Zack Wilson is an experienced sports writer with over a decade’s worth of professional work behind him. After cutting his teeth at Goal.com, one of the world’s biggest football websites, Wilson moved into the world of rugby league, and helped take Love Rugby League to its position as one of the UK’s premier rugby league websites. Particular highlights of his career include interviewing the dual-code rugby legend Jonathan Davies, and working in the press box the first time that Scotland played Australia, at Hull, and then England, at Coventry, in rugby league internationals.
Matched Betting Explained
Any matched betting strategy relies on the operator’s offers; it’s all about using the bonus bets and promotions offered by a bookmaker to ensure a profit. As a result, it’s a very different strategy to more standardised forms of betting or even individual bet types such as the Asian handicap. Rather than betting and hoping for a good outcome, matched betting — done correctly — will guarantee you a profit, every single time.
Now if that sounded like total gibberish to you, you’re the kind of person who needs to read this matched betting explained guide, as we’ll be diving into the terms lay betting, what it is and how sometimes you can use it to guarantee profit from your wagers – provided no mistakes are made, of course.
It’s a very complicated tactic to employ, so we can understand how newcomers to the online betting scene may think it above their capabilities, but putting the time and effort into learning the matched betting system is, very often, the difference between a punter losing most of their bets, and a punter winning most of their bets. Here’s matched betting explained, our comprehensive guide to the matched betting strategy.
Key Takeaways
Very often can guarantee profit
Dependent on knowledge of markets
Very effective in sports betting
Utilises multiple operators’ offers to maximise profit
Can lead to restrictions on betting accounts
Top tips for smashing the Matched Betting Strategy
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It’s about using your offers
The matched betting system uses the promotional offers given to all players (specifically new account offers) to try and guarantee you profit. The way this is done, is by utilising the betting exchanges online. First things first, you want to release a bonus bet by staking the appropriate amount and then laying the exact same bet on one of the exchanges – Betfair or Smarkets, for instance. If done properly, then you should only be losing about £1.
Then, you take the bonus bet you’ve been given for placing your £10 (or however much it is) qualifying bet, and you put that bonus bet on the sports market of your choosing. Keep in mind the fact that it doesn’t have to be sports markets, but they’re especially useful for this strategy as the odds rarely change before the events starts and the odds are so varied.
Using an online matched betting calculator, you should be able to employ a similar tactic to the one you did to qualify for the bonus bet. Lay the same bet as you’ve backed, making sure you have enough in your account to cover the liability, and you should be looking at guaranteed profit if done properly. You’ll only be able to use this method in conjunction with any bonus bets being offered by the operator but, with matched betting explained, you should have no problem making the very most of your offers. If you are about to use a bonus, be sure your payment method qualifies – you can find out more about this in our Ecopayz accepted betting sites guide.
Look far and wide for offers
When you’re using the matched betting strategy, finding an assortment of different offers is absolutely crucial to your overall success. It’s therefore well worth spreading your net far and wide in order to secure as many potential offers as possible, even if you want to do some election betting. You’ll still want to research each of the operators you find to ensure they are fully licensed – and the Betting.co.uk operator reviews should prove to be helpful in this regard – but making sure you have a number of options for offers should prove to be beneficial.
Consider placing “mug” bets to guard your accounts
Account restrictions are one of the most aggravating things for experienced gamblers. They can range from a stake restriction to a complete ban on your account, and happen when operators reviewing your account (which they do regularly and thoroughly) notice that you’ve taken heavy advantage of promotions and offers.
Bookmakers generally frown upon matched betting; it’s not illegal, but it’s also not something that operators are happy for customers to do. As a result, a number of sophisticated systems are used by bookmakers in order to identify the accounts with “suspicious” betting patterns that could indicate matched betting – and if an account is flagged, it will swiftly be restricted or outright banned.
There’s no real way to guarantee against this. Account restrictions are a part and parcel of life for matched bettors (and is one of the reasons you should be extremely cautious if you decide to give this strategy a try – you could end up without any bookmaker accounts in the long run). However, some matched bettors do suggest that “mug bets” – i.e. bets that aren’t part of an offer and are instead just general wagering – can help to stave off account closures.
Check everything twice… no, thrice
The matched betting system is so exact, and relies so much on two bets to help guarantee profit, that should you make a clerical mistake while placing your back or lay bets you could be losing out on loads of profit. And that’s a big no-no.
Keep a record of every single bet you place, and go back and check both the back and lay repeatedly to ensure everything is exactly as it should be. We know, we know – when you’re putting your money down, you’re so excited that you just want to get it done. Maybe you’ve only got two minutes till kickoff – maybe you’re running out of battery in the pub – maybe you’re trying to place a wager on the train and you’ve only got signal for a couple of minutes. Whatever your reasoning, it’s never a good idea to stick your matched bets on without checking everything.
Other Strategies
As our matched betting explained has now covered the most pertinent points relating to this strategy, it’s worth thinking about the other betting strategies that are available to punters. Using multiple profit-making tactics all at once could well be the key to success, but you should always be careful when making multiple bets at once that the potential losses don’t highly outweigh the potential profits.
Just like the 1.01 betting strategy, matched betting isn’t easy and requires a lot of practice to make work properly. It’s going to take you a while to get your head around the process, especially if you’re relatively new to online gambling, although this learning process is definitely worth it. And if this hasn’t worked for you, be sure to look into in-play betting, more information about this can be found in our review of the best in play betting sites.
There is, however, the rather significant downside: our matched betting explained guide has had to include discussions of the fact that account restrictions are absolutely inevitable, and complete bans are far from unheard of. As a result, be cautious if you do decide to give matched betting a try – it can be a good strategy, but one that tends to be rather short-lived.
New customers only • Promotion valid until March 16th, 2021 • 18+ • Min deposit of £/€/$10 with promo code CHEL40 • A qualifying bet is a ‘real money’ stake of at least £/€/$10 on Horse racing• Min odds 1.50 • Free Bets credited upon qualifying bet placement and on the 16th March 2021 and expire after 7 days • Free Bet stakes not included in returns • Restrictions apply to withdrawals, payment methods, and countries. Full T&Cs apply
New UK+IRE customers only. Promo code: 20FREE. Paypal and certain deposit types and bet types excluded. Min £/€5 bet within 14 days of account reg at min odds 1/2 = 4 x £/€5 free bets. Free bets valid for 4 days on sports, stake not returned, restrictions apply. T&Cs apply
New customers only. Deposit £10 min and claim in ‘my offers’ 1×100% mobile in-play profit boost. Max stake £10. Max extra winnings £100. Valid for 30 days. Skrill/Neteller deposits do not qualify. 18+ www.begambleaware.org. T&C’s apply
New customers only. Min. Deposit £5. Bet credits available for use upon settlement of bets to value of qualifying deposit. Min odds, bet and payment method exclusions apply. Returns exclude Bet Credits stake. Time limits and T&Cs apply. Funded account required, or have placed a bet within 24 hours. 18+ Geo restrictions apply.
New UK+IRE customers only. Paypal & some deposit & bet types excl. Min first £5 bet within 14 days of account reg at min odds 1/2 = 4x £5 free bets. Free bets valid for 4 days, stake not returned. No cashout, restrictions. 18+ begambleaware.com T&Cs apply
New customers only • Promotion valid until March 16th, 2021 • 18+ • Min deposit of £/€/$10 with promo code CHEL40 • A qualifying bet is a ‘real money’ stake of at least £/€/$10 on Horse racing• Min odds 1.50 • Free Bets credited upon qualifying bet placement and on the 16th March 2021 and expire after 7 days • Free Bet stakes not included in returns • Restrictions apply to withdrawals, payment methods, and countries. Full T&Cs apply
