Things like this make me wonder how many people actually subscribed to it.

I wonder how many people would rather be in a syndicate than use a tipping service. A syndicate is far more likely to make a profit than a tipping service as the syndicate owner only profits if the syndicates makes a profit. It also means the syndicate owner can know if there is value in the tips and only bet when their is value which can not be done when providing tips as you are just guessing at the expected odds (or worse not taking them into account).