Welcome to the Honest Betting Reviews news section. Here you can find the latest news and information on the betting industry, betting systems and tipsters.

football player with trophy

Members’ Choice Awards – Best Football Service 2020

/0 Comments

During December we gave you the chance to vote for your favourite betting systems of the year in our “Members Choice Awards 2020.”

Our first award up is the Best Football Service and this year there was a runaway winner with the top choice getting more than twice as many votes as the runner-up!

Looking at the podium places first, in third place was JK Diego’s Draw Betting System, a service that has had a bit of a roller-coaster year but continues to deliver the long-term profits to its dedicated following. 

In second place was a service we have just finished a review of recently, Predictology. It’s best described as a kind of stats engine and systems builder for football. You can generate your own strategies or use their existing ones. We did the latter during our trial and made a healthy 38 points profit.

Best Football Service 2020

But which service grabbed the top spot?

Well the service in question has won quite a few other awards (including this award the last two years) so it’s probably not too much of a surprise that it landed the hat-trick, to use footy parlance. 

Yes, the winner was the hugely popular football trading service…

 

Goal Profits!

They seem to pick up awards for fun and have done it yet again, as we say with more than twice as many votes as the second place finisher. 

Here is confirmation of the top three then in the category of “Best Football Service 2020” as voted for by you, the members of Honest Betting Reviews:

1. Goal Profits
2. Predictology
3. JK Diego’s Draw Betting System

A huge congratulations then to Goal Profits on sweeping yet another award and it was well deserved judging by all the feedback we have had on the service over the years.

It’s a service we did a re-review of this year and gave a resounding PASSED rating to and an award of 4.5 stars. With a whole host of new features and tools added since our original review a few years ago, Goal Profits really is the premiere football trading service out there right now. 

And the really great news is they are currently offering a 7 day trial for just £1 which you can access here.

Here is what Steve Brown of Goal Profits had to say on receiving news of the award:

“Thank you Dan, this is fantastic! And thank you to all your members whose votes won us this award for the third year in a row. 2020 has been a real challenge, so to complete the hat trick is particularly good news.

When the lockdown hit and we were left with just the Belarusians playing football, it was a bit scary! The first thing we did was give all our members a few months of free membership to ease any financial pressure. We then had a lot of extra time on our hands, so we set about developing new research and trading tools.

One of our new additions, the Team Stats Database, currently contains stats for 222,300 historical fixtures and that number grows weekly. We can ask it for all sorts of stats, for example how many games which were 0-0 after 70 minutes ended scoreless. We’re then able to add many more conditions, such as the home team being in the top third of the table or the home team having scored in at least 80% of their home games during the current season. There are hundreds of combinations and the calculations are carried out in seconds.

We’ve also added new features to our Live Stats Module, such as ‘Projections’. This calculates the percentage likelihood of a home win, draw, away win, over and under 2.5 goals. Each Projection is updated inplay every minute so that the figures are correct according to time decay and goals scored. Just a couple of weeks ago, we launched new substitution data too. The Live Stats Module tells us when substitutions are made and whether they’re attacking, defensive or like-for-like. This is a fantastic indicator which shows us which teams are going for a late win and which are protecting a lead (or a point).

We were looking forward to running at least one free trading workshop again this year but, because of the ongoing pandemic, we had to cancel all our plans. We will get going again once it is safe to do so.

It’s been a tough year, but we have focused on the positives and used our extra time wisely. Goal Profits membership is now better value than ever before and we have plenty more ideas for new tools and features. We’re very excited about 2021!

Thank you again to everyone who voted for us and stay safe!”

So it is just left for us to say well done once again to Goal Profits on being voted Best Football Service of 2020 and we hope for continued success from them next year and beyond.

If you aren’t already a member you can get a week’s trial of Goal Profits for just £1 here. 

 

 

 

 

Prize Draw VBP

Win 6 Months VBP Membership (Value £594)

/0 Comments

We wanted to tell you about a free prize draw you can enter to win 6 months membership of Value Backing Plus.

Value Backing Plus includes…

– 6 months Value Backing Naps – Daily selections
– 6 months ITV Racing Tips – Through the card on ITV race days with a selection in every ITV race
– 6 months Irish Racing Tips – Daily selections for Irish racing
– Weekly videos explaining bet selection processes
– Unlimited coaching via email from Carl Nicholson

It retails at £99/month, (total value £594) but you can get it for free.

Enter the prize draw here

Just enter your name and email.

PLUS – if you can pick the winner of this years Welsh Grand National you’re guaranteed a free months membership of the super successful ITV Racing Tips service.

Finally answer the skill question and click the button and you’re in the draw.

The winner will be announced the day after the Welsh National on the 28th December.

Click Here to make your entry

 

 

 

Vote In the HBR Members Choice Awards 2020!

/0 Comments

It’s probably fair to say 2020 hasn’t been the greatest of years…in fact I’m sure most of us will be glad to see the back of it!

Hopefully at least you’ve managed to have a few decent betting winners to cheer you up during the year.

And as 2020 comes to an end, it’s that time of the year when we take a look at the best betting systems and tipsters of the last 12 months.

Yes it’s time for the HBR Members’ Choice Awards 2020.

This is where you get to vote for your favourite tipsters, betting systems and software of the year.

Click here to vote for your favourites.

Last year the awards were a huge success with large numbers of you taking part and some very worthy winners.

The awards this year are for:

– Best Horse Racing Service
– Best Football Service
– Best (Other) Sports Service
– Best Matched Betting Service
– Best Trading Software
– Best Overall Betting Service

It’s completely up to you – only HBR member can take part and we can’t wait to hear what you think. The survey will only take about 2 minutes to complete.

So vote now for the best betting systems and tipsters of 2020!

 

 

 

Is Virtual Horse Racing a Sustainable Betting Trend?

/0 Comments

Throughout the past few years, virtual variants of land-based sports have become increasingly popular. While, perhaps most notably, this is evident from the rise of eSports, the sports betting industry has sought to elevate this simulated consumer-focused service. As a result, this has seen digitally-created betting markets reach new, unprecedented heights. So, let’s take a look at whether this newly-developed form of wagering is more than a mere trend.   

Is There Longevity to the Latest Digital Trend?  

Although virtual sports betting has only recently become a new phenomenon at various operators, the concept dates back to the early 1960s. Regarding how they work, the numerous digital markets utilise random number generators in determining the result of a particular event. Interestingly, this has been the same since the sector’s origins, highlighting its consistency concerning programming. That said, over time, the market has benefited from technological advancements that have made virtual variants more lifelike from an aesthetic standpoint.  

Furthermore, aside from visual improvements, this latest betting emergence has been pivotal in expanding the gambling industry’s consumer base. According to Red Bull, the shift towards virtual sports is proving to be record-breaking, as traditional audiences are beginning to explore revolutionary alternatives to land-based sports at diverse platforms. In relation to horse racing, this is evident from the fact that nearly five million viewers tuned in to watch ITV’s virtual Grand National back in April 2020, as per the Evening Standard. 

 

 

Although this isn’t indicative of a widespread shift away from more traditional sports betting, it is a testament to the ever-growing nature of digital alternatives. Crucially, having first come to fruition almost 60 years ago, it’s clear that virtual games aren’t merely a flash in the pan. 

The Ability to Play Alongside Land-Based Markets 

Additionally, one of the other reasons behind the growth of virtual sports betting concerns the sector’s unquestionable flexibility. Unlike land-based sports – which typically don’t have year-long campaigns – there are few limitations to digital alternatives. Their fast-paced nature ensures that markets are continually available to bet on, even during land-based off-seasons. Moreover, there is also depth to the sector regarding available sports. For example, football, horse racing, and motor racing are just some of the widely-offered variants. 

 

 

 

Given that the global online gambling market is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 11.5 percent over the next seven years, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that virtual sports betting could sustain its new-found popularity. Interestingly, at the time of writing, the sector has proved that it can coexist with land-based betting. At 777 Casino, for example, many of the reviewed bonus-offering operators provide either virtual or live sports opportunities to prospective users. This is great news for bettors as their coexistence offers more choice and availability as well as the chance of further expansion in to yet more innovative developments. 

A Fascinating Development That’s Capturing Interests 

Ultimately, given the new-found accessibility of sports betting following the rise of mobile-friendly operators, it’s hardly surprising that virtual variants have established themselves as a staple of the industry. In being able to coexist, there’s scope for this emerging market to enjoy a fruitful long-term future. 

 

 

 

 

 

Young lady with VR glasses

Could This Industry Be the Source of Mobile VR’s Killer Apps?

/0 Comments

After a rocky introduction in the nineties, it was another two decades before VR would begin to show its true potential. Despite finally being able to measure up to the promise, however, the adoption of VR devices has been slow. As is the case with many new technologies, speculators have suggested that all VR could need is a true killer app.

Looking at this idea through the lens of mobile virtual and augmented reality opportunities, we want to make a case for why mobile VR casinos could be a stepping stone to success. All the pieces are already nearly in place, so what final moves could consolidate these technologies into a totality greater than the sum of its parts?

 

 

The Mobile Solution

Among the primary issues that users have with the current state of VR is the cost. For a dedicated unit such as FuLov or LEFXCAM, costs can easily reach over the £1,000 mark. Given the limited library of games on these devices, this isn’t an investment that many are willing to make.

There is a cheaper alternative, however, in specially designed enclosures for smartphones. These adapt modern smartphones into VR-type systems. While not offering quite as in-depth an experience as more specialised models, their relatively lower costs of well under £100 make the choice an easy one for many.

 

 

The one major problematic factor with these mobile devices is one that counterintuitively plays perfectly with the idea of casino game AR or VR. This issue is one of processing power. Most up-market VR solutions rely on powerful computers in order to calculate the rendering of large and open worlds. This is because running a game in VR requires pushing at least 90 frames per second (FPS) in order to avoid giving the user motion sickness. This is a challenging task, to the point where most standard console video games operate at only 30 FPS as standard.

Casino games see an advantage here in that they don’t rely on vast open worlds or flashy effects to generate an enjoyable experience. The fun of these games has always been the central gameplay, and this gameplay can be accurately represented at high frame-rates without requiring top of the line hardware.

Online Casino Success

The current state of online casinos is one of immense breadth and scope. This is illustrated by any of the top online casinos that exist today. From the game selection to the welcome bonuses, to how easily they run on mobile devices, the promise of this industry has long been fulfilled. With millions of fans and an overall size which is growing daily, this market is prime for continual exploration.

Contributing to the size of online casinos is the flexibility on which many of the games lean. Essentially, as long as the core components remain constant, developers have enormous freedom with the surrounding themes and bonuses that casino games employ. This is what led to an adoption of themes from television, movies, music, video games, and more, and it is also what could help digital casino integration with VR and AR.

With Your Powers Combined

Combining all of the components together reveals a situation where casino gaming, entirely accidentally, has become a perfect fit for mobile augmented and virtual reality. As for who will rise to first take advantage of this potential to the utmost degree, this is a question that only time will answer. Unfortunately, most VR developers have moved away from the mobile space, as it was sadly underutilised during the first wave of new systems.

That said, development for VR and AR is easier today than it has ever been, owing to powerful tools in engines like Unity, Sumerian, and Unreal Engine. With online casinos growing larger by the day, it could just be a matter of time before the first fully online virtual casino becomes a literal reality. The first killer app is coming, we just don’t know when.

 

 

 

poker players at table

Could Britain Host A Major World Professional Poker Series?

/0 Comments

Poker games have soared in popularity in the past few years, and within this period, a game that many people hitherto regarded as a dingy cigarette smoke filled backroom affair turned into a refined mainstream activity. Nowadays, players can find poker variants at plenty of new casinos online and some sites will even go to the lengths of offering their players a bonus. This, in turn, can help players begin playing for free or a small deposit.

The rehabilitation of poker into what it has turned out may have started from the 1990s when it started getting televised regularly. Online poker also arrived at the same time and gave it a monumental boost. Presently, people can now enjoy the game in the comfort of their living rooms. 

With mobile poker sites growing in number and strength, more people can now access poker games from wherever they are. The advancements in online games have also influenced the popularity of the live or brick and mortar poker games, as more people started taking interest in playing the game in land based casinos, and these casinos embraced their new customers with excitement.

While most of the players prefer to stick with the cash games, professionals and the more adventurous normally opt for the tournaments, attracted by the fact that they can easily win prizes that you can only imagine, in some of the higher profile games. Because of this, most of the casinos that offer real cash games started organizing some form of tournaments on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, with some other larger events from time to time.

The Millions UK Main Event has been the biggest of such events, and it involves a £5,000,000 prize poll, while the next is the Aspers Casino hosted 888poker Live Event. The latter doles out a first prize of £100,000, and takes the winner into the World Series of Poker Main Event, which is as reputable as the poker Olympics that take place every summer in Las Vegas.

A UK WSOP

While these are very impressive tournaments, many people have been thinking of whether the UK can do more in poker, and possibly host an event that will be in the league of the WSOP, and which would be viewed by the biggest poker tournament fans from across the world.

In practice, this might seem very fine, but you cannot succeed in this without considering the current stats of the WSOP to see how difficult it may be to achieve this. Now, a look at the WSOP event of 2019 reveals that there were 90 separate tournaments and that more than 150,000 players registered to play. For the main event, the number of players at kick off was 8,569, and this number was reduced to nine after a series of events. The nine went further to compete till Hossein Ensan took the first prize and went home with $10,000,000.

In line with the tradition of the tournaments, the main event took place at the Las Vegas Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino where the gaming space covers up to 117,000 square feet, harboring up to 2,500 suites. Now, one of the major reasons why the UK may not be able to handle an event of this magnitude is the size of the casino needed to host such an event. But, this is not me saying that there are no large casinos that can host such events in the UK.

Potential Venues

Aspers Stratford would be the first venue to be considered here. This already played host to the 888poker Live Event, and stands as the largest gaming arena in the country. This was launched in 2011 with fanfare, and it has never failed to impress. However, what you have here is a gaming area of just 65,000 square feet, and that is actually 52,000 short of what Rio offers. This simply means that the crowd that will be coming to play the game and those that would want to watch them will outnumber what the venue can take.

However, we are not saying that the events cannot be split like it’s done in the football world cup where different parts of the tournament are split and held in different venues just like different stadia hosts world cup matches in the same country. In the UK, every major city has some casinos that can comfortably host tournaments. There are more than 7 of such in Manchester alone, and they all have poker facilities.

Birmingham, which is the second city in England, has a lot of venues for this, and this will give the games a central location. When you get back to the capital London, the best venue would be offered by the magnificent Hippodrome by Leicester Square. This was developed to host an indoor circus, but it is a perfect fit for the tournaments.

For the top elite events like the WSOP Main Event’s final table, one of the exclusive private casinos could take charge of that. Places like the Park Lane Casino and Ritz Casino will comfortably serve as a top notch venue for such.

A Question of Cooperation

Now, though these venues are owned and managed by various individual firms, a lot of cooperation would be needed for such an event to ever succeed. However, though the world of gambling is terribly competitive, the fact that hosting such events would bring an amazing amount of publicity alone would force the participating hosting venues to cooperate.

That said, we now get to the issue of the body to organize and host the event. The WSOP may be convinced to form a sub-division for this, or one of the big and reputable poker sites in the country may take it up.

Lastly, hosting such an event will only succeed if big names in the gaming world like Liv Boeree, Phil Ivey, and Daniel Negreanu could be attracted. To do this, the prize money has to be tempting enough to be able to lure them in.

Hope you’ve seen that it is not something that you just conceive and get on with, because some serious hurdles will have to be crossed before this will succeed. But the truth remains that when heads are put together and it is properly planned, these hurdles will be easily surmounted. So, let’s hope that the UK will be hosting one of the biggest and most memorable poker tournaments of all time in the nearest future.

 

 

 

Get Your Champions League Free Bets!

/0 Comments

The Champions League is back in action tonight with two massive second round clashes.

Manchester City take on Real Madrid, with the Citizens holding a 2-1 lead in the tie from the match played at the Bernabeu way back in March. City are a best price of 1.72 to win the match and are just 1.17 to qualify for the next round. The Spanish champions may be a different proposition from the team City played a few months ago however with the confidence of having won La Liga giving them a potential boost.

The night’s other clash sees Juventus host Lyon with the French side defending a 1-0 lead from the first leg. The Italian champions are a best price of 1.54 to win the match. The odds to qualify are on a knife-edge however with both sides priced around evens.  

As you would expect with such a massive night of Champions League football, the bookies are offering a variety of free bets for us punters to get stuck in to.

Here are some of the best free bet offers for tonight’s action:

  • – Betfair Sportsbook – Bet £20 Get £20 Free – Place a min £20 sportsbook bet (single or multiple) on Champions League matches taking place on Fri 7th Aug 2020. After the qualifying bet has settled, you’ll get a £20 free bet. Min odds 1.5.
  • – Coral – £50 Refund – Simply back a team pre-match in any of our selected competitions and if they lead at Half-Time but fail to win, you’ll get paid out your potential returns, including your stake, as a free bet up to £50 after the match.
  • – Bet 365 – Bet £50 get £50 Free in-play – Place a pre-match single bet on the Man City v Real Madrid game and you will receive a Free In-Play Bet to the value of your largest pre-match bet (max Free In-Play Bet value £50). By invite only – check your email/messages. 

Please see each of the bookmakers for the individual terms and conditions of the offers.

So plenty of opportunities there to make some risk-free cash.

Good luck with your betting for tonight. 

Get dozens more offers like this and make up to £500 risk-free every month with our number one recommended betting system here.

 

 

 

 

Gambling in Pennsylvania

/0 Comments

Sports betting is being legalized in various states in the US which is opening up new markets and new opportunities for people to enjoy wagering on sporting events in America. 

The excitement of sports betting or casino gaming doesn’t need to be advertised for most people who enjoy high-octane action from time to time.  However, sports gambling is a complicated matter in the US with the recent changes to the law and there are business and political dimensions to allowing sports betting stateside.  

States such as Pennsylvania have decided to regulate the gaming industry and to make the most of it from an economic point of view. It makes an interesting case study on how gaming in the US may open up in the coming years, despite the recent difficulties with covid which have presented something of a setback.

Casinos and Sportsbooks in Pennsylvania

Naturally, gaming providers and sportsbooks rely very much on exciting sporting events from both the US and around the world. Therefore when not much action is going on anywhere – as has been the case recently during the coronavirus pandemic – there is not much profit to be made. Luckily, there are always other things that can fill the void, and online casino departments were surely doing everything in their power in the last few months to ramp up activity.

Pennsylvania, which was the second-biggest state in terms of commercial casino revenue in 2019, recently experienced a drop of 18%, likely due mainly to covid. Therefore the legal state-mandated gaming organizations around areas such as New Jersey and Pennsylvania have worked hard to provide a safe and stimulating space for gaming activities online.

The popular card game of poker, and its many variations, are constant crowdpleasers that never go out of fashion. And Pennsylvania has certainly made a lot of effort to achieve a strong position in the online poker market.

Pennsylvania’s Way

In the Quaker State, the objective behind the increased legislative efforts to organize gambling is mostly focused on generating revenues to boost the local economy and help create more jobs. The first type of gambling to be legalized was horse racing.

This was possible thanks to the Race Horse Industry Reform of 1959. Another milestone for the gambling industry was the Pennsylvania Racehorse Development and Gaming Act that was passed in 2004, which represented tremendous progress for all interested parties. The state legislators passed a bill to legalize online gambling back in October 2017. Since then, plenty of valuable and quality sports betting providers, Pennsylvania poker websites, and online casinos have been developed.

It is safe to assume that the state authorities don’t regret their decisions. Online gaming is a growing industry with a lot of room to improve, considering the 18% drop in revenue for casinos, which would have been worse without the revenues from online action and sports betting. So far, the overall revenue from regulated gambling in Pennsylvania adds up to $2.7 billion in this fiscal year, which is a significant drop from the last year’s record-breaking $3.3 billion.

Sport is Back!

Fortunately, sportsbooks in Pennsylvania are starting to pick up as well. June’s figures showed a promising trend, as many games and leagues come back across the state. According to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, $89 million was taken in sports bets during the month.

The good news is that many major sporting competitions are now underway or are going to resume soon. A sixty game season of MLB has started already, on July 23rd. Exhibitions games for NHL and seeding games for NBA are soon to follow. This should stimulate a great deal of additional betting activity in Pennsylvania, who have set an early marker in the race to legalize gambling in the US and provided a template for other states to follow. 

 

 

 

An Industry Built on Trust: Latest Stats Show UK Online Gambling is Surging

/0 Comments

 

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has published its latest stats and, for all involved, the numbers make for positive reading. The update is part of the regulator’s twice-yearly progress report and shows how online and offline operators, as a whole, are performing in the UK. Despite outside forces having an impact on live betting and gaming, the industry has held firm. While other business sectors have crumbled, gambling has only taken a marginal hit.

As per the gamblingcommission.gov.uk report, Gross Gambling Yield (GGY) was down 0.5% to £14.3 billion. This slight drop in overall revenue can be attributed to betting shop closures between 2018 and 2019. However, even with these issues, the growth of online betting and gaming has kept the industry buoyant. Indeed, online betting revenue is up 4.3% year-on-year, while online bingo revenue jumped up 12.1% between October 2018 and September 2019.

Online Gambling Hits New Highs

Also hitting new highs during the accounting period was online casino gaming. Raking in £3.2 billion, the licenced operators contributed to an overall revenue increase of 3.9%. Of course, the strength of British betting and gaming is well known. With many of the world’s top betting brands either formed in the UK or based here (or nearby), the market is thriving. Even a cursory look through the list on slotscalendar.com casino sites shows how diverse the market is. Alongside established brands like 888Casino and Betfair, you’ve got smaller brands like Ego Casino.

Add to this spinoffs from other industries, such as The Sun Vegas (linked to the newspaper), and British gambling is in a great place. As we know, success breeds success. Unlike other countries, the UK has taken a proactive approach to gambling regulation over the decades. Although tightly controlled, the act of betting hasn’t been outlawed in the UK as it is elsewhere. This level of consistency has allowed operators to refine their products and, more importantly, for consumers to become comfortable with gambling.

Regulations Build Trust

 

Practically, this means betting and gaming has been given the ability to thrive thanks to legislation. Today, UK gambling laws are among the most effective in the world. At times, certain conditions may seem overly restrictive. However, the UKGC is always willing to listen to licensees and adjust. One licensing condition that helped define the industry after the UKGC took charge in 2014 was segregated player funds as can be seen at legislation.gov.uk. Licensed operators must not store player funds in the same bank accounts as their own. In other words, operating funds must be kept segregated from players funds. This is to ensure players aren’t affected if the operator runs into financial issues.

This wasn’t standard before the UKGC made it a rule and, clearly, it’s great for consumers. If they know their money is safe, regardless of what happens behind-the-scenes, they’re more likely to make a deposit. When you add to this things like certified fair games, restrictions on certain types of advertising and rules that say bonuses must be fair and transparent, you get an industry built on trust. That, in many ways, is why the UK’s online gambling sector has thrived. When consumers are confident, they’ll play, it’s as simple as that. That latest statistics prove that’s the case and, moreover, show why the UK’s gambling industry is regarded as one of the best in the world.

 

 

 

horse racing pic

Racing Is Back!

/0 Comments

Are you ready for it?

Drum roll please……..

Finally, eventually, after two and a half long months of waiting…

RACING. IS. BACK.

Yes, today at 13.00 BST racing in the UK will recommence with a bumper ten race card at Newcastle!

Get some top tips for just 50p here.

Today’s action will be followed by a jam-packed schedule of some fantastic racing over the next few weeks including Royal Ascot, the Guineas, the Derby and countless other group races.

Now we don’t know about you but we’re very excited about today’s restart. Will have our race card at the ready, TV on at 1pm and raring to go.

And to celebrate the return of racing Betting Gods are offering a 15-day trial of any of their racing tipsters for just 50p.

There are some fantastic names on their list, approved by us here at HBR and well worth checking out.

Good luck and enjoy!