A beginners guide to matched betting (How I made £3,000 side income from my laptop)

 

This guide will teach you the process of matched betting and help you decide if it is something that would be worthwhile for you. This is written with the assumption that you have never placed a sports bet before and are completely new to the concept of matched betting. If you are already aware of what matched betting is and just want to know how to get started, feel free to skip to section 4.

 

Disclaimer: Whilst matched betting can provide risk-free income, the nature of using gambling websites may be problematic for some individuals. If you have previously struggled with gambling addiction or feel that you may be prone to becoming addicted, then I would strongly recommend you do not continue any further with this guide.

1)  What is matched betting?

If you have read our guide on bank switching, you will know that many banks will offer you incentives such as free cash just for signing up for their services. They do this because they know that there are hundreds of banks for customers to choose from, hence they will do whatever they can to attract you as a customer. These same tactics are used by sports betting companies.

There are over 200 licenced bookmakers in the UK, and they are competing with each other to attract you as a customer. Betting websites offer sign-up bonuses in the hope that after you have used the bonus, you will continue to regularly place bets on their website and lose your money to them. The incentives offered by bookmakers vary in profitability and complexity, but by following this guide you will learn how to identify the most profitable offers and make maximum profit out of them.

Usually, when people think about betting, they assume they are putting their money at risk every time they place a bet. The process of matched betting allows us to almost eliminate the risk of losing money completely as instead of betting on one outcome to happen, we are betting on all possible outcomes to happen to ensure that at least one of our bets is a winner. This might sound complicated but after learning the process and with access to the right tools you will be able to place matched bets in less than a minute. We use the matched betting process to guarantee that we make a risk-free profit from the bonuses offered by bookmakers.

 

2)  How matched betting works

Before you can start signing up to bookmakers and exploiting their offers, it is vital that you have at least a basic understanding of how matched betting works and how it differs to regular sports betting.

Regular sports betting (‘back’ bets)

With regular sports betting, people will place a bet on one outcome, such as a team to win a football match, or a bet with multiple outcomes, such as a team to win a match and both teams to score. In matched betting terminology, this is called a ‘back’ bet. The amount that you win from the bet will depend on how much you stake and what the odds are. There are different forms of expressing odds, with the default option on most betting websites being fractional odds (e.g. 3/1). For the purposes of this guide, we will be using decimal odds (e.g., 4.0) as it is generally easier to understand. With decimal odds, you can easily calculate how much you will get back from a winning bet by multiplying the amount you stake with the odds.

Basic example of how odds work:

You bet £10 on a team to win the match at odds of 1.85. If they win the match, you get £18.50 in return (£10 x 1.85), giving you a profit of £8.50. If that team loses or draws the match you will lose your £10 stake.

The reason why placing regular bets such as the example above will almost certainly lead to you losing money in the long term is because the bookmakers set the odds in a way that does not fairly reflect the true probability of the outcome occurring. If there was a 50% chance that a team won a football match, then you would theoretically break even if the odds were 2.0, make a profit if the odds were greater than 2.0 and make a loss if the odds were less than 2.0. In most cases, the bookmaker will give odds of between 1.8 to 1.9 for an outcome that has a 50% chance of occurring, therefore on average you are going to lose money by placing the bet.

Betting exchanges and ‘lay’ bets

Every time you place a matched bet, you will be placing a bet on two different websites. You place your back bet on the website of whichever bookmaker is offering you the bonus that you are seeking to take advantage of, and you place a ‘lay’ bet on the betting exchange website. Most matched bettors will typically have just one account with one betting exchange, and then another account with every bookmaker that is offering worthwhile bonuses. The most common betting exchanges used amongst matched bettors are Smarkets, PocketBet, Betdaq, Matchbook and Betfair. I will give my recommendation on which betting exchange is best for matched betting in section 4.

A lay bet effectively works inversely to a back bet, you could think of it as if you are taking on the role of being the bookmaker. When you lay a bet, you win the bet if the outcome does NOT occur. The amount that you win will be the amount that you have staked (minus a small percentage commission if applicable), and the amount that you lose is your stake multiplied by the decimal odds minus one (or stake x odds – stake). The amount that you would lose if the lay bet does not win (i.e., the outcome you are laying DOES occur) is known as your ‘liability’. You will only be able to place a lay bet on a betting exchange if you have enough balance to cover the liability.

Basic example of a lay bet:

You lay £10 on England to win a match at odds of 2.0. The betting exchange charges 2% commission on your winning bets.

Your liability is £10 (you will need at least £10 on your betting exchange account to place this lay bet)

If England does NOT win the match (either they lose or draw) then your lay bet has won, and you will make a profit of £9.80 (£10 stake minus 2% commission)

If England DOES win the match then your lay bet has lost, and you will make a loss of £10 (£10 stake multiplied by 2.0 odds minus £10 stake)

Placing a matched bet and calculating qualifying loss

Now that we know the math behind back bets and lay bets, it is time to combine the two and learn how to place matched bets. As previously explained, the purpose of a matched bet is to guarantee that no matter what the outcome of an event is, we will know exactly how much we stand to win or lose. Every time we place a matched bet it will either be to qualify for a bonus (a qualifying bet), or to use our bonus in a way that locks in a profit. When we place the qualifying bet, it will typically result in a very small loss between £0.20 to £0.50. This is called the qualifying loss.

Example of a matched bet:

Imagine there is an offer in which we must place a £10 bet on any sporting event to receive a bonus. The first step is to find a suitable opportunity in which the back odds for an outcome on the bookmaker are closely aligned with the lay odds on the betting exchange. There are tools to make this easy for us, which will be explained in the following sections. We already know that to qualify for the bonus we need to place a £10 bet on the bookmaker, but we also need to work out how much we should place on the lay bet. Luckily there are calculators that can tell us the perfect amount to stake on the lay bet to minimise the qualifying loss.

Here is an example of the math behind a qualifying bet:

The odds for England to win a match are 1.95 on the bookmaker. We can lay the bet at odds of 2.0 on the betting exchange. Our stake on the back bet is £10 as that is the minimum amount we must bet to qualify for the bonus. We enter this information into a matched betting calculator and it tells us that our lay stake should be £9.75 (in this case £9.75 is also our liability on the exchange as the odds are exactly 2.0).

	Back bet (England) wins	Lay bet (Not England) wins
Bookmaker	+£9.50 ((£10 x 1.95)-£10 stake)	-£10 (stake on bookmaker)
Exchange	-£9.75 (liability)	+£9.75 (stake on exchange)
Result	-£0.25	-£0.25

 

As shown in the table, no matter what the result is the outcome will be that we come away with a small loss of 25p. This allows us to receive the bonus that was on offer for a minimal price.

3)  Types of offers (where the profit comes from)

When you begin matched betting, the most common offers you come across will be the sign-up offers in which you must place a bet in order to get back a free bet, e.g., bet £10 get a £20 free bet. For these types of offers, we can expect to receive around 75% to 80% of the free bet value as profit as long as you follow the process correctly. At the time of writing this guide, there is around £600 to be made from these types of sign-up offers.

To complete these offers there is a two-step process, both of which will utilise the back and lay method shown in the last section. The first step is to place the qualifying bet, and then once the qualifying bet has settled (or sometimes earlier depending on the offer) you will receive the free bet. To place the free bet in a way which guarantees you lock in a profit no matter the result, you will be using the exact same process as the qualifying bet but this time you are using the free bet as your stake on the back bet instead of your own cash. Please note that when placing a free bet, you do not receive your stake back from a winning bet like you would with a cash bet. For this reason, in order to make the most profit it is better to place your free bets on outcomes with high odds (greater than 4.0).

Example of a free bet offer

Following on from the example of the previous section, we have now qualified for a free bet at the cost of 25p. If the free bet was worth £20, then you can expect the maths to look something like this:

You have a £20 free bet to place on any event. You find a suitable opportunity to place this bet by backing Scotland to win the match at 6.0 on the bookmaker, with lay odds of 6.1 on the exchange. You enter this information into a matched betting calculator, and it tells you that your lay stake should be £16.39. Your liability (balance required on the exchange to place the bet) is £83.59 (£16.39 x (6.1-1))

	Back bet (Scotland) wins	Lay bet (Not Scotland) wins
Bookmaker	+£100 ((£20 x 6)-£20 stake)	-£0 (No loss as free bet was used)
Exchange	-£83.59 (liability)	+16.39 (stake on exchange)
Result	+£16.41	+£16.39

 

As shown in the table, we can convert the £20 free bet into at least £16.39 cash. After deducting our qualifying loss of 25p, we have made a risk-free profit of £16.14. We then repeat this process with all of the bookmakers offering these types of sign-up bonuses.

 

Other types of offers:

When starting out you should only focus on the ‘bet and get’ type of offers as demonstrated above, but if you are committed to matched betting for the long term then this is a brief description of other types of offers you can expect to come across:

·       Price boosts- Occasionally a bookmaker will boost the odds of an outcome to occur, e.g., from 4.0 to 5.0. If the lay odds on the exchange are less than the back odds on the bookmaker, then you can lock in a small guaranteed profit. You can expect to make small but frequent profits from these offers.

·       Refunds- These types of offers will require you to take on a small amount of risk in exchange for potentially lucrative payoffs. Every Saturday multiple bookmakers have offers such as money back as cash or free bet if your horse finishes 2^nd or 3^rd in a specific race. If you can find a close match between the back odds and lay odds for a horse to win the race then you will incur a small qualifying loss with the chance to get back your stake on the bookmaker if your horse finishes in the specified places. This is profitable because you would win the lay bet on the exchange without losing your stake with the bookmaker. I was usually able to make between £8 to £20 every Saturday from these offers before being gubbed (banned from offers) but don’t expect to make a profit every single week.

·       Extra places- This is one of the more complicated types of offers to make a profit from and not something I have done myself, but many experienced matched bettors claim that this is their biggest earner. It involves placing ‘each way’ bets on horse racing events to take advantage of the bookmaker paying out on more places than normal whilst the number of extra places on the betting exchange stays the same.

·       Arbitrage- There will sometimes be opportunities to take advantage of bookmakers setting their odds incorrectly to make a risk-free profit. This is not recommended unless you have already been gubbed by a bookmaker because you will very quickly have stake limitations placed on your account or be outright banned from the bookmaker.

·       Casino- This does not necessarily fall under the blanket of matched betting and should instead be seen as advantage play as you are taking on the risk of losing money when completing these offers. Unlike all other types of offers covered in this guide, with casino offers you have no way of knowing how much you will win or lose from any individual offer until you have completed it. You should avoid these offers if you have a low-risk tolerance. Personally, casino offers were my biggest earner and I certainly think it is worth at least taking advantage of the low-risk sign-up offers such as “deposit and wager £10 to receive 100 x £0.10 free spins”. There is a lot of potential profit to be made from medium and high-risk casino offers, however, you should only attempt these if you can remain disciplined and have a solid understanding on the concepts of expected value, variance and bankroll management. It is not unrealistic to go on downswings of hundreds of pounds when completing the riskier casino offers. If you are interested in these offers I would recommend sticking to the low-risk casino offers at first to get a feel for it and then slowly incorporate riskier offers over time as you build your bankroll and become more experienced.

    4)  How to get started with matched betting

For anyone who is considering starting matched betting, my number one recommendation is that you sign up to a dedicated matched betting service. Whilst you could try to perform matched betting without the help of a paid service, the tools that are provided by these services will allow you to find offers and select which sporting events are suitable to bet on much quicker than you would on your own, which will lead to you making more profit in the long term.

The two most popular matched betting services are Outplayed (formerly called Profit Accumulator) and Oddsmonkey.

Outplayed or Oddsmonkey?

Outplayed and Oddsmonkey have been the dominant matched betting services for many years, and the competition between the two has pushed both to be great products that provide excellent value. You can’t go wrong with either one, but here is a comparison of the two websites:

Cost:  

As of 28/10/2023	Outplayed Platinum	Oddsmonkey Premium	Outplayed Diamond	Oddsmonkey All Access
Monthly Cost	£29.99	£29.99	£49.99	£49.99
Annual Cost	£250	£249.99	£450	£349.99
Sports sign-up offers	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sports reload offers	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Casino sign-up offers	No	No	Yes	Yes
Casino reload offers	No	No	Yes	Yes
Tools and training	Sports only	Sports only	Sports & Casino	Sports & Casino

 

Tools:

The Outplayed Platinum and Oddsmonkey Premium subscriptions both provide all of the tools required to complete sports sign-up offers and reload offers. Both include the most valuable tool, which is the oddsmatcher. This tool is how you find exactly what events to place your bets on and how much to stake on both your back and lay bets. Both websites also provide a profit tracker which is directly linked to the oddsmatcher so that every time you place a matched bet you can add it to the profit tracker with the click of a button. If you are interested in the casino offers, then unfortunately you will be required to pay for the upgraded subscriptions on either website to access the offers and tools. The casino tools include an expected value calculator and a casino simulator which are useful for finding exactly how much value a casino offer is worth in the case that you come across an offer which isn’t covered by the website, such as exclusive reload offers emailed to you.

Availability of offers: There is very little to separate the two sites in terms of the total number of offers available. You can be confident that all of the most valuable offers will be available on both sites, but there may be some differences when it comes to the lower-value offers. Outplayed slightly edges this one because they are the more popular service and therefore can afford to have more staff dedicated to finding the offers.

Guides and instructions: In terms of the quality of the written instructions and guides, as well as the video guides, Outplayed is the better option as they tend to include more detail. There is certainly nothing wrong with the Oddsmonkey guides and instructions, and both will do a good job of walking you through the offers. However, if you are completely new to matched betting then Outplayed takes the edge on this one.

Customer support: Outplayed is the winner here simply because they offer more ways to get in touch if you need support. Both services have an email address that is dedicated to helping customers, but Outplayed goes the extra mile by also providing phone and live chat support so that you can talk to an expert in real-time to answer any of your queries.

Community: Both sites have their own dedicated forums and Facebook groups which can provide a wealth of information for both new and experienced matched bettors. These are a great way to learn from experienced matched bettors about the different types of offers available and find general tips and advice. If this is something that is important to you, then Outplayed would be best as they have a much more active forum and significantly more members in their Facebook group with 56k members compared to 14k for Oddsmonkey.

Free trial: Both sites offer a free trial, with Oddsmonkey providing step-by-step guides on how to make your first £39 profit with two bookmaker offers. The Outplayed free trial walks you through your first two offers to make up to £40 profit. If you can’t decide on which service you want to go with then you could use the free trial on both and see which one you prefer.

 

I have signed up to Outplayed/Oddsmonkey, now what?

Before you can complete your first offer, here is a checklist of what you will need:

·       An email address that you will only use for matched betting (it will get spammed with promotional emails that may sometimes include valuable offers).

·       Any UK current account. It can be your main bank account, or you can create a new one if you wish to keep your matched betting bankroll separate from your day-to-day spending.

·       Access to know your customer (KYC) documentation so that you can pass bookmakers verifiability checks. A photo of a driver’s license/passport and a bank statement should be adequate for now.

·       An account with a betting exchange and at least £40 deposited (the more the better). I recommend Smarkets as you will be eligible for 0% commission thanks to your Outplayed/Oddsmonkey subscription. Smarkets also has an acca lay feature which can be useful for offers involving accumulators. Later on, I recommend also signing up to Matchbook as they provide an ‘enhanced specials’ section which will sometimes allow you to make a risk-free profit from price boost offers.

    5)  Top tips

1)     Create a separate email address to be used solely for your matched betting journey and opt-in to receive marketing emails from each bookmaker you make an account with to receive exclusive reload offers.

2)     Always double-check that the odds have not changed on both the bookmaker site and betting exchange from those given in the oddsmatcher before placing any bets. This is especially true if you are placing bets close to the start time of an event as that is when odds are most volatile.

3)     Utilise the exchange integration feature available from both Outplayed and Oddsmonkey to significantly speed up the process of placing the lay bet on the exchange. This will also reduce the risk of human error as you will not be manually placing the lay bet yourself.

4)     Before signing up with a new bookmaker, it can be worth having a quick search to see if there are any limited-time sign-up offers that provide better value than the sign-up offer presented on Oddsmonkey or Outplayed. You should also check the cashback websites such as Topcashback to see if you can earn some extra cash on top of the profit you make from the sign-up offer.

5)     Make sure to keep track of all the bets you place and your progress in each offer. When completing multiple offers simultaneously it can be difficult to remember what stage you are at for every offer. I would recommend using the profit tracker tool provided by Outplayed or Oddsmonkey, or alternatively create your own spreadsheet.

 

6)   Frequently asked questions

·       Is it possible to lose money?

As long as you follow the process correctly and stick to the risk-free offers, the only way you could possibly lose money is if you make a mistake when placing your bets. The most common mistake would be to accidentally place a back bet instead of a lay bet on the betting exchange or bet an incorrect amount. Therefore, you should take your time when completing your first offers and triple-check that you have entered the correct stakes on the right outcomes before placing your bets.

·       How much can I expect to make from matched betting?

You can expect to make a minimum of £500 from the sports sign-up offers in your first month or two. After that, it depends on how much time you can commit. With 30 minutes per day, you can expect at least £150 per month after completing the sign-up offers.

·       How much money do I need to get started?

It is possible to get started with as little as £50 (deposit £10 on the first bookmaker and £40 on the exchange), however the more you can start with, the more you will be able to make. With a larger bankroll, you will be able to lay bets with higher odds which can mean you retain more of the free bet value. You will also be able to complete more offers simultaneously as opposed to having to wait for bets to settle before moving on to the next offers. Ideally, you would start with a £200 bankroll, but you can absolutely start with less and build it up over time.

·       Do I need to make a separate bank account?

This is entirely optional, and I personally just used my regular current account. However, many people prefer to keep their matched betting bankroll separate from their day-to-day spending. It can also be easier to see exactly how much profit you are making if you have a bank account that is solely used for matched betting.

·       What do I do after I have completed all the sign-up offers?

After you complete all the sign-up offers, you can make use of all of those different bookmaker accounts you have opened to complete reload offers. The profit does slow down after the sign-up offers, but there is still cash to be made. The people who stick with matched betting after the sign-ups will eventually find a routine that works for them, such as having a list of daily, weekly and monthly offers that they can consistently work through. Both Outplayed and Oddsmonkey provide extensive guides on making the switch from sign-up offers to reload offers.

·       How can I avoid being gubbed?

Being gubbed essentially means that the bookmaker has caught onto the fact that you are only exploiting their offers so they decide to stop allowing you to participate in any promotions. They will often place stake limitations on your account in addition to this. Being gubbed is inevitable at some point for all long-term matched bettors, but the policy for each bookmaker is different. If you can see yourself committing to matched betting for the long term, then it might be worth making an effort to appear as much like a regular bettor as possible on the biggest bookmakers such as Bet365, William Hill, SkyBet, PaddyPower and Unibet in order to prolong your account. This includes avoiding taking the best odd match possible and purposely giving yourself higher qualifying losses/ less free bet value, and maybe even placing regular bets (then laying on the exchange) on events that aren’t associated with any promotions. This can work even better if you only bet on the same team to win so that in the bookmakers’ eyes you look like a regular punter backing their favourite team.

·       Is it possible to ‘help’ friends and family members do matched betting?

In my experience, it has been possible for accounts made by people in the same household to repeat the sign-up offers for almost every bookmaker, despite the bookmakers stating that it is against their terms and conditions. The terms and conditions of a bookmaker is not the law so there is nothing illegal about having multiple accounts in the same household being signed up to the same bookmaker. However, it is fraudulent to place bets under someone else’s name, so this is not advocated. Furthermore, for most bookmakers, you will only be able to deposit if the cardholder's name matches the name registered on the account.