It is quite a weekend of betting coming up with some fantastic events to get stuck into.

First up at Epsom we have the Oaks on Friday and the Derby on Saturday, one of the biggest races of the year.

There are 19 runners due to to go post in the race and the ground is currently good.

At the moment, Cliffs of Moher and John Gosden-trained Cracksman are the joint favourites in the betting at 4/1, with Eminent the third favourite at 7/1.

If you are looking for free tips for tomorrow’s race, here are a few sources we can highly recommend:

• Betting Gods – a highly respected website providing free tips for those who sign up plus there are a range of paid tipsters, with some excellent records of profit accumulated
• Tipster Street – another high quality site provding both free tips – which made over £530 per month to just £10 stakes in 2015 – plus a number of paid tipsters
• Betting Bias – a free tipping website with a record of over 1500 points profit since being established in 2011.

Then on Saturday evening there is the Champions League final to look forward to, with holders Real Madrid taking on the Old Lady of Juventus.

There are a whole host of free bets being offered for the final, meaning it is a great chance to make some risk-free cash. Here are the some of the best offers:

• William Hill – £100 winnings boost – If there are 4 or more goals in the Champions League final, you’ll get an extra 25% free bet bonus on top of your winnings, when you bet on Match Betting, Both Teams To Score or Match Result & Both Teams To Score.
• Coral – Double winnings up to £100 – Place your single bet of £/€5+ on the 90 minute Match Result market for the final and if your team wins both halves, they’ll double your winnings as a free bet up to £/€100.
• Ladbrokes – £75 refund – If the final results in a draw they will refund losing bets on that match up to £/€25 per market, as Free Bets. Money Back as a free bet up to £/€25 on losing Correct Score, First Goalscorer and Half-Time/Full-Time bets.

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.

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

As if that wasn’t enough, you also have French Open tennis, the ICC Champions Trophy in cricket and golf from the Memorial Tournament.

So all in all it should be a cracking weekend of punting!

As ever, if you are going to have a flutter on this weekend’s events, please gamble responsibly. 

 

 

 

As you may be aware, the bookies are watching us all. Yes, by using spyware and other monitoring tools like iesnare, they are watching the online activity of their customers to see if they are doing matched betting, arbing and other strategies designed to beat the bookies.

The bookies’ business model is based on the vast majority of punters losing money. Most studies have put the figure at between 98% and 99.5% of punters losing money in the long run.

 

Matched Betting Changes the Game

In recent years this has started to change though, down in large part to matched betting – the technique of systematically exploiting the bookies free bets and bonuses using the exchanges to ensure risk-free profit.

You may well be a matched bettor yourself, using one of the excellent products like Profit Maximiser that bring together all the bookies offers in one place and shows how to exploit them.

Matched betting has become a huge industry in itself and recent reports have suggested it is costing the bookies approximately £20m per month.

Indeed, some people have turned matched betting into a full-time career, earning £20,000 to £30,000 per year from it.

 

The Empire (i.e. Bookies) Strikes Back

Unsurprisingly, the bookies are not happy about this. Not happy at all.

And what made things worse for the bookies was that they had a problem in identifying matched bettors. Shrewd matched bettors have been using techniques such as mug betting to disguise their activity, making it look like they were poor punters taking the occasional free bet or bonus.

So the bookies felt there was no option but to resort to spying on us. This has been well documented elsewhere and the bookies do not seem to even deny it.

They can track all of your activity using special spyware – which websites you visit, where you click, what bets you place – and yes, they can see you matched betting.

You won’t even know they are doing it – it is all done completely quietly in the background. 

The Empire had struck back.

Some would – and indeed have – questioned the legality of this. For the time being though, it is legal and the authorities such as the Gambling Commission have generally seemed to be more on the side of the bookies rather than the punter.

In any event, once the bookies have seen you matched betting then the chances are they are going to shut you down – by closing your accounts, stake-limiting you or removing the free bet and bonus offers from your account.

 

Turning the Tables Back to the Punter

So, it appeared that in the long-running battle between bookie and punter, the former had won.

That is until now, with a company developing a solution to stop the bookies spying on us.

The tool in question is called Jolly Lock IP and it significantly reduces the chances of having your bookie accounts closed.

It is a fully functioning protection tool that stops spyware and other monitoring techniques from tracking your activity. It has been designed specifically for bettors. The market has been crying out for something like this and thankfully it has arrived.

Basically, Jolly Lock IP is a specifically designed VPN for bettors that has significant advantages over traditional VPNs:

• Jolly Lock IP allows you to run multiple IPs per computer and doesn’t just restrict you to one
• It can run with FLASH websites, as opposed to other VPNs that can’t and therefore reveal the underlying IP when playing things such as online games and casinos.
• Some VPNs will use IPs that have already been used before and therefore appear on a banned IPs list that the bookies have access to. You will not have this with Jolly Lock which will issue a completely new IP.
• Jolly Lock will also issue a dedicated static UK based IP address.

Because the IP is a UK one, you can even use it to bet when you are abroad, something you may have found a real problem if you have been on holiday to places like France and Spain recently!

 

So What About Setting it up?

Well it’s all pretty simple really. Just a standard download and install, all takes just a few minutes and has full instructions so you can’t go wrong really. It works with both Windows and Mac, so all bases are covered. 

Once you have installed it, you just click on the Jolly Lock icon on your desktop, sign in and away you go. You just open the websites you want as normal and start betting. 

 

Is it Any Good?

Well it certainly does what it says on the tin.

Flash loads with no problem, it runs fast and there are no problems using sites like Betfair, which all run completely smoothly.

I have been doing some matched betting with it and to date have experienced no problems with the bookies at all, so that is a very good sign. 

In terms of cost, it is on a par with other VPNs so if you were thinking of switching to a VPN then Jolly Lock should be the choice of all gamblers going forward now. 

This really could change the game completely in the centuries-long battle between punters and bookies. If you are doing any matched betting at all or are a successful gambler than this piece of kit should be essential for you. 

Plus it is nice not to have people spying on you!

We thoroughly recommend Jolly Lock IP and you can try it out by clicking here.

A few days ago we had a look at the Best Betting System of 2016, which went to the incomparable Profit Maximiser, a class apart from the rest.

Well today it is the turn of the horse racing tipsters and this is a much tougher contest to find the best one of this year.

There have been so many good ones and it has been an interesting debate here amongst the team at HBR Towers.

However, after some discussion we have settled on a top three. Before that though, there are one or two worth an honourable mention.

Russell Blair Racing had a very good 2016, following on from a pretty special 2015. With 522 points profit made this year, it is no wonder Russell has proved so popular with punters and is considering closing his doors to new members. A straightforward, honest tipster, Russell tends to give out 2 to 3 tips per day and has now amassed well over 1,000 points profit as a tipster in less than two years.

Also worthy of a mention is Early Odds, which amassed over 590 points profit over the year. This is a service, as you may have guessed, that takes advantage of the bookies’ early odds to find value. It therefore doesn’t do quite as well at Betfair SP, with 228 points profit on the year. Still, as a newcomer to the tipping scene, these are stellar results and Early Odds very nearly made it to our top three.

Talking of which, now let’s get on to our Top 3 Horse Racing Tipsters of 2016.

 

3. Classic Racing Gold

A service that really caused a stir in the tipping world this year was Classic Racing Gold. Concentrating mainly on Irish racing, they had a storming 2016, amassing over 300 points profit at a superb return on investment of over 25%. With a strike rate of close to 50% as well, this is almost the ideal service to follow as a punter. Sadly though Classic Racing Gold closed their doors to new members in November of this year, so only a lucky few will be able to enjoy their legendary tipping for the time being.

 

2. Quentin Franks Racing

Second on our list with over 530 points profit on the year is Quentin Franks Racing. Quentin once again showed the huge edge he has on the market. With a remarkable level of consistency that has seen ten profitable months this year so far (and December not over yet), followers of the service have been treated to winner after winner and superb profits. A long term return on investment of over 25% marks Quentin Franks Racing down as one of the very best in his field and a remarkable 2016 is worthy of high praise indeed.

 

1. Flat Racing Master

Taking the number one spot for our Best Horse Racing Tipster of 2016 is the magnificent Flat Racing Master, a tipster who made over 570 points profit this year. As the same suggests, they specialise in flat racing and have shown complete mastery of their field this year. The return on investment has been a staggering 30% for the service to date and the strike rate over 25%. Followers of the Flat Racing Master will have enjoyed a highly profitable 2016, with those able to stake at £25 per point having made well over £10,000 this year. Top stuff and quite simply the best horse racing tipster of 2016. Well done to the Master. 

Plus of course there is also the possibility of checking out some free racing tips if you don’t want to take out a paid subscription. 

 

 

 

In recent years everyone has become aware of the “disrupters.”

You had Uber, the big disrupter in the world of taxis.

Airbnb has shaken up the hotel industry.

And the likes of Spotify – and before that Napster – changed the game in music.

Now there is a new app coming very soon that threatens to completely shake up the fantasy sports – and maybe even betting – world.

The app is called Firefan and you can download it here. 

The company who have developed the app are pulling out all the stops to make it a massive global success.

Firefan has been designed by Mark Mongie, previously head of EA Sports and the brains behind the hugely successful series of “Madden” NFL games.

And apparently the developers have spent over $30 million building the app and already have over a million people from 200 countries signed up to download it, very impressive figures indeed for a pre-launch.

How Does it Work?

So what is all about exactly?

Well, Firefan allows you to make predictions – both before a game and in-running – on sports events and then depending on how well you do, you can win prizes.

Basically, before the game you get the chance to predict a number of things such as the match winner and the score.

Then once the game is in-play, it offers you up the chance to predict all sorts of things, such as who will score next, whether there will be a penalty, if someone will get sent off, in addition to who will win the game.

You get points at the end of the game depending on how well you do, which can be converted into tokens. 

These tokens can then be exchanged for real life stuff. Anything from hats, t-shirts and electronics, to tickets to your favourite sports games, airline tickets, hotel stays, holidays etc… All for free!

You can earn tokens either through in-app purchases, by watching adverts, or by sharing the app on social media.

The more you play, the more tokens you can build up and the better your chances of winning some prizes.

Predictions win Prizes

So in essence, Firefan could be described as a mixture between fantasy sports and betting.

Yes, you are not playing with real money as such.

But you are making predictions about sports events and you can win prizes, so it should be fun and rewarding to be involved with. 

The other advantage of this approach is that it means the app can be used in places where gambling is not legal, like the United States.

So it opens up a huge market for the app and millions of users who cannot access more traditional betting apps like Bet 365 and Ladbrokes. 

Plus Firefan is designed to be a very social tool, so you can set up games against your friends, colleagues, neighbours and so on and see how you fare against them.

And you can connect with and chat to sports stars and celebs as well. They already have people like Evander Holyfield signed up. 

So it’s meant to have more of a fun element to it, rather than just being about pure predicting.

Only time will tell if this does become the global sensation some are expecting, but judging by the pre-launch registrations, the signs are very good.

How to get Involved

By pre-registering (which takes about 30 seconds) you will be given a bunch of free tokens right from the start and will also have the opportunity to earn a load more by sharing the app with your friends.

To download the app, just click here. 

There are absolutely no obligations with this. It’s free and should be a lot of fun.

Here’s to the next of the disrupters!

 

Review Update

We will be conducting a thorough review of Firefan when it is up and running and there are some different sports on it to test.