Alternative Punters Syndicate – Final Review
After around six weeks of testing, we decided to call time on our trial of The Alternative Punters Syndicate. Regular readers will know that we generally test things out for approximately four weeks, and we did have an email or two asking why we’d continued with TAPS when the results were so poor. The answer was two fold: Firstly, being a subscriber I am well aware of how good they actually are and I was hopeful it was just a shaky period they were going through and secondly, they had just started a new laying service that in it’s month prior to release had done some amazing things…like more than double your starting bank!
Unfortunately for TAPS it soon became clear that Mr Sod and his Law were going to be involved right from the start. TAPS offer a variety of bets when you subscribe to their service. Not only do they send out horse racing bets, but also football, golf and occasionally other sports bets too. In the six weeks we tested them out, they performed poorly with their horse racing bets, with both the Best Bets and System Bets failing to return any sort of profit. The System Bets were particularly disappointing as they are all odds on and at those prices the strike rate really does need to be exceptional, which during our month’s test it certainly wasn’t. Many of the Best Bets were good priced each way selections, but again, disappointed with only a couple of winners interspersed with far too many poor runs.
The Sports Bets, while not providing a profit, did provide some nail biting moments, particularly the golf bets. More than once were TAPS unlucky to miss either the win, or the place part which could’ve turned the loss into a very respectable profit.
The Fixed Odds Forecasts never got going and we didn’t have a week where we managed a profit, which just leaves us with the lays. TAPS began free proofing the lays for 10 days or so before going ‘live’. During the free trial they produced a fantastic profit in the region of 12 points and in the month produced over 50 points profit, however, when they went live, Sod made sure he was right in there and in the couple of weeks we tested they produced a loss of around 10 points.
The month seemed to be a catalogue of bad luck, but bad luck isn’t what people want to hear, they want cold hard cash and TAPS simply didn’t deliver that during our trial.
I guess the million dollar question is would I recommend TAPS? Well, based on the P&L columns in the test I’d be hard pushed to, however, they do offer a free one month trial, and I’d recommend taking a look at that before making any decision. After all you’ve nothing to lose and it would give you more time to weigh up the service they provide. If the poor run continues, you’ve lost nothing and can walk away, no harm done, and if they show the form I know they’re capable of….well, you may well come back and thank me for this 
So from a purely OBE point of view, the score would be a paltry one out of five, however, from a personal point of view, I’d recommend taking TAPS month’s free trial, just in case.
If you do decide to try TAPS for the next month, please keep a note of your P/L and report back here with your findings. We’d be interested in hearing your views about this one….
