[redmel1621]

(Original post by james22)
Why do gambling sites still let this go on? Surely this is just losing them money?

They don't and many, many matched betters have their accounts closed. Some bookies are more leniant as they still make money from their commission, which is usually around 5% of each bet made.

This was posted from The Student Room's Android App on my GT-P1000

[kratos90]

(Original post by Patchey1000)
3 main ways for me

- sky bet loyalty £5 free bet if you be £10 everyday for 5 days

- Arbing and sharbing laying at lower odds than backing to make a profit either way, sharbing is doing it in shops

- referral bonuses, when your friends see how much your making they'll want to have a go, you can both get bonuses

Ask if you need anyhelp

Thanks I will look into arbing some time, but I've got matched bets to keep me going for a while yet.

So for the sky bet one you get £5 every 5 days? I don't know if I would have the commitment to do this but it's better than nothing I suppose.

[sil3nt_cha0s]

(Original post by james22)
Why do gambling sites still let this go on? Surely this is just losing them money?

the bookmaker doesn't necessarily make a loss. and the betting exchange will make a profit regardless from commission, because at a betting exchange you're betting against another person, not against the house.

[james22]

(Original post by sil3nt_cha0s)
the bookmaker doesn't necessarily make a loss. and the betting exchange will make a profit regardless from commission, because at a betting exchange you're betting against another person, not against the house.

Sorry, I haven't really looked into this much so I don't really understand what you are saying (I have no idea what all those words mean, I've never gambled before). But if you make money, someone must make a loss, so who makes the loss?

[sil3nt_cha0s]

(Original post by james22)
Sorry, I haven't really looked into this much so I don't really understand what you are saying (I have no idea what all those words mean, I've never gambled before). But if you make money, someone must make a loss, so who makes the loss?

if you lose the qualifying bet and free bet at the bookmaker (i.e. win both times at the betting exchange), a random person (betting on the opposite event to you) makes the loss at the betting exchange.

[Amscared]

Hi, im signing up for fixtheodds but to qualify for the 30 pound offer do i have to also deposit 30 pounds into the betfair account initially? it says "To claim your £30 free bet you must have matched bets with a total value of equal to
or more than £30."

[kratos90]

I have won a few free bets now. Just a question relating to when the sign-up offers dry out, I know people continue to make some money through arbs and recurring offers. What about reload offers? Could you in theory make enough to live off from these. I've seen one for 11%, I think this is weekly but I'm not sure. So if you put £1000 in you would get a free bet of over £100. So a few of these and you could earn several hundred per week? Or are there rules about the maximum reload and having to bet a certain rollover of your reload or something?

[Conman]

Ended up winning my qualifying bet at the bookies. Not a big deal as I can withdraw it and deposit into betfair? - just a bit of a pain in the ass.

Im just wondering what approach everyone takes when selecting the right match to bet on when looking through oddmonkey etc. I should be looking for cloesly matched odds but also one where the team im backing is more likely to lose? - The latter seems to be the difficult part...

[hypercaine.]

Im looking into matched betting, on the England game I backed England (£15) with odds at 3.5 and then layed England (£6.62) with odds at 3.45 and ended up making about £23 so I ended up winning money, which is good!

I noticed on Betfair though when you lay it says liability, ive just placed another bet which is £10 on Sweden @ 2.8 and layed Sweden £12.50 @ 3.00 which means im not going to make very much at all (£3) if Sweden win. Is this right?
Where as if I was to layed £10 then I wouldve made the same amount regardless of what happened (£8)?

EDIT - Also, when I use a calculator to work it out for the Sweden game it says I should have layed £9.49 but overall profit wouldve been -£0.98, what exactly does this mean?

[Panda Bear]

(Original post by hypercaine.)
Im looking into matched betting, on the England game I backed England (£15) with odds at 3.5 and then layed England (£6.62) with odds at 3.45 and ended up making about £23 so I ended up winning money, which is good!

I noticed on Betfair though when you lay it says liability, ive just placed another bet which is £10 on Sweden @ 2.8 and layed Sweden £12.50 @ 3.00 which means im not going to make very much at all (£3) if Sweden win. Is this right?
Where as if I was to layed £10 then I wouldve made the same amount regardless of what happened (£8)?

EDIT - Also, when I use a calculator to work it out for the Sweden game it says I should have layed £9.49 but overall profit wouldve been -£0.98, what exactly does this mean?

When you place a lay bet, consider yourself the bookie (let's call you BetXY). So in your example, a punter has bet £12.50 @ 3.00 on Sweden to win. If Sweden win, BetXY pays the punter £37.50 (this is your liability). If Sweden fails to win, BetXY wins the punters £12.50 stake.

Hope that makes sense.

As for the profit of -£0.98, that would only apply to the qualifying bet.

[kratos90]

I have an important matched betting question. If the stake is not returned from a free bet then essentially you only win the value of the free bet (roughly) if your backed bet loses and your lay bet wins? This is why you should back someting with high odds in the hope that your back loses and your lay wins when the free bet is SNR.

When stake is returned it doesn't matter whether your back or lay wins, you will win the free bet either way. Is this right?

[bkeevin]

(Original post by kratos90)
I have an important matched betting question. If the stake is not returned from a free bet then essentially you only win the value of the free bet (roughly) if your backed bet loses and your lay bet wins? This is why you should back someting with high odds in the hope that your back loses and your lay wins when the free bet is SNR.

When stake is returned it doesn't matter whether your back or lay wins, you will win the free bet either way. Is this right?

Yes you are correct. The only thing with SR bonuses is that they usually expect you to turn it over 5-10 times the bonus. So if the bonus is £20 with 5times wager you will have to wager £100 before you can withdraw from the bookie. Most SNR bonuses have no further wagers should you win at the bookie's side so you can withdraw straight away.

[bkeevin]

(Original post by Conman)
Ended up winning my qualifying bet at the bookies. Not a big deal as I can withdraw it and deposit into betfair? - just a bit of a pain in the ass.

Im just wondering what approach everyone takes when selecting the right match to bet on when looking through oddmonkey etc. I should be looking for cloesly matched odds but also one where the team im backing is more likely to lose? - The latter seems to be the difficult part...

If only there was a way to know which bet will lose we would all be millionnaires simply by laying at betfair.

Matched betting unfortunately is a patience game. You may underlay a bit by say only laying £20 instead of £25 of your freebet so that when you win at the bookie you are compensated that you get more from them and lose less at your exchange. You can also think of it as compensation for time waiting for your money and the reduction in your exchange float before the money hits your a/c. But your income from MB will experience alot of variance this way. So it will depend on your attitude to risk/rewards

[mjdt]

A lot of people have mentioned the rollover of free bets. Not sure if anything like this has been posted before but this table (http://www.betting-bible.com/effecti...ign-up-bonuses) shows the amount of times you have to roll over free bets before you can withdraw and also how much you have to deposit to get the deposit.

[united2000]

Getting a bit furious with the WH offers now.
I pick one number for the Roulette and place £10 on it. Once again, for about the 4th time. I have joined the game, its lagged for no reason, it may say optimising video, when its fine, or the traffic light system wont work and just does RED no more bets, annoying when i have 30 seconds to place a bet.The number i was going to pick comes up. Cost me over £1000 in winnings, i know i have not lost any money but it just annoys me greatly!

[Skill]

Can someone verify this for me. Got a £50 free bet with Skybet. Would it be wiser to do the £50 matched betting with Betfair on say Poland/Czech being a draw over say Portugal winning the tournament.

Czech/Poland being a draw will get me £32 profit for £87 liability. Portugal winning tournament will get me £37 profit for £612 liability. I mean it's fairly obvious but just checking it would be wiser to do Czech vs Poland even though I'll get a fiver less?

Following on from that ... I'm wondering how it's possible to find the maximum possible profit both ways with a £50 free bet? Is there a way to check or do you literally have to just bung in loads of various odds into the calculator and try and find it yourself?

[Hopple]

(Original post by Skill)
Can someone verify this for me. Got a £50 free bet with Skybet. Would it be wiser to do the £50 matched betting with Betfair on say Poland/Czech being a draw over say Portugal winning the tournament.

Czech/Poland being a draw will get me £32 profit for £87 liability. Portugal winning tournament will get me £37 profit for £612 liability. I mean it's fairly obvious but just checking it would be wiser to do Czech vs Poland even though I'll get a fiver less?

Wiser? Not really, unless you don't want to have the liability hanging over you potentially to the end of the tournament. Personally I'd try to find good odds in today's matches or tomorrow's, or wait until they appear in a game on that day or the next (I know from the other thread you've got all month to use it).

Following on from that ... I'm wondering how it's possible to find the maximum possible profit both ways with a £50 free bet? Is there a way to check or do you literally have to just bung in loads of various odds into the calculator and try and find it yourself?

This might help, but it is effectively plugging in various odds and seeing what the return is.

[Skill]

Well when I say wiser I guess I mean not having to lay an extra £520 for just about £7/8 less. I don't know really .. I guess there's no risk with Portugal but £612 liability compared to £82. Feels a bit more comfortable taking the latter.

[Hopple]

It's up to you No harm in looking around for other things to bet on, you might find something even better at odds of around 5 (though unlikely ).

[Skill]

Well I found ... Sweden vs France.

Back/Lay Sweden gets you a guaranteed profit of £39.90/£39.92 for a £210.10 liability - but on Betfair there is only £166 available on Sweden at the moment. So not sure if I should play that one!