractical for me to follow. So far I have received the text/email containing tips mid-morning Saturday (workable), early morning Saturday (acceptable), 3.00 one morning (heh!) and about 6.15am on a Tuesday morning (WTF!). On the occasions where I was simply unaware of a text/email being sent (because I was soundly in the Land of Nod!), I missed the odds to such an extent that it really wasn't worth putting the bet on.
It's a real shame that I can't see a future with Hirtos. He obviously has an edge and the write ups explaining the rationale behind his selections show that his tips are well researched. But his is not a cheap service, and for the money I would want and expect a manageably consistent time for release of bets. As a punter, it makes you realise how good services like Skeeve, Football Elite, Football Investor/Strike Zone, The Football Analyst and The Sportsman are with their fantastically consistent approach to releasing their advice to members. Results for Hirtos are good, but having made enough profit to cover the £40 it cost me to subscribe for the month, I've drawn a line under the service and shall turn my attention elsewhere.
Today's Betting
Erm. I've been a bit of a plonker. In fact, I've been a big bit of a plonker.
I've gone and left my notebook with today's bets written in it in my desk at work. Can't remember which bookies I placed which bets with and with a couple of each way bets coming in placed today, I can't check exactly what I've made or lost. How daft is that!?!
I do know Northern Monkey had a good winner (Confessional - Chester - 5/1), as did The Market Examiner (Mister Hyde - Ffos Las - 4.3/1).
Other than that...???
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI was not going to reply here but I think I must defend me and my work, because I can't accept several things.
First of all, my name is HIRTOS, not Hortis or something like this.
Second, my service is verified by both BettingAdvice and Blogabet! All picks are true and real.
Third, Since start of the month, I have sent the picks&analyses to the customers the following time:
23:45 CET (Yes, I admit it is too late but I have just read very important news and I have expected the Asians to destroy the odds before next morning)
09:43 CET
10:28 CET
07:33 CET (Yes, again it is too early, but it is a midweek pick and I had no Internet until late afternoon).
Most of my picks are sent in the period of 09:00 - 12:00 CET. Some even later. In my opinion, most of my picks are send in appropriate time for the punters, especially when you have in mind that alongside the email notification, I send and SMS notification. But, of course, I can't argue if you live in Brazil or Argentina or Canada, for example.
Also, Each subscribers has a 5-unit guaranteed profit in his subscription period or he gets a new subscription period for free. So, with a stake of at least 50 EUR there should be no problem to be in profit with our service.
Anyway, I do not want to advertise my service or something like that. It is a free world and everybody decides alone what to do. I just wanted to express my side of the story.
Good luck,
Hirtos
Hi Hirtos,
ReplyDeleteFirstly, let me apologise for my clumsy mistake in spelling your name incorrectly. Like I said in the post, yesterday was a day during which I had been a right plonker, and I guess that didn't end with leaving my betting details at work!
Hirtos, please don't ever be put off posting on this blog. I will always publish anything written respectfully and will never deny somebody's right of reply.
I don't in all honesty think you need to "defend" yourself, because I wasn't attacking your service. Like I said, your selections are obviously well-researched and you know what you are doing. You are an expert in your field and I respect (and said) that. There are a lot of things to like about your service, but unfortunately, it is just impractical for me personally to follow. If I didn't have two children to get ready for school, a bet coming through at 6.33am wouldn't be an issue. But I do, so it is.
The email you sent at 23.45 CET, for whatever reason, I didn't receive until 04.00 CET. I'm not saying you're lying - I trust you - but that is when I received the email.
I will highlight your comment in tonight's post and give a little more by way of an explanation.
Many thanks for posting (and reading). :)
Rowan
First of all interesting blog. Especially now that you have to focus more on sports services which is where I am too.
ReplyDeleteI can fully understand your thoughts regarding Hirtos and I have to agree what you write. There is no doubt that Hirtos is one of the best punters for South American soccer (better than e.g. MilosNS who also used to be very good in this area IMO).
Placing bets in leagues like Peru, Bolivia, Colombia etc. are almost impossible at European bookmakers unless you are betting with low stakes (less than 50-100€). I know that Hirtos switched to Asian bookies which raise the limits quite a lot. Unfortunately the odds drops within seconds at those bookmakers which makes it almost impossible to obtain similar prices. However, if you can bet at European bookmakers it can be possble to get even better prices as far as I know.
So if you want to be successful with his service you either have to be online at any given time or being able to place the bets at European bookmakers. Or course a long term yield of above 10% makes it possible to accept worse odds than advised but odds in Asian bookmakers drops fast as well.
I do also agree with you that services like Football Elite are superb when it comes to practicality. 1-2 e-mails a week always at the same time. On the other hand Hirtos would not be able to wait with posting the picks till a certain time predefined time, as it would have a huge impact on the profit. This is because when news is becoming available (e.g. team playing with reserves) the odds starts to drop and there the picks has to be sent as quickly as possbile. Otherwise other punters will smash the odds instead leaving no value left :-)
Hi guys,
ReplyDeleteI'm a huge fan of all niche tipster who have proved their profitability over more than a couple of years, Hirtos included of course, but I have to comment on a few things.
"...23:45 CET (Yes, I admit it is too late but I have just read very important news and I have expected the Asians to destroy the odds before next morning)
...
07:33 CET (Yes, again it is too early, but it is a midweek pick and I had no Internet until late afternoon)..."
If I'd send a pick to my clients each time I ready very important news (and record odds with no delay), my official ROI would be much bigger than 20%, let alone 14%. I simply don't think it's professional enough (that's why I'm sending all picks on Friday, at 6:30 PM GMT, so that everyone knows when to be at their computer or smartphone and, also, this way I don't have to reply to clients' hate mail about random posting times - it's 6:30 PM GMT on Friday and that's it), but, on the other hand, not everybody has to be as professional as I'm trying to be, so I hope no one takes this the wrong way. 'I had no internet until late afternoon' doesn't sound very professional either, but, once again, if it's okay with most of your clients, who am I to argue with that, right? I'm absolutely sure you have an edge in the leagues you're covering, but if you want to be considered as one of the best tipsters out there, there are some practical issues you can always improve upon. I really don't want to sound too critical of my colleague, so I'll just add I've recently joined Hirtos' service as well - I knew the edge must show through after that bad run in the first three months of the year. In fact, that's one of my favorite methods for joining a new service - if the service recently suffered a bad run, but is run by long-term winners with an obvious edge, I'm in. I'm still angry at myself for not doing the same thing with, for example, Football Betting Index.
I wish all of us the best betting year of our lives, obviously.
cheers,
skeeve