Can someone explain matched betting simply to me?

[jobelly]

I was reading a thread about saving money on the general chat and someone mentioned matched betting. I’ve had a read of (some) of the massive thread and really don’t make sense of it so wondered if someone could explain it.
I just can’t get my head around it and yet was always good at maths. My father in law used to do a bit of horse betting and I asked him and he said it’s a pyramid scheme and not to touch it but that doesn’t follow with what I read on the thread.
Can anyone give me more of an idea and is it really a money maker or are there big risks?

[boo2]

I have also had a read through some of the match betting thread and couldn’t work it out. I probably need to spend more time looking at it.

[Anne]

I'd suggested a beginners guide thread, as like you thought that long thread was too complicated, but was poo pooed by some posters.

Oddsmonkey.com is one site to look at.

[MrsEgg]

I would suggest looking at Profit accumulator videos and seeing if that helps.

[Bozza]

In Matched Betting you use bookie promotional offers against them to earn guaranteed profits. It is NOT betting or gambling in the conventional sense as you should never be risking more than a very small amount of money on each transaction you perform.

Pivotal to the process is the use of betting exchanges. The most well known one, and the one you have probably heard of, is Betfair. You use a betting exchange to bet on the opposite of what you have bet on with the bookie, thereby removing your risk from a particular outcome occurring in the expectation or hope of triggering an offer that you can convert to cash and withdraw to your bank account.

The first offers a new Matched Bettor will be involved with are New Customer Offers (NCOs) where bookies will tempt new punters with offers like "Bet £10 and get a £30 free bet".

What you do, at a high level, is the following:

1. Open the bookie account, and deposit £10.
2. Open an exchange (eg Betfair) account and deposit £100.
3. At the bookie, bet £10 on, say Manchester United to win.
4. At the exchange, bet on Manchester United NOT to win, known as "laying" using the stake prescribed to you by a Matched Betting calculator.

Wait for the match to be played. Due to the way Matched Betting works, you will probably lose something like 30-40p whatever the outcome of the match.

5. Received a £30 free bet from the bookie.
6. At the bookie, bet the £30 free bet on, say Huddersfield to win.
7. At the exchange, lay Huddersfield to win, using the stake prescribed to you by a Matched Betting calculator.

Wait for the match to be played. Due to the way Matched Betting works, and the staking, you will probably win something like £22-24 whatever the outcome of the match. Taking off your small loss from your initial bet, you will have c£22-23 that you can withdraw as clear profit.

Rinse and repeat with other bookmakers and other bookmaker offers.

Some strategies are more complicated than this, but the above is very much the bread and butter of Matched Betting.

I made around £15k in my first 7 or so months from Matched Betting.

[jobelly]

Thanks Bozza, that makes a bit of sense now. It still seems very complicated and too good to be true but I can understand it a bit more. Niw it’s whether I’m brave enough to try it!

[Bozza]

Originally Posted by jobelly

Thanks Bozza, that makes a bit of sense now. It still seems very complicated and too good to be true but I can understand it a bit more. Niw it’s whether I’m brave enough to try it!

See more...

I own and run a busy community site like this one (but nothing to do with Disney holidays) and I was approached by a Matched Betting service wishing to advertise on the site. I'd heard about MBing before, but never taken a closer look, but I thought I should prior to permitting the advert to be placed.

Like you and, frankly, any right-minded person, I had it filed under the old "If something sounds too good to be true it probably is" mantra, but it absolutely is not the case. It really is easy money and whilst you may not earn as much as I did or, at least, not as quickly as I did, I think anyone with a few spare hours a week could easily earn a nice amount of extra holiday spending money.

[loves2plan]

Matched betting is definitely not a pyramid scheme, and there is definitely risk free money to make. I generally make 250-£300pm on the easier offers. Others make £1k+ doing more complex offers.

I started by signing up to the Profit Accumulator free trial which takes you step by step through what it is and 2 real offers. There are video guides, plus written guides. I found these to be really good. I'd watch, pause, rewind, rewatch, make notes etc. The best thing you can really do is watch those videos and read the guides. It does take a while to get your head around it (well, it did for me), but once it clicks, then it's easy. It's a bit like driving - so many moving parts and things to think about at first, but it soon clicks in to place and becomes second nature.

The easiest offers are the free bet offers. There are basically 2 steps to these: place a qualifying bet and you get a free bet. To minimise your risk and guarantee profit, you don't just place a bet with a bookie (back bet) but also bet with an exchange (lay bet), and the 2 effectively cancel each other out.

So, if the offer is 'Bet £10 and get £20 free here's, then step 1 is to place the £10 bet, which is the qualifying bet. To find what to bet on, you use the odds matching software that is provided by the matched betting service you have signed up to. The built in calculator also tells you how much to bet at the bookie and exchange and what your profit/loss will be for the bet. Once you've found your bet, you go to the bookie and place the £10 bet (qualifying bet), then to the exchange and place the lay bet. The amount of the lay bet will depend on the odds, but the calculator will tell you how much it is.
Once this bet settles (when the race, match etc has finished), you will win one bet and lose the other. Deduct these to get your qualifying loss - usually a small amount of around 25p. So, at present, you've lost 25p. This is the amount that the calculator would have said too.

You then go on to step 2 which is where you're using the free bet that the bookie has given you. So, again you use the odds matcher to find the best thing to bet on. Go to the bookies and place your £20 free bet. Then go to the exchange and place the lay bet (again, the calculator will tell you the amount, but when you've done the calculation this time, you've selected 'free bet SNR'). Wait for the bets to settle, and you'll win at one and lose at the other again, but as you've used free bets that have been laid, you'll be in profit of around £16. Deduct the 25p qualifying bet from step 1 and your overall profit for this offer is £15.75.

That's a very basic explanation, but by studying the video guides and reading the accompanying guides, you'll learn a lot more. You do need to put a bit of your own money in to start up so you can place the qualifying and lay bets, but provided that you follow the instructions step by step, it's risk free.

Matched betting is the complete opposite of betting as you're not placing a bet hoping for a big win. You're exploiting the offers bookies have to makes lots of little profits that add up.

There are different types of offers, and more complex offers to learn as you progress, but the free bet offer is the starting point and one you'll use again and again.

Feel free to join us on the main thread. Don't try and read through it though. Just join it where it is to ask questions and for help. We're all in there and are more likely to see questions on there and reply to them, than we are with a new thread

[Orlando 2004]

Originally Posted by boo2

I have also had a read through some of the match betting thread and couldn’t work it out. I probably need to spend more time looking at it.

See more...

Same. All seems a bit complex.

[prugone]

I'm not a gambling person other than occasional lottery but I don't decry anyone else from gambling if they enjoy it. What would concern me is that, like a drug, people get 'hooked' on this apparent sure fire way to beat the bookies and it develops into a wider gambling habit which like drugs, smoking or drinking becomes very difficult to stop. I don't quite understand how the bookies, who lets face it are there to make big profits, allow this money spinner unless as I say they see a future from it's habit forming ability. Judging by the number of posts it has become amazingly popular. If it works for you and you're able to stop if and when necessary then good luck to you but it's not for me.