Matched betting- the penny has finally dropped

all_hours

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote:

so i have to bet that team x is going to win at both sites..is that what you mean . if thats the case if the lose..i lose at both sites
what does lay mean ..

Have another look at the first two posts on the newbie thread - it explains about bookies laying off the bet at another bookies to minimise their losses when they've taken a large number of bets on a particular outcome.

When you choose 'England to win' but pick the lay option - you're betting on 'England not winning'. If you choose England lose and lay the bet then you're betting twice on them winning - once at the bookies and once at the bet exchange.

Dan29

leon103 wrote:

One question though. Do companies like Carol etc only give you free bet ie. Dep £10, £10 free, when you sign up or is it every bet?

Usually just when you sign up, although some will offer further free bets to existing customers.

You do end up opening a lot of accounts with different bookies, but there is a huge number of bookies out there

Fill_7

when u lay a bet at betfair, you are basically taking money off a punter who is betting on an outcome. for example, u bet £10 at a bookies for england to win. to match it, at betfair u lay a bet of £10 for england to win. so what your doing (at betfair) is taking £10 off a punter who is betting on england to win. so i f england win, u get you £10 back at bookies, plus the winnings, and at betfair, the punter gets his £10 back, plus u pay him the winnings cause u took the bet. if england lose, u lose the £10 at bookies, but u gain the punters £10 at betfair. obviously, this leaves u with no profit/loss. but repeat the process with the free bet, and u profit.

clear as mud?

edit: beaten to it, not once, not twice, but 3 times! (must try harder)

leon103

The only thing I can't get my head around is that Matcher spreedsheet

Dan29

leon103 wrote:

The only thing I can't get my head around is that Matcher spreedsheet

It is confusing when you first see it. You use the spreadsheet for each individual bet you do. E.g. if the bookie offer is "Place a £20 bet to get a £10 free bet", your first bet (made with your own money) is:

Free stake: £20 (actually means "stake")
Stake forfeit: 0
Back Profit and Lay Profit then actually tell you how much you'll return you'll get, so if they say £19 you're actually making a £1 loss on this bet.
Lay Stake is what you type into Betfair - it's the amount of stake money you're accepting from the punter (remember, at Betfair you're acting as the bookie).
Lay Risk is how much you have to have paid into Betfair.

For the second, free bet:
Free stake: £10
Stake forfeit: 0 if stake returned free bet, £10 if non-stake returned free bet (don't worry about the difference between these for now!)
Again, Back Profit and Lay Profit are the return on this bet, although this time it really is a profit as you're betting with free money
Lay Stake is what you type into Betfair and Lay Risk is how much you have to have paid into Betfair.

To get your actual profit from these two bets, you subtract any loss you made on the first bet from your profit on the 2nd.

EDIT: Forgot to say, Lay Commission % is 5 for Betfair.

mrslawrence2003

Markyt wrote:

It works alright

Might help to think of it slightly differently.

If you open a bank account with A&L via Quidco, you can get £50 sign up bonus. That has cost you nothing, and you have gained £50. That's not a gamble - you are given the money, and there is no risk to your own funds.

If you open an account with Totesport, for example, you also get a sign up bonus. Unlike the bank account, however, you can't withdraw it until you have used it to bet with.

This is where the matched betting trick comes in - it lets you free the money up so you can withdraw it, regardless of the result of the bet.

Put as simply as I can, you use the bonus money to put a bet on Team A to win.

At the same time, you've been given a sign up bonus for a betting exchange, such as Betfair. You use this money to bet on Team A to lose.

Now, whether Team A wins or loses, you have released the bonus money so it becomes withdrawable. It is either in the form of winnings at totesport, if your team won, or it is in your Betfair account, if your team lost. Either way, you can withdraw the money.


For anyone more experienced reading this, I know you need qualifying bets etc, but I'm trying to get the principle across as that is the same!

so basically the whole idea is to obtain the bonus money? and you do this by either losing none or sometimes a small amount of your own money. (but you dont really lose anything because you are in fact getting the bonus money....)?????

Markyt

mrslawrence2003 wrote:

so basically the whole idea is to obtain the bonus money? and you do this by either losing none or sometimes a small amount of your own money. (but you dont really lose anything because you are in fact getting the bonus money....)?????

Eureka!!! hold onto that and read the matched betting thread again

Dan29

mrslawrence2003 wrote:

so basically the whole idea is to obtain the bonus money? and you do this by either losing none or sometimes a small amount of your own money. (but you dont really lose anything because you are in fact getting the bonus money....)?????

Yes :T

Plus you can often get cashback from Quidco etc as well :j

mrslawrence2003

Dan29 wrote:

Yes :T

Plus you can often get cashback from Quidco etc as well :j

yes - i got £25 from betfair through quidco



right - try again....

tsharp

mrslawrence2003 wrote:

(but you dont really lose anything because you are in fact getting the bonus money....)?????

So the bonus money (the 'free' bet offered by the betting company when you sign up) is not actually placed, just withdrawn (along with any winnings)?