Now lets be fair, there are some good touts out there..... what you need to do is decide what you value..... here is the value you get from paying for picks:
1) the picks are provided to you at a consistent time
2) the picks are provided to you everyday....
there are alot of good cappers on this forum, but you can't count on any of them to post at consistent time..... also, they randomly disappear and come back.....
3) you don't have to waste time reading through 20 threads to pick out the strongest play
4) you don't have to sit around waiting for someone to post your designated touts pick for free on another forum.... the pick may or may not show up, depending on the day....
So in essence, if you can find a good tout, what you are paying for is not the actual "pick" .... great picks are readily available on this forum for free, and the touts picks are available for free.... What you are paying for is to recieve the pick consistently at the same time, each and every day.....
This is important if you are busy, and want to use sportsbetting as a forum of investment and don't have time to handicapp the games and or look through forums to find the picks.....
If you are betting recreationally, then time is not time important, but as an investment, you need to calculate your hourly return rate.
Which brings up the second factor in your hourly return rate, you have to consider the size of your bets and bankroll. What winning percentage and bet size does it make it worth it for you to pay for a tout.
Suppose you use a covers tout and subscribe to his monthly service fee of $400, suppose he makes an average of 3 picks a day and suppose he picks 60% (HYPOTHETICALLY!!) and you are flat betting.
after 1 month (90 picks), 60% => a record of 54-36, after subtracting 3.6 units for juice, a monthly profit of 14.4 units. $400/14.4 = $27.70 must be wagered per game, just to break even after paying the monthly tout fee.
A reasonable "consulting fee" to pay in any endevour is 10%, Thus for it to really be worth your while in this scenerio, you must be wagering $300 a game for it to be worth you while.
This is an example of how to figure out if a tout is "worth the money". The tricky part is finding a reliable tout that will give you picks at a clip of 58% or better.