Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Money matters

Find financial and money-saving discussions including debt and pension chat on our Money forum. If you're looking for ways to make your money to go further, sign up to our Moneysaver emails here.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

Matched betting?! Tell me more...

999 replies

ExpatMrs · 08/04/2017 15:59

Just came across a good few MNers talking about it on another thread. I don't even know what it is but from the jist of the convo, there's good money to be made from having a couple of hours a day to do it... I have those hours!!
Can anyone enlighten me please?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
8
DangerousMouse · 14/04/2017 10:09

I'm positive I haven't made any mistakes. In bet fair it says my liability is£16 and my payout would be £21, but in coral my potential return is £15 it says.. definitely the same match/result/and I've backed in coral and laid in bet fair..

Laughsandgiggles · 14/04/2017 10:18

Danger how much have you put on as your lay bet??

DangerousMouse · 14/04/2017 10:20

£5 on both bets

DangerousMouse · 14/04/2017 10:25

oh I get it, I just used the calculator and should only have put £4.82 on the lay bet. fingers crossed they don't draw as that'll be a nice little pot in my bet fair account!

DangerousMouse · 14/04/2017 10:26

but even with putting on what the calculator says, I'd have been a few pence in the red, so where is the profit in these smaller bets?

Laughsandgiggles · 14/04/2017 10:26

That's where you have gone wrong. If you use one of the calculators it tells you how much to bet as a lay bet. Its never the same as your back bet (no idea why not).

Laughsandgiggles · 14/04/2017 10:29

Sorry xposted.
Was the free bet only for £5 or was it ore but split into £5 bets? You have to use all the free bets on the same bet and then the equivalent full amount on betfair to get the bigger profit.
So do 4 x £5 bet on Coral and then £20 lay bet (or calculated equivalent) on Betfair.

Verticalvenetianblinds · 14/04/2017 10:30

I'm in limbo now, waiting for money to clear back to my account so I can do more new sign up deals. I've done loads of free/no risk bingo and casino this morning and won nothing!
I'm lacking patience coz I'm enjoying it! But I've put in £159 now, and even tho I've got £100 in my betfair and £80ish coming back through transfer I'd like some actual money in my bank account!
But I've got bets waiting to settle this afternoon and there's nothing more I can do, so I'd better go and retrieve my kids from the garden and do some parenting!

user0000000001 · 14/04/2017 10:44

Well, have just placed my first qualifying bet....

😳

MissFitton · 14/04/2017 11:30

Morning fellow match betters.

I'm also in limbo waiting for bets to settle. If all come out as I expect I'll be £70 up by Monday. Have one more free bet to place and then can't do anything until next week.

imnottoofussed · 14/04/2017 11:43

My lay bet on betfair doesnt seem to be showing when I click on account open bets which is a bit odd.The one i've done today to go with my free coral bets is there.

However when I go to the actual match it shows at the right hand side as having my bet matched on there.

On the plus side i've made my free bets at coral and an awaiting my win. Just have to wait for a match today and a match on Sunday - I can see this waiting lark being a pain Grin

Think I will continue through some more of the oddsmonkey tutorials today.

MaidOfStars · 14/04/2017 11:47

Is the liability the total of your loss or does it include the initial stake on top?
At the lay exchange, you act as the bookmaker. Effectively, you tout for someone to make a back bet at the stake you specify. The stake at the lay exchange is not your stake. It is the stake placed by someone else. If they win (i.e. you lose the lay), they get that stake back, and the money you put up to cover their back bet of that stake at the odds given i.e. your liability. If they lose (i.e. you win the lay), like any bookmaker, you take their stake.

Repeat: the stake at the lay exchange is not your money being placed on a bet.

This is why Betfair tell you the amount of money that has been placed as back bets on a result, and when you lay against it, you 'claim' a portion of that (the stake you specify) if you win, or pay out against it if you lose.

Unmatched/partial matches in Betfair occur when you lay against a bigger stake than has been backed on a result. This is why, In Oddsmatcher, you look at the £ value on the far right of the entries - this tells you how much money in back bets is still available for you to lay against.

Laughsandgiggles · 14/04/2017 11:49

fussed My betfair shows the same thing. Only todays lay bets show in Open bets but if you click on My Bets and change it to last 7 days it shows all unsettled bets.

MaidOfStars · 14/04/2017 11:55

If you use one of the calculators it tells you how much to bet as a lay bet. Its never the same as your back bet (no idea why not)
Worth repeating my previous point.

You don't 'bet' a lay, you accept a bet from someone else. The 'stake' amount is the value of the back bet you are willing to lay against.

In the case of a free bet, we are doing something called 'underlaying' - not laying a high enough stake to cancel out our back bet. We can do this because our back bet is free, so we don't need to cancel out our back bet - we don't lose any in real cash if the back bet loses.

That's why it's always a smaller stake than your back bet. Underlaying is how we are making our money.

MaidOfStars · 14/04/2017 12:00

If the above posts from me are confusing, can I ask you to go and study how laying a bet works and what underlaying is? It's the hardest half of the equation to grasp conceptually, but it's worth spending some time to understand. Once it clicks, you'll get that eureka moment and the whole thing falls into place.

MrsWombat · 14/04/2017 12:00

Betfair is a bit funny with showing bets. Make sure you are on the exchange section if it was an exchange bet and vice versa. It's not all in one place.

GardeningWithDynamite · 14/04/2017 12:46

Can I ask some of the experienced people about Skrill? I haven't completed all the sign up offers yet (and I know some of them exclude skrill, but looking at the website it seems like there's other sign up offers if you do use skrill). Is it worth me getting an account?

I'd also like to do some bingo and casino offers but I'm finding the sites very complicated and confusing looking. I'm used to the bookmaker sites now so is it just a question of getting used to the bingo sites? Are they all similar? Where's a good place to start? I don't want to burn through offers and mess them up.

Cassimin · 14/04/2017 12:55

I'm a bit confused, if it's a football match and you bet for a win and lay for a loose, what happens if it's a draw?

longtermsinglemummy · 14/04/2017 12:59

I'm logged in at betfred but I can't deposit any money, I'm being taken back to the offer welcome screen every time. Is anyone else having this problem?

imnottoofussed · 14/04/2017 13:02

Cassimin you're not betting on a win in one place and a lose in another. You are betting on a win for example at the bookies and laying on a win at betfair which means you are saying you don't think it will win. So at betfair you win if the game is a draw or a lose.

GrimDamnFanjo · 14/04/2017 13:11

I'm £19.50 up but I managed to lose a free bet by not taking it up straightaway! Grr! I thought it was a 24 hour wait! On the plus side I had an unused account which a bookie kindly shut down so I could qualify as a newbie...

GrimDamnFanjo · 14/04/2017 13:12

I've 4 bets to come in tonight and fingers crossed it will give me enough to cover a large liability on Saturday .

Cassimin · 14/04/2017 13:15

Thank you fussed,think I get it now,
Well that bit anyway😀

BeeFarseer · 14/04/2017 13:16

Cassimin, I don't think you've grasped it.

You're not betting a win and betting a lose. As Maid explained it, laying isn't actually placing a bet, it's accepting someone else's bet.

You are betting a win, and laying a NOT win. That isn't the same thing as a lose. A draw isn't a win, is it, because no-one actually wins.

So if you take that scenario, where you've bet a win at the bookmakers and laid it off (a NOT win) at the exchange, and the match is a draw, you'll 'win' at the exchange and that's where the money will end up.

Please, do read up on it because grasping that is the key. Smile

BeeFarseer · 14/04/2017 13:18

Ah, cross posted. Excellent!

I think as soon as you start to think of the lay bet as a NOT version of your back bet, it helps.