Matched betting - I'm freaking myself out!

[RedGrapeCornSnake]

I have done the research, read the thread and thought I knew what to expect when I started today.
I opened my Coral and Betfair accounts and did my qualifying bet. Free bets credited to Coral - all going as expected. Then I couldn't find any odds I could easily work with for the free bets (too small or too big) so I moved on to opening Betfred account. This is where my wheels have started to come loose! My lay bet is only partially matched (it's a horse race tonight) have I screwed it up?
I then went back to the odds monkey odds matcher and worked out how to fiddle with the filters to find something to use my free Coral bets on but it says my liability will be over £123 which I don't have to deposit in Betfair anyway - I've already deposited £40 in different places!
Anyone knowledgeable about to hold my hand or point out what I've done wrong please?

What stake did you lay with Betfair? How much is it only partially matched by? If it's a fairly big race and not until this evening, then it's likely it'll be matched by then.

The unmatched bit keeps changing (to my favour which is heartening!) it's currently
Unmatched
Stake - 5.31 liability 8.71
Matched
Stake - 4.81 liability 7.89

The race is in Chelmsford, I don't know if that's big or not. Clearly I should have paid attention to the bit that told me to stay away from the horses to start with

You wont always be able to find very close odds. The point of matched betting exploiting free bets is to find close matches - you'll make a small loss on the "qualifying" bet but make it back on the free bet. If you're stuck on the horse race on Betfair you can tick an option to automatically lay an amount to the current liability when the race starts - it will automatically lay as much as it can without increasing your liability. That way you'll have at least something to lay even though you couldn't get matched at the odds you wanted.

Horse racing odds move a lot. The half an hour just before the race starts is where the bulk of the money is placed so don't panic chances are it will get matched.

If you don't have much in Betfair find lower odds markets like football. Betfair takes an aggregate view of your liabilities so if you have backed say Arsenal to win with bookie A and Arsenal to draw with bookie B you can lay both of those bets off on Betfair and it will work out a net liability.

Finally, if you have three bookie offers to work through at any one time you can "dutch" the bet (bet on all three outcomes of a football match) for a return so no need for Betfair.

Stick at it - I started yonks ago and now make about 500 ish a month from betting (not matched betting - you'll pick some stuff up along the way)

Fingers crossed it'll match, I was wrong earlier when I said the unmatched portion keeps changing, it's the odds which keep changing the cash out amount. I don't understand that either so I'm leaving well alone!
I've gone mad and used up half my coral free bets on another horse race meeting later this afternoon, I made sure that was fully matched though. It's been a steeper learning curve today than I was expecting. I'm hoping that my unmatched liability of £8.71 is as bad as my losses are going to get for today if it doesn't end up getting matched

Well after a bit of fiddling about on Betfair I figured out that the unmatched portion had actually matched about 2 mins after the first bit did, for some reason the page I had open hadn't refreshed even though the odds were refreshing. Lesson learned!
One free bet down and gone as expected - lost the back and won the lay.
One more to go tonight, I'll maybe add another as I've got enough in Betfair to cover another now. Steep learning curve today!

Holte do you mind if I ask how you make your profits? I've done most of the new customer offers and I've ground to a halt. The reload offers are few and far between, and from what I can see accas are pretty complicated with relatively low profits. Am I wrong? Also what kind of float do you have in the exchange? Thanks. Sorry for the hijack op

Hijack away, I'm interested to!

I've been doing this for about 2 weeks now and current profit stands at £320 tonight. I only half know what I'm doing! I know I could be making more than I am (made 15 on a 25 free bet today when could have made more if I had concentrated!)

I don't even understand how to use the oddsmatcher! I just back and lay my own stuff and stick to the horses where I can. I've been able to build it up quickly because I had a decent float to start with and as a reformed occasional gambler for fun I am good at picking losers so the money is in the exchange rather than the bookies.

I know I'm doing it all wrong but it's working

ACCAs can be quite profitable - I've been doing a few over the past few weeks since the football started and the profits (on a lock in sequential ACCA) range from around £4.80 to £11 per ACCA. If I did multiple ACCAs (which many people do), I could easily make £50 per week. However, it's very time consuming if you're laying each leg sequentially across multiple ACCAs. I might dabble a bit more in lay-all at start and no lay ACCAs in due course, once I've made more money.

I still need to work through the wagering introductory offers (e.g. Bet365) which I might start this weekend. Also, there seems to be lots of money to be made on the casino offers too, which I haven't really touched. The OddsMonkey blog has lots of ideas.

ACCA's seem like a whole other world of complicated!
I seem to have quite the talent for backing looser horses so my exchange account is building up nicely!
Just laid a free £10 bet (didn't have enough to cover betting higher so it's a slow start for me!) I stand to make a 9.30 profit from it though so I'm very happy with that, just a shame I couldn't wager the whole free £30!
I'm enjoying the challenge of finding the best matches, I'm in competition with myself!