Comparing results of different tipsters, it's not easy to assess which has achieved the best performance. Selections provided by the tipsters, who proof to Racing-Index, range from short priced favourite, to big priced outsiders, with all sorts of combinations in between.

When setting up a betting bank, to follow a tipsters selections, it's pretty likely you'd bet much smaller amounts if you were backing 50/1 outsiders, than if you were backing evens favourites. We therefore adopt this principle to rank tipsters within the comparison tables. This is done by calculating each tipsters profit, using variable stakes for each bet (the lower the odds the higher the stake). We call this basis, Variable Bet Profit (VBP).

The basis used is the same for both backing and laying, but for back bets the stake is calculated using the horse's SP (used for both win and place bets) where as for lay bets Betfair SPs are used to determine the stake amount, with the Betfair place SP used for place only lays.

For both Back and Lay bets the returns for each bet are based on the BSP.

The top 10 performing services are highlighted for each of the periods, from here you can either click on the service name, to see a month by month breakdown of their results, click on the number of bets to see a full list of all selections proofed during the relevant period, or click on Full List, to see the complete comparison table for that period.

To make it easier to compare services, by default all selections are based on 1 point level stake bets. If you select "Advised Stakes" the comparison will be based on the stake amounts entered by the individual tipster service.

Lay bet profits are shown based on Betfair SPs and by default take into account 5% commission (an option is included to change the %). Back bets show a comparison of SP versus Betfair SP (each-way bets assume half the stake is placed on the win market and half on the place only market).

When advised stakes is selected, services are ranked by POT% rather than VBP and we show the profit achieved per point stake advised. This way it takes into account the variation in stakes selected by each tipster.

You can sort the full comparison table based upon SP Profit, BSP Profit or POT% (Profit On Turnover) or VBP (Default), by clicking the heading at the top of the relevant column.

If you scroll down the comparison page, you'll the heading "The following started proofing after xx date".

The services listed under this heading have not been proofing selections for the entire period, but could highlight a service worth keeping an eye on.

The summary page includes a link to the tipsters web site, an image of what their site looks like and a description of their service, written by the tipster (if they've written one). It also includes a month by month breakdown of performance, for all the years they've been proofing to Racing-Index. From here you can click on the link in the bets column to see full results for an individual month or year.

The full results page provides details of all selections that have been proofed to Racing-Index. It shows the date, course and horses name, together with the type of bet advised by the tipster and the horse's finishing position. Performance figures are shown based upon both starting price (SP) and Betfair starting price (BSP) for back bets and just BSP for lay bets. Some of the information isn't shown on mobile devices, but should all be shown if you turn the device horizontally.

Depending upon the time period you've selected and the number of selections the tipster has given out, the individual results could be spread over several pages, each of which can be viewed in turn.

The page also shows performance plotted on a line graph, which gives a good indication of how volatile results are and the size of betting bank likely to be required when betting on the selections.

You have the option to change the start and end dates you wish to see results for and you can also select to "Show Filters", which allows you to just view certain bet types or only include selections who's odds were within a specified range.

It's possible to apply extra filters to the past results, to help you find the tipster service that best suits your style of betting. These filters can be applied on both the Full List Comparison page or the individual tipster's Full Results List pages.

Min and Max SP can be used to specify price ranges for the bets you wish to view. These are entered as decimal odds and can be specified as either SP of BSP. For example if you don't like backing horses at OddsOn, you can select a Min SP of 2.0 (evens). Then when you click the submit button, the system will exclude any selections who's SP was less than evens and will show which tipsters have performed best excluding those bets.

You can also filter selections based upon bet type. Use the Win/EW/Place check boxes to exclude certain types of bet. For example you may prefer to bet win only, if that's the case you can clear the EW and place check boxes and those types of bet will be excluded from the results.