All of the major horse betting tipsters seem to have migrated to ‘X’, formerly Twitter. That’s what it feels like at least.
These days, it’s near-impossible to refresh your feed without seeing tweets from the likes of Daryl Carter, Stephen R Power, and even controversial names like Jason Haddigan (who has now rebranded himself the “Moosh” from his villa in Thailand).
Whenever there’s an upcoming race, the individuals behind these accounts waste no time in tweeting out their singles, doubles, and each-ways for people to follow. The idea is that you then copy these bets and potentially profit from them. They’re the ‘experts’ and you’re simply going along with what they tell you to do.
On the surface, it’s all pretty straightforward. And a lot of the time, these tipsters do get it right. But is X truly the best place for horse racing tips right now?
Why X Has Become the Go-To Place for Horse Betting Tips
It’s official: 36% of today’s sports bettors use X as their main information source. When you consider the fact that horse racing is also the second-most bet on sport in the UK, it becomes obvious why X has been flooded with new horse betting tipsters over the past few years. It’s a case of supply and demand.
In the old days, people were getting their tips from newspapers, betting shops, and even word-of-mouth between fellow punters. Now, though, everything has changed, with your typical racing fan using X for all-things related to horse betting. And even if you’ve only ever liked a handful of tweets about horse betting in the past, the extreme likelihood is your social feed is currently full of recommended tweets from these tipster accounts.
When it comes to why X has become the go-to place to get your horse betting tips, there are several big reasons:
Access to Expert Advice
Even though not every tipster on X is what you would call an ‘expert’, the platform is good for getting general advice on bets to place for upcoming races. It’s especially useful for beginners who don’t know which horses to back, as they can essentially copy bet-for-bet what tipsters are recommending. At the same time, even experienced punters, such as ones who find themselves stuck on losing streaks, can turn to tipsters as a way to lift the pressure from their shoulders and boost their chances of success.
Example: It was only a couple of weeks ago when horse racing analyst Will Smith (@WillSmith_2) provided his ‘Lucky 15’ tips on social media, with the 4-fold in particular bagging a huge profit. Audacious Annie (WIN 2/1), Jukebox Fury (WIN 15/8), Night Duty (WIN 7/1), and Mariner (2ND at 5/2) all delivered, so anyone who copied his tips beforehand would have walked away with some serious cash.
Get Instant Updates
What’s great about X is that you can get instant updates from tipsters. No delays, no long waiting periods. These updates can range from live race predictions to odds changes. For instance, if the odds for a specific horse were boosted by a sportsbook just before a race starts, a tipster might catch onto this and decide to broadcast the odds boost to their followers, letting them get in on the action that they otherwise might have missed out on. In a nutshell, X is really the only platform where you can get split-second updates like this, as forums, magazines, and other types of tipster platforms are all time-limited.
Find Specific Tips Fast
Let’s say that there’s an upcoming race that you specifically want tips for. Even if it’s at one of the slightly less popular events, such as Ireland’s Galway Races, there’s a pretty good chance that a tipster on X will have some picks for you to follow. All you have to do is search the name of the race you’re interested in, use the relevant hashtags, and you should be able to find some tips.
No Subscription Fees
Outside of social media, it’s also becoming extremely common for horse racing fans to subscribe to tipster websites that use data-backed software for making predictions. However, the downside to this is that most of these websites charge heavy subscription fees (we’re talking upwards of £150 a month). Naturally, the average person today doesn’t want to pay this, which is another reason why tipster accounts on X have skyrocketed: all of them are available for free. As long as you have an account, you can read (and copy) any of the free horse betting tips on X, allowing you to save a ton of money in the process.
Community Interaction
The best horse betting tipsters usually have anywhere from 10,000 to 250,000 followers on X. They’ve created huge communities which they use to foster discussions, share insights, and everything else in between. It creates a strong sense of ‘community’ where horse bettors feel like they’re all in it together, which makes everything more exciting to follow along with. And when one of the tips hits big and produces some major profit, it usually leads to all of the followers celebrating together.
Who Are X’s Best Betting Tipsters?
Horse racing and football are the two most popular sports to bet on in the UK, so you typically find that most tipster accounts on there provide tips for one (or both) of these sports. In terms of which specific tipsters are the best, a study from BettingTools recently found that accounts like Gorilla Tips (@GorillaTips_) and The Racing Tipster (TRacingTipster) are some of the best in town for this. If you’ve yet to follow any type of horse racing tipster on social media, then the accounts ranked by BettingTools are a great starting point.
Can You Trust Horse Betting Tipsters on Social Media?
When it comes to whether or not you should listen to horse betting tipsters on X, we lean towards yes — but with extreme caution. As long as the tipster accounts you follow are verified, controversy-free, not sponsored by sportsbooks, and have evidence of their previous tips being successful, then you can by all means use them to your advantage. Whenever you feel like placing a double or building an accumulator, the accounts you follow will be able to provide relevant tips. However, you must always keep in mind that none of the tips you receive are ever guaranteed to be 100% accurate. After all, we’d all be millionaires if that was the case.
It’s also very important to point out the recent increase in the number of ‘tipster’ accounts on X that are secretly sponsored by sportsbooks. This has stirred up some controversy, with accounts like Andy Robson (@AndyRobsonTips) being at the centre of it all. Essentially, what some sportsbooks are doing is using tipsters as a way to divert traffic to their betting sites to place bets. Even though the tips they provide might still be legitimate, the fact they’re being pushed by the sportsbooks themselves puts everything into question, so it’s highly recommended you avoid any horse racing tipster account that has affiliations with a sportsbook or parent company.
Summary
As a fan of horse betting, you can absolutely use X as a source for advice, betting tips, and community discussion. At the same time, though, it’s recommended you use other sources of information, too, whether it’s podcasts, forums or even The Racing Post (which people have been using for countless years now). Also, any tips you copy should never be taken as absolute nailed-on victories, as no bet is ever guaranteed to win. With this healthy approach, you can ultimately get the most out of any betting tips you use but without disappointment whenever some of them don’t work out. And if you’ve yet to create an X account, you’ll need to sign-up today if you want to start interacting with the horse betting tipsters over there.