PuntersPal Review 2023

Punters Pal (PuntersPal/punterspal/The punters pal)/, also known as Shane Filipek has been trackside at Royal Randwick since 2003. Shane has become one of the larger bookmakers in Australia offering a wide range on Australian and International events, both racing and sport.

Shane Filipek Bookmaking Pty Ltd, trading as Punters Pal, is licensed in New South Wales by Racing NSW and regulated by Liquor & Gaming NSW to accept wagers via the internet and the telephone 24 hours a day.

The PuntersPal website is powered by Generation Web 2.50, who are based in Wollongong, and provide an online platform for a number of other bookmakers, including some we have recently reviewed.

PuntersPal is a 24-hour operation with Live Chat between 8am and midnight, 7 days per week.

In addition, there are fairly recent full function PuntersPalApps available for both Android and Apple, designed to provide a seamless service.

PuntersPal coversthe majority of domestic markets for racing (thoroughbreds, harness and greyhounds) as well as large coverage of international events. As a matter of interest (rather than for deep analysis here), at least 26 different domestic and international sports markets (including Esports) are available.  

The PuntersPal website has been highly customised,and you will fairly quickly come up to speed in using the tool. It is almost impossible to explain everything here, but I will explain the key points for navigation.

The home page, as is usual with Generation Web, opens with 3 panels, in the left 1/5th there is the navigation panel, the middle 3/5thbeing where the racecourse or race(s) specific information is presented and the right 5th usually shows Up and Coming Sports (not racing) events. 

The right panel here showsseveral sports events which all seem to be Tennis. If it was Football matches you would see 3 odds listed, win for the home team, draw, and win for the away team.

You will see how PuntersPal.com is so racing focused by reviewing the middle (2nd) section. On initial entry, the next 3 races to start are listed alongside each other and below that are up to 8 Thoroughbred, 8 Harness and 8 Greyhound races which are about to start are displayed, with the time before they start.

On the top row are 4 items of interest namely Racing, Sport, Contact and Promos. The screenshot below has Racing selected and displays a list of the races of Today.

 For completeness, once you login, the top row  Login and  JOIN area changes to the following and provides for navigation around your Account:

Just below the top row you will see row witha number of races that are about to start. You can narrow down to Thoroughbred, Harness or Greyhounds by selecting the appropriate buttons under the PUNTERSPAL logo, as indicated here: 

This button selection also refines the list of items presented in Column 1 to match the selection.

Along the same row, you will see several races (number dependent on your font size) that are about to start and you can jump to that race. By scrolling right, you will be able to see a total of 10 races.

If you want to narrow down the Centre section to only show, for example, Thoroughbreds, you need to click on the 2nd icon towards the top right of the Today´s racing list ie: 

If you click on a race a new Centre Panel is presented with details of the specific race.
In the Centre panel you can see familiar details of a race. I like to be able to see horses that are increasing or decreasing in odds and be able to sort the view by the Fixed Win odds, to get the favourite to the top row. The PuntersPal website does not offer any sorting capability.

I have left the left 1/5th panel to last as it is extensive (ie long) and is displayed to the left here. This is where you can navigate to all the many areas of the website. 

Entries for racing that are interesting are as follows:

Selecting Today´s Racing will take you to a panel already discussed

Under Today´s Racing any number ofhigh-profile races could be listed to allow fastpath access to that race.

Half way down the panel you will see 5 races that are about to start (colour coded)
11 m if starting more than 9 mins from now
6m if starting within the next 9 mins 
Now if stating in the next minute.

Below these 5 races you will see a repeat of Today´s Racing together with (if today was Wednesday):

Tomorrow´s RacingFriday´s Racingand Saturday´s Racing

Thoroughbreds–displays a filtered (Thoroughbreds) Today´s Racing

Feature Races – displays a seemingly short list of Thoroughbred racing this year, naming the Location and Event – eg New South Wales The Everest 

Racing Results   - displaysToday´s Thoroughbred, Hardness and Greyhound races that have resulted. From this second panel you can quickly select Yesterday Results and you can even select a date as far back a 1 Jan 2011. I however was only able to find race results dating back to 10 Feb 2022.

At the bottom right of the panels you will see a deep pink bubble. This is the Chat With Us window. But from this window you can also navigate to the numerous FAQs.

Once you navigate around the website for several minutes, reviewing the webpages, you should quickly be able to get up to speed. 

🐴Betting Markets - 8/10
PuntersPal provide virtually all the important race betting markets including (as you see in the banner at the very start of this review) Same Race Multi, a whole range of exotics and a range of niche offerings like Jockey and Box Challenges on Win Only bases. If you are looking for Favourite v Field or Odds v Evens then I did not see these available. Generation Web has put a lot of bespoke development into PuntersPaland numerous ways to navigate to a specific race quickly, that it is a formidable website for online race betting.

💳Banking Options - 8/10
PuntersPal offer multiple deposit methods and 2 withdrawal options. Credit/Debit Card, Electronic Funds Transfer, POLi payments and Bank Deposit (Cash, cheque) are accepted deposit methods. I have not tried to see if Credit Card over the phone is accepted.The 2 withdrawal options from PuntersPal are Bank transfer and sending funds back to the Credit Card originally used to make the  deposit.

📱Mobile Experience - 9/10
The PuntersPal mobile experience is excellent, fast and intuitive. Anyone familiar with racing should quickly become accustomed to navigating themselves around. Simply because of the smaller screen form factor some pages are slightly different from the website (eg on the website Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta and First Four are all visible betting markets at the top of a race listing, but on a mobile there is a separate button  Exoticsthat needs to be selected to find one of those four betting markets). So if you only want to focus on one aspect of racing, be it Win or First Four or even a specific racetrack or a different race day, you can quickly navigate to where you want to be.

💸​Withdraw Speed - 8/10
Withdrawals requested by 9am AEST on weekdays will be processed that day. Funds will generally be in your account the next business day, if not sooner.

🧩Overall User Experience - 9/10
PuntersPalwebsite and APPs are very easy to use and their design has a consistent look and feel. There are some functions/facilities I like that are missing, especially different views prior to betting on race, but then there is great use of colour coding to help you notice when a race is within moments of starting or has entered the 10 min to start time period.

🔒Security - 10/10
PuntersPal is fully licenced by Racing NSW and regulated by Racing NSW and the Office of Liquor and Gaming NSW. In addition, they are a member of the NSW Bookmakers' Co-operative, which guarantees payment of all winning bets placed with their members. All telephone conversations are recorded for the security of both their clients and themselves. PuntersPal also “maintains an off-site hosting facility for secure and continuous recording and retrieval of data involved in internet betting transactions.” So, you should not need to be concerned about security.

PuntersPal is a long-time player in the bookmaking business with Shane Filipek having 20 years of on track experience.

PuntersPal offer comparative fixed bet odds for Australian racing. I have seen close to race time odds that are better than their competitors, but, as I have said before, it is all about the timing of your bet.

In terms of the PuntersPal Apps, for Android, the Appis “in the process of staging on the Google Play Store”, so it is only downloadable directly from thePuntersPal website and for Apple, only 7 users have made comments. It is therefore difficult to know how many punters have downloaded the 2 Apps.

Apart from Fixed Win & Place Odds,PuntersPal also offer a large range of options including the Best Tote option, which guarantees the best dividend from all the VIC/NSW/QLD Totes plus the Best Tote + Starting Price is another option of ensuring high dividends.

In short PuntersPal offers competitive fixed odds for every thoroughbred, greyhound, and harness racing meeting in Australia, as well as odds for overseas races in so many countries including (looking at prior day, today, tomorrow races plus website comments) New Zealand, France, USA, Canada, Singapore, South Africa, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Ireland, United Kingdom, plus others.

You should receive Best Tote + SP win odds for all Australian races.

Once you select Racing from the homepage top row or Today´s Racing from the left column you will see a list of Thoroughbreds, Harness and Greyhoundraces for today. However, above the list of races you can narrow down the list to only display one of the three, if you are only interested in, for example, Thoroughbreds. You can then from the same row look at a number of other day´s racing, Yesterday, Tomorrow and the following 2 days as well as Futures (Feature races as selected by PuntersPal) and lastly Results. 

The Results panel is interesting in that it immediately shows the results of the current day’s races. But you can change the date, it is a bit fiddly, as you must select (not type) the date, month and year independently, I was able to track back to results from February 2022.

Now some interesting features I found:

• In the list of races, if a race has finished you will see the numbers of the first 4 finishers, if the race has not started you will see the number of minutes  17m till the start or  Closing if the race is about to start.
• For any race you cannot sort runners in decreasing or increasing order by their Race number or Win Odds or Place Odds. So, to find, for example, the 2ndfavourite, you will need to study all the horses when there is a long list of runners in runners in a race.
• The minimum Fixed Odds bet limit is $1 for internet transactions, (I do not know for telephone transactions).
• To switch to another race on the same day I find there are 2 ways depending if the other race is happening sooner or later in the day. For a specific race, selecting the down arrow next to the racecourse may only show a subset of (up to) 32 (still a long list!) up & coming races, whereas after selecting Racing or Today´s Racing you can jump to any race in question at the racecourse of interest. 
• There is no live TV for any race.
• For any race of today, the Track Conditions and Weather are mentioned, the race name, distance, start time and time to race start are clearly presented.
• Selecting  Form Guide opens a new window and provides extensive information on the runners of the race especially their recent runs (I have observed up to 8). Clicking on the horse name provides the same information without opening a new window.
• I have not come across any race tip from Shane for any race that is listed.

If tipping is something you like to have access, in preparing for your race day, it is also worth reviewing our website https://onlyracing.com.au/tips/.

The PuntersPal mobile App (Apple) debuted in 2022, so it has been available for a short while.

In my experience the homepage (whether logged in or not) was always the Racing Tab Next To Jump. 

You can easily select Sport but that is not something I am going to recommend!

I switch to Today Racing and select Thoroughbreds which gives an extensive list that you need to scroll down to see the full list of the day together with the number of minutes counting down for each race listed.

Once logged-in (see rightmost screenshot), the Login and  JOIN  buttons at the top of the screen are replaced by detailed, account-related, information including: 

• Icon to access your Account Information
• $ Icon to make a Deposit & Withdrawals
• Dollar values, ie Balance, Pending Bets etc.

At Login you will also be able to Set Quick Login which will allow for use of a PIN at next Login.

Along the bottom of the screen are the 5 self-explanatory Racing, Sport, Login, Support and Betslip options. Support takes you to Live Chat, whereas Betslip always seems to have a blue background, no matter what you select.

In the example, Sandown Tomorrow Thoroughbred Race 1 details are displayed. The Geoff Murphy Handicap is due to start in 8hrs 20 min, the Track is currently a Good 4 but the weather is still unknown.

You will need to scroll down to see the favourite who off-screen, otherwise the Fixed Win Odds would show a FAV in the top left corner. In this race the eventual joint favourites were Horses number 6 and 8. 

You need to select the  Exotics button to drill down to Exacta, Trifecta, Quinella and First Four markets.

If you want to navigate to races at other racecourses that are about to start, select the  Varrow next to SANDOWN for a list. From my observations I would state that almost everything mentioned earlier for the website is accessible from the App.  For example, for any racer, the Pre-Post Flucs are not displayable on the App, but are on the website. However as you can see in the example there is a  Pre-Post Flucs button which will provide the necessary additional information. So Fixed Win betting trends are possible to track.

Pump Tokens and Mystery Pumps

“Pump” Tokens are worth looking out for as they are a facility for a punter to gain an increased dividend on their bet. The number of Pump Tokens that are available on any given day may vary and they are issued at the discretion of the PuntersPal management.

They can only be used where the Pump Token button appears on a given betting leg within the Betslip.

Pump Tokens cannot be used in conjunction with any other promotions including Bonus Bets.

In addition, PuntersPal also make reference to “Mystery Pumps”, maybe I have not been a member long enough to know how these work or know how to gain the possible benefit but they cannot be used with Bonus Bets or Pump Tokens and they only become available to customers who have first wagered on a specified number of non-promotional events.

The maximum bet in a Mystery Pump is $25. 

24/7 Customer Service

A full webpage (scrollable on the App) of Contact Us information explains all the support offerings:

As well as the [email protected] email address, there are 2 distinct telephone numbers, one for Betting Line and one for Customer Support.

There is also Live Chat available from 8am to midnight 7 days a week.

Protest Payout

PuntersPaloffers their Protest Payout feature, and will pay out if your horse is first and gets beaten in a protest. This is available on all Australian thoroughbred meetings. This is a great feature as it covers all punters in the event of a protest, whether the original winner or the runner protesting.

Best Tote plus SP

PuntersPal offers their Best Tote plus SP prices on all Australian Thoroughbred markets. This product provides you with the best dividend between all three of the Australian Tote pools or the 'Official On-Course Starting Price (SP)' for the Win portion of a bet. Best Tote is a highly useful feature for punters as it guarantees you are getting the best tote odds possible at the time of the race.

PuntersPal offers an extensive range of markets and features that makes it a super choice for race betting:

• PuntersPal offers competitive fixed odds markets for both Australian and International horse races, with a minimum internet bet starting at $1.
• PuntersPal offers an extensive range of markets for Thoroughbred, Harness and Greyhound racing.
• PuntersPal has the key Exotic betting options such as Trifectas, Quadrella, Quinellas, First Four and Exacta for all races
• PuntersPaloffer their Best Tote + SP betting option, the best way to guarantee the best tote prices available. 
• PuntersPal offers Top Fluctuation which is the highest dividend forming part of the Official Price fluctuations as posted by the state where race is being run.
• PuntersPal offers Best of 3 Totes and Best of 2 Totes. The latter beingthe Victorian TAB and the New South Wales TAB. The former adds theQueensland TAB.
• PuntersPal offer Multi-Leg Bets which is a combination of numerous single bets which multiply the individual odds creating the total dividend. PuntersPal accepts Multi-Leg Bets from 2‐10 legs with a maximum dividend of $1,001. The maximum payout on any 'Multi-Leg Bet' at Punters Pal is $20,000.00.
• Finally, at selected race venues, PuntersPal offer JockeyChallenges,Odds-vs-Evens and Favourite-vs-Field for those willing to expand their punting.

As you can see a lot of racing thought has gone into developing the PuntersPal website and PuntersPal APPs making them a bookmaker worth considering to add to your race day portfolio.

PuntersPal offers solid options, but if I they want to add more to their core offerings, they could consider Inside v Outside, which is currently missing from the PuntersPal racing markets. 

To sign up at PuntersPal, you need to follow a 3-step process which only takes 2 minutes.

If you get into problems, you can either email, use LiveChat or call customer service on 1300 PUNTER to complete the whole process.

If you navigate via the App or the website https://punterspal.com.au/Account/Register you should  be presented with the screen similar to this :

 After entering your (up to) 7 pieces of personal information press  Go to step 2  and the next screen appears:

Select your password, complete the rest of the input required, but make sure you select Yes to the “Would you like to receive bonuses …” question! then press  Go to step 3to review and confirm your registration.

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How to Deposit at PuntersPal?

Once logged in there are 3 options to make a Deposit, you can select the Deposit & Withdrawal button at the top of the APP or website 

I have displayed Credit Card option here but you can also make a POLi deposit or use the EFT Notification option to notify PuntersPal that you have made a deposit (which technically could be cheque or cash or EFT Transfer as the PuntersPal bank details are visible in EFT Notification..

There is no Paypal option.

How to Withdraw

After login, there is only one way to navigate to make a Withdrawal and that is via the same Deposit & Withdrawal button and then select EFTWITHDRAWAL.

You only have the capability to make an EFT Withdrawal.

If customers have deposited via a credit card the withdrawn funds will be returned to the credit card from which the deposit was made up to the total amount of all deposits made from the relevant credit card. If the withdrawal exceeds the total amount of all depositsyou can have the surplus transferred to a bank account.

Note: Deposited funds must be turned over at least once before they will be able to be withdrawn.

PuntersPalrightly, as seen by the Contact Us web and equivalent App pages, put strong emphasis on Customer Service.

There is an email address, multiple telephone numbers and the Live Chat window which are all present to help you.

In addition, both the website and Apps have informative Q&A information.

Finally, there are 3 documents that have been developed and you should read at least once to become familiar with Betting on the PuntersPal platform:

1. General Terms & Conditions (9 sections)
2. Wagering Rules (32 sections, but only first 6 are of interest to Racing)
3. Privacy Policy (12 sections)

Shane Filipek runs PuntersPal and his reputation alone will ensure than PuntersPal is run as a serious business. 

So, if you are fully up to speed and follow the rules, I do not foresee you having problems in using their services.