We have reached the end of our 14 month trial of Little Acorns Gold and here are the final results:-

 

Profit/Loss:	+30 points profit*
Strike Rate:	39%
Bank Growth:	+21%
ROI:	4%
Average number of bets:	1 bet per day
Cost:	£47+VAT/month or £119+VAT/quarter
VERDICT:	PASSED
Rating:

 

You can view full results here.

* Results refer to Fibonacci staking system

 

Little Acorns Gold – Full Review

 

We originally reviewed the Little Acorns betting system back in 2017 and gave it a PASSED rating after it made 189 points profit in our trial. It is essentially a low-liability laying system for the horses on Betfair.

It is one of the longest-running betting systems, having been going for well over 15 years now and is also one of the most popular, winning our Best Horse Racing Service 2020 as voted for by our members.

Little Acorns Gold is a service that provides the selections from the Little Acorns system for you, so you don’t have to spend time finding them yourself each day. It alerts you by e-mail and/or Telegram when there is a selection.

Then all you have to do is click on Betfair and place the bet – simples!

It’s a useful addition to have in this day and age when people live such busy lives and don’t have time to study the Racing Post each day. 

Anyway, we ran an extended 14 month trial of the service, which gave us a healthy 384 selections.

For the purposes of this review we recorded results using two staking systems:

• The staking system that Little Acorns advise, i.e. Fibonacci staking, which is where you stake 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 34, 55 points until you hit a winner and then go back to the beginning.
• Level staking, our standard method for reviews here at HBR. 

The results were quite different depending on which staking system you used. 

Using Fibonacci staking would have made 30 points profit, which is solid enough. 

On the other hand, using level staking would have produced a 17 point loss. 

So the real question here is: was it the staking system that made the profit rather than the underlying betting strategy? 

Well, in terms of the results seen during this review then “yes” can really be the only answer to that question. 

However, it should be noted that the longer-term Little Acorns results do show (and indeed our own previous review showed) that the system itself has made a profit at level stakes over the long run. So it may have just suffered a downturn during our trial.

In any event, as we warned a few times during our review updates below, if you are using Fibonacci staking then you need to have a very substantial betting bank – and very strong nerves!

A full losing sequence of 11 bets would blow 177 points in total – or £1,770 if betting at £10 stakes. 

Now it is worth pointing out that we didn’t hit a full 11 bet losing sequence during our trial (the most was 9) and Andrew who runs the service says Little Acorns Gold has not hit one in the three years prior to our trial starting (the most was 10). 

However, that is not to say that one couldn’t happen. In fact, in betting we should always prepare ourselves for the worst and expect that at some stage it probably will happen. 

In which case, the fact that they only recommend a 140 point betting bank seems somewhat crazy. 

In our view, the betting bank should be at least twice the maximum wipe out (177 points), so should be at least 354 points. Let’s say 400-500 points to be on the safe side. 

There is a big danger of someone having too small a betting bank and then getting wiped out when they have to put on very hefty stakes as the losing sequence mounts up. 

There is also the psychology of putting on a total of 177 points in a row (and 55 points on the final bet) just to win back slightly more than you started with, so that is something you will need to be comfortable with and able to handle if you are using Fibonacci staking. 

It won’t be to everyone’s tastes, although at the same time many are happy enough to do this and indeed a number of Little Acorns members have been using the system for years now and have done very well out of it. 

We just want to make sure anyone signing up has a full picture of the risks involved and has a large enough betting bank to sustain the losing runs. 

If you are going in with your eyes open in that regard, then Little Acorns has demonstrated an ability to make a profit in both our original review and this one. On that basis we are willing to award it a PASSED rating.

As we say though, just make sure you are ready for a bit of a bumpy ride at times! 

 

Service Breakdown

Ease of use: The selections are sent out by e-mail and Telegram and can come out at any time of day when there is a suitable selection. The notifications are normally 10-15 minutes before race time, giving a reasonable amount of time to place the bets. Once you receive a notification you just need to check the price is within the stated range on Betfair (or your exchange of choice) and then place your lay bet with your appropriate staking. So it’s pretty straightforward really. 

There is just one bet per day on average, although some days there are 2-3 bets whilst others there are none. 

Availability of prices: As you are betting on the exchanges and on odds-on favourites, prices are not too much of an issue. Some selections will drift from the time the notification is sent whilst others will steam, but overall you wouldn’t expect Little Acorns members to be shifting the prices given the liquidity on favourites close to race time. 

Strike rate: The strike rate for our trial was solid at 39%, but that may be a little below the long-term average. 

Advised Betting Bank: They recommend a 140 point bank for following the service, which as discussed above does not seem sufficient to us. We would recommend a 400-500 point betting bank to withstand the maximum losing run.  

Subscription costs: The current subscription costs at the time of writing are £47+VAT per month, £119+VAT per quarter or £399+VAT a year.

 

OVERALL VERDICT: PASSED

Little Acorns Gold is a spin-off from the very popular and long-running Little Acorns lay betting system for the horses. 

Little Acorns Gold sends you the selections from the LA system rather than having to find them yourself. 

In our trial it made a decent 30 points profit at Fibonacci staking but a 17 point loss at advised staking. On the basis of the Fibonacci staking we are prepared to award the service a PASSED rating, but that does come with a warning to ensure you have a sufficient betting bank – and nerves of steel – if using it!

 

 

 

 

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Little Acorns Gold – Results Update

6th September 2022

It’s been a mixed month for horse racing laying system Little Acorns Gold, with a loss of 5 points made at flat stakes but 4 points profit made at Fibonacci stakes since our last update.

That means it is now 16 points down for our trial overall using flat stakes but 20 points up using Fibonacci staking.

You can view full results here.

Please note for the purposes of this review we are using Betfair SP odds to record results, but if you are taking the bets when the alerts come out you will have slightly different results to us.

As remarked on last time, there is a growing divergence opening up between the results advised stakes and Fibonacci stakes, with the latter performing significantly better. 

That would suggest quite a lot of the power of this strategy comes from the staking system. As to whether you wish the follow the Fibonacci staking system that is up to you but it is essential to have a sufficient bank if you do. They suggest a 140 point bank but we would say 200-250 points would be more advisable here given the risks.  

 

 

 

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Little Acorns Gold – Results Update

29th July 2022

It’s been a good month for horse racing laying system Little Acorns Gold, with a profit of 5 points made at flat stakes and 13 points profit made at Fibonacci stakes since our last update.

That means it is now 11 points down for our trial overall using flat stakes but 16 points up using Fibonacci staking.

You can view full results here.

Please note for the purposes of this review we are using Betfair SP odds to record results, but if you are taking the bets when the alerts come out you will have slightly different results to us.

It’s interesting to see the divergence here between advised stakes and Fibonacci stakes, with the former down and the latter a decent amount up.

That would suggest quite a lot of the power of this system comes from the staking system. As we have said before it is not for the faint-hearted, as the losing streaks can be brutal. However, with a big enough bank and the tolerance for these losing streaks, it does look like the optimal strategy here. 

 

 

 

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Little Acorns Gold – Results Update

21st June 2022

The very gradual improvement continues for horse racing laying system Little Acorns Gold, with a profit of 1 point made at flat stakes and 2 points profit made at Fibonacci stakes since our last update.   

That means it is now 16 points down for our trial overall using flat stakes and 3 points up using Fibonacci staking.