I agree with 95% od what you say.

There are 2 things that beat most punters. Rip-off merchants who run sites that sell ratings and themselves. I formally ran a small ratings site and it is my experience that most punters expect too much. When I was running my site, this site was one of my competitors. The handicapper seemed to be very genuine and state the obvious.

The punter needs to have a sound financial plan in place. He needs to be disciplined. This beats 95% of punters straight away. Side bets and whispers from the stable, emotional bets all help to send the average punter broke.

Most punters approach gambling with no sound financial plan in place. What do they do when they are on a winning streak / losing streak?

It was stated that the best ratings are available free, I strongly disagree with this. Try to get your head around this concept. The more people that follow a set of ratings, the less value returned, the more chance of failure. That covers your free ratings. I don't follow the free ratings and I most certainly don't follow the tips from the so-called racing experts on morning radio. How they ever got a job, I'll never know.

Do the math and if you can't find a good service, have a sustainable plan (long term) and be disciplined. If you don't the professional punters and bookies and government will take all your money.

Cheers