The tipster checklist: 12 checks before you follow

A tipster's record is either checkable or it is not, and you can tell which in a few minutes. These twelve checks separate a documented record from a good screenshot, and three red flags end the audit on their own.

Published 7 November 2026 · Updated 7 November 2026. 1x2.social is free and just for fun: no real money, no stakes, no bookmaker. 18+.

The twelve checks

Work through these in order. Most records fail at the first or second check, and you can stop there without feeling you have been unfair.

1. Sample size. Ask how many picks are settled, not how many were posted. Around two hundred settled picks is the usual rule of thumb before a record means anything; under fifty it is noise.
2. Independent settlement. The result has to come from someone other than the tipster. If they mark their own picks won or lost, you are reading a claim, not a record. On 1x2.social every pick settles from the official final score, as set out in how it works.
3. Timestamp before kick-off. A pick posted a minute before the game is a pick. A pick posted twenty minutes after the goal is a comment. Check the times on a few entries rather than trusting the header.
4. Losers still visible. Scroll past the wins and count the losses. If the history only starts when things were going well, it is a highlight reel with a profit figure attached.
5. ROI over win rate. Win rate without odds is decoration. Someone backing short prices can win most weeks and still lose money over a season, because the price on each winner does not cover the losers.
6. Odds range disclosed. You need to know whether you are following someone at 1.30 or at 4.00. The two produce very different losing runs.
7. Units and staking stated. Flat one-unit stakes make records comparable. Profit quoted in money, with stakes that move, cannot be compared with anything, not even with last month's figure.
8. Form over a fixed window. Last ten picks and a rolling thirty days are useful because both are defined. "Been on a great run lately" is not a window, and it cannot be checked.
9. No deletions or edits. The strongest version is technical: once a pick is settled, nobody can change it. Ask what happens when a tipster wants to remove a loser, and listen for the pause.
10. Conflicts of interest disclosed. Selling subscriptions gives a tipster an interest in looking successful. That is not disqualifying, but the record has to stand without their framing.
11. Price and refund terms clear. If the price, the billing period and the cancellation terms are not on the page before you pay, they are terms you discovered later, not terms you agreed to.
12. Contact and identity present. A named operator and a working contact address tell you who you are dealing with. Anonymous accounts can be excellent tipsters; they cannot be audited, which is a different problem.

Any single failure is survivable. Two or three together is a pattern: a record kept by someone who has thought about what you will check, and built the page so that you check as little as possible. What makes a record verifiable goes further into settlement.

Three red flags that end the audit

Some problems are not fixable with context. These three say something about intent rather than technique.

Guaranteed profit. Nobody can guarantee a result. A tipster who says otherwise is either lying or does not understand what they are selling. Tips are opinions about a match, and the match does not care.

A record that keeps resetting. If the history starts fresh each month, or the all-time figure keeps returning to zero, there is nothing to audit. Deleting losses is the oldest trick in the trade, and a reset is the tidied-up version.

Pressure to pay now. Countdown timers, "last few places", a price that disappears if you close the tab. A record that needs urgency to sell usually would not survive a second look.

One of these can turn up by accident. Two on the same page tells you the order of the tipster's priorities, and the picks are not first.

What a good record looks like in numbers

Two records, three hundred settled picks each, one unit staked on every pick. Same sample size, opposite conclusions.

The first has 156 winners at an average decimal price of 2.00. That returns 312 units against 300 staked: a profit of 12 units and a flat-stake ROI of +4%, with a win rate of 52%. At 2.00 the implied probability is 50%, so this is a small, believable edge.

The second has 210 winners at an average price of 1.40. That returns 294 units against 300 staked: a loss of 6 units, an ROI of -2%, and a win rate of 70%. At 1.40 the implied probability is about 71.4%, so 70% falls just short of what the price demands.

This is why the win rate is the last number you look at. Without the odds the losing record wins the argument; with them it loses the money. A positive ROI in the low single digits over a few hundred picks is a good record, not a small one, and anything above 20% sustained over that sample should make you suspicious rather than excited. Expect losing months even from good records. For the odds side from scratch, see how to read sport tips.

Follow or subscribe: what you are buying

Following is free. A subscription is optional, costs $2.99 to $19.99 a month, and 70% of it goes to the tipster. You are buying access to their picks and whatever reasoning they publish. You are not buying an outcome, a guarantee or a profit.

Pay when the record is long enough to judge, the settlement is independent, and the price is clear before you commit. Check what is free first: the monthly and all-time leaderboards rank tipsters on the same flat-stake ROI whether they charge or not. If a free record at similar odds is better than the paid one, the subscription is buying a personality rather than an edge. Free tips worth following covers the open side of the site.

Audit your own feed once a month

Pick a date and repeat it monthly. For each tipster, note settled picks, ROI, last-ten form and average odds, then compare against last month. If the sample is not growing, the account is dormant. If the ROI drifts down while the odds hold, something has changed. Ask one harder question too: are you still reading their reasoning, or only checking the results?

Your own picks are part of the audit. My slip holds every pick you posted, tailed or faded, until it settles, and a losing pick stays visible as a torn ticket. If that record is poor, the fix may be fewer tipsters rather than better ones. It is a free game for fun and bragging rights, with no real money involved and no bookmaker on the other side. Adults 18+ only.