Can anyone talk me through matched betting?

[TidyDancer]

I would search for a thread because I know it's been talking about on here a lot but unfortunately the search function is not cooperating at all.

I need a bit of a beginners guide to it if anyone who has done it would be kind enough to give me a rough overview!

Thanks in advance!

The Team Profit website has video tutorials on how to get started which made the most sense to me.
They also have a FB group for Newbies which gave me lots of tips in the beginning.

Ah thank you so much, will have a look!

How are you getting on TidyDancer? I keep threatening to get my head round Matched Betting as a way of supplementing my retirement but I just don’t get it.

Silly question- I know nothing about matched betting- can it be used to bet on eg football?
Asking as I would never bet on horses or dogs due to the cruelty...

Nightnight123 you most certainly can bet on football, whilst I do bet on horses most of my money had been made with football (or tennis, golf, cricket, darts etc etc).

Thanks HilaryBriss. I’ll also take a look at the website mentioned above. It would be good if someone had some kind of beginner’s flowchart or something?....

Save the student website has the guide I found the most simple, I've been doing it since last year

Save the student and oddsmonkey were the ones I understood most. I’ve been doing it for the past 2-3 months and if I’m honest I don’t really understand it all completely. I follow the guides and it seems to be working. I’ve made about £500 since starting.

If those guides are followed, is it pretty much guaranteed that you would win something?

The thing about betting is that someone somewhere is making money.... and it's usually the bookmaker/casino/whatever.

Not with match betting @puzzledobserver that’s the point you place a bet and then place a lay bet to counteract it, there’s a slight loss of pennies this is a trigger bet. You then get free bet which you lay a lesser amount to make profit from. It’s not the Bookies making the money

This is my husbands current hobby. He wants an iMac that costs about £1800, but decided he could only have it if she got the money through matched betting. He’s been doing in since October (although had 6 weeks off earlier in the summer), and has made £1,100 so far.

He bets mostly on football, but also some cricket, rugby union, tennis and racing. ‘Wherever the value is’ he just told me.

@Nightnight123 yes, it's totally risk free

I followed the save the student guide, step by step, very slowly.

It feels too good to be true, but so long as you follow the rules (and ALWAYS place the bet with the bookie first) you will only ever lose if you make a mistake.

You need a decent pot to maximise your profit, I only play with about 300 but I'm a very low roller. I've made about 750 in maybe 4 months - I get bored & take a break for a bit & I CBA with the little £5 bets which are probably the bread & butter.

My warnings:

• if you're an addictive personality type, don't.
• you MUST follow the method & stay focused that you only play when you're guaranteed a profit. None of this 'if your horse comes second' stuff.
• You'll be offered free spins on slots. These can be so addictive, the next 20p is always a winner - never play with your own money.
• keep a diary of your incomings & outgoings. You can end up with a lot of money sitting in various betting accounts & you need to keep track. Also free bets expire, so you can jot a reminder in the days they're expiring.
• making free money is addictive. Don't let it eat into family time. Set aside on hour or whatever & stick to it.
• if you find yourself ruminating on betting, have a break. The offers will always be there.

Lecture over.
It's easy money, but it has pitfalls like any gambling.

@PuzzledObserver

In the exchange, where you place your lay bet to counteract your normal bet, you are betting against other people. The exchange take a commission so that's how the site make money. If you win on the exchange then someone else has lost that money. If you lose on the exchange then someone else wins that money.

For your normal bet, you are betting against the bookies. If you win on that bet, then the bookies lose money. If you lose on that bet then the bookies make money.

So you are correct in a way; people are making and losing money all over the place. But with matched betting, you don't lose. You make a guaranteed profit. Your first bet make a loss of a few pennies but you win the free bet bonus. Using that bonus, you do the same process again and whatever you win overall is pure profit. It's literally impossible to lose money.

I watched the introductory video. You make money out of the bookies’ promotion budget, yes?

You take the introductory offer from two bookies and place opposite bets on each of them, cancelling each other out. You then place opposing bets with the “free” money they each give you, and whichever way each bet goes, you’re going to win with either one or the other. So long as the odds and the ratio of the bonus to the initial stake stacks up, you will come out ahead overall.

The money comes from the bookies...... and they get it from other people betting, yes?

I understand. I don’t like.

@PuzzledObserver not quite
One is placed at an exchange, one at the bookies
There's also low risk casino which I do a lot of

Puzzled you don't use bookies bets to cancel each other out, you use the exchange to bet against the outcome you've backed at the bookie. The exchange is full of people doing the exact same thing, all taking profit from the bookies; that's why they hate us and ban us when they cotton on to what we're doing.

So the exchange works because other people are doing the same thing? Fascinating!

I’m finding this fascinating too. Want to also ask, I take it it’s legal to do it?

Nightnight - yes, it's legal. The bookies and the exchanges used are perfectly legitimate.

But if the bookies suspect you are using them for matched betting they will stop, or restrict your account (getting gubbed).

Puzzled sort of.

The exchange has two sets of betters - one side making traditional 'for' bets (to win) and on the other 'laying' bets (that the horse/team will lose). You all cover each other's bets & the exchange takes a bit if commission - in theory the exchange never loses, unlike bookies.

The lay bet is initially expensive as you have to cover all of the potential 'for' bet winnings for the same stake, but if your lay bet wins you get it all back, plus your winnings (If you lose, you've got a 'for' bet elsewhere covering the cost plus a small profit).

The benefit to the 'for' betters, is they generally get slightly better odds.

PM me if anyone wants help starting. I found it scary at first but soon becomes much easier

I've been doing it very half heartedly for about 5 months. I've made about £400 without really trying. I put £25 of my own money in at the beginning, and have followed the team profit step by step guide.

I also started by reading about it on mn. I watched the profit accumulator videos and paid £1 for a weeks access to their odds calculator. There is also odds monkey.
I created my own spreadsheet as I'm a bit of a geek like that to track ins and outs etc.
I absolutely love it. I have made £380 in two weeks starting with £100.
I placed my first accumulator today!
Still learning but I have time on my side to focus on it.
I am happy to answer any questions