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!

Just wait for the free bets
Ok so a trigger bet you have (for example)
£5 for the bet
£12 liability
Using a calculator for the odds you will have a small loss of say £1
The match ends and you get your liability back
Then you use the free bet
£10 free bet
Again using the calculator but this will produce a profit of (say) £8

So minus the £1 you lost on the trigger bet, you are now £7 in profit

The liability will never be spent, it just sits there like a balance and moves from bookies to exchange and back depending who wins. So your only loss will be a small loss on the trigger bet which you can calculate beforehand

I’d recommend doing a spread sheet to keep track of everything, so you can see what you have coming in. Watching the profit go up is good as well.

I found odds monkey really helpful when starting out.m, and there table is great, I think it’s worth paying for rather than just using the free version.

Do you have to use an exchange to place you’d lay bet or can you bet between two bookmakers?

Doseydots betting between two bookmakers is called 'dutching' and is far more complicated, you would need to use a different calculator. When starting out I would recommend using the exchange for everything.

This is all so helpful. Definitely giving it a try. Thanks everyone

Thank you for the reply and your help. I did something daft with my first bet, I clicked a button which paid out during the match 🙄. I am going to try again tonight. It’s a learning curve I suppose!

I've just done my first bet using the guide on save the student. I have no idea what I've done but I've followed the steps.

Is there somewhere that calculates the bets you should put on but using higher amounts?

Like, what about in the future when I've made a profit can I then decide to put more money on and calculate what I should bet on. Or is it always done with free bets?

I’ve been doing it for about a year now. I would start with team profit, go through all the videos and follow one of their start with £25/50/100 plans. Also join the team profit matched betting Facebook group. Take your time, and be patient.

@YesQueen Brilliant tips thank you!

Read about this a few times recently so decided to properly investigate it while I had a quiet day at home today.

Did the Coral one first then got the hang of it and signed up with Will Hill for £30 free and Bet365 for the £100 deal!

Using the OddsMatcher widget to calculate my lay stake. And Betfair and Matchbook exchanges. Even did a bet on the horses to get another free bet.

I think I've made about £60 profit today. Got a few bets on for tomorrow matches so will look at my accounts in the evening and see where I'm up to. I'm lucky that I can access plenty of funds for the lay bets...I think this will be more of a weekend hobby for me.

I don't have an addictive personality, hate casinos/fruit machines, not interested in the actual sports, but quite like statistics and interested in the way odds are calculated. All that guff about in-match bets and accumulaters and so on is way beyond me.

One question - can anyone explain how the lay stake is calculated please? The widget does it for me but I'd like to know how too!

@PandaPaws99 this might help
https://help.smarkets.com/hc/en-gb/articles/115000350131-How-to-calculate-matched-betting-bets

I do a little bit daily, mostly casino, and 3 daily racing bets and then more betting on the weekends and when there's big events on