Matched Betting

Making money at betting has never been easy but I look back now and appreciate that it was significantly less difficult in days gone by.

There are restrictions all over the place. If you want a lumpy bet, you’re now unlikely to get it or be asked for your inside leg measurement, which as it turns out isn’t the right size so we can’t offer you that bet, sir.

Matched betting is a straightforward concept. You take advantage of free bets and offers that bookies provide and offset them by backing against them or laying the exact same outcome on an exchange.

People say it is risk free. Yes, if you do it right. I reviewed the process recently, tested it out with a bookie, forgot to opt in and lost 39p!

Take time to understand how it all works and do it properly.

Once you have done that, stick purely to matched betting, stick purely to the routine then you will pocket profit.

My rule for this is to research and know your subject. Put yourself in a strong position. Then, if you need to carry out transactions for yourself you can. I look at it like a calculator. If I’ve understood my numbers well enough, when I put them into a calculator, I’ve got a pretty good idea of where the answer will end up. Without any knowledge or understanding I produce an answer which could be wild and I might never know until something goes horribly wrong.

The selling point for matched betting has been that it’s easy money, risk free.

Initial deals are easy to hook into. If a bookie gives you a free bet, then you can maximise your return by making a high price selection and offset it on an exchange at a reasonable price. A £10 free bet can return you closer to £10 if you make the appropriate selection but it helps to understand the process.

Once that free deal has gone you’ll be scratching around for other opportunities. The easy money has gone and you’ll need to work a bit harder for this free money.

There’s the danger the bookie blocks you. They ain’t no charity and if you take a freebie and then do nothing more with them for a while it suggests you were only after that bonus.

I talk a lot about discipline because the danger is that you start giving the money back. After all, it was their money to start with, it’s their money you’ll be playing with, so what the heck. You want that income to keep flowing somehow.

All around there are loads of success stories so why can’t I be one? The curious thing is, I never hear too much about the losing bets and most people I talk to tend to ‘break even’. It’s a mystery to me how Denise Coates can take home hundreds of millions when most punters aren’t really losing. Draw your own conclusions on this one.

So, the money’s going to gradually dry up. You need discipline. That’s a challenge in itself. What prompted you to engage in matched betting in the first place? The opportunity to make some money. Betting offers exactly that but the risk factor has just shot up.

The same with matched betting companies. Their raison d’etre used to be risk free money but like punters, that model becomes less sustainable.

The bookies start placing restrictions on these free bets.

This isn’t ideal for punters but it’s a worse scenario for matched betting companies. The business model doesn’t hold up so well. Charging people £100 for them to make £1000 can work. Charging £100 for you to only make £100 – not so fantastic.

Something new had to be born. Along came extra offerings such as Lucky 15, extra place value, 2 up on a football match and steamers.

This is a massive shift from how things used to be. The grand appeal of matched betting was its risk-free nature. These new introductions are theoretically money-making schemes but the business model has been turned on its head. The risk-free selling point is lost and we are now drawn into the world of gambling.

I’m not saying that the recommendations don’t work. Statistically there’s a lot to support them but many of the opportunities are on selections where I would find myself banned very quickly by bookmakers for using these strategies and, trust me, it’s hard to stay off the radar even when you’re not using tactics well known to bookies.

If I could bet on all the best prices that each bookie produces and be allowed the stakes I wanted, then I wouldn’t have much time to stop and count my winnings.

If you’re betting an extra place or jumping on a bad each way race for the bookies (something that’s been around for as long as I can remember) and can get unlimited stakes, then you can’t go wrong. Guess what. The bookies know the areas they’re vulnerable in. They offer an extra place for good reason. It attracts the extra business and with the records they keep they know who to give these to and who is persona non grata.

That means you need to fly under that radar. If you’re online, then they know everything about you but in a shop you can be incognito. Place smaller bets, spread them around and you have a chance of getting ahead. This returns us to discipline and patience because never forget we are talking about gambling here, even when the odds are in our favour. I don’t know many people who have the mindset and patience to make it pay.

A strategy can be scuppered. I’ve seen plenty of bad each way races for the bookies such as a short-priced favourite with 8 runners turn into a 7-runner race and place odds gone from 1/5 the odds first 3 down to ¼ odds first 2.

There is a world of difference between theoretical and practical, and turning the theoretical into practical is the challenge.

It is certainly possible to make money out of the bookies. There are plenty of ways. What concerns me about the latest offerings from matched betting companies is that they aren’t quite what they used to be. It’s a definite shift from being completely risk-free.

At the end of the day, it’s each to their own but people need to be aware that this is no longer a risk-free business. The numbers suggest that profits will materialise over time but there are still certain considerations.

My suggestion would be to gain an initial understanding of the subject, weigh up the pros and cons such as likely profit versus subscription charges, looking closely at those figures rather than giving them a cursory glance. Consider how much time you are prepared to put into a venture such as this and then decide if it’s the right option for you.

Happy punting!