Matched betting?! Tell me more...

[ExpatMrs]

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?

Thanks for explaining about each way bets - not making that mistake again! Luckily it came nowhere, so £18.25 so far. Just waiting for my free £30 from BetFred.....

£18.25 UP so far

maid Are the red go go go results only for doing the qualifying bet and to be ignored for the free bet?

I made a couple of cock-ups yesterday by putting the lay bet at the same amount as the back bet. Goodness knows how as I was using the calculator but clearly not concentrating enough on what I was doing. Luckily one of the games went the right way so I won some money and if Man U v Chelsea tomorrow goes the wrong way I'll be down by 62p. So I can take the hit and learn the lesson.

I'm now trying to remember the matched part is about matching the two possible outcomes not matching the back and lay amounts.

Luckily that's why I started out with £20 and doing £5 bets. I'm not a maths whizzkid and I knew I'd make mistakes starting out.

I've also got the Ultimatcher spreadsheet and logged my first 6 bets into it. And my £20 is now £40! Not bad for a slow start and some errors made.

I dont understand how you can make a profit from a qualifying bet unless you find a big arb lay? (is that the correct terminology) How often do you get the option to do that? Obviously you can win on the freebets using similar back/lay odds due to the free bet part (if you were actually paying the bet then it would make a profit, like in the qualifying stage)

I don't think you are supposed to make the profit from the qualifying bet laugh. From the tutorial on profit accumulator you expect to lose a minimal amount (20 to 50p). It's the free bets you make the profit on

Whisky I get that bit but PPs have been asking why you don't try to get profit from qualifying bet when you can get profit from a free bet. It's been discussed that it is possible but I don't really understand how? Or more like I don't understand how it could be possible very often? Is that the point though that it is possible if you study the odds but doing it too often will draw attention to you and so it is not a good idea?

I've just started doing this but picked it up quickly and haven't made any mistakes yet. I've made a decent profit so far on 4 deals. I'm happy doing it the way the tutorial says but would like to understand all the different options.

Ah i see. Yes, not too sure. Im the same as you, just started and no mistakes blet. However, I was just thinking there that even though you make money on the freezer, you still lose the £5 (or whatever value) you initially placed to get the free bet. So say for the coral one I was £14.80 UP however should I take if the £5 I initially placed from it? So really £9.80 up?

Well I've got to the stage where I need £350 in the exchange to lay the bets I need or do some really wacky maths, so I'm going to hold fire until the kids are back in school and I can transfer some money around. My head hurts!

Oh that's good wombat. I'm only at the stage of needing £100 so a fair bit to go. I need a better laptop! Mine is on its way out and doesnt have excel :(

I'm going to have an admin break. Set up a new current account, got to send some ID to one of the bookies, look at the MSE spreadsheet, and spend time time with the kids!

Whisky - yes you really need to think about how much you have put into both the bookies and betfair. So far I have put £40 into bookies and £65 into betfair. I currently have £117 in betfair, have withdrawn £20from bookies and have around £50 pending on bets not settled. So £105 put in and £187 either still in or withdrawn. So I'm £82 up (on phone so can't get exact figures)

Question for those who have been doing this for ages:

Once I'm up and running and ticking over, what's the most ill need in my Betfair account?

Wondering whether to borrow some money off DH so I can get through the intro bets a bit quicker, then pay him back when I've built up enough liability of my own.

Ok thanks laugh. I need to write my outgoings down better! At the moment I have spent £125 but have withdrawn £38 and I have £104 tied up on a lay bet in betfair. Awaiting £50 of free bets to be allocated to my account before I can use themy. I'll also need to wait until Monday evening before I can place any more as that's when the £104 (or above) will come in. I guess I could put more money in to betfair but don't really want to do that.

I have about £1K in my Smarkets exchange at any time. Another £1K plus in Skrill which I put in and out of bookies.

HappyAxolotl If you are doing your laybets at Smarkets they auto fill the lay bet at £10 so that might be where you are going wrong!

Heavenly - would it be really rude of me to ask how much you make at this?
Please feel comfortable not replying but I suspect I won't make as much st this as some do, so will prob need less in my exchange account!

Laughs you don't make money from the qualifying bet.
The aim is to lose as little as possible - my losses so far have been between 10 and and 50p.
When you've done the qualifying bet you then get access to the free bet which is where you make the money.

Red Go Go Go

The Oddsmatcher calculator flags these bet matches when the odds at the bookie are longer than the odds at the lay exchange.

This situation means that you will always be able to make a profit. The margin is very low (because the odds are not usually far apart) but if you have a big wedge of money, you can create £££. Deliberately exploiting these quirks in the bookie/lay odds is called 'arbing'. If you arb a lot, with big money, the bookies will zap you. Nonetheless, some people use only arbing to make their matched betting profits.

The chance to arb appears in highly mobile markets with constantly changing odds, where the bookies fail to adjust theirs quickly enough to stay shorter than the lay odds. Horse racing is the most obvious opportunity. And these red flagged matches don't stay favourable for long - bookies will see a flurry of bets on an event and know something is happening. The odds are often only favourable for a few minutes, if that.

As far as I can read, Oddsmatcher only returns 'reasonable arbs' - ones that aren't going to infuriate a bookie too much if they see they've mistakenly gone too long with their odds. We are talking about differences in odds of, say, 5 v 4.9, so you might make 30p or so, instead of losing that 30p. Professional arbers look for greater differences, but risk the bookies pulling the bet because, they argue, it's obvious to the punter that there's an error they are trying to exploit.

There is no reason not to take red matches on either qualifying or free bet. You'll make slightly more profit than normal. But you'll have to be quick to get your betting slips loaded.

I'm up by around £49 - I made a few early mistakes around missing the precise lay amounts and laying £10 but overall I'm obviously pleased and getting the hang of it.

Great thanks maid for the explanation. Seems you are quite the pro!

Anyone fancy taking this to FB? I feel like the ability to pin posts, upload documents and talk directly might be useful?

Not I. I value my anonymity

Would be useful though. If there was a bunch of us how could we know who was who?

I'm now waiting for some of my results to come in, and hoping that I lose at the Bookies so I have enough in the exchange to place my last free bet...