What is ROI? ROI means return on investment, and in betting terms, that means how much profit you have made from your initial stake.
Example:
If a tipster advises £1,000 worth of bets and generates £150 profit, their ROI is 15
The formula to work out your ROI is:
ROI = (Profit ÷ Initial Investment) × 100
It will enable you to work out your returns fairly over different betting types and amounts and will reveal if your betting tipster is any good or not in the long term.
Why Does ROI Matter?
Well, if you’re betting real money from your own pocket, you don’t want to lose it intentionally, do you? Knowing the ROi of a tipster can reveal everything you need to know..does it make a profit long term?
Imagine two scenarios:
- Punter A puts £10,000 into a tipster’s selections and makes £500 profit (5% ROI)
- Punter B puts £1,000 into another tipster’s selections and makes £100 profit (10% ROI)
Punter B is making more money from his tipster, so that tipster is far more profitable than the other.
Some tipsters lie about their ROI; learn how to spot it in my 7 tipster lies about ROI post.
ROI in Different Contexts
In Business
A business might calculate ROI on a specific project or marketing campaign. If a £20,000 advertising campaign generates £60,000 in additional sales revenue, the ROI is 200%—a highly profitable investment. But calculating net ROI (accounting for all costs, not just the ad spend) gives a truer picture.
In Stock Market Investing
An investor who buys £5,000 worth of shares and sells them a year later for £5,500 has achieved a 10% ROI. An investor who puts £50,000 in and gets £55,000 back also has 10% ROI, despite the much larger absolute gain. Over decades, compound returns at different ROI levels create enormous wealth differences.
In Betting and Gambling
This is where ROI becomes particularly illuminating. A bettor might win 60% of their bets but lose money overall if they’re backing short odds. Another bettor might win only 15% of their bets but profit significantly by consistently finding value at longer odds. Their ROI tells the real story of profitability.
A tipster can win 70% of their bets and still lose money.
A service giving lots of short-priced winners may have an impressive strike rate but poor ROI if the odds don’t justify the risk.
The Time Factor
ROI is more meaningful when you include a timeframe. A 10% annual ROI is excellent. A 10% monthly ROI is extraordinary. A 10% ROI over five years is mediocre.
When comparing investments or tipsters, always ask: “10% ROI over what period?” A service claiming 50% ROI over three months might be experiencing luck or analysing a small sample size, while 10% ROI consistently delivered over five years suggests a genuine edge.
ROI Vs Profit: Why the Difference Matters
Profit tells you the absolute amount you’ve made. ROI tells you how efficiently you made it.
A property investor who buys a house for £200,000 and sells it for £220,000 makes £20,000 profit—a 10% ROI. If another investor buys a different property for £100,000 and sells it for £115,000, they make £15,000 profit—a 15% ROI. The second investor made less total money but used their capital more effectively.
This is why successful investors obsess over ROI rather than absolute returns. It shows whether they’re actually skilled or just throwing huge amounts of money at mediocre opportunities.
The Limitations of ROI
ROI isn’t perfect. It doesn’t account for:
- Risk. A 50% ROI might come from an extremely risky bet; a 5% ROI might be from a near-certain investment. One ROI number can’t capture this difference.
- Time invested. Achieving 10% ROI by working 100 hours per year is very different from achieving it by working one hour. Your return per hour of effort varies dramatically.
- Capital locked up. Money tied up in an investment for five years generates less useful ROI than money that’s available to reinvest or deploy elsewhere.
- Reinvestment. ROI assumes you keep your profits separate; in reality, many investors reinvest returns, creating compounding effects that simple ROI calculations miss.
- Sample size is important
Why is Sample Size Important For ROI
A tipster showing:
- +50% ROI after 20 bets
means almost nothing.
A tipster showing:
- +10% ROI after 1,000 bets
is much more meaningful.
We recommend looking at a minimum of several hundred tracked selections before judging a tipster’s ability; learn how we verify a tipster’s performance.
What Is A Good ROI For A Tipster?
Anything around 5% or above is considered good and profitable to follow, but 5-10% is a good indicator for long-term performance (as long as there are full records to back it up) and if you see a tipster boasting 20% plus, you really need to research it thoroughly to make sure it’s not a lie a sits very ahrd for a tipster to deliver this kind of ROI long term on sports betting.
| ROI | Interpretation |
|---|---|
| Negative ROI | Losing service |
| 0–5% | Small edge |
| 5–10% | Good long-term performance |
| 10–20% | Very strong |
| 20%+ | Requires careful verification |
A Real-World Example of ROI
Football Total Over 4.5 Goals tipster service delivers an 11% win rate but an ROI of -54% on football bets, whilst Match Day Master delivers a strike rate of 44% but an ROI of 12.21%. Which would you rather follow?
Sometimes a tipster can have a huge strike rate of 50% or more, but the ROI is 1% or less. ROI is an invaluable tool for a punter looking for a successful tipster. View my recommended tipster services as they all have good ROI and a proven track record.
Look at how we measure horse racing tipster performance to get to the key indicators on whether a tipster is worth following.
The Bottom Line
ROI is simply the language of efficiency in money matters. It lets you compare apples to apples, spot real performance from fake performance, and make decisions based on how hard your money is actually working. Understanding ROI won’t make you rich, but ignoring it is a reliable way to stay poor.
FAQ
What does ROI mean in betting? – It means return on investment, or how much money you make from each pound you stake on a tipster’s picks.
What is a good ROI for a betting tipster? – Anything 5% and above is good, but be wary of services claiming higher than 20%, as this is highly unlikely over a long time period for obvious reasons.
Is ROI more important than strike rate? Yes, because a tipster could have a 75% strike rate but not make a profit at all; ROI reveals how profitable a service is to follow.
Can a tipster have a high ROI and still lose money? No, because return on investment is profit on what you staked. If you staked £1000 and got £1100 back, you made a 10% ROI and £100 profit, so it’s impossible to lose money based on that.
Useful Links:
Bankroll Management Guide: Step-by-Step Guide for Profitable Sports Betting
