Now this isn’t going to turn you into an overnight millionaire, but if you’re looking for an easy way to make a few hundred £,€ or $ risk free then keep on reading! Some people even manage to turn this into a second income making thousands a month! The subject of matched betting is very wide and varied, so this post is meant to be an introduction to the idea and mechanics of how it is done. At the end of the post I will post links to a number of other resources that will go into the topic in greater detail and help anyone that wants to try this out themselves.
The BIG Idea:
Pretty much every betting site will offer a bonus when you join their site for the first time. This is because competition in the online betting market is fierce. So whether it’s a free bet or a matched deposit bonus, betting sites are desperate for your business. They are so desperate, in fact that they will continue to offer free bets and bonuses to existing customers as well! Now we, as savvy individuals can use this to our advantage.
The average punter will join the site and put a bet on his favourite football team for example. He may win or lose but afterwards he will get his free bet or deposit bonus. Again he will bet with it and if he is anything like the other 99% of gamblers he will walk away losing both his bonus AND his initial deposit. The betting site is loving life and all is as it should be.
Now what if we could get the welcome bonus without having to risk our initial deposit? And after that, what if we could get the amount of the welcome bonus out as well without risk? We would have made RISK FREE money! This is exactly what matched betting is all about.
The Basics of How it Works:
To understand how this works, I first need to introduce you to the concept of laying a bet. This can get a bit tricky but please stick with it. Usually gamblers back bets. Let’s say you decide to put a bet on your favourite football team to win this weekend. You bet £10 at odds of 2/1 at your bookies. If your team wins, you go and collect £30 from them (£20 profit plus £10 initial stake). This is known as backing.
Now let us look at it from the bookies side. If your football team wins, the bookie returns the £10 initial stake to you and pays you the £20 profit you have made. However, if your football team loses, the bookie makes £10 and you walk away with nothing. What the bookie has done is known as laying a bet (taking the opposite side of your bet).
Traditionally only bookies could lay bets, but with the advent of betting exchanges like Betfair and Betdaq, everyone can now act as a bookie. But how does this help us?
The aim of matched betting is to release the welcome bonuses and free bets without taking any risk in the process. So what if we back an event on the betting site and lay the same bet on Betfair for example? Suddenly we don’t care about the outcome of the event. If the event happens then we win money on the betting site and lose the same amount of money on Betfair. If the event doesn’t happen then we lose money on betting site but make the same amount of money on Betfair. We have in theory lost no money. BUT, (and it’s a BIG BUTT) we have managed to release the welcome bonus of free bet.
Now all we need to do is do the same thing with the free bet or welcome bonus and we have now managed earn the free bet or welcome bonus without taking any risk!
The Realities of Matched Betting:
Now I know what you’re thinking. Where’s the catch? To be honest, if you do it right you will make money RISK FREE. There are a number of things you need to consider, but also a number of excellent services you can use to help you that I will list at the end of this post.
1. The Spread:
So in the basic explanation I assumed that you could back and lay the bet at the same odds. In reality this is very rarely the case (although I will list a number of useful sites to help minimise or even eliminate the spread). Most of the time when you back an event and then lay the event, you will guarantee yourself a small loss. This loss should only be at most 5/6% of your initial stake. But in doing this you unlock your free bonus. There are also commissions charged on the betting exchange part of the transaction that can be up to 5% on Betfair.
Now because of these transaction costs, you are usually aiming to extract 70% to 90% of value of the free bonus, i.e. for a £50 stake returned free bet, you should expect to make £35 to £45 of that.
In order to minimise the spread costs, choose big events to bet on where there’s a lot more volume being bet, therefore price competition is higher and spreads are smaller.
2. The Small Print
Always make sure you read the small print as the terms and conditions could be the difference between making risk free money and making a mistake. Watch out for clauses like minimum odds eligibility, whether the bonus stake is returned or not and play through multiples. (Don’t worry, the links at the bottom will help guide you through these terms and delve deeper into the subject if you want to).
3. The Maths
This can be the most challenging part for some of you but I am glad to say that there are plenty of resources such as ProfitAccumulator and OddsMonkey to help you when it comes to this. But when dealing with money, try to always double and triple check everything that you do. The worst thing you can do is make a silly typo or calculation error and turn a risk-free win into a loss!
So What Next?
I hope that this post has been interesting to you as an introduction to matched betting. Most of what I have written may be a bit UK centric but the principles apply across anywhere that online sports betting is legal. My next post will walk you through exactly the steps you need to take to extract the Ladbrokes £50 Free Bet and turn it into a free dinner!
For all those that can’t wait and want to get started right now, here are some useful websites for you to really understand the details of how to get started! Let me know if you have any other questions and how you get on.
Matched Betting Premium Sites:
These sites offer a paid for service that highlights exactly what potential matched bets are out there and exactly how to extract them. They do all the math for you and even help scan for events with the best odds, so you lose as little as possible extracting your bonus. Both offer a free trial and tons of in depth guides into how to monetise not just welcome bonuses, but other types of betting bonuses as well.
Odds Checker:
If you are happy with the math and willing to do the work yourself then the Odds Checker below will offer you a comparison of available odds to help you pick the best events to execute your matched bets. They also list the current bonuses on offer at all of the big betting sites.
Betting Exchanges:
If you are going to do some matched betting, then you will need at least one betting exchange account. Below are a list of the largest and most liquid betting exchanges available. They even have their own sign up bonuses!
Please be aware that this is only viable if sports betting is legal in your country.