What is Matched Betting?

Matched betting is a betting technique that takes advantage of the free bets and incentives offered by bookmakers.

Matched Betting Overview

Matched betting supporters claim the technique is risk-free. It’s not based on luck: it’s based on the application of a mathematical equation.

Thanks to the rise in popularity of online bookmakers, matched betting is easier today than it’s ever been before.

It Starts With a Free Bet

In order to work, you first need to find a bookmaker who offers a free bet with favorable conditions. You also need to find a betting exchange, which will offset the loss made at the bookmaker.

Bookies offer free bets as an incentive for new gamblers. They’re common around major sporting events, when bookmakers want to entice people who wouldn’t normally gamble.

A free bet might look something like this:

“If you bet $30, we’ll give you a $30 free bet.”

With matched betting, you’re betting a back bet as well as a lay bet. A back bet is when you’re betting for a certain outcome to come true, while a lay bet is when you’re betting against a certain outcome.

In other words, you’re matching your free bet with a backup bet at the same odds. This is called “laying” a bet. Whether the team wins or loses, you’re going to break even.

So how do you make money if you break even? This is where the free bet incentive comes into play. After your first qualifying bet, the bookmaker will give you the free bet as per the incentive. This is where you make your profit.

You repeat the process with the free bet: use the free bet to pick an outcome, and then lay the bet. Now, no matter the outcome of the match, you’re guaranteed to make a profit.

How Much Money Can I Make?

With matched betting, all of your profit comes from the amount of the free bet. You can earn up to 95% of the free bet amount.

Why not 100%? Well, most betting exchanges charge a 5% commission on winnings. Due to minor differences in odds, you could also lose a small amount on your initial bets with either the bookmaker or the betting exchange.

This isn’t a get rich quick scheme. Matched betting requires a certain situation to take place. Bookmakers may only offer free bets around certain major sporting events. So don’t expect to sit at your computer all day and earn thousands of dollars through matched betting. It’s not going to happen.

If you work hard and stay on the lookout for matched bets, then you can however, earn a nice bit of side income. Say, between $15 and $40 per hour.

In the United Kingdom – where sports betting is extremely popular – gambling income is not taxable, which means all the money you make through matched betting is tax-free.

That’s not the case in the United States, where all gambling earnings are taxable.

Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and many other countries do not tax gambling winnings. If you’re going to start matched betting frequently, then you should look up tax laws in your region.

How to Start Matched Betting

In the examples listed above, we told you to find a “bookmaker” and a “betting exchange.” In this day and age, you can find both of these things online without ever going to the seedy part of town.

Step 1) Sign up for two different betting exchanges online.

Step 2) Depending on where you live, you may be able to bet on just about anything. Typically, sports is the best thing on which to bet, because it’s easiest to find odds close to even.

Step 3) Make your life easier by changing your odds display from fractions to decimals. This will make it easier to identify matches with even odds.

Step 4) Some betting exchanges will restrict you to certain odds when placing a free bet: you need to choose a game that has odds of 1.2 or greater, for example. Typically, the minimum odds for most popular better exchanges are 1.50 or 2.00.

Step 5) Search through the list of upcoming games to find a game. After finding a game where the odds meet any restrictions, compare the games on the two different betting exchanges. Make sure they’re as close to even as possible (the closer to even they are, the more profit you’ll make).

Step 6) Place your lay bet and your back bet on the same game, using the two different betting exchanges. Win or lose, you’ll lose a bit of money on one bet and gain a bit of money on the other bet. This will lead you close to breaking even (you won’t quite break even due to small differences between the odds between websites).

Step 7) That’s when you receive your free bet. So instead of breaking even, you’re now up $10 or $20 or whatever the value for the free bet may be.

Of course, you can’t just extract that free bet amount from your account. You have to find another game on which to bet. Find another game that has even odds on both betting exchanges. Then, use your free bet on the one exchange, place a lay bet on the other exchange, and wait for the match to be over. You’ll make profit based on the amount of your free bet.

How to Find Free Bet Incentives

As mentioned above, sports betting is extremely popular in the UK, and most matched betting currently takes place in the UK. The UK is home to dozens of popular online betting exchanges that offer various free bet incentives.

Those who do matched betting full-time will jump between these exchanges, taking advantage of each free bet offer along the way.

Popular betting exchanges, along with their free bet amounts, include the following:

— Paddy Power
— Ladbrokes
— Coral
— Skybet
— Betdaq

These exchanges all require certain minimum odds for your free bet. Those minimum odds range from 1.50 to 2.00.

Matched Betting in the United States and Canada

So far, matched betting has been a popular online activity in the UK and Australia, where online betting exchanges let you freely bet on various matches and give new customers strong incentives to join.

It doesn’t work that way in Canada or the United States. However, Americans and Canadians who are interested in matched can still sign up for various UK and Australia-based online betting exchanges.

Certain betting exchanges accept US and Canadian customers. You make a deposit as you normally would. In some cases, you need to exchange your currency from dollars to pounds or Australian dollars.

After doing that, you proceed using the same techniques as listed above. Then, you wait for North America’s archaic gambling laws to change and allow online betting exchanges.

Ready to Start?

Ultimately, matched betting isn’t a revolutionary concept or a get rich quick scheme. It requires a lot of work to make $10 to $30 per hour online.

You’ll need to be careful when signing up for betting exchanges, choose your games wisely, and make sure to maximize free bet incentives. If you can do all of those things, then you can make a decent bit of extra spending money using matched betting techniques.