MN Matched Betting Society - all welcome!

[titchy]

New thread!

Worth trying coral with a different browser.
If it's verification then you should have a verification email in your inbox and it should just be a case of clicking the standard verification link, to fix it.

I know a few bookies won't let you withdraw without certain verification documents, but ime, I don't know of any that don't let you spend your own money and it would be made clear that that's why you can't spend any and they'd tell you how to fix it as they'll want you spending your money on their site.

Thanks, will try on my iPad. No messages to request ID for verification....how many of them actually request ID?

Louise I'm planning to join Ladbrokes too. Had left it for a while so I had enough in the exchange to really make the most of the free bet but they have so many offers I don't want to leave it any longer! Can't decide what to use those first two bets on though. I like to do the first two on the same sport as I fear it might look suspicious to do low odds football, higher odds horse for example, but can't find much in the way of football after today that has a good match. So maybe will do both on horses if I can find a good qualifying bet...

I'm so confused (first timer). Followed the instructions and put a bet on Betfred and a lay bet on the exchange on Betfair. On betfred it said I won (£10) but on Betfair I can see no record of placing any money there and the money I deposited is still in my account. Confusing! The free bet hasn't appeared either.

Look under account and bets and change it to exchange in the drop down as it might be showing sports book. You can view any current or past exchange bets placed on betfair there. You might have to change the date section as well if looking at current as it only shows bets layed that day

I'm also confused. The penny hasn't dropped yet how this works! I did the first bet with my Coral free £20 @ 5% on dog racing (from Oddsmonkey). Potential if the old mutual wins is £90. Then lay bet on Betfair at 5.7%. But my liability is £74! Had to top up the Betfair deposit. And I am thinking, you are supposed to only need a small sum to get going on this! Yet the Oddsmonkey tutorial tells you to look for odds of 5% to actually make something. Do other people look for those odds?

Old mut not old mutual. Damn phone.

I did follow the calculations of the oddsmatcher illustration.

The 5% you're looking for is the difference between the back odds and the lay odds - in the rating column on the oddsmatcher.

The odds are NOT a percentage themselves. When you lay a bet at Betfair then you lose your liability which is the lay stake x decimal odds minus stake. So in your case (20 x 5.7) - 20.

If you'd gone for much lower odds, say 2.0, your liability would have been much lower so you could have started with a smaller amount of money.

Be careful when betting on dogs by the way - the odds change very quickly and there's no money until a couple of minutes before the race starts.

Oh thank you for the information! I hadn't realised that dog racing was more risky. Are there any other ones to avoid? Generally speaking do you stick to 1.5 to 3% odds?

Odds aren't percentages!!!!!

I use a range of odds, but I don't usually go beyond 10.0 as that ties up too much of my exchange money.

You should use your free bet on an event with longer odds in order to maximise the cash you get from it. Play around with the calculator to see - £20 on back odds of 2.0 and lay odds of 2.2 makes you £9, whereas back odds of 8 and lay odds of 8.8, so same percentage rating, makes you £15.

I generally stick to horses tennis and football.

thank you.

@goandaskdaddy

You'll be asked for idea by several bookies over time. I've been doing this since 23rd April and have had to send documents into about five bookies now. There doesn't seem to be any formula to it, you may go months without being asked, or you could be asked straight away.

I was asked to send my documents into sunbets before I'd even places a bet, other people don't get asked for months, if at all.

The times I've been asked for I'd they want driving license or passport. A photo of front of debit card used to deposit. A recent untility bull or bank statement with address on. It's worth gathering them together and saving in folder your device so that you everything to hand when you do get asked.

If you are still unable to place bets today and you've tried a different browser then I'd recommend contacting them.

@aloealoe

You will still make profits if you use free bets on odds lower than 5, odds of five and above are recommended to gain the maximum profits from free bets, as you've realised though, the higher the odds, the higher the liquidity for the matching lay bet. It can slow you down when starting as if you have a small float you and your bet wins at the bookie, you have to wait until withdrawal is cleared into your bank account to be able to put back into exchange for the next offer.

When I started I had £60. I chose smaller odds for free bets and often still do even though my pot is £700ish now because I try to keep my qualifying bets and free bets at similar odds as I've read that consistently betting on minimum odds with real money and then jumping up to high odds with free bets is behaviour if matched bettor. No idea how much truth is in it though.

@aloe, If you go with tennis, I've read often that you need to make sure the retirement policy is the same at the bookie and exchange. If they are different and a tennis player retires you could lose money.

Made my first bets and fuck me it's stressful 😱

Coral offered me £50 free bet on a £50 bet, so I had to start quite a bit higher than I intended. Then my free bet appeared and I bet that too at 5 as oddsmonkey advise, but I had to put £170 quid in betfair for the liability. In the process my bloody card got blocked by the bank for suspicious activity and I had quite a panic before I realised why and got it unblocked.

After all that I should be up £35, but none of my bets have finished yet so right now my bank is down £270!

I need a lie down in a dark room. But first I need to put everything in a spreadsheet so I can keep track- and I've never used a spreadsheet

Lemonade The teamprofit spread sheet was easy enough for me and I hate spreadsheets. It does get easier, stick with it!

for you Lemonade! Same here!

Thanks Aloe and Five I am a little calmer today. I am using the TeamProfit spreadsheet and coping with it ok, although it's a bugger to scroll down.

I had a mini wobble last night though. Was feeling confident so bet on a horse to trigger a free bet. All was ok until I started laying at Betfair, and the bet said it was 'partially matched'. I panicked as none of the tutorials had mentioned this and I cancelled the unmatched ones. I then worked out what it meant and then had to back the same horse at an amount that cancelled out the partial match that had gone through, then lay it again against the original back. Ye Gods. Even though it was only small amounts I was playing with I think I gave myself several ulcers and a mini-stroke.

I've exhausted my free guides on OddsMonkey today and I'm considering taking out the subscription - what do others think?

Good lord. I think this will be the death of me.

Got a trial with yesbets. Followed their links to place £10 trigger bet, bookies was playing up so used live chat. Eventually worked and placed bet. Went to betfair and laid corresponding and it's unmatched!

What do I do? It's for a race today. It's asking if I want to cancel unmatched, keep or take sp. WTH. What happens if it remains unmatched? Where did I go wrong?

FGS ignore that, it's showing as matched now. But in future should I be laying first?

No don't lay first! Always lay afterwards. Often things aren't matched straight away - horses particularly don't tend to have that much liquidity in the market until an hour or so before the race, so don't worry. Very obscure sports however, may not ever have enough liquidity for your bet to be matched which is one of the reasons it's better to stick to more popular events, football, tennis, horses.

Don't lay first. I've had a few partial unmatched lay bets and they always seem to come right in the end. If you are a member of Oddsmonkey premium you can ask on there and someone will sort you out.
The p[premium oddsmonkey membership is worth its weight in gold, I wouldn't dream of doing it by myself!

It's quite common for a bet to show as unmatched especially if a) the lay stake you're setting is quite high and b) there are hours to go until the event.

I've never had a bet stay unmatched, so it's worth just waiting it out. The only problem would be if you were betting on a very obscure event (not a wise choice anyway, because it might flag you to the bookies as a matched bettor) because there won't be as much money in the proverbial pot to match your bet in the first place. But if you stick to high profile events/UK horse racing etc you should be fine.

Thank you all for your advice

Out of interest, why should you place bet first and lay second?

I think I am going to upgrade my oddsmonkey subscription. I don't like youbet anymore, it led me to the Ladbrokes £30 free bet new customer offer when I could have done a £50 instead

Back first because your lay bet "risks" more money if you then can't place the back bet for some reason (bookie suddenly changes odds, you find your bet can't be done on that market, you can't find the think you're supposed to be backing ).

Remember on the bookie side, even if you're making a £50 bet with your own money, the most you can lose is that £50. If you're doing the corresponding lay for a £50 bet then you might need £100 or £200 depending on the odds to cover someone's £50 bet.

I always have both windows up (plus calculator). Type the numbers in to the bookie and exchange windows (and check again that they match what you're supposed to be doing). Click the bookie one to make the bet and then switch to the exchange and click that one.