October 30 2021

Premier League

If you have recently heard about matched betting and feel like getting in on the action, then you need to read this guide first.

There are plenty of matched betting guides out there, but this is the one that you should take the time to read.

When it comes down to matched betting, this guide covers all of the basics and come the end of this page, you will have learnt everything that you should know about this form of gambling. So, let us stop wasting time and get cracking with the information because this is a guide that can change your life.

What Exactly is Matched Betting?

Matched betting, to define it in as simple a way as we can, is a low-risk kind of gambling, often on sporting events, that gamblers use to guarantee profits. While some call it matched betting, it is not rare to hear it get called "bonus hunting" or "no-risk betting". By using free bets and promotions, matched betting punters can guarantee themselves a profit because they have covered all the outcomes of a sporting event.

Many novice gamblers believe that matched betting does not work because free bets are limited, but this is not the case. Also, by matched betting, you can ensure that the free bets keep coming your way frequently.

By using a simple online calculator (more on this a bit later on) alongside your free bets and promotions, you can make a guaranteed profit. One of the best things about this type of gambling is that you do not even have to have a lot of sport knowledge in order to be successful.

Backing and Laying Bets

In order to be successful at matched betting, you have to know what the difference is between a back bet and a lay bet, so this is what we are going to have a look at now.

Back bet: This is the most traditional kind of bet that you can place. When you make such a wager, you are basically saying that you think a certain team, horse, or individual will win the event. If your chosen selection goes on to win, then you win your bet and land a profit. For example, if you pick a horse in Irish Grand National, you have backed that particular horse to go on to win the race.

Lay bet: This type of bet is popular now thanks to the popularity of betting exchanges such as Betfair. A lay bet is the complete opposite to a back bet because with this one you are saying that you do not think a team, horse, or individual will win the event.

If the selection that you lay bet does not win the event, then you win your wager. Also, if the event ends in a draw, you will still win the lay bet since your chosen selection did not win.

How Matched Betting Works

Matched betting works by using lay bets to remove any risk that your back bet poses. To put it another way, you lay and back your cash against the same outcome to get rid of all risks. You will never end up on the losing side as all outcomes are covered. Your profit will come from the different free bets and promos that you can make use of.

The first wager that you have to place is known as a "Qualifying Bet" - this is the bet that allows you to claim the free bet. You will never usually make any profit from the qualifying bet - in fact, you will usually lose a few cents.

Once you have claimed a free bet from a bookmaker, you are guaranteed a profit thanks to the back and lay option since you will be using the bookmaker's money for half of your wagers, but you still get to keep any profits.

There are two other things that you need to know about in order to understand the example that we are soon going to provide you with, and these are lay commission and liability. At first, they sound a bit confusing, but they are more complex than they really are.

Liability: This is how much money you will "lose" for your lay bet. For example, if you place £25 with a bookmaker at odds of 3.00, you stand to land a profit of £50. The bookmaker's liability in such a scenario stands at £50. When you are laying bets, you become the bookie. However, please remember that you will not actually lose any money.

Lay commission: When laying bets, you will need to pay a tiny percentage of your winnings as commission. While traditional bookies make their money by giving false odds, betting exchanges like Betfair make money via commission. Even with commission having to be paid, you will still manage to land a nice profit.

How to Do Matched Betting

Matched betting might seem tricky at first, but believe us when we tell you it is not as hard as it might sound at first. It is now a go-to method for students after some extra money and even stay-at-home parents are using it for some extra cash. If they can do it, then you can too.

Matched betting is definitely worth your while, but if you do not want to just sit there and take our word for it, we recommend you have a look at this. On this page you can also find some helpful tips as well as some pros and cons.

We shall now provide you with an example in order to make things a lot clearer for you.

Let us pretend that a bookie is offer a £25 free bet if you deposit money with them and place your own £25 bet. Here, the first thing that you need to do is sign up with them and then deposit at least £25 into your new account.

You can then use an oddsmatcher site to find something worth betting on - thanks to oddsmatcher websites, you do not have to look for bets yourself, which is why you do not need any extensive sports knowledge to match bet. You just make use of the oddsmatcher's filters to choose the bookmaker and the minimum odds that you want to bet on, and they will pull up a good selection of bets.

Let us say that we want to bet on a Premier League match since it is the best league in the world and is also the league that our beloved Crystal Palace play in. Let us pretend that there is an upcoming match between Crystal Palace and Norwich and the oddsmatcher you use Palace with back odds (shown in the blue column) of 2.00 to win the match. The lay odds (shown in the pink column) are 2.02.

We place our £25 bet on Palace to win. Then, we take a trip to Betfair Exchange and lay Palace (bet on them not to be victorious) with 2.02 odds.

So, how exactly do we know how much we need to lay? Well, this is where a lay betting calculator comes into play. Find a lay betting calculator on the Internet and input the information that you have, and it will then tell you what your lay stake should be.

Thus, from this example, we would input the following data into the calculator:

£25 stake

2.00 back odds

2.02 lay odds

5% commission

The calculator then say that the lay stake needs to be £25.38. It also says that the liability of this bet is £25.89. Therefore, we have to have £25.89 in our exchange balance to lay the qualifying bet. The possible outcomes for this bet are:

If Crystal Palace win, we land a £25 profit with our sportsbook and lose £25.89 with the Betfair Exchange. If Palace draw or lose, then we will end up losing £25 with our bookmaker, but will land a £24.11 profit via Betfair. So, with either scenario, we will losing £0.89. This is known as the qualifying loss.

A Look at the Qualifying Loss

A qualifying loss is practically the small amount of money that you will end up losing when you are matched betting so that you can claim a free bet. You can look at is as a small investment to unlock bigger financial rewards. So, you might have lost 89 pence, but you now have a £25 free bet.

You then just have to repeat the process that we outlined above, but this time use your oddsmatcher site to find a bet with better odds. When you bet with higher odds, the more profit you can make. However, when you bet with higher odds, you will have to have more cash in your exchange balance to pay the liability.

We opt to place our next bet on Southampton. Our oddsmatcher states that their odds of winning are 5.00, while their lay odds are 5.20. Again, using the aforementioned matched betting calculator, we change the mode to "Free Bet (SNR)" from "Normal", which is used with qualifying bets. We then add the information which we know and for this example it is:

£25 back stake

5.00 backs odds

5.20 lay odds

5% commission

The calculator will now show a much healthier profit. If Southampton go on to win, we will make £100 with our bookmaker and lose £81.56 with the Betfair Exchange, which means we land an £18.44 profit.

If Southampton go on and lose or draw the game, then we will lose our free bet with the bookmaker, losing none of our own money, but will land a profit of £19.42. Once Betfair has taken their commission, you will end up with an £18.44 profit.

Now, a profit of around £18 might not sound like much, but if you keep repeating this process then you will soon see your profit margins increase and increase.