Matched betting: Free Money - Free bets

A guide to matched betting

Last updated 24th April, 2007

So now that you've unlocked your free bets at both the bookmaker and the betting exchange and hopefully not lost any more than a pound - it's time to start making some profit. The most important thing to consider when looking at bookmakers free bets is to find out whether or not the stake is returned in the bet. If it is, then simply play as before, by finding matches with very close odds. If the stake isn't returned then it's important to find high odds where the stakes at both bookie and exchange are close. This is often a little bit harder. We need to do this as we need to maximise our winnings, because we are never returned with our original stake. At odds of 4.5 you are looking to make around 75% of your stake in profit, and this increases as your odds go higher. However, as the odds increase, the chances of finding a competitive bet and lay bet combination dimishes and the amount of money you'll need to cover your lay bet will also increase. It's usually best to settle on a return of around 70-75% if you can manage.

An example

So let's give an example. Tonight Hibernian are playing Dunfermline in a Scottish Cup semi-final. Hibs are the clear favourites with odds of 1.7 to win. However for Dunfermline to win across the 90 mins gives odds of 5.0, and we are able to lay a bet at Betfair for 5.2. Not the closest ever odds, but not bad considering we are betting on the outsider. So when we enter these values into the Online Calculator we find that must lay a bet of 19.42 and have just over £100 in our betfair account to cover our loss (if our free bet wins).

Looking at the all important bottom box, we can see that our profit percentage is just under 74% which is pretty good and that we stand to make £18.42 profit overall. Easy. Also by betting this second bet, you will also 'unlock' the free money in your betfair account (£25), giving a total profit for two sets of bets of: £43.42

Your ready to get started, and make easy free cash, but hang on. Make sure you read about some of the potential problems andissues.

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