LifeBegins' MFW matched betting diary

TallGirl

Lifebegins I am so glad you are up and running and doing so well. I think you are spot on about Coral and Quidco however you loose some and you win some.

I am also tracking my progress in my diary and I think it is a lovely way to record what we are doing and perhaps inspire others. Can I just say I would never had taken the leap if it had not been for Tim holding my hand so to speak. I am feeling so more confident now but it is nice to have someone to ask. I agree with Jessicalamb that the MB board is great have a very clear and precise way of answering that makes it really clear.

Lifebegins good luck with it all, please do the two Coral offers Nine and Chip they take 5 min to do and you get £19 profit. The NoDeal one takes a lot longer but I made £15 so happy enough. My next target is the Betfair Challenge.

Tim_L

From my perspective, I'm very pleased with the way this is all going. Both the participants are getting the hang of things quite quickly, which is really as I'd expect as it's not really that difficult once you take the first step and start. It's certainly not being a drain on my time at all, and of course the gambling board is a great resource as Jess says.

Karmacat

Hi LB
Yes, I'm happy with the way things are going. Haven't done the offers that TG is talking about above, but then, I have a cold. Sob.... I thought my 4th SB freebie had gone pearshaped after all, cos they didn't send me an email, but it was sitting in my account when I logged on to check, so have done that now. And today I got my share of the RAF bonus thingie from (self censorship strikeout!).... so a happy bunny.

What I want now is for someone to explain what underlaying is, and why people do it sometimes....

Tim_L

Underlaying is a bit advanced for this thread really, one for the actual gambling board. It's used often when the winnings from a free bet have to be bet a certain number of times before withdrawal is allowed. Let's keep this thread a simple diary for lifebegins starting out, it'll be more useful that way.

Karmacat

Okey dokey!

lifebegins

I finally plucked up the courage to go for it. I re-read the "rules" in the Newcomer's thread from Tim/ Jessicamb/ Misskool on the gambling board, Tim answered a few more q's and I managed to find my first matched bet:

Man U v Portsmouth
30 Jan

Back odds 1.286 (at Bookies:Coral)
Back stake 20.00
Potential winnings £25.72 inc orig stake

Lay odds 1.28 (at betting exchange: Betfair)
Lay risk £5.85
Lay stake £20.91 (this is not my money, it's from the "other" person betting in the exchange)

In English this means:

If Man U win, I win (£25.72- £20.00) = £5.72 at Coral
and I lose £5.85 at Betfair giving an overall loss of £0.13

If Man U doesn't win, I lose my £20.00 stake at Coral
I win the lay stake of (£20.91 less 5% commission) = £19.87
So again I make a total loss of £0.13

Not much point in that? Not by itself, but doing these gives me a free bet of £10 from Betfair and Coral so my actual profit is £20.00- £0.13 = £19.87:j

So, so far I should have made £19.87 from my bet and tracking £50.00 Quidco from the sign-ups, not bad!

Although it really isn't difficult, I wouldn't have been brave enough without my Mentor, Tim to check and double -check everything. So do use the Gambling Offers board to get your first bets checked. (Thanks for visiting from over there, Jessicamb et al!)

lifebegins

Oh, one more thing. It took me a while to get my head around the concept of laying a bet, so for anyone else in this position this is how I ended up thinking about it:

At the bookies (e.g. Coral) is just straightforward: you place a bet on the outcome you think will happen, if it wins you win at the odds you placed, if it loses you lose your stake. End of story.

At a betting exchange (i.e. Betfair) is a bit different. It acts as a third party/ pot for people to put their money in.
Someone, I'll call him Mr X wants to put a bet on Man U winning at particular odds so requests/places a bet a these odds.
I come along and want to "lay" a bet at the same odds. The bets are then "matched" to each other. This means I basically act as the bookie for Mr X so if Man U wins, Mr X wins back his own stake and his winnings come from me (this is my liability). If Man U lose, Mr X loses his stake to the bookie, i.e. me. I have to pay commission (us. 5%) to Betfair on this.

Of course in practice it's not individuals matching , it's 2 big pots of money, but the principle is the same. (Gamb. board peeps, feel free to correct if I've got this wrong!!)

lifebegins

I forgot to say thanks to TallGirl for the Coral codes. I don't know much about the Coral games (it's different to Matched betting but still get free money) but will investigate further.
I'm assuming it's still minimal risk: I wouldn't want to go down a slippery slope of risking more than, say, 50p!

And with my new found confidence I'm going to set a target of £1000 from MB by the end of the year.

southernscouser

jessicamb wrote: »

(and a couple of oddballs but you get them everywhere )

Thanks very much. :rolleyes:

Good luck LB. The only thing advice I can give is check, check and check again before placing those bets.

TallGirl

Well done Lifebegins for getting your first bet in. You wont loose any money by doing the Coral Games just read the guide on here.
I have just done the Betfair Challenge, should be £20 up. There is a guide to it here:http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=385607&highlight=betfair+challenge
It is post 9 that is the best to read.

Or if you fancy it have a look at how I did it - hope it is ok to post a link to my diary: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=8284085#post8284085

Reading the newbies board on the MB Forum I think there are a lot of new people trying this out. I would say keep it simple to start with and check and check everything before placing a bet.