Matched betting - I can't understand it

[Darkandfullofterror]

DH and I both work full time, between household bills, childcare and day to day living costs by the end of every month we are into overdrafts. Saving is a pipe dream. I keep reading and hearing about how easy matched betting is but I can't seem to get my head around it.

Could anyone explain (in very simplistic terms) what the process is? For a complete starter.

Any advice would be appreciated

I have no idea either.

I'm going to lurk here OP because I've been wondering this too....

I recommend looking at the website Team Profit they have some great videos and guides. Team Profit is free and you can also do a free short trial on Oddsmonkey and Profit Accumulator. I am a member of Team Profit and Oddsmonkey and they are both incredibly useful. I started a month ago and am at over £425 profit. I advise starting with the easy offers such as Coral. Watch the videos and read the guides there till you understand. Also Team Profit have a great group on Facebook.

It took me ages to start because I found it confusing but once I started I got the hang of it quickly, currently slowed down as struggling to understand the next stage!

You use “welcome offers” to start....say bet £5, get £20 free bets...

I started with £25, £5 in the bookies and £20 in the exchange, you place your £5 bet for x to win at the bookies, then you place another bet at the exchange for x to lose, so you either win at the bookies or at the exchange, either way you haven’t lost anything. You then get £20 worth of free bets and you repeat the process (betting for and against) and you turn that £20 worth of free bets into say £15 cash.

I’m not sure I’m making sense

I will be watching and reading the guides - - again-- tonight

Countrygirl and relationship - do you use separate bank accounts?

Watch the explainer videos on team profit you'll understand in no time . I use my revolut account (had it already for using abroad) to keep transactions separate from day to day things which I recommend. I know team profit recommend monzo which is basically the same as revolut, you can set both up in minutes as they are app based. Also make a new email address just for matched betting.

Keep watching you tube videos and reading team profit. Is one if those things you hav to have explained to you in several ways before it clicks imo. Take your time, is better to go slow and understand than to rush and make costly mistakes.

What we do is matched betting because we act as both punter and bookie. We match our own bets this way. This means that I act as a punter to place a £10 bet on Team Red to win, and i also act as a bookie accepting that bet; which means that I have to bet on a different website (the exchange) that team red won't win, too. Whether Team Red wins, loses or draws, one of my bets will win, and the other will lose. If I've matched and calculated and done it all properly I'll be down by a few pence.

Normally it makes no sense to do that. But bookies often give away free bets, and that's how I will make a profit.

A typical offer would be to place a £10 bet, get a £5 bet for free. If I was a normal punter I'd risk both the £10 of my money and the £5 free bet. Either one or both will win, or I'll lose my tenner and have nothing to show for it. But if I match the first bet, I'll have only lost a few pence (say 10p). If I then also match the free £5 bet, I'll end up guaranteeing that whatever the outcome of the second bet, I'll end up with around £4.60 profit on it. In total minus that first 10p loss I'm £4.50 better off than I was before, and I haven't risked losing any of my money at any point.

We do that type of special offer to take advantage of bookies free bets, a lot. The are others too but this is the simplest to explain.

Thank you so much - have started setting up a Monzo account and will do the same with a new email. Everything I've read emphasises how easy it is so it's encouraging tone told to take it slowly at the beginning!

• to be

The best thing I did was set up my own excel sheet to calculate profit and loss and check it worked against online calculators.

It really allowed me to see how the profit was being made.

Team profit have a template spreadsheet that is easy to use (they have a YouTube vid explaining how) which I recommend using.