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?

For those worried about whether it affects benefits, I'm adding my voice to the ABSOLUTELY NOT brigade. I got a friend who works in tax credits to ask specifically whether matched betting counts as income. There was a bit of 'Eh, what's that?' confusion, and the definitive answer was 'Nope, definitely not classed as anything you need to tell us about, oh, and half the office have signed up to Profit Accumulator now.'

That's good to know, thanks Bee. I suppose it would only be an issue if you saved your winnings to above the savings threshold - if you spend them it won't be a problem!

Question for you experienced lot!

I've just done my qualifying bet with Betfred, in order to get the free £30 bet. It won at the bookies, with a stake of £10 and a return of £20. Yet my laybet is only showing the loss as £10.25 which was my liability. I would have thought that this would have included the £10 stake too? How can I have made money on a qualifying bet??

So £10 stake at Betfred resulting in a £20 return.

My lay bet with Betfair is showing as a loss of £10.35.

I've joined Betfair and Coral but can't see an offer at Coral saying 'bet £5, get a £X free bet'

Can other people see this offer?

User, it was right on the front page when I joined this morning.

That's right, Kosmo.

You need to remember that you don't actually ever make money with your qualifying bet. That just does what it says on the tin - it qualifies you to receive the free bet, which is where you make the money.

You've staked £10. You've won £20, minus the loss of £10.35 in Betfair. So your overall position is £9.65 - you've spent 35p to unlock the £30 bet.

You use your £30 free bet at the bookies and lay off again in Betfair. I've used the free Oddsmonkey calculator to show you what happens, assuming you bet on odds of 5.0 at the bookies and lay at 5.0 too at Betfair (and it's taken into account the 5% commission you pay at Betfair). Follow whatever calculator or matching service you're using because it will find you the bet you need to make and the best odds.

So in my example you bet that £30. You lay £24.24. You need to have a float of £96.96 to cover your liability in Betfair, plus your lay bet of £24.24. This is in case you lose in Betfair and win at the bookies - that float amount will be won back.

From that example, you will get a profit of £23.03. Your actual profit is £23.03 minus the 35p you spent unlocking the free £30 bet.

It seems so complicated when you're starting off but once you've done a few yourself, you'll have your 'Aha! That's how it works!' moment.

You can see why you need a decent float though, from what I've just written. It's what's stopping me getting back into it. I don't have the patience to go slowly!

Kosmo were the odds 2 at Betfred?

If so, you placed a £10 bet at Betfred at odds of 2 which returned £20 inc. your original stake so you gained £10

The lay bet at betfair lost which meant you lost the liability of £10.35 which includes 5% commission

Betfred + £10
Betfair - £10.35

= qualifying loss of 35p

So from your original money you have £9.65 but £30 in free bets to come which will more than cover the 35p loss

Cross posts with Bee :) but yes, it took me ages for the first few bets trying to get my head round the maths, It's surprising how quickly it does become second nature though

Thank you Danger and Bee!

I understand it!! I had forgotten to take into account that I had already spent my £10 stake money...so I wasn't £10 up, instead 35p down.

Thank you

I did a free trial with Odds Monkey - it got better reviews than Profit Accumulator (and if/when you end your trial it's only £15 a month) I made around £600 in a few weeks over Xmas - easy money! I need to train myself with the accas next as that's where the big money is! Good thing about Odds Monkey is that there's lots of tutorials but if you're still stuck you can book a 1-1 session, which I think I'm gonna have to do with the accas!

I think I've done it wrong , can anyone help ....,.
I'm soooo confused I might give up
Right - Stan James , bet £10 and winnings including stake are £18 however I've got a liability loss of £16.47?

Is that your free bet or your qualifying bet?

Qualifying bet monkey

You did okay on that one then!
You won £18.
You lost £16.47

So you are already + £1.53

Now you will qualify for a free bet.
So use the other calculator to find out what your back and lay bets need to be on the free bet.

And you'll convert the free bet value into winnings.

Thanks monkey
Sorry everyone I seem to be taking over the thread but appreciate everyone's help and patience

Does anyone know if you have to have a U.K. Bank account to join oddsmonkey etc?

Right so:
Oddsmonkey or Profit accumulator?

Is it worth doing both or are they much of a muchness?

Had a look at Iddsmonkey last night and very much liked the nice clear tutorials!

You do not need both. I would recommend Oddsmonkey, I have found them ace. Great community and the admin staff are massively helpful

No point in both, all they do is give you instructions as to which bookies are running which offers. You can't gain anything by doing both.

I prefer PA, but as everything, people will always have personal opinion.

I did this last year and made approx. £700 from the sign-up offers and some Quidco referral links. I didn't bother paying a subscription to Profit Accumulator etc as I went via Save the Student - all the information on the sign-up offers is there, set out really clearly. The site owner earns money from the click-through links, which is fair enough. I kept a spreadsheet to keep track of it all and used a separate bank account.

It is fairly straightforward once you understand it. I stopped when the sign-up offers dried up and only the more complicated offers were available eg. the ones requiring larger amounts of money to be rolled-through, or in-play bets which require you to be there in real time during the game. However, I could go back to it if needed. I never got on to doing accumulator bets, so I would probably sign up to PA if I wanted to do that.

The disadvantages are that it can feel a tiny bit seedy, iykwim. Football betting was fine as I couldn't care less which team wins, but I could feel the addictive nature of some of the casino type games (some of the offers are for free money to use on this type of game) and how they could suck people in to lose quite a lot.

Hello, can I join you? I think it was my thread where this was mentioned.
I've done my first two bets and have just signed up to Betfred.
I think someone mentioned bingo offers as well, can anyone explain how they work?

Fingers crossed we all make some money!

OK, am starting to organise myself.

I have a new email and have joined Quidco with this email. I have found the Betfair sportsbook offer - £20 cashback if I deposit and bet £10. Not being a user of either Quidco or Betfair previously:

I click to purchase the offer in Quidco, which I presume will redirect me to Betfair? Sign up there and stick in at least £10 (but adding more will allow me to lay my free bet at long odds)?

This will give me an active Betfair account and £20 will appear in my Quidco account?