Matched betting...could anyone talk me through it?

[TwllBach]

I've seen matched betting as a viable option to earn a little cash but am wondering if anyone can

a) tell me if it's worth the time/effort
b) explain how to get started in one words of one syllable

Well despite screwing up my trigger bet this afternoon, I’ve ended up £11 up... I think.

But what if you lose the bets you put on with the ‘free’ bets?

Ok, no. I don’t understand this at all.

So I placed a £5 free bet on AC Milan. They won, and I received £4.55.

I get that since it was a free bet, it’s still £4.55 I didn’t have before, but how can I come out with ‘less’ despite winning??

Thanks titchy, so the profit you make must be pretty small to start with? You must have to put on loads of free bets to make any significant money?

It doesn’t matter if you win or lose. On one site, you bet to win (your free bet) on the betting exchange, you bet to not win. No matter what happens, you will win on one site and lose in the other.

Because the bet is not your money, you make a profit no matter what.

Go watch the videos explaining it.

@mrs fionacharming

What do you mean less?

In the free bet, the stake is not returned. With own money bets, you get your stake back plus the winnings. With most free bets, you only get the winnings. And you’d have matched that bet on betfair, so remember to take your liability away from those winnings as well as taking away the loss from your qualifying to get your overall profit.

Thank you Iaimtomisbehave I didn’t realise you didn’t get your stake back from a free bet. It makes sense now you’ve said it, I just thought it seemed weird that someone could have used £5 of real money, won, but come out with less.

Just make sure you use the “free bet stake not returned” on the calculator.

You also must have used low odds with your free bet... remember, the higher the odds, the higher the profit (usually) so with your free bet, try to use odds of 4 or more.

I chose ones with low liability on the lay bet, which limited the stakes really. Hopefully after a while I’ll be able to up it a little more.

You should make 80% of a free bet as profit, so £10 free makes you £8 cash. Typically you'd lose no more than £1 in your qualifying bet, so £7 profit overall.

Do three of those a day (10 mins once you know what you're doing) and you're on £500 a month! It all adds up.

In 6 weeks DH has made £1679 in profit off the back of one of these threads. I thought he knew about matched betting but I he didn't so I told him about it he looked into it and has smashed it

The last one I did just worked too, so I’ve now bet my last free bet from coral for a race at 4.20 tomorrow morning. If that works too, then I’ll withdraw the profit I’ve made from Coral and Betfair and start again with betfred (£10 deposit required) and once I’ve used the £30 free bets there, I’ll move on to following the team profit recommendations and try my hand without the odds matching tool!

newYoiker how? What did he follow?

Don't withdraw from Betfair. You need to build up money in your Betfair account so you can use it to match lots of bets.
Also, withdrawing takes a few days so you won't get the money straight away, and you'd need to deposit again to match any bets you place in the meantime.

I know I sound like a scratched record, but if you keep picking obscure events like that you will get barred from that bookie very quickly (I have been there, done that). I know it's a pain to wait, but you'd be far better waiting until Huddersfield play Fulham tomorrow evening...

The more you have in Betfair, the higher odds you can go for on the free bets - is that right?

The back and lay odds will be much closer on popular events too - so stick to Prem or Champ football, or U.K. horse racing. To repeat the above poster - avoid obscure events!!!

Correct miss malice.

Team profit on Facebook :) and profit accumulator

I THINK I UNDERSTAND THE NUMBERS NOW

The liability is what you lose if the back bet wins and the lay bet loses. The calculator tells you whether or not the loss is profitable which it is if the numbers it gives you are in the green.

I’ve used my Coral free bets and have ended up with and ended up with £30 profit, which as many PPs have said, has largely to do with luck.

I’m withdrawing my Coral money now and moving on to betfred, where I’ll do what PPs suggested and go for ‘proper’ bets and not just any old obscure one that the matching tool tells me too!

Is there still money to be made on this once you’ve used up all the free newcomer bets?

Yay twllbach 😁

I've finally placed my first £5 bet today and done the laybet on Betfair, will be interesting to see if I understand this as well as I think I do 😂😂

Sorry if this has already been covered elsewhere, but where do these "free" bets keep coming from? I know the bookies give some £10 bets away every now and then but surely it's not multiple offers every day to the same accounts?

Reload offers - yes bookies do keep offering free bets. Once they've enticed you in, they want you to keep betting with them!

Weekly bet clubs (bet £20+ each week get a free £5 or more) are common - paddy, lads, coral, sky. Also bet £10 in play on x match, get £10 on y match, plus more advanced offers - Bet365 2up, and william Hill 2 clear. These don't guarantee cash each time, but worth doing. Special events (world cup, cheltenham races, Christmas etc) also have lots of offers - check the promotions pages of all your bookie accounts two or three times each week.

Remember the more accounts you have, the longer you keep them and the bigger your exchange balance, the more you can do.