There are many ways of extracting value from the bookies when it comes to horse racing.
The most popular method is matched betting, but there are tipster services which can be profitable too, especially on accounts which are restricted from promotions. It’s not easy to find a service that isn’t a scam and creates proven profit over time.
In early 2019, I experimented with a horse racing system called Buncejar to see if it can deliver cash into the pockets of savvy bettors like us, without needing to use any bonuses.
What is Buncejar?
Buncejar is a horse racing system run by a team of experienced traders. They are able to predict, with decent accuracy, certain horses whose odds are going to reduce in the 18 hours or so before a race begins.
If you already have experience of using betting exchanges for matched betting, you’ll be able to see how this can be used to make money. We can back a horse now, then lay it off later at a shorter price, locking in a guaranteed profit.
How does it work?
Thankfully, it’s a really simple and easy to follow system. Each evening you will receive emails from Buncejar telling you which horses to bet on. The number of emails you get varies and can be as many as 7 or 8 over the course of a few hours.
They tell you the race, the horse, and the odds you want. They list some of the bookies that currently offer those odds. I’ve found that so long as you place your bet within an hour of receiving the email you should have no trouble getting the price they’ve quoted. Sometimes the prices will still be around late into the evening.
The following morning, you’ll receive another email from Buncejar – their ‘Morning Overview’. In this email they’ll tell you how all of their selections from the previous evening are doing, and give advice on how they think the odds might move in the hours leading up to each race.
In their training for new users, they are very clear that you should pick a set time to be logging in and laying off all of your bets each day.
Sometimes the odds have lowered, in which case you can lock in a profit. Sometimes the odds have lengthened, in which case you will be locking in a loss. Because their predictions are correct more often than incorrect, over the course of many races you can generate a profit.
Why should I use Buncejar?
Members can see a full record of previous tips and a statistical breakdown of how many were winners and how many were losers.
Having been signed up to the service for a while I can see that the records they show are accurate, and based on how they have performed over the past 2+ years you can expect an average profit of 14.69% per trade. With a handful of easy trades to make every day, I’m sure you can see how the profit could build over time for you.
They also provide an easy-to-use cash out calculator and a downloadable profit diary, which help make the system quick and simple to use each day.
What bankroll will I need to get started?
That depends on what stake sizes you intend to use. If you intend to bet only £2 on each selection, then £200 should be more than enough to use Buncejar successfully. As your bankroll builds, you can increase the size of your bets.
The important thing is to be consistent. It’s better to be placing lots of small bets than to be lumping large amounts of your bankroll on individual selections. This is a system designed to build profit over lots of bets and you can’t be sure which Buncejar predictions will prove to be accurate.
Thankfully, most of their selections are the favourite for a race, or occasionally the second favourite. There are no bets on outsiders and the odds tend to be around 3.00 to 4.00.
This is really useful if you only have a small bankroll to commit. It means that your lay bets will only require a few times the size of your back bet, so you won’t need to keep lots of cash in your Betfair or Smarkets account.
If you’re starting with £2 stakes and a bankroll of £200, you can have £100 in your exchange account and £100 ready to deposit with the bookies.
With there being no long odds bets, if you found most of your money moving into bookie accounts or your exchange account, you could withdraw and move it without having to stop using Buncejar while you wait for withdrawals to return to your bank.
Example of me using the system
Step 1: Selections email
Buncejar email me the evening before the 18:05 at Punchestown, telling me to back City Island at odds of 2.37. They suggest William Hill or bet365 as they both had odds of 2.37 at the time the email was sent.
Step 2: Place bookmaker bet
I then head over to William Hill to check the odds. The odds are still 2.37, so I back City Island with a stake of £10.00.
Step 3: Morning overview email
The following day I receive a morning overview email from Buncejar, advising that City Island’s odds are shortening, having already broken through the 2.00 line. I’m advised to wait until closer to the race to get the best lay odds.
Step 4: Place exchange lay bet
Later that day, I see the lay odds at Betfair and Smarkets have lowered to 1.94. As I have decided to lay off all bets at the same time each day, I decide that I will lay off my bet now rather than waiting to see if the odds get even lower.
Step 5: Calculating my lay stake
Buncejar provide a calculator for working out lay stakes, but I found it easier to use my Matched Betting Calculator.
If I were to place my lay bet at Smarkets with their commission rate of 2%, the calculator tells me that a lay stake of £12.34 will give me a profit of £2.09-£2.11, depending on the outcome of the race.
That profit is based on a £10.00 bet, so you can see how the profit can grow with larger stakes. A £50.00 bet would have returned a profit of over £10.00.
Can I combine Buncejar with matched betting?
Yes, however, I wouldn’t advise doing this too regularly.
If you are looking to place a bet on a horse in order to qualify for a free bet, you could follow a Buncejar tip when deciding which horse to bet on.
This would definitely increase the value (and your expected profit), but if you’re beating the line and taking advantage of free bets, you are more likely to draw attention from the bookies.
I’m not saying this isn’t a useful strategy to use from time to time, but if you’re doing it several times a week then don’t expect your account to stay unrestricted for very long.
Criticisms
Overall I am very happy with how Buncejar works and the training they provide. I only have two criticisms that I would like to mention.
The first is with their advice on when to lay off bets. In their training they say that you should set a specific time every day to lay off all of your bets.
This advice makes sense as it is much quicker and easier to lay off all of the bets in just a few minutes. This is particularly true if you work during the day and it’s something you are doing on your dinner break.
My gripe is that the ‘Morning Overview’ email sometimes contradicts this advice. Sometimes they’ll suggest that the price will probably move in your favour as the race gets closer. This suggests that you should be keeping an eye on the market and laying that particular bet off at a later time than your ‘set’ time.
If you’re somebody who is interested in trading horse racing markets, you can probably make more money in the long run by using this ‘watch and wait’ strategy. If your time is limited, you’ll need to set a time and stick to it.
My second criticism is that the cash out calculator, while very simple and easy to use, doesn’t have an option for people who are laying off their bets at Smarkets, where the commission rate is lower.
If this team of experts have so much knowledge, why are they sharing it?
This is the first question I ask myself when I encounter any opportunity like this. If this team of experts are able to make predictions which create a profit, why share it with anybody? Why not just place lots of big bets and make a packet yourself?
The simple answer is that with any method of making money from a bookie, sooner or later they will realise you are taking value and take action to stop you from doing that. Maybe they will restrict your stakes or remove your eligibility for Best Odds Guaranteed.
If one person is placing large bets and beating the line, they will soon see this. If large numbers of people are placing small bets, their accounts won’t draw anywhere near as much scrutiny, and can fly under the radar for a long time.
For the team at Buncejar, they can make more money charging a subscription fee to lots of users who follow their tips, than they could by placing large bets and getting their accounts restricted.
Free tip
Make sure you keep a record of your bets and when your bets win at the bookie, always check what odds they paid out at. Sometimes you will find that the odds have lengthened and (if your account is eligible for Best Odds Guaranteed) they have paid you more than you expected.
Price
Buncejar is free to use for your first month, then after that it’s £39.98 per month. There is no contract so you can cancel at any time.
Based on the average profit per trade, and the number of tips sent out each day, if you are betting £2 each time, that will cover your subscription cost plus make some profit for you.
Conclusion
Buncejar gets the thumbs up from me!
My only advice is that you only sign up if you have the bankroll to commit to betting £2 as an absolute minimum for each trade. You’ll also need to follow as many of their tips as possible.
If you can’t commit the time to follow all of their tips, then only consider using them if you can afford larger stake sizes upwards of £5, so that your long term profits exceed the cost of the subscription.
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Matt Kirman – Matched Betting Blogger
Since 2014, I’ve blogged over £90,000 worth of profit, and made it my mission to make matched betting accessible to everyone.