A stake is the amount of money you risk when betting. The table created with a level stakes plan assumes that every bet has a risk of 1pt. Therefore for back bets each bet is 1pt to win, and for EW bets it is 0.5pts EW. Lays bets have a total risk of 1pt should the selection win and the bet lose. The stake for lay bets is therefore based on the odds. For example, if the selection is 2/1 then to risk 1pt you have to lay the selection 0.5pts. Level stakes tables provide an excellent way to compare Tipsters across different types of bets.

A stake is the amount of money you risk when betting. The table created with recommended stakes generates a table based on the Tipsters advised stake for each selection. Tipsters that use a staking plan can often enhance the profits of their selections as opposed to just using level stakes.

Return On Investment (ROI) is calculated by dividing the total profit made by the total money risked in order to make that profit. For example, if you back a selection 1pt at 2/1 and it wins then you have risked 1pt to win 2pts which has a ROI of (2/1)*100 = 200%. Another example, if you laid a selection to win 1pt at 2/1 and the selection loses then you have risked 2pts to win 1pt which has a ROI of (1/2)*100 = 50%. This shows that by backing selections you tend to get a better ROI (if successful!). As a further example, a Tipster with an ROI of 50% means that you would need to risk £100 to win £50.

This is the traditional type of bet that Punters would place with a bookmaker. Should the selection finish first, the Punter wins the stake multiplied by the SP of the selection. If the selection loses then the Punter loses the stake.

Lay To Win Stake means that the Punter uses a betting exchange to bet a selection will lose. This particular bet means that the stake specified is the amount the Punter would WIN should the selection not win the race. If the selection does win the race then the Punter would lose the stake multiplied by the Odds of the selection.

Laying to risk your stake is similar to normal laying (Lay To Win) in that the Punter uses a betting exchange to bet a selection will lose. The difference is that this particular bet means that the stake specified is the amount the Punter would LOSE should the selection win the race. Therefore when making the lay on the exchange the stake depends on the odds at which you are laying. If the selection does not win the race then the Punter would win the stake divided by the Odds of the selection. For example, if you were to lay to risk 10pts on a selection at 10/1 you would lay 1pt on the exchange because that would give you a 10pt risk (if the odds were 5/1 then you would stake 2pts). If the selection loses you win the 1pt staked but if it wins you lose the 10pts risked.

This is the traditional type of each way bet that Punters can place with a bookmaker. There are two parts to the bet, one part to win and one part to place. Should the selection finish first, the Punter wins both parts of the bet. If the selection finishes in the places then the place part of the bet is won but the win part is lost. If the selection loses then the Punter loses the stake for both parts of the bet. The stake for the bet represents the stake for each part of the bet, so 1pt EW means 1pt to win and 1pt to place, hence you are risking 2pts.

Place Only betting is available on the betting exchanges. This allows Punters to bet that a selection will finish in the declared places. This is different from Each Way betting in two ways; Firstly there is no win portion of the bet, therefore if the selection wins you will get the same return as you would had it come second. The second difference is that the place terms remain unchanged even if the size of the field changes. For example most 8 runner races will pay out a place on the first three finishers. However if a non-runner was declared and the field dropped to 7 runners then most bookmakers would reduce the place terms to just the first two finishers. The place markets on the betting exchanges would not change the place terms in this situation.

Place Laying is available on the betting exchanges and allows Punters to bet that a selection will not finish in the declared places. If you Place Lay a selection and it comes in the places then you would lose the bet, however the odds are much smaller than the win markets. If the selection didn't finish in the places then you would win the bet. Because the markets exist on the betting exchanges the place terms will remain unchanged even if the size of the field changes. For example most 8 runner races will pay out a place on the first three finishers. However if a non-runner was declared and the field dropped to 7 runners then most bookmakers would reduce the place terms to just the first two finishers. The place markets on the betting exchanges would not change the place terms in this situation. Tip Exchange allows Tipsters to offer Place Laying as Laying to Risk or Laying to Win your stake. For further explanation of these terms see the FAQ's What is Laying To Win? and What is Laying To Risk?

SP stands for Starting Price. The starting price of a selection is the odds that are returned by the bookmakers on completion of the race. Tip Exchange only uses the SP for Each Way bets.

If you subscribe to a service on Tip Exchange, you will pay for tips for one month. At the end of the month you will not be recharged. If you wish to continue you need to re-subscribe again. In other words we will not charge you again if you don't want to continue. Should you wish to cancel during the month it is possible to cancel the daily emails using the link provided in your portfolio, however we can not give refunds.

Tip Exchange has access to real Betfair prices and now calculates profits for all bets against these prices. Those users that use Betfair regularly will know that the price can vary greatly leading up to the start of an event. In order for Tip Exchange to record a fair price for each tip, we take a price at two separate intervals within the final ten minutes leading up to start of the event. We then use the average of these two prices as the recorded odds for the selection. Note that Betfair does not offer Each Way betting and so we continue to use the traditional SP for these types of bets.

The profit is calculated for each selection as follows:

• All winning back bets are calculated at the average recorded Betfair price and are subject to 5% commission.
• All losing back bets are not subject to commission.
• All losing lay to win bets are calculated at the average recorded Betfair price.
• All winning lay to win bets are subject to a 5% commission charge.
• All losing lay to risk bets lose the entire stake risked.
• All winning lay to risk bets are calculated at the average recorded Betfair price and are subject to a 5% commission charge.
• All winning EW bets are calculated at SP and are not subject to commission. Place terms are as follows:
  • Handicap races of 16 or more runners - 1/4 odds first 4 places.
  • Handicap races of 12 to 15 runners - 1/4 odds first 3 places.
  • All other races of 8 or more runners - 1/5 odds first 3 places.
  • All races of 5, 6 and 7 runners - 1/4 odds first 2 places.
  • Races with less than 5 runners - Place money goes on to win.
• All losing EW bets are not subject to commission.
• All winning Place Only bets are calculated at the average recorded Betfair price and are subject to 5% commission. Place terms for place markets are shown below.
• All losing Place Only bets are not subject to commission. Place terms for place markets are shown below.
• All losing Place lay to win bets are calculated at the average recorded Betfair price. Place terms for place markets are shown below.
• All winning Place lay to win bets are subject to a 5% commission charge. Place terms for place markets are shown below.
• All losing Place lay to risk bets lose the entire stake risked. Place terms for place markets are shown below.
• All winning Place lay to risk bets are calculated at the average recorded Betfair price and are subject to a 5% commission charge. Place terms for place markets are shown below.
• Place market terms are shown below and are based on declared runners and not actual runners.
  • Handicap races of 16 or more runners - 1/4 odds first 4 places.
  • Handicap races of 12 to 15 runners - 1/4 odds first 3 places.
  • All other races of 8 or more runners - 1/5 odds first 3 places.
  • All races of 5, 6 and 7 runners - 1/4 odds first 2 places.
  • Races with less than 5 runners declared - No bet.

The tips are sent out just after 11.00am on the day of the race. They are also displayed on the Tipsters mini-site at the same time.

Tipsters will only appear in the tables if they have posted a selection matching your selected criteria in the selected period. Tipsters are only removed completely when they have failed to renew their account at the end of the year.

We can only register a single address per subscription. This is to prevent users from sharing the Tipsters information.

We do not support SMS messages and have no plans to do so. We looked into this and the problem is quite simply cost, not just to us but to the end user. The reason is that some Tipsters can provide over 15 tips per day which leads to several messages being sent to the phone which could cost the end user up to £5 per day (£150 per month). In order to support mobile users we are planning to provide a WAP site and a Mobile HTTP site which means phone users who have WAP or Internet access on their phone can access the tips on a special internet page.

We do not recommend individual Tipsters, we merely offer you the tools and as much information as possible about each one so that you can make an informed decision. When looking for a good Tipster on Tip Exchange (or anywhere for that matter) it is best to look at their results history. Tip Exchange has been running since June 2004 and so the proven history for some of the Tipsters may be relatively short, however it is genuine and proven at real prices. Although past results are no indication of future performance it will give you an idea of the more consistent performers. To facilitate this searching we have a custom tables feature which allows you to compare all Tipsters against various criteria and rank them in the order you feel is important. We feel that Return On Investment is an important factor (the higher the better) as it highlights the amount of risk required to make a profit. In addition the level stakes table is a good way of comparing Tipsters across different types of bets. Some Tipsters offer free trials so give them a try and see what you think.

We do not allow the modification of Tipster names. This is because it can be misleading to the subscribers of the service.

Tip Exchange will not be able to include the mechanics of a particular staking plan or system that is based on the results of previous races. All tips posted by the Tipster will appear in the results section with the recommended stake. This is to prevent any ambiguity among Punters interpretations of the system. You are welcome to include the details of your staking system in your description section on your mini-site and by all means mail the user when they subscribe.

Unfortunately we only allow Tipsters to supply information involving UK Racing, Irish Racing and European Football. We hope to expand this in the future to other countries and sporting events.

It is difficult to give an exact figure but based on previous records, a profitable Tipster can expect anywhere up to 100 triallists in a month which may convert into 20+ paying subscribers. Some Tipsters have consistently had over 30 paying subscribers in a month. The trend is the better the results the more subscribers join a service.

Should you join as a Tipster you will want to know we are doing all we can to promote your service. Tip Exchange is being promoted successfully in various ways concentrating on targeted users of horse racing websites. We have linked to all the major racing link sites using premium and sponsored links to enhance our visibility We have a monthly newsletter with a mailing list of over 2500 users and we are submitted to all the major search engines. We have an affiliate program which allows introducers a percentage of the fee from new Tipsters and Punters; this has greatly increased traffic, subscribers and Tipsters from the major racing link sites. We have advertised in the excellent Racing Ahead magazine (www.racingahead.net) and look forward to doing so again in the future. All of this promotion has lead to Tip Exchange averaging over 1000 visitors per day. Every month sees an increase in the average visitors, triallists and subscribers.

Payments work in the following way; Punters will subscribe and the fee will be held by Tip Exchange until the subscription is complete. This offers protection to the Punters in case a Tipster decides to discontinue their service or violates the terms and conditions of the site. It should be noted that in only two situations will Tip Exchange refund a fee after the subscription has started. Firstly, if the Tipsters account becomes suspended either by violating the terms and conditions of the site or by expiring before the subscriber's period is complete. Secondly, we will issue a refund to the subscriber if the Tipster instructs us to do so. This is explained in our Terms and Conditions. Each Tipster has a payment date that is initially 2 months after their account is opened and then every month thereafter. On this payment date the Tipster will receive all the fees for completed Punter subscriptions paid into their specified PayPal account.

The main selling point of Tip Exchange to Punters is the integrity of the results. By allowing a situation whereby a selection is a selection only if the price is relative to a certain level introduces scenarios where by some users will have backed losers that will not be included in your results. This will damage the integrity of the results with users. Therefore we are unable to offer this facility.

You are welcome to use Tip Exchange to display your selections although we do not accept tips via email, only using our form. Tip Exchange is more than just a proofing service for Tipsters; we email all your clients, handle subscriptions, update your results and produce the league tables. We also promote you site through our various marketing activities. All you need to do is upload your tips to our website which is a very simple procedure that would take very little time. We do have an advantage over most proofing services as they do not provide you with the respectability that a quality tipping service requires. This is because potential clients would have to manually compare the selections posted on your site with those proofed externally. Most people would not bother, whereas Tip Exchange is rapidly building a reputation for integrity as users are beginning to realise that the selections and results of Tipsters are genuine and can not be modified, therefore ensuring the integrity of your service.

Unfortunately Tip Exchange does not offer a trial period for Tipsters, the reason for this is that we want to avoid Tipsters who appear for a short period of time and then disappear leaving subscribers disappointed.

Tips must be uploaded to your site before 11am each day. This is the cut off point when your tips are published on your site and emails are sent to your subscribers. After this point Tipsters are not able to modify their selections.

Tipsters pay an annual fee and a percentage of their revenue in order to sell their information on Tip Exchange. There are three accounts that have various fees and commissions. The accounts are shown below:

All Tipsters start on the Green account and then move up as they build their subscriptions. The only other cost that may be incurred is during the transfer of subscriptions to your PayPal account. PayPal is free to set up and there are no monthly charges but they charge 3.4% + 20p of the total amount received for UK transactions.

Should you not find the answer you are looking for in the above questions then please check out our Help document. You can also contact our support team.