If you make the decision to purchase tips from anyone you need to ask yourself:
1. Is the tipster consistently beating the closing odds? The closing odds for an event take into account more information and generally more accurately represent the probability of an event occurring. You can check the closing odds on a site like
https://www.oddsportal.com/results/2. Is the tipster better than a system that randomly selects matches? Use the Wald–Wolfowitz runs test to check if their betting results are due to randomness. If you can achieve the same result just by randomly flipping coins it's probably not worth purchasing the tips. Joseph Buchdahl created an excel sheet for this:
www.12xpert.co.uk/runs_test.xlsx3. Is the tipster honestly keeping records? They may alter their results. They may give different followers opposing betting tips ensuring 50% of their subscribers will have a winning pick. There is a great article looking at the deceptive practices of a popular picks website:
https://deadspin.com/how-america-s-favorite-sports-betting-expert-turned-a-s-1782438574In many cases using a tipster is going to be a losing proposition, and you would be better off just saving. Be careful. Often people looking for a tipster are looking for quick and easy money, but sports are incredibly random, and the odds given by sports books can be inaccurate and/or unfair. The tipster is not necessarily betting on his own tips, but only providing them for a fee... and if this is the case they have no skin in the game... you're being played.
All said, there are winning tipsters, but there are far more losing ones. If you do follow a tipster you will want to bet only a small amount of your bankroll (1-2% or less) flat betting (risking same amount every bet). This is so you can sustain a large string of losses without losing your bank. The worst thing you can do is try and double up to chase losses. Instead of paying a tipster you could also use numerous free sites where people offer tips, yet again with free tips it's on you to figure out if the tipster is credible before you dive in and follow.
In my opinion it could be more fulfilling to make your own bets instead of following, to specialize, to become an expert on one league, or on a small group of teams/players. Take in all the information you can to become more informed than the average bettor and develop a system or a model to bet on that team/player. You can do all of this without risking anything, it's an excuse to learn some new skills (programming, statistics) and can test how well your model would perform against past results, last 5+ seasons. You can bet into the more inefficient opening odds (as opposed to waiting for a tipster to release their pick).