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[Spookle]

I had to. I was getting jittery at the thought of no chat support for tonights match

Nope, no reloads - William Hill did one last week for me before I'd even used my first free bets though! Only signed up to 6 bookies right now - am taking it slowly - and done a few mug bets with more planned tonight (Arsenal) and tomorrow (Man U). I haven't done any new ones this week as we're off on holiday in a couple of days and so I didn't think I'd have time to do the follow up free bets if they take a while to come in. It will be all systems go once I'm back!

HeyRoly
For the 133% return...
I placed back and lay at the same time, expecting a small qualifying loss as usual. The odds when I placed were 7.5/7.6.

When horses drop out of races, the others horses' chances of winning improved, so bookmakers/exchanges apply 'Rule 4' to correct to new odds.

My lay odds dropped to 7. This was automatic and my bet slip/liability was adjusted appropriately.

My back odds didn't drop because I'd bet early enough (the night before) to get the WH guaranteed price. Others who bet on the same horse closer to the race may not have got this guarantee and therefore seen their odds drop in accordance with Rule 4.

So my bet ended up at 7.5/7, and won at the bookies, delivering a big % profit instead of a small loss. Effectively, it was an accidental arb.

I've definitely found that a bit of football knowledge has helped as I try to favour my bets so yeh exchange wins. When the season finishes I'll have to move onto horses, golf, tennis etc which I know nothin about at all so feel a bit daunted. At the same time it's fun to keep learning and maybe I'll become a general sports fan, my Dh is still stunned that I love footie these days.

I'm now up by £300 since about the 22 April but that does include £60 Quidco cash back, there's £40 ish pending with top cash to come in at some point.

Apologies for mistake in my previous post. It was a free bet so wasn't expecting a qualifying loss, more the 75-80% return.

Thanks for the explanation

Right ladies, WWYD?
I initially funded betfair exchange with £100, which has gone up to £125 with profits of lay bets. I withdrew my betdred win as they seem rubbish for ongoing offers.
I've done the £50 offer for tonight's Madrid game, but this means that all my exchange funds are now tied up in liability.
Should I:
A)wait for the cash to be freed up again then keep plodding through sign ups, although it'll take ages if I have to place bets one at a time because of no cash at betfair.
B) whack a load more funds onto the exchange and complete as many welcome offers as I can before the football season ends? I do have a couple of hundred that I can use for this if it's a good plan.

My reading on Oddsmonkey is that a common mistake is going out too hard and not having sufficient liability to meet unrealistic expectations

If this is pocket money for you, I'd chill out and let the biggie settle.

If this is necessary income, then invest more in the exchange.

I agree with maids.

I personally would wait, the times where my exchange has been empty I've not added more and just waited until other stuff has settled etc.

I used the time waiting to read up on casino strategy a etc and also to sign up to the no deposit free offers for bingo and casinos.

Fed up to fuck today. Wanted to take up all the offers for today's horses but internet is being a twat and as horses move so quick I'm not risking having internet pack up on me. I know I coukd use use iPad as a back up but multi tabs on touch screens are awful for me. Have placed bets for paddy powers 2up and corals double winnings for tonight's real/alt Madrid match. Internet packed in on both those for good ten mins, if that was horses the race coukd have been over and done with.

Most bookies give free bets each week if you opt in to their club each week, there's hundreds a month in free bets to be gotten and I you are doing mug bets it's worth opting in.

Skybet give £5 free bet if you've bet £25 that week. So coukd get £20 a month.
Coral and William hill have same. So three bookies alone have potential if £60 a month in fee bets.

Am off to docs now, hope Internet is working properly when I get home :)

Sky gubbed me very quickly for taking their offers and also limited my bets to pence. Also these offers come and go, so there may not be a long term future in some of them.
Some of you seem worried about the footbal season coming to a close, that's only in the UK (and only for 3 months) however there's plenty of football elsewhere in the summer, Scandanavia for example.

But I think betting on Scandinavian football would probably draw attention to our activities as it's a bit of an obscure think for UK-residents to bet on.

True gamblers will bet on anything, what appears to draw attention is only doing offers. I've read lot's of stuff on avoiding gubbing and nobody can agree what really works. I've lost accounts easily like sky, and managed to hold on to Bet365 for several years when all I was doing was offers and arbs (I never withdrew though).

Changing the subject, some people on here seem to be using their main bank accounts to fund their booky acounts. I have read on other forums of people being refused loans and mortgages from their banks because of a perceived gambling problem.

I initially used my main bank but after about 5 sign ups switched to an existing unused account with a different bank.

I've bet on some random stuff so far by accident because I wasn't paying close attention, not been gubbed yet touch wood.

Redactio how long have you been matched betting?

Any tips for us newbies?

Spartacus can you walk me through what you did with the Coral double your winnings offer on the Madrid derby tonight?

I'm using my own money not a free bet. Do I need to overlay?

I THINK with double your winnings you're effectively backing at double the odds, so put that into the calculator. Only a newbie though...

Never mind....think I've done it now.

Also going to try and do my in play free bet with bet victor tonight.

Right, I've signed up for OddsMonkey. Is there a tool that shows you which free bets to use, or do you just visit the website of all on the list and make your way through slowly? Are there any t&cs for free bets that I need to look out for?

OM has a "start here" link at the top of the page which has some walk through video training for the first few offers. After that, use the "new account offers" link under Training.

t&cs are usually pointed out in the offer details page - quite often you need to deposit using a card rather than paypal or skrill. If you find your own link to the bookie page, make sure you're getting the same offer because sometimes they have different new account offers running.

Ah bollocks, I just went for the Coral double your winnings offer and treated it like a mug bet. I.e. If I back the right team I double my winnings, if I don't I lose circa 50p.

Is that wrong? I don't understand the first thing about over/underlaying.

Roly if you're wrong then so am I! There is supposedly a way to guarantee profit but I couldn't find clear instructions of how to do it, so I just decided to treat it as a qualifying bet and if I end up winning at Coral then it's a bonus!

If you'd overplayed at the exchange that would have worked.

E.g. Put £10 on at 2:1 so normal winnings £10. Offer would be £20 if you win, but you'd lose £11 or so of that at exchange. But Winning at exchange brings a small loss overall.

Laying say £14 at exchange though means if you win at bookies you'll win £20 and lose £15ish at exchange, so net gain overall, but if you lose at bookies you've lost your £10 stake, but gained £14 at exchange so again overall a profit.

roly and louise I did exactly the same. Seemed quite a muggish thing to be enticed by that offer!

Oh help, I think I've messed up. I've just done a sign up offer with Grovesnor and placed a bet on the 20.55 Chelmsford race this evening. I did the calculations on OddsMonkey but my Betfair account is saying 'bet not matched' - what does this mean?! Am I not doing a matched bet now and could potential lose money if the horse I've bet on doesn't win?

Don't panic about an unmatched bet. It just means there isn't enough money in the pot to match your bet right now, but with an hour to go you should get matched at some point. Just keep checking.