Matched Betting

[orchidsundertrees]

I know there have been numerous threads on this topic, but I have struggled to understand how to go about getting started. The more I read about it the more overwhelmed I become. Spreadsheets, separate bank accounts , odds, blah blah . It may as well be quantum mechanics!
I need the money for a specific reason so I need to get to grips with it all and get started. I am an intelligent person, I just need to persevere.
I would really appreciate some very basic advice. I know about OddsMonkey and other sites. I have watched the videos and understand the basic concept, but then I am lost. I don't want to make mistakes and lose money.
Help!

I don't get how so many of you are tying £300-600+ up? I'm still earlier days than most of you, but I am on day 7, including having lost my debit card and waiting for it to be replaced, £70 of my funds put in to start it up and I'm £50 up. I'm drawing down the £ I need for a new offer when I join one, so e.g. coral bet £5 get £20 I will draw £5 from Betfair or another bookie, not wait the 3-5 days for that to clear (because I have funds in my bank account to cover those few days), credit Coral with £5 and off I go. I'm choosing matches that happen that day/in the next few hours, so when I (hopefully) lose to the exchange those funds are there to support the next deal straight away.

@ChakiraChakra sky accas for me tie a LOT up because of the large liability
Had 16 bets on at one point and over £800 tied up mostly because of 3 sky accas and a WH one

I've done all my sums and I've made £116.30 this week and £318.27 in total (end of week 3). I'm definitely on track! I've withdrawn a good chunk of my own money, leaving some of my own money plus profit made to date still in play across various bookies and exchanges.

I got my sums wrong! I forgot about £15.70 I still had in Moplay so I've made £132 this week and am now sitting at £334 odds profit at the end of day 21.

@ChakiraChakra, I don't know how you can't have lots of your own money tied up initially if you want to make £50-£100 per week! For example, this week I will do some bet clubs, then that's about £150 tied up (to make £10-£15) over bookies & exchange without touching reloads or new sign-up offers! At the moment I'm only betting on football so often I have to wait for the next close odds match that meets offer criteria or that has big odds for a free bet, so that money is tied up for a few days.

Ah, well Jemima I don't proclaim to be making £X per week 😁

I am also trying very hard to look like a mug punter, which seems to involve betting a few hours to few minutes max before a match, where possible. I'm trying to look like I'm a mug interested in horseracing (in the uk) unless it's a premier league football match or sports-specific special offer, and I haven't got as far as accas, golden goal, bet clubs etc. I'm sticking with new account offers and reloads for now.

Ollivander84 you've been doing MB for ages though, right?

Hello,
I've come over to join you from the 'earn £10 a day' thread. I'm a matched betting begginer and so far enjoying it but feel like I'm feeling my way in the dark a bit! I've also had a slip up or two but have managed to right them before any disasters occurred (like placing a bet 3 times because I couldn't find it again on Betfair!).
I'm 6 days in and around £50 in profit. I've only put in £50 in total of money, so like @chakirachakra I'm a bit mystified by the hundreds people have invested in it. I suppose it means you can place higher bets on higher odds if you have more cash for a bigger liability, but would you then not be making much more profit?
I don't have hundreds to put in anyway (and I'm a bit scared, to be honest), so it's not really an issue for me, I'm just curious.

I've only done football so far but looking forward to picking your brains as I progress. Like another poster up thread, I'm interested to find out how long people manage to keep going once the initial free bets dry up.

Thanks jjemima.... I think I have a long way to go yet!!

@GruffalosOldTrousers welcome over! I definitely think there's much to be said for starting a bit slow and steady to get used to it.

When matches resolved last night I have ended up £58.75 up 😁

Today is for doing my tax return, so it's probably a good job there aren't many races in today and I've decided to leave MB until Tuesday. sits on hands

@ChakiraChakra only since December!

Is that all?! I thought you'd been doing it years!! Are you sure it's not been since December 2016 😂

Nope, sorry 🤣 I started and did the sign ups really quickly then did some reloads and then carried on!

Thanks Jemima, that’s interesting, fingers crossed I can keep some money rolling in after the initial offers then!

I've only gone and hit my ovedraft! Bugger! So irresponsible. I need to stop now for a bit. I'm waiting for all of my money to be processed to come out and am going to start again at the weekend. I think I need to go slower. I made the massive mistake of picking great odds but putting them three or four days away so have been waiting for money to come available. The potential is for me to fuck this up so massively as I've stupidly sunk all my money into this without even really thinking it through.

Good job I'm not a real gambler as I'm finding matched betting a little to addictive for my liking!

Oh no Ineedtonamechangenow I hope you don't get charged too much for your overdraft.

Just watched my final open race resolve - the odds had gone up and mine was favourite to win at the bookie with best price guarantee, I was torn between wanting it to win or lose! 😂 He came close second, which is better for my bookie account health. Officially £68.82 in profit 😁

And I know what you mean about finding it addictive. Several times I've thought "aww, just chuck a tenner on that and risk it, it can be my new hobby" 😳😳😳 No, Bad Chakira!! Like I need another expensive hobby 😂

Ok - I think it's finally clicked. Please can someone look at my example below and tell me if I've actually "got" it....

I placed a £10 free bet on Skybet for Wolves to win tomorrow at odds of 2.05. If they win I get £10.50.

I placed a £3 lay bet on Wolves not to win on Betfair odds of 2.18. If they don't win, I get £6.54.

So if they don't win, the sky bet has cost me nothing, so I'm up £3.54 (£6.54 - £3 Betfair bet).

If they do win I have the £10.50 from Skybet - the £3 Betfair bet and - £3.54 liability which means I'm up £3.96.

I know there are better odds and matches to be doing this on, but it was suggested that I go and try it out so it finally clicked?!

Where did you get your calculations from @hartha? I dont think youve layed enough if I've put your figures correctly into the calculator.

Hi jjemima, thanks for replying. I got them from Oddschecker (is there a more user friendly site I can use?). Please can you explain why?

I think you're example will still work, but you haven't maximised your profit. For a £10 FB at 2.0, your returns should be around £5 minus TB losses.

Also (and I understand you are just practising), with a £10 FB, if you have enough in the Exchange, you should be looking for a higher odds back/lay to make your profit more like £7/£7.50 minus TB losses.

*your!!

This is the calculator I use:-

www.teamprofit.com/calculator

Right, I see. In the example you've provided, you haven't deducted the initial lay bet. Whereas I read it to be £10.50 - lay bet - liability = profit (is the lay bet included in the liability?) thanks for this, much appreciated

@hartha

Ok - I think it's finally clicked. Please can someone look at my example below and tell me if I've actually "got" it....

I placed a £10 free bet on Skybet for Wolves to win tomorrow at odds of 2.05. If they win I get £10.50.

I placed a £3 lay bet on Wolves not to win on Betfair odds of 2.18. If they don't win, I get £6.54.

So if they don't win, the sky bet has cost me nothing, so I'm up £3.54 (£6.54 - £3 Betfair bet).

If they do win I have the £10.50 from Skybet - the £3 Betfair bet and - £3.54 liability which means I'm up £3.96.

I know there are better odds and matches to be doing this on, but it was suggested that I go and try it out so it finally clicked?!

Are you on the team profit newbies Facebook group? It's worth joining there, this is exactly the sort of thing to post there :) but I'll do my best here...

Did you lay the same outcome, same match etc? So you have backed wolves to win, and you need to lay against wolves to win - don't get confused as I nearly did and place your lay on the other team winning. So in your betfair it will say something like Wolves to win and underneath that the word lay - see attached where I lay the outcome of both teams to score - I.e. I was saying in betfair that I didn't think that would happen.

If you've done that...

If Wolves win, you'll get £10.50 minus £3.54 = £6.96

If Wolves lose or draw, you're up £6.54 minus nothing (as you used a free bet).

The Betfair stake side took me a bit to get used to. Essentially, your £3 stake doesn't mean anything once you've layed it. You're promising to honour somebody else's bet. So if we look at betfair and ignore sky for a moment, betfair will hold your liability in reserve (in this case, £3.54) until the score is known. When it is, you have either forfeited that £3.54 liability or not forfeited anything and gained £6.54.

At least, that's my understanding of it. Happy to be corrected if somebody else wants to weigh in!

Does that make sense?

You don't need to deduct this, just the liability. Confusing, but the lay bet is what you win at the Exchange if your 'bet against loses.

Clear as mud?!

The calculator hasn't failed me yet!