I did a post the other day about side hustles and matched betting is my bread and butter extra income. I have been doing this around 9 years and taking the the bookies for everything they are giving. Here's a guide on how it works, even you it's not something up your street, you can make a quick grand and then bounce. The less a gambler you are the better :)

Overview

Matched betting is a perfect way to earn an extra income by turning bookmakers free bets into free money/silver without gambling by placing risk off bets. This is not a scam, there are no sales people. Its is 100% legal and earning's are tax free as its from gambling.(Tax free gambling in the UK, if you win 100mil on the lotto, you get 100mil tax free). Its is very easy to learn and after a few tester are paper runs, you will be prepared and ready to take on bigger offers. There are hundreds of bookmakers out there all offering free cash ripe for the picking. Offers range from £10- £250 and everything in between Its something you can do in the spare time, as and when you please.
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Matched Betting : Here's How It Works

I am going to explain to you how you can 'buy' a £50 for the cost of £10. I will show you how can make £40 in a few minutes using a betting technique called matched betting. And by using online back & lay bet calculators, will can do this at amazing speed.
Bookmakers offers new and exciting customers free bets and bonuses to sign up and deposit. In general its a straight up ''Bet £50 to get a £50 free bet''. When you sign up a new account and take an offer, your first bet would be your qualifying bet. By betting on every possible outcome, you minimize losses to a few pence. This sounds complicated but its only 2 bets. You will know before placing any bet how much it will cost. After your qualifying bet has settled, you will receive your free bet of £50. Repeat the same process again this time using the free bet, this will yield around 70-80% the value of the free bet.
Still confused? I will go through it in greater detail below. Once you learn to do this, you can repeat it over and over at different bookmakers and even when you have completed all the sign up, you have reloads to do.

The Art of the ''Backing and Laying'' technique

To put this simply, this is stating that an outcome will both happen and not happen. In everyday English, this is called hedging your bets. You will always be right and wrong at the same time.

When you make a bet at the bookie you are betting that something will happen. This is called 'Back Bet' and is the most common form of betting.
Another type of bet you can place is one where you bet on something to not happen. The is a called a 'Lay Bet' and are normally made on using Betfair and another betting exchange.

A back bet means you what it to win, a lay bet means you want it to not win. When you back and lay the same choice and cover all outcomes, you cant lose. If you back Man United to win the FA Cup, you must lay Man United to win the FA cup
This is important to remember and understand
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Qualifying Bet
In order to take advantage of these bookmakers offers. The bookmakers will specify that you must make a bet with them first before your are rewarded with your free bet. By backing and laying your first bet which is you qualifying bet, you will have made a back bet at the bookmaker and a lay bet at a betting exchange covering all outcomes and losing a few pennies, i aim for nothing more than 5%. If doing a qualifying bet of £50, i would aim you lose no more than £2.50 overall. When your qualifying bet has settled you will have won 1 bet and lost 1 bet. In effect, you win and loss have cancelled each other out and you lost a small percentage. You are now rewarded with a free bet. The trick is to get back odds and lay odds to the same value. The closer the odds are, the better the match. Always try and find a match were you loose no more than 5% of your back bet. I use an online back and lay calculator to work out my lay bet. trickybet.net
Free Bet
Once you have received your free bet you will be looking to cash it out. You basically repeat the same process over again except this time you will be using the bookmakers money for your bet back. I tend you bet on higher odds of around 6/1 are higher. I do this because most free bets are stake not returned meaning you get the white meat. You are aiming to make a min of 80% of this bet. Thankfully most lay and back calculators will have an option for this and this will adjust your lay bet stake. So, do you back bet using your free bet and place a lay bet an the betting exchange and when the bet is settled, you will have just converted a free bet in free cash waiting to be withdrawn. Its that simple, and you can repeat it over and over at different bookmakers. I have had nights were i did 6 bookmakers sign up bonus in 1 night.

How do i get started and what i expect?

Its fairly simple to get started. I opened a new bank account to keep it separate, but nothing wrong with the account you already have. You will need a min of £300 to get started, the more the better but i think i could start from £300. You need money to fund back bets and money in your betting exchange account. I would suggest £100 in the bank and £200 in a betting exchange to get started

You will first off need to sign up to a betting exchange. Betfair seems to be the biggest one and i its the one i have using the past 9 years. There others but to start out, 1 is enough. Next up i would learn how to use betfair and understand how to place a lay bet. Each bet has 2 prices, 1 blue and other pink. Blue is normally back bet and Pink is lay bet.
Next you will need to select a bookmakers offer, i suggest going for the lowest offer you can find. There is always a £10 offer around so thats say you find a £10 offer and its a free £10 sign up bet.
You will need to write the terms and conditions. This is were you will find out what the min odds that your bet must be, bets that are not acceptable, free bet conditions ect. I can not highlight how important is is to read the terms and conditions before signing up to any bookmakers offer. I have read and know all the UK bookmakers terms down to the finest detail, years of wasted time :D
Sign up to the bookmakers and search for close matching bet. Lets say using decimal odds to find a horse that is running in 30 mins with back odds at the bookmaker of 2.12 and lay odd at the betting exchange of 2.14. After inputting a £10 bet, 5% lay commision (betfairs cut) and the odds in the calculator, its it showing result of a loss of £0.37 either way by placing a lay bet of £10.14. In this bet you will have used £10 from your bank account to fund the back bet at the bookmakers and have a liability of £11.56 on betfair as you offered someone else a bet of £10.14 using them odds of 2.14. This is why you need money in both bank and betfair accounts. Thats says you talk sake, the horse falls and we win are lay bet. We lose the £10 at the at the bookmaker and gain £9.63 at betfair with is the £10.14 stake take away 5% comm. You qualifying bet has cost you £0.37.
Now you have your free bet. You repeat the same process, but this time you are using the bookmakers money and as it is not stake returned, you must place a back bet selecting higher odds of 6+. So there is a football game starting i find close odds on the correct score market. My selection has back odds at the bookmakers of 7.4 and lay odds at betfair of 7.6. I use my free bet to make this bet at the bookmakers. Then after entering into the calculator £10 bet, 5% lay commission, enter in the back and lays odds and finally select the Stack not return option. My result is a £8.48 lay bet which i make at betfair. I have no expensive at the bookmaker and my liability on my lay bet was £55.97 as i offered odds of 7.6 for £.48. Lets say you win at the exchange again. You lose nothing at the bookmakers and you gain £8.06 at betfair after comm

What have you just done?

Your will have just made free money for pretty much no work. Thats break it down, your qualifying bet cost you £0.37 and you gained £8.06 with your free bet. Thats simply £8.06 take away £0.37 which gives you £7.69 clear profit. If you had started with £100 in a bank account and £200 on betfair, you would now have £90 in the bank and £217.69 in your betfair account. Rinse and repeat till the cows come home.