Matched Betting

[MarillionFan]

I came across an article on the weekend about some couple who had given up work to make money on the internet.

One of those methods was Matched betting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matched_betting

Quite intriguing concept. Having done my dissertation years ago on Gambling, I haven't really paid much attention, but I had always thought that using betting sites to offset bets, or find where the overround < 100% was an interesting concept, but never looked further.

Anyway, looks like in the last few years a whole little village industry has crept up around taking advantage of free bets, and sign up offers on betting sites, where effectively you lay the bet with an exchange, so that you can cash in on the free bets, and take the money out as cash. This site seems to be the leader in providing data. Matched Betting Made Easy | Profit Accumulator

I thought it seemed a little harmless way for the wife to make some extra pin money, my only thought was, you're going to get a shed load of spam on any web account, plus you'll probably feck up your credit rating. People make 500-2000 per month. My thought was, what's the hourly rate work out at?

Anyone tried it?

[DimPrawn]

Very interesting.

A better plan b would be setting up a website offering similar to Matched Betting Made Easy | Profit Accumulator and charge people £100 a year for the service.

That one says it has over 10,000 active members.

Do the maths!

[FatLazyContractor]

I thought it seemed a little harmless way for the wife to make some extra pin money,

I'd suggest you put her in touch with NLyUK.

[MarillionFan]

Very interesting.

A better plan b would be setting up a website offering similar to Matched Betting Made Easy | Profit Accumulator and charge people £100 a year for the service.

That one says it has over 10,000 active members.

Do the maths!

No I completely agree. That's what the guy started doing. Doing it himself, few blogs, making tax free cash, then started a website.

The concept is completely sound, but seems like a load of hard work. Now, if you could automate the whole process, then you're laughing.

Being the owner of the forum or exchange would be better. CUK has 10's of thousands of forum members, think how much Admin is raking it in with all those subscription fees.

[FatLazyContractor]

Being the owner of the forum or exchange would be better. CUK has 10's of thousands of forum members, think how much Admin is raking it in with all those subscription fees.

Think about all that money he pays NAT and Cojak for moderating the tulip you post. Not to forget the money he pays NLYUK for stress relief

[DimPrawn]

No I completely agree. That's what the guy started doing. Doing it himself, few blogs, making tax free cash, then started a website.

The concept is completely sound, but seems like a load of hard work. Now, if you could automate the whole process, then you're laughing.

Being the owner of the forum or exchange would be better. CUK has 10's of thousands of forum members, think how much Admin is raking it in with all those subscription fees.

Why bother automating it, get the lazy arsed mrs to do it whilst she's cooking your tea and doing the ironing.

[GJABS]

The source of the profits would seem to be the £50 bonuses that bookies offer to new members.
While I'm sure it is easy to get one £50 from a bookie, if you want to make £2000 every month you would need to open accounts with 40 bookies. Aren't you going to run out of bookies pretty soon?
And aren't the bookies going to start getting wise to the scam, and restrict the way you spend the bonus like online casinos do.

[TheBA]

Arbing has been around for years, I did it about 10 years ago and it wasn't new then plenty of sites/sign up group like the above back then.
It not hard but takes a bit of effort. You can get royally screwed if your winning side get pulled by the bookie

[psychocandy]

Did a few years ago when I was permie (and had more time and less money).

Made about £1500 doing the matched betting thing. You can get spreadsheets to record it all, and also to work out how much to bet etc. Its a good laugh thinking I just made £40-£50 for 20 mins putting on a few bets.

Only thing is though, the bookies are getting wise to it so some of the intro offers are not as good. Also, some of the offers are one-off so once you've done them all its done - although there are some repeatable ones (usually around cheltenham festival). Also, you need a wedge of money to start off (i.e to lay the bets in your betfair account).

On a similar note, many years before I did the online casinos thing. Some of these were offering 100% match on say £100. And then you just had to bet it 2x to withdraw (i.e. you had to wager 2x deposit+bonus = £400).

So deposit £100, get another £100, play 400 hands of blackjack (which is game with the lowest margin - if you play it right, you can get charts off internet telling you what to do in every situation). Withdraw on average £180-£190 or so (i.e. lost £25). A lot you'd get £100 quidco as well so you couldnt lose! (almost £200 profit for probably an hours playing blackjack)

Of course, you've got to not be dull enough to go back which is what they want.

There were tons of casinos. Not good these days - they've wised up to this - now wager requirments are generally stupid like 20/30x so its just not practical.

Must have made £4000-£5000 on the casinos though.

[LondonManc]

Football matches often provide a source of free money when mixed with bookies offering intro deals.

Get your spreadsheet out, match up how much the free bet is with the other amounts needed (what you need to stake vs return on the other two outcomes). Place your bet with the site doing the offer, place your offset with whichever side doing the best odds on the other team (typically via oddschecker), then get your free bet and whack it on the draw on in-play betting within half a minute of the match starting; you'll generally get the same odds as the quoted draw and generally speaking only an away goal early would change it for the worse.

There's a blog that explains it all in far more detail if you're having trouble sleeping