Matched Betting

Right, here goes. I am kind of nervous writing this blog post because to be honest, even after a month of matched betting, I still feel like a newbie. The one thing I can say is I have made money from it and it has been a huge help to me during unpaid maternity leave. Plus it’s classed as gambling so it’s tax free.

So what is matched betting? First off it is not gambling. It feels like gambling but done right, you can’t lose your own money. I say done right, mistakes happen. The first weekend I lost a bit of money. Not huge but it was nearly enough for me to say I can’t do this! This brings me to my next point. Do not do this is if you have any kind of gambling problem. I don’t but this still didn’t stop me thinking “If I just put this bet on maybe I’ll win big”. Don’t do this! I didn’t do it but that voice was still there in my ear. So if that temptation is strong in you, then I’m afraid I feel this may not be for you.

So how does it work? I am going to use football as an example. You place a bet for the team to win and then you go to the exchange and you place a bet for the same team to lose. So essentially you are placing bets on both outcomes so you are guaranteed your money back. You bet the Back odds (to win) with the bookmaker and then the lay odds (to lose) with the exchange.

Now an important factor here is that the odds match. You could spend hours and hours going through odds trying to match them. I use profit accumulator for this. I honestly could not do this without them one being I don’t feel confident in what I am doing and two is I simply do not have the time to do it!! They also provide step by step instructions with video’s and yes I did really need to watch and follow these.

So where does the money come from? The free bets. The bookies will have offers with bet five euro and you will be refunded with a five euro bet etc. You then take your ten euro free bet and use it on something with good odds (close matching odds) and then you go onto the exchange and place a bet there. It doesn’t matter which way the bet goes, you will either make money on the exchange or the bookies. You can expect your profit to be close to whatever the free bet was, in this case five euro. Sometimes the free bets come in email or text form, other times you need to log in to the bookies site to see them. There are some great Facebook support groups which are so helpful. When looking at posts on Facebook don’t get bogged down by them (some can be confusing especially for newbies) but if you have a problem when placing a bet, just post it up and somebody will get back to you with helpful advice.

Welcome offers. When you are starting out you will be starting with the welcome offers. These are great and worth a lot of money to you. Bookies want you to sign up, so they offer great bonuses to you. A tip here is have a copy of your driving licence and a utility bill uploaded on computer because most bookies ask for this. This will save you time so you won’t end up like me ringing board gas looking for it! I am useless at online bills and hadn’t even registered! I haven’t completed all the welcome offers yet mainly because the reload offers have been so good lately.

Casino: I have only completed one of these offers. I won four euro. People reckon these offers are very good and make them a lot of cash. To me they seem very much luck because what happens happens. But I shouldn’t really say that after only completing one! One thing I will say is stop when the free bet credit is up. If you have lost the credits, don’t deposit your own money, walk away.

But I’ve never bet before? Nor had I! It was so new to me and I had no idea of the lingo. Watching the instruction videos on profit accumulator really helped me. Also team profit was a great help and free! Without this I would have had no idea of what I was doing. I started with the football because they seemed the easiest to understand, however when I went onto horses I really liked them. Its far quicker as a race is a lot faster than a match.

Getting Gubbed: This is where bookies stop giving you offers and can suspend your account. This happens to all at some stage eventually. I opened an account and after they received my ID details gubbed me!! I never even got a chance to place a bit. Some accounts are great for special offers like Paddy Power, so look after your accounts. Place a random bet here and there to look like a real punter. Don’t always use the highest odds or the best match. Don’t always bet when it’s only special offers. This way if the bookies looks at your account you look like a regular punter. You can always back up your bet my betting in the exchange also. This leaves you with minimal lose.

Terms: There are so many terms and different types of bets that it can be super confusing at times. Things like correct score, draws, half time results. To start I stuck to the correct team winning, for example Manchester United to win. This kept it simple. It allowed me to feel confident that I was placing the right bet. After a while when I learnt how to use the bookies websites (OMG I found these so hard to navigate) and I understood the bets better I felt more confident in placing other types of bets. Now I’ve no issue and place every kind of bet.

Oddsmaster: This to me is the most important tool to matched betting. It really does take the hard work out of it for you. It shows you the bookies matching odds to the exchange odds and how close they are. Try to use odds of over 80% match so you don’t lose money. It also tells you how much you will need to lay in the exchange to prevent a loss from your bookie bet. Again I get this tool from profit accumulator. I pay a subscription of twenty euro a month for this privilege but to me it is essential.

Bankroll: Right, they say you can start with very little money. Yes you can but this is going to make it so much slower and if I’m honest I lost this money fast due to my mistakes. Now I am going to tell you about the part which I found super scary at the start. When you lay a bet in the exchange, you have a liability that you need to pay. Example if I put a lay bet on at odds 1.92 against my bookie bet of ten euro, my lay stake (exchange bet) would be €6.25 but I would need liability of €5.75. Now these are low odds and the bookmakers odds are actually higher than the exchange. Now bring the exchange odds higher and the bookies odds are higher. You still only need ten euro for the bookies, but at odds of 11.50 in the exchange your lay stake would be €15.65 but your liability would need to be €164.32. So you need to have €164.32 in the exchange to place the bet! The higher the odds the larger the profit. Remember trust the process that you will get this money back and hopefully a profit. This weekend I had €500 out in bets which I did get back including €70 in profit.

Magic Beans: I am not going to feed you nonsense that this some kind of instant get rich quick scheme. Or that it is easy money with no work involved. You need to put the work in to see huge profits. I am doing this very part time but I have still made €450 in a little over a month. As a mum with four kids (one a baby) I will say until you feel your an expert, (I’m not) try and do it when you’ve got some quiet time. I can’t do it when the house is crazy and I’ve a million things to do. I find the best time to do it is first thing in the morning. This is when the offers roll in and I find it easier to find things to bet on. There seems to be better odds at this time. with consistent work this can work very well and can become a nice little side hustle.

Word of warning: Although there are great offers for Irish customers, many of the sign up offers are for the UK only. I feel this is partly the reason I haven’t made as much off them as others. Saying this, there are still loads of offers out there. It takes time to learn, it takes time to complete bets correctly, so take your time and it will work well. I will hold up my hands and say I found it overwhelming at the start, and I still question if I am doing it right but I’m making a profit so it is working. Remember to track your bets, what money your betting out and what money your bringing in. Don’t do too many bets at once starting out, stick to one or two. I’ve only just moved up to three a day now. It just gets confusing and you are more likely to make a mistake.

I really hope this is helpful to you as being honest I read loads on it before I started and it still made little sense to me. I feel the only way you start learning is by doing it one bet at a time. And try to stick to low odds to start so if you do make a mistake, the harm is a lot less. And enjoy it! I find it quiet enjoyable. I tend to take a few days off and then go back to it and I’m fresh as a daisy again! And an unexpected plus is that I know all the football matches that are on so can have a great conversations with my football mad boys 😂