Matched Betting Guide: Matched Betting for Dummies

The overarching concept of matched betting is that you will be ‘backing’ and ‘laying’ bets. It’s super-important for you to understand what these two terms mean, as each matched betting opportunity requires both a back and lay bet for you to make money.

Let’s elaborate with a couple of examples.

When you back a bet, it means that you want the selection to win. This is no different from placing a standard bet. For example, if you walked into your local betting shop and placed a bet on Manchester United beating Arsenal, you would be placing a  back bet.

For example, if you placed a £10 back bet at odds of 2/1, your potential return is £30 – which consists of £20 in profit – plus your original £10 stake.

Note: For the remainder of this matched betting guide, we will only refer to odds in their decimal form, and not fractions. This is because matched betting requires you to find back and lay bets that are priced as close as possible. By opting for decimal odds, this makes the process much easier.

If Manchester United then went on to win the game, you would win the back bet.

The laying segment of matched betting is the most difficult to get your head around at first, as it essentially operates in reverse to a back bet. In its most basic form, laying a bet means that you want your selection to lose. If it does, then you win.

In this sense, you are acting as the bookmaker, as you are taking bets from the player in the hope that the selection loses and thus – you keep the stakes.

Still confused? Let’s look at a quick example of how laying a bet works in practice.

• Sheffield United are playing Liverpool at home
• The odds of Sheffield United winning are 3.0
• However, you don’t think that Sheffield United will win, so you decide to place a lay bet at £50.
• This means that you want the game to end in a Draw or Liverpool win.
• If Sheffield United do win, you would need to pay out at odds of 3.0. As you collected £50 in stake, your ‘liability’ is £100 (£50 x 3.0, less the stake).
• If the game is a Draw or Liverpool win, you would keep the £50 stake, much like a bookmaker would.

As you can see from the above example, when you lay a bet, you essentially want it to lose. If it does, you keep the stake. If it doesn’t, you need to pay out at the odds you took.

This means that you are now ready to learn how matched betting actually works in practice. More importantly, we are going to show you how your matched betting endeavours are risk-free.

The easiest way for us to explain this is to give you a matched betting step by step guide of the entire process that you will need to complete with each bookmaker. Once you know the process inside-out, you can then repeat it over and over again to claim as many free bets as you can!

First and foremost, you will need to find an online betting site that is offering a matched deposit bonus. There are hundreds to choose from, so there’s no hard-and-fast rule as to which bookmaker you need to start with.

Once you’ve selected a bookmaker, you will then need to open an account. To process takes just 2 minutes, and will require you to enter the following information:

• First and Last Name
• Home Address
• Date of Birth
• Nationality
• Email Address
• Mobile Number

You will also need to choose a username and a strong password.

Now that you’ve opened an account, you will need to deposit some funds. Online betting sites offer heaps of payment methods, so you’ll likely get to pick from one of the following:

• Visa
• MasterCard
• Maestro
• Visa Electron
• PayPal
• Neteller
• Skrill
• Paybymobile
• PaySafeCard
• Local Banking

You will need to deposit an amount that is equal to the bonus with which you intend to claim. For example, if you’re opting for a 100% matched deposit bonus of up to £100, deposit the full £100 to maximize the bonus!

Once your account is funded, you are advised to verify your identity. This is a minimum requirement for all UK bookmakers, as stipulated by the Gambling Commission. Although you don’t need to do this straight away, you will need to do it before you are able to make a withdrawal. As such, it’s best to upload the required documents before proceeding to the next step.

This is likely to include:

• A government-issued ID (Passport or Driver’s License)
• A proof of address (Bank Statement, Utility Bill, Etc.)
• Copy of the front and back of your debit/credit card

Top Tip: We at WinnerSports.co.uk would suggest uploading your verification documents to your device/email account before you start your matched betting endeavours. This will allow you to easily verify your identity as soon as you open an account with each bookmaker.

So now that you have opened an account, deposited funds, and verified your identity, you are now ready to place your qualifying bet. As we noted earlier, this is required to activate your free bet, which will be credited once the bet has settled.

Here’s where things start to get a bit more complex. Let’s say that you are claiming a 100% matched deposit bonus at £100. This means that you will need to place an initial £100 bet to get your £100 free bet.

Now, if you were to simply place the bet without engaging in matched betting, you would stand the chance of losing £100. This is not matched betting, as you would be risking your capital. On the contrary, matched betting is risk-free.

As a result, you need to find a suitable sporting event that will allow you to lay your initial £100. Before we explain how you do this, it is important to note that in most cases, the qualifying bet will result in a very small loss. This is likely to be capped at 1-3% of your initial bet. In return for making a minute loss, you will then get your free bet, which in turn, will allow you to make a guaranteed risk-free profit.

Moving on, the overarching objective here is to find a betting market with a very similar back and lay price. For example, if the back price was 1.80, we would want to find a lay bet in the 1.80-1.83 range. Anything higher than this and we stand to lose more money than we hoped for through our qualifying bet.

To help us achieve this goal, we need to use a matched betting automatcher website. Such websites allow you to enter the bookmaker that you are claiming the free bet from, and then they will find you a suitable market. The automatcher calculator will also advise you what stakes you should make on both your back and lay bets, so it’s super-useful.

• To keep things simple, let’s say that you place your qualifying bet on Chelsea beating Newcastle at odds of 2.20.
• You are placing a £100 qualifying bet
• If Chelsea wins, you’ll get £220 back (£120 profit plus £100 stake)
• If Chelsea don’t win, you lose the £100 stake

Now that you’ve placed your qualifying bet, the next stage of the matched betting process is to place a lay bet. As noted above, your chosen matched betting calculator will advise you what betting exchange you need to use to do this, and at what stakes. In most cases, the betting exchange in question will either be Betfair or Smarkets.

In this example, we’ll say that the lay bet is to be placed at Betfair. As such, you’ll need to head over to the Betfair website and open an account. You’ll also need to deposit funds and verify your identity – much like you did with the bookmaker.

As per the automatcher website, we need to do the following:

• We need to place a lay bet on Chelsea beating Newcastle
• The lay odds on Betfair are 2.22
• The automatcher tells us to place a lay bet at £99.10
• This means that your liability is £120.90 – which is what you will need to pay out if Chelsea win

Once you’ve placed your lay bet, the possible outcomes are as follows:

As you can see from the above, regardless of whether or not Chelsea won the game, you made a £0.90 loss. Sure, you made a very small loss, but this means that the bookmaker will now credit your £100 free bet.

Once the bookmaker has settled your qualifying bet, they will then credit your account with your free bet. Sticking with the same example, this means that we now have a £100 free bet balance.

In order to guarantee ourselves a risk-free profit, we need to find a suitable betting market. Once again, we’ll head over to our matched betting automatcher website and let it suggest a market.

Let’s say that the automatcher suggests betting on the Wolves vs Aston Villa game. We essentially need to repeat the qualifying bet process by placing a back and lay bet.

Below we have listed an example of what the matched bet might look like.

If Wolves win the game, the bookmaker bet will return £125, as you don’t get the stake back. You would then lose your liability of £71.74 at Betfair. This means your overall profit is £53.26.

If Wolves don’t win the game, you don’t lose anything at the bookmaker, as your £100 bet was a free bet. With that said, you would make £53.25 (includes exchange commission) at Betfair, taking your overall profit to £53.26.

As you can see from the above, regardless of whether Wolves won the game, you would make £53.26 in guaranteed risk-free profit from matched betting!