Matched betting forum - who?

opinions4u

I was turning over £1m a year with a profit margin of just under 1% plus credit card benefits.

Credit card cashback, air miles, Goldfish store vouchers, a big deposit for Mrs o4u to buy a brand new Vauxhall.

21 different bookmaker accounts. A spreadsheet to auto-calculate the matched bet needed and pro-active use of the oddschecker web site.

It was good while it lasted. Three things killed it:

1. Credit card companies charging a fee for betting transactions squeezed my stakes down.

2. A number of bookies banned me or restricted my stakes to a level where effort v reward was a poor equation.

3. It became quite obsessive and was damaging my marriage.

misskool

Hi everyone,

Just a note that matched betting isn't gambling but great caution must be exercised if you haven't done it before Please read the guides and ask the questions on the board

lvm

I did this a couple of years go...did all the accounts or me then in Dad's name, couple of friends then a few in Mum's name. This got me off to a great start with my savings - was nice to get a quick £3-4k instead of trying to save £50 a month or such like.

You do need a good understanding of what you're doing - I wouldn't even suggest doing it just by having websites telling you what to place bets on and for how much - it's good to know how it works.

I only did the sign up offers and haven't done any of the smaller recurring offers although I wish there was something similar which had such good guaranteed returns.

CashCrammer

Definitely worth at least looking into, I've been doing it as a hobby for a few years now and it's nice bits of effectively free cash every so often. Just do tons of research on the match betting board, beginner's guides etc before you even think of depositing into a bookies account!

elantan

nicknameless wrote: »

mmm - to be pedantic the words bet and winnings are not correct here. matched bets (i.e. everything layed off) and profits are more appropriate.

you do need a reasonable bank roll to do this well BUT the profit is in turnover of offers with typically small profits per offer. A £50 profit for a single offer (excluding the more generous sign ups) is rare and gives a false impression of what this is all about. I don't have the stats but would expect per offer profit to be more in the £5-£7 ballpark. the nature of many of the bookie offers at the moment makes turnover a must.

You are of course right I used the wrong terminology, I was placing a bet at one bookie and offsetting it another ( usually bet fair I found them easier to work)

But out of a free £50 from the bookies I was making on average £48 profit, this was years ago before you had to play the money through x amount of times etc, I took advantage of the William hill £200 one for example, more often than not I was making between £25-£50 a time, I don't understand the £5-£7 ballpark that you are talking about but I will admit that I didn't take it as seriously as a lot of others did, I used it to make the money I needed then got out, as I say I would recommend it but you have to be very careful and make sure of what you are doing etc

droopsnoot

nicknameless wrote: »

for 2-3 mins work? what's your hourly rate in your spare time?

100 x £5 =
1000 x £5 =
and so on.

You're absolutely right - I even know you're right, and have all the arguments in my head about why I should start. I think part of it is sticking a few hundred quid into a betting exchange account to cover the lays, just feels like "spending" it.

nicknameless wrote: »

what amuses me about discussion of this on the savings and investments board is that people are talking about annual interest or return in the 2-6/7% range depending on whether we're talking saving or investment. on my typical MB bankroll I'm estimating 150% return per annum. admittedly that isn't scaleable for those with mega riches but it's a reasonable chunk of change for those who want to make the most out of a few £K.

or should I open 17 vantage accounts or whatever they're called? :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Ah, but that's the problem. Although your percentage returns are great, it's not scaleable so you're only going to make a (relatively) low amount.

But I agree, I've gone to the trouble of researching this, have a reasonable idea of how to get started, but still hesitate.