LifeBegins' MFW matched betting diary

lifebegins

It's 6.45am Sunday morning, everyone else is still in bed and I've finally got a few minutes to start posting....

First a bit of background: I'm a ???ty-something Northerner with 3 small Lifebeginners and an OH who leaves all the money stuff to me (little does he know....). We bought what for us is our dream house last year and don't intend moving again. Unfortunately it came with a pretty hefty mortgage, so my New Year's resolution is to start overpaying it this year. I wandered over to this board for some ideas, and came across OnceBittens thread on Matched betting. Hmm, interesting but scary I thought. I should point out at this stage:

1. I've never placed a bet in my life

2. I don't follow sport unless forced by OH/ DS

3. I've always thought gambling is one of the fastest ways to lose money.

4. I have a family and job so not that much spare time.

But, Tim_L, a veteran of the Gambling board, assured me that if you follow some simple rules, it's pretty much risk-free. He also kindly offered to take a couple of people under his wing if we post our experiences here, as it can be a bit daunting at first (thanks, Tim!).

So, here I am. I'll try and keep a diary of my progress so any who fancies it can see how it works out.

Wish me luck (although I suppose, if I follow the rules, I shouldn't need any.....!)

Karmacat

Good for you - I love the name, by the way, lovely. I'm a new m.b.er, I'm just finishing my first bookie, and including cashback sitting in quidco and not actually in my palm, I've literally already doubled my opening stakes of £60 at betfair and £60 at the bookie. And I made quite a few mistakes, could have done better. But its a lot better to have got £120 than nothing at all, I'm really, really chuffed. I understood the principle of the thing a while ago, but the practicalities terrified me, quite frankly, I'm not always great on detail, and thats where my slip ups have come. Follow the rules. It doesn't matter if you don't know anything about sport, I certainly don't - and my first matched bet was on a team called Tripolis. I can't help thinking of them as Libyan (Tripoli, geddit?) but I'm pretty sure they're Greek or something. As long as you're sure its a match, it doesn't matter. And if its a match, its not gambling in any way I understand it. Of course, I'm gambling that I understand! But I'm not gambling on a football match, in the sense of mugpunting (great word I've just discovered!). Anyway, good luck, and I'll watch your diary with interest.

Tim_L

As tallgirl explained elsewhere, I walked her through a Corals signup over the weekend, and just about everything that could happen happened - didn't track at Quidco, possibly because of the bingo either. But it all worked out OK, and she still has the 'CHIP', 'NINE', and maybe 'NODEAL' codes to do (the last one is for the dedicated only, it's supremely tedious).

As a word of advice, I'd avoid the obscure teams at bookmakers. Stick to English Premiership and Championship football. Betting on the Greek 2nd Division telegraphs you as a bonus bagger to bookmakers, and some of them can get shirty about it. Won't be a problem with the bigger bookies, but there are some who will refuse bonuses (sportingbet being one) if you bet on odd stuff.

Karmacat

Thanks Tim, thats good advice - sportingbet have actually been fine with me, the bonus bets have turned up regular as clockwork (of course, now I've said that, it will go completely pearshaped for the last one!). Still the qualifier I did last week was for Santander, and I've used them before, so I'm hoping this one will go through too.

lifebegins

Well, I signed up to Coral and Betfair yesterday so I'm ready to look for my first bet, though I'm definitely not placing anything until I've had it checked out by Tim.

One thing to mention about signing up to Coral through Quidco: my Quidco screen came up with a warning in an orange box saying that cashback would only be paid by Quidco if the free bet code used was the Quidco one. This meant that on the minus side I only got a £10 free bet with the CORALTD code already in the box, but on the plus side my £25 cashback is already tracked and validated in my Quidco account. I don't know if there are any other "quidco" codes that would be OK for cashback and a give a bigger free bet.

My other mistake (apart from not checking this with Tim : duh!) was depositing more than my free bet amount in Coral. I deposited £20 and then when I read vthe Terms & C's realsied I have to bet the whole of my first deposit before I get awarded the free bet, I should have put in £10.

As you see, if I can end up making money with this, I'm sure anyone can. I hope overcoming my pride and posting my mistakes will help you avoid these pitfalls! More soon.

Daft_Pegasus

Good luck with this (not that you'll need it as it's not gambling).

I will follow this thread with interest and will probably have a go at this myself.

dollydoodah

Best of luck - I shall be watching your progress with interest as matched betting has always interested me, but terrified me at the same time.

David_B_2

Just read the follow ups to the original thread by Oncebiten.

Nice idea by Tim and Lifebegins and all the very best of luck to you Lifebegins.

In a few months time you'll be laughing at how worried you was (for no reason) and how easy you can make good free money.

Since I jumped on the MB'ing bandwagon last July I've got other family members making free money too :-)

Original thread by Oncebiten here for others to reference http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=643621

Riq

Good luck.
I've been MB'ing for a few months now and the first bet was the most nerve racking point of all the MB'ing I have done.I know what Tim_L means about the NODEAL coding being tedious. 200 games of DOND is enough to drive anyone insane!!

lifebegins

Thanks for all the support guys, seems like you're all doing pretty well at this!

KarmaCat, you've made a great start hope I can do the same. I can see I'm going have to learn a whole new language to understand the posts on the Gambling loophole board (I'll make sure I avoid Mugpunting)!

A couple of things I forgot to mention for anyone thinking about starting from scratch:

1. I set up a new e-mail account as you will apparently get lots of spam from the bookies etc. and I didn't want it on my main e-mail.

2. I am also using a dormant current account, rather than my main bank account as I didn't want lots of gambling transactions showing up, just in case I ever need to show my statement to anyone.

3. I discussed it with my OH: He's very sceptical about the whole thing, but is happy to be proved wrong!

Right, must find that bet now...

jessicamb

Good luck lifebegins - hope you manage to achieve your targets.

Theres lots of friendly people (and a couple of oddballs but you get them everywhere ) on the gambling intro offers board if you need any help