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?

I followed this thread yesterday and spent ages wandering how you made money if it always came out even, took me ages to work out that after the Qualifying bet you get FREE bets

MaidOfStars How did you solve your problem of the odds not matching? Because that is what worrys me.

Still confused.

Am going to rewatch the videos/ tutorials on the laptop later when the children are in bed though.

I kinda get it - but I still don't see how I will make a profit as I have to pay for my own losses if bets that I put on with free bets I still have to pay to cover liability in betfair .

This is what I can't get my head around.

Or do you only really gain a matter of pence per bet? Dependant upon the odds?

I still have a face

How much would I need to put in credit in betfair and coral to get me started .

I might actually have a go to see if it "clicks"

But even if you have free bets with say Coral you still have to pay to cover losses with betfair?

Baby This is how I think it works I may be wrong

At Betfair --- Put on a £10 bet from you're money. You lose this money so you are down £10
At Coral---Use £10 of a FREE bet, you win and because of the odds you WIN £20

So you are minus £10 at Betfair but plus £20 at Coral (as you had a free bet) so you are £10 in profit!

Is that correct?

Stage 1: Your £5 bet with coral will win you £7.50. Your lay bet with betfair will lose you £7.50 (£5 stake plus £2.50 liability) So you will have lost or won nothing.

Stage 2: Coral now give you a £5 free bet. You do the same. However now your £7.50 winnings are now profit and yours to keep.

You will probably lose or gain a few pence in both stages as the bets won't be matched exactly which will come out of your £7.50 profit.

Think I've explained that correctly. (Blind leading the blind!)

As far as I can work out the idea is to win back as much of the free bet as possible, aiming for 75-80% of the free bet back. So, you might only be winning a small amount on those free bets, but they're not costing you anything so you're up.

The thing for me is covering the liability on BetFair. Checked my online banking this morning, I seem to have a number of betfair transactions on it to cover my liability. If I was starting again I'd put a single transaction o £150-200 quid in Betfair rather than looking to my bank like a mug punter chasing my losses!

But even if you have free bets with say Coral you still have to pay to cover losses with betfair?
Yes. But if you paying out at Betfair, you must have won at Coral. Any your liability at Betfair is lower than your Coral win - the max value between the two is 100% of the value of your free bet, but really we are looking at more like 80%.

See the photo, my last free bet.

Is there really really no catch to this?

It sounds awfully like those "earn ,20k from home!" scams.

Hello everyone I'm really interested in starting this as well.

Is everyone doing it from their current accounts or have you opened a new account - if so which one?

I think I'd like to have a separate account so I know exactly where I am with everything but doesn't it look dodgy having a betting bank account?

I have another question! I have placed a lay bet of £14.81 with a liability of £44.91.
My current balance in my betfair account is £14.63. Has my liability fee already "come off my account therefor I have £14.63 to do another lay bet?
I have a few transactions on my bank account that I can't work out what money went where!

It sounds awfully like those "earn ,20k from home!" scams.

It's not. If you search for me, it won't be too hard to find out that 1. I've got a PhD 2. I'm an academic scientist 3. I work at an RG university 4. I have a hatred of all scams on the vulnerable. Not that this will convince you if you think it's all a bluff

The maths works. I will post the data set from my first pair of bets when the second finishes (tomorrow).

My current balance in my betfair account is £14.63. Has my liability fee already "come off my account therefor I have £14.63 to do another lay bet?
Yes. You have to have enough money to cover you're liability before you can place a lay bet - I guess it's taken out as insurance if you lose at the exchange. It will all be returned should you win at the exchange.

Ok thanks maid
Did you sign up to premium accounts of profit accumulator or odds monkey then?

Choconuts
I'm just using my current account at the moment, while I build up some funds. I have so far used £110 of my own money (£5 and £10 back bets, and the rest piled into Betfair to cover liabilities).I'm going to see how I go, and possibly open a new account if it becomes necessary. However, I am using a superduper spreadsheet that has taken me half a day to learn even the most basic parts of, but has thus far accurately mapped all the money going between places (including my bank account).

My understanding is that banks don't really care about small stake gambling. £50 here and there isn't a problem if you've got plenty cash to cover it.

MaidofStars I "recognise" you, so I do trust your judgement - it's just that it's been so drilled in to me that if something is so good to be true it probably is....

What happens if you are "gubbed" by a bookmaker?

• do they return any money that is yours
• do you have to sign up again with a new email address / username or are you forever dead to them and have tomwork using an ever decreasing pool of bookmakers?

Is there any downside to starting small other than you can't turn over bets quickly?

Is it really definitely absolutely legal? (And is it against bookmakers TS and C's?)

MaidOfStars I'd be interested to know if your spreadsheet makes sense of it all! I've downloaded a spreadsheet (although I can't now remember where from as I seem to have a million tabs open and information coming out of my ears) which I'm hoping to get the hang of. It's keeping tabs on where the cash is which is a pain.

I'm just using my current account at the moment (although my currently online banking looks a bit of a mess at the moment!) Attempted to open another account but they want to ID me in branch. I suspect it's because I'm self employed.

Hmm right I'm not sure what to do. I haven't signed up to any of the premium accounts so I only have limited access to the odds matcher tool. I stupidly put bets on games that happen in a few days time and now I've run out of the free advice I don't know what to do :/

Sorry i haven't had time to read the whole thread... I did do this for about 6 months last year, I found:

• you need to have a spreadsheet to keep track
• if does tie up money (especially deals where there's a rollover requirement before you can withdraw)
• best to only bet on events on the day or next day
• i couldn't always maximise offers eg. In play offers on football games because the good matching odds weren't there
• it was quite a lot of time & effort for not that much money!
• it's fairly easy to make mistakes and you could lose large sums
• people on the Mse threads were saying there weren't the good offers there used to be
• I just used advice threads on money saving expert and don't think you need to sign up to any service that helps you (and eats into small profit)
• I started on football matches then moved a bit into horse festivals
• quite fun if you have the time, I enjoyed the buzz of hoping I hadn't made a mistake!
• I did make a mistake once by. Betting on the same outcome twice instead of opposing outcomes but was massively lucky that it went in my favour so I made more money than expected (£500), I could have lost loads.

Right .

I have placed my qualifying bet -£5 to Coral

Then £5 to betfair .

Then have £20 worth of free bets with Coral

Have put another £100 on betfair to cover liability.

So far I am £110 down .

So in theory I should win over £110 when my horses /footballers win or loose tomorrow or whatever that I have betted.

Is that right?

Yes that's right

I just tried the bingo thing. Looked for bingo cahsback through too cahsback. Selected ladbrokes which was £31.50 cahsback if I was a new customer who spent £10. So did that already £21.50 up. I chose roulette and picked the last 18 numbers on the board..won a tenner. £31.50 up yeeha!

Yes, as far as I can tell, that's right. You win back what you've paid in plus a percentage of your free bet. That's where the profit comes in.

I can't yet see how people are making ££££ at this with such small returns on each bet - esp as I'm now going to have to wait for a few days for my bets to come through and fill my exchange coffers again. However I suppose that's why the idea is to have a decent bank in the exchange.

Is that not just plain betting though Whisky??

That's what I mean- I can't see how people make money from this when you are having to put so much in to get pence out!