If you’re anything like me, I’m sure you have at some point Google’d “easy ways to make money” or “how to make money online”. However, what you come across is either people trying to sell you some course which smells like a scam or paid surveys. The latter sounds so boring and the returns based on the time you put in are just not worth it. But there is something else that is mentioned a lot online that most people would conclude to be a scam or highly risky. Of course if you have not already guessed, what I am talking about is…Matched Betting!
The reasons most people don’t consider trying out matched betting is because it includes the word “betting”. Therefore, people will likely get the image of someone losing all their life savings to the mafia and their wife or daughter getting kidnapped. However, what if I told you there is no risk of losing your money at all…or your wife and daughter.
What is matched betting?
Simply put matched betting is when you bet on a sporting event on one website and bet the opposite on another. “Well how the hell does that make any money?!?” I hear you cry. Good question Billy, you make the money from free bets offered by bookmakers. When you make a bet using a free bet offered by a betting website and bet slightly less on the opposite outcome on another website you guarantee your profit. Profits range from £5 to £40 per free bet and some people earn up to £20,000 in a year! HOLD YOUR HORSES BILLY…before you try it out, read my simple guide below to give you an understanding of how it works.
Key terms
First of all let me give you an explanation of some terms I’m going to use, don’t worry there won’t be a test.
Step One
This is the first step which is the most complex and soul crushing step to complete, are you ready? Open an account. For this step you will just have to open an account on a bookmaker’s website and an exchange’s website. Don’t worry I will give you the recommendations at the end.
Step Two
Depending on the bookmaker website used there will be certain requirements for you to receive a free bet. These requirements may be to deposit a certain amount of money or to bet a certain amount which is most common. Since depositing money is self-explanatory we will assume the latter is the case. Therefore, for this step you will have to find an event to bet on. Before you find the event read the T&Cs of the free bet to find the minimum odds you need to bet on to qualify.
To keep it simple at beginning bet on a football match or a soccer game as the Americans call it *rolls eyes*. Find a football match with odds equal to or as close to the minimum odds required for one of the teams to win, this will be what you bet on. Also, you will have to find the same event on the exchange’s website.
Tip: Find a match with back odds on the bookmaker’s site that are close to the lay odds on the exchange’s site, you can use the Oddschecker website to help you. The closer the odds the smaller the loss…don’t go! I know I said there is no risk of losing your life savings, however, this loss tiny it should be around 10p to £1. Which you will recover with added profit when you use your free bet!
Step Three
Now you have found the match you will bet on, refer to the T&Cs again to find out the stake you must put down on the bookmaker’s website to qualify for the free bet. To identify how much your lay bet should be on the exchange's website, you will have to do some calculations… I’m sure you’re getting flashbacks of Mr Mitchell from Year 9 Maths shouting at you for thinking algebra was a type of sports bra.
Don’t worry all you will have to do is use an online lay calculator. The website is called TrickyBet. The type of bet you select will be “Normal” and you will have to input the following for the match you picked: back odds (bookmaker), lay odds (exchange), lay commission (exchange) and bet stake (bookmaker). Now click calculate! This calculator will calculate how much you should lay and your liability. It will also tell you how much you’ll lose (winnings on one website minus the loss on the other) which will be around 10p to £1 (depending how close the exchange and bookmaker odds are). You’ll recover the small loss from the free bet a long with some profit. The liability is the minimum you should deposit/have in the exchange to be able to place the bet.
Step Four
Now you can finally place the bets!...They grow up so fast :’) Place the minimum stake to qualify for the free bet on the bookmaker’s website and place the lay stake calculated in the exchange. Depending on the bookmaker you will either have to wait for the match to finish or you will receive the free bet immediately. The outcome once the match has settled will either be losing your money in the exchange and gaining it in the bookmaker or vice versa.
Step Five
For this part you will just have to repeat the previous steps with small changes. The odds you pick should be 4 or greater so you can maximise your profit. And for the calculator you will have to change the bet type to “Free bet SNR”.
Tip: Higher the odds and the closer the lay and back odds are to each other, the greater the profit you’ll gain. Play around with the calculator and you’ll gain a better understanding.
Step 6
Once the match has settled you will have either gained money on the exchange and lost nothing on the bookmaker’s website or lost some money on the exchange and gained more than what you lost on the bookmaker’s website.
Congratulations you have now earned some money…now go spend it on that stamp collection you wanted Billy.
Final Thoughts
This is mainly for the UK however the process will still work in other countries that allow online betting. For a more comprehensive guide you can use resources such as Profit Accumulator which lists all the bookmakers that provide free bet promotions. It also has training videos to demonstrate the process I described, an odds checker to find profitable odds and a forum where you can ask questions. This website is subscription based; however, it is worth it as it helped me earn over £2000. There are other websites too such as OddsMonkey and there is even a reddit page.
Bookmaker
William Hill - has a £30 free bet sign up offer (profit should range from £15-£20) as of writing this the free bet is split up as 3 x £10 free bets, so you would just have to apply the free bet to the event you’re betting 3 times.
Exchanges
You can use either of exchanges below, Smarkets has the benefit of having a lower commission, therefore, there is a lower loss when making the qualifying bet. However, Betfair has the benefit of having more matches to bet on.
Smarkets – 2% commission
Betfair – 5% commission
If you have read this far, thank you for reading my first post, I hope you enjoyed it! Follow me if you want to read my next post about my theory that Donald Trump is a spray tanned alien sent from the future to prevent world peace (just kidding).
