Is matched betting still worth it?

[topaz653]

Needing some extra cash, is matched betting worth it still?

I looked into it a while ago but it seemed like a lot of studying and monitoring things for not much financial return, I also started doing user testing but ultimately I just couldn't be bothered with it 😕

I don't think so, no.

I made £27k with it years ago, but the bookies have wised up to it now. You can probably still make a few grand, but it'd take a lot longer, and it's a lot more effort. It used to be quite speedy.

That said, it's money for time... and most things are going to be lower paid for that trade-off, now. As soon as something is "mainstream" enough, it stops working as well. It'll also depend a bit on how long it takes you to do it. You do need to be careful and focus, or you risk losing money, and you need to be mindful that some people will find it difficult to place bets constantly and never "gamble", or not to chase losses if you take a risk or make a mistake.

It probably depends how much you value your time.

I did it over the last couple years and made a few grand but it was work. I think @YouveGotAFastCar has hit the nail on the head. The bookies have wised up to it and the goverment have clamped down on gambling in general so it's not as easy as it used to be. I have all but abandoned it but still do the odd interesting promo if it comes in.

I know someone who does it and has started making enough to give up work.

But he was in a low paid job (so not giving up a high salary) and is treating this seriously.
He's a young, single man who lives at home and doesn't have huge outgoings. He puts in a lot of hours and it's his job.

Tbh, I didn't really understand it when he was explaining it to me but came away with the strong impression that it's not something you can do in a half hearted way to make a guaranteed bit of extra money.

I don't think so. I made about 90k over 3 years including the massively lucrative 2018 World Cup

The offers are very poor comparatively and I'm not sure most of the sure fire offers like 2up are around anymore

It's too much work now for a small return

Thanks all, I was hoping to make about £3000 if possible I'm already selling things

You'd probably be able to make 1-1.5k with not too much effort but it isn't sustainable now

I've been MB since 2018 and I remember back then people telling me it wasn't worth it as it wasn't as good as the old days.
It is true that it does get worse over time, for example Bet365 was £100 free now it's less than half that.
BUT I would say it's easy tax free money from home.
Although I don't make the big money of when I first started there's still offers and new bookies so it's good for a little boost.
I'd give it go and see how you get on, even if you make a few hundred it's more than £0.

Thank you, might give it a go then but don't expect much

He's a young, single man who lives at home and doesn't have huge outgoings. He puts in a lot of hours and it's his job
In other words it's a job for people who dont have adult responsibilities, surely?

I did it on mat leave 3 years ago and made £3k in a year. I prob spent an hour a day on average doing it. I mostly stopped when I went back to work but by then I’d had most of my accounts restricted anyway and was making much less. The profits dry up the longer you do it for but you can make money initially.

I made £8k just doing casino offers in a year. Not match betting so much. I quite enjoyed it until I got gubbed by them all.

Maybe. I didn't ask how much he was making and how much he thought he would make when he started doing it full time - that seemed a bit too nosy.

It's not something I would risk but I'm not much of a gambler. I wouldn't want to make my living by gambling on stocks and shares either.

I like the security of a regular, predictable income.

@cariadlet the fact that you are talking about risk and gambling tells me that you know absolutely nothing about the process of match betting! Im not going to try and explain in mathematical terms why match betting is not gambling. However just think for one moment why the bookies ban match betters. If they were gambling then they wouldn't be banned by the bookies!

I haven't pretended to understand it. The lad I know who does it did try to explain it but it went over my head, partly because I lacked the frame of reference to make sense of it.

It's definitely not gambling, quite the opposite! I made about 7k a few years back
Re started this year in Feb and have made about £500. It's not as good as it used to be sadly. But if you have some spare time you can still make a bit.

I don’t think it’s sustainable long term, I’ve been restricted by most of the major bookies. I made nearly 6k the past year which I’m happy with, averaging about £500 a month so I think it’s still doable, but you do need a decent float to put bets on. I’m still making small amounts of money here and there with it, enough to cover a subscription to Oddsmonkey which has the tools and offers on it.

There's a saying in our house, "When the fun starts, we stop"

Bookies give it all the gamble responsibility bollox, but as soon as you win, they'll gub you or stake restrict you. So it's better if the lay bet wins at the exchange, it'll buy you more time but they'll gub you in the end. Or they play silly buggers and do their KYC checks when you try to withdraw cash.

So you'll race to a quick £1k profit and think this is great, then you'll struggle to make £150 a month, the reload offers aren't great tbh. Cheltenham week was good, but then the bookies sites conveniently freeze up and crash.

I did it about four years back. I just read the theory and did my own excel sheet. That took me about four hours. From then on it was about 30 mins a day for about 8 weeks. By then I'd made about £1500 and was getting gubbed so just bailed out with my profit.

@cariadlet It isn't gambling as you bet on both outcomes.

I've been doing it a few months. I quite enjoy it and find it pretty easy, just using a spreadsheet to keep track of what I've bet on but I can't see how you could make thousands a year at it unless you have multiple accounts, which would involve using other people's addresses, DOB etc. Unless I've missed something.

Because the offers used to be amazingly lucrative. I made 14k on one match in the 2018 World Cup (I was then the placing very high stakes on 2up matches)

Outplayed

Is this legit does anyone know?

Yes it’s legit, I’m on my third year of subscribing. It’s worth reading up on the current benefits of outplayed vs odds monkey because they’ve both brought out new tools since I started, but I’m on a v good legacy offer I’d lose if I switched so haven’t bothered doing much research.

I got bored of the sports betting quite quickly, but do casino offers daily because they’re easy to do on my phone and so I spend a few minutes while I’m sitting in the DC’s room doing bedtime at night. Not making megabucks, but comfortably covers the subscription plus on average 50-100 each month even though I’ve been gubbed basically everywhere. The big value in the subscription for casino offers rather than just picking up the offers that come via email is that occasionally a random bookie will have an intern that cocks up an offer so, for example, rather than having to wager £20 and get 20 x 10p free spins (value approx £1.50), you’ll be able to load a different slot and get 20 x £1 free spins (value approx £19.50). These glitches are picked up and flagged by outplayed so you can take advantage before the bookies realise and the offer gets pulled.

I found the easy wins have dried up, so I only bother now and then when a solid offer pops up. I’ve also been looking into casinos not on Gamestop, just to compare how people make side cash, though I stick to things with low risk. For me, matched betting still works but nowhere near the old pocket‑money days.