What is Matched Betting? 2025 Beginners Guide

In arbitrage betting, your arb need to be as biggest as possible in percent . – I use only one agent account for more bookies, so… the wallet is only one, so all money comes into only one account It is easy to manage, no need to transfer between accounts. For those who are really committed to apply this strategy in a professional way, I suggest to keep track of bets / profits / all activity in an excel file. This is coming in handy in the learning process , help a lot at overall performance and helps improvement of the strategy. You may remember username and password for 3-4 bookies, but when you have like 50 opened accounts at different bookies , you’ll lose credentials for sure.

Betting exchanges, such as the Betfair Exchange, allow customers to place back bets and assume the role of a fixed odds bookmaker. The business model is peer-to-peer betting and the operator makes money from charging commission on winning bets. Customers can accept (lay) bets at a mutually agreeable price. The exchange brings together backers and layers who strive to match bets. Matched betting involves a back bet with the bookmaker and lay bet on the same outcome with the exchange.

How Matched Betting Works Step by Step

This dynamic forces iGaming operators to refine bonus structures and improve retention strategies—often with the help of AI-driven CRM systems, gamification, and loyalty rewards. The system is legal, although some aspects of it may go against bookmaker terms and conditions. Check out our Trustpilot reviews (rated Excellent) and online communities to see for yourself. Our mission is to weed out the scams, bogus sites, poor tipsters and downright garbage that is out there so you don’t waste any of your hard-earned cash on these. So if you were unlucky, you could lose both your original £25 bet and the £25 free bet and end up out of pocket – not a happy situation. Outplayed.com acts as an aggregator of operator sites which are licensed by the Gambling Commission.

If an operator suspects you of abusing one of their promotions, they are fully within their rights to rescind the bonus or take back any money you made on the bonus. First, you need an NBA bonus bet from a sportsbook offering it and back the Nuggets. Next, you lay the same team i.e. you bet on an opposite outcome at another sportsbook (or an exchange) offering bonus bets for NBA games.

Exchanges have the same registration requirements as bookmakers, so have your details and documents ready. Bookmakers generally offer free bets as a means of attracting new players to their sites. It is also guaranteed to win when executed properly, but bettors need to ensure they do extensive research and double-check their bet details before placing them. Here at Honest Betting Reviews we have reviewed a number of matched betting products, which you can also view below. Please see below for a full explanation of what matched betting is, how it works and whether it can make you money.

The Future of Matched Betting

The betting exchanges allow you to guarantee profits from these free bets because you are betting against other people and can “lay” teams/players/horses – i.e. bet on them to lose. Bookies offer bonus rewards to help you win more, and matched betting is one of the strategies that could turn these into easy cash. The thing about matched betting that makes it such an awesome strategy, even for the newbies, is that you don’t need to know about team history or have knowledge of a sport. It a risk-free and legitimate way to boost your bank account and cleverly use two bets to ensure you build a steady stream of profits over the longer term. Matched betting is a way to make guaranteed profits from bookmaker free bets and bonuses.

Whereas gambling involves speculative risk, matched betting uses mathematics to eliminate uncertainty. By placing both back and lay bets on the same outcome, you cancel out losses and unlock guaranteed profits from bookmaker promotions. When starting with a matched betting strategy, it is a good idea to stick to one or two bookmaker offers, especially as some provide multiple free bets when you open accounts. Verify your account and your deposit method details to ensure you’re ready to place bets.

• It a risk-free and legitimate way to boost your bank account and cleverly use two bets to ensure you build a steady stream of profits over the longer term.
• You’ll need to deposit enough funds into your Smarkets account to cover your £62.40 liability.
• To explain simply, the liability is the amount you are risking – typically on the Lay side of the bet – and will be deducted from that side of the bet if that side loses.
• For example, free accumulator bets can make the strategy very complicated.
• Unlike traditional gambling, matched betting eliminates the element of chance by using calculated techniques involving back and lay bets to cancel out potential losses.

Since then, we’ve put together a strong team of matched betting experts and top developers. All of this means we’ve been able to add new tools, training, videos, tutorials and customer support to the OddsMonkey site. And they’re willing to try anything to grab your attention. In order to attract new customers, many bookmakers offer free bet promotions to encourage people to sign up. A popular offer will be along the lines of “bet £10, get £10 in free bets”.

One is that something will happen, and the other is that it will not. It allows you to cover all outcomes of an event in just a couple of bets, even when there are more than two expected outcomes. Your money will be spread across several bookmaker and betting exchange accounts and it’s easy to lose track of what’s where. Bookmakers only offer you the chance to place back bets but when you use the betting exchange, you’ll be placing lay bets. Doing this allows you to cover all of the outcomes of an event using only two bets (even if there are more than two outcomes). You also head to a betting exchange and place a lay bet on Liverpool to win.

Online bettors are in luck since there are hundreds of reputable bookies with decent welcome offers and reload promos. For example, in a football match there are three possible outcomes – a home win, an away win, or a draw. If you back the home team to win at the bookmaker, this covers one outcome.

You’ll need accounts with several online bookmakers and at least one betting exchange. These accounts are essential for placing both back and lay bets. You can always find up-to-date recommendations for the best bookmakers and exchanges on our site. Although matched betting takes advantage of the free bets offered by bookmakers, these free bets are usually only available after you have deposited and placed initial bets. To do this, you will need to deposit real money into a betting account.

Below, I discuss the back bet, lay bet, and liability further. You’ll also be fine to do all of the reload offers that a bookmaker offers, even if you already have an account with them. Below the liability figure on the calculator, you’ll see the profit you’re locking in from this free bet. In the above example, you’ll make at least £15.50 profit regardless of the outcome.

It can also mean they will no longer offer promos such as free bets. They usually do this for professional punters who win too often, or for arbers and any other punters who take advantage of the system. To avoid this, make sure you bet on two different sites which are not owned by the same company.

How long it takes to learn matched betting can vary depending on the level of detail and effort you plan to dedicate to it. By now, you must have figured out that a matched bet has two parts. These include a back and a lay bet placed against the same result. The odds on either bet and their liability are at the core of the strategy.

Depending on your location or your betting habits, soft bookmakers are giving free bets on your favourites sports, even on horse racing events, like Cheltenham offers. OK, so you’d read a lot of articles, a lot of advices, you analysed a lot of statistics in order to create your own strategy. After you tested on paper, you have so positive results, so you decide to test it on money. Of course, you need some betting accounts, so why you don’t take advantage of sign-up offers cash money or FREE bets.

Now that you understand all the parts it entails and mostbet download what a matched bet would look like, it is time to use a practical example. First, you need to find a bookmaker with a welcome offer and sign up. Next, find a betting exchange and create an account there, too. If your lay bet wins, you get to keep the stake of the backer who matched your lay bet.

In the example above, we extract 50% of the value of the free bet (£5 profit from a £10 free bet). In real life, we can usually extract 80% of the free bet value. So, if your free bet is worth £10, you’ll make about £8 profit.

Based on my Spain example, that is a stake of £9.48, resulting in a slight overall loss of no more than 52 pence. You can see the calculator populated with my numbers below. The key terms of your Betfred welcome offer state that you must deposit a minimum of £10 as your first deposit, which must be made via a debit card.