[Skill]

I have a £50 bet token with Skybet. It runs out next month but with the Euro's going on now I would prefer to capitalise on that now.

Just looking to gather various bet types or opportunities as to how best use this £50 free bet token. Go for the long shot? What bet?

[Hopple]

Do you get your stake back? And can you split it up?

Personally I'd go for a long shot if the stake isn't returned and match it on betfair (see here). If you do get the stake back, match it on lower odds to reduce your liability. If you can split it up then do so, might make it more interesting having more events (and reduces your liability if the stake isn't returned)

[Skill]

(Original post by Hopple)
Do you get your stake back? And can you split it up?

Personally I'd go for a long shot if the stake isn't returned and match it on betfair (see here). If you do get the stake back, match it on lower odds to reduce your liability. If you can split it up then do so, might make it more interesting having more events (and reduces your liability if the stake isn't returned)

No I don't get stake returned and can only bet it in one go.

[Hopple]

(Original post by Skill)
No I don't get stake returned and can only bet it in one go.

Ok, go for a long shot and match it on betfair.

If you don't want to do that, then decide which you'd rather have - a likely small win or nothing, or an unlikely large win or nothing.

[Skill]

(Original post by Hopple)
Ok, go for a long shot and match it on betfair.

If you don't want to do that, then decide which you'd rather have - a likely small win or nothing, or an unlikely large win or nothing.

Matched betting confuses me at times.

Let's say I put £50 on Germany to win the Euros with Skybet at 13/5. £50 returns £130 profit. Let's say I lay Germany on Betfair for £50 profit bet at a liability of £147.50. That means if Germany win the tournament I have a loss of £17.50 and if they don't win the tournament I have a 0 profit/loss outcome. Obviously you can adjust the stakes but that's too complicated for me to work out at the moment as I'm half asleep. But my point is I still can't see how there is a worthwhile profit guarantee? I must be missing something?

Edit: Sorry if Germany don't win the tournament I have a £50 profit as the £50 stake on Skybet is not my money. Still though that's a £50+ /-£17.50 outcome. Is it adjustable enough to make a decent profit?

[Hopple]

(Original post by Skill)
Matched betting confuses me at times.

Let's say I put £50 on Germany to win the Euros with Skybet at 13/5. £50 returns £130 profit. Let's say I lay Germany on Betfair for £50 profit bet at a liability of £147.50. That means if Germany win the tournament I have a loss of £17.50 and if they don't win the tournament I have a 0 profit/loss outcome. Obviously you can adjust the stakes but that's too complicated for me to work out at the moment as I'm half asleep. But my point is I still can't see how there is a worthwhile profit guarantee? I must be missing something?

Use this thing. You're counting losing on your £50 token as an actual loss.

Using your example (the odds at Betfair are 3.95?) I'd lay £33.33 at betfair. If Germany win the thing you win £130 at sky, but pay out £98.32 at betfair, a net win of £31.68. If Germany don't win, you don't lose anything at sky, but collect the £33.33 at betfair - take off commission to give you £31.66 win.

If you go for higher odds (with the same difference between sky and betfair odds) then you'll guarantee more money, but you will need to be able to cover your liability.

[Skill]

(Original post by Hopple)
Use this thing. You're counting losing on your £50 token as an actual loss.

Using your example (the odds at Betfair are 3.95?) I'd lay £33.33 at betfair. If Germany win the thing you win £130 at sky, but pay out £98.32 at betfair, a net win of £31.68. If Germany don't win, you don't lose anything at sky, but collect the £33.33 at betfair - take off commission to give you £31.66 win.

If you go for higher odds (with the same difference between sky and betfair odds) then you'll guarantee more money, but you will need to be able to cover your liability.

Ye see my edit in above post ^ I realised that error.

I take it you put £33.33 on betfair so that the profit outcome is a guaranteed equal of around £31-33ish quid both ways?

Interestingly, that could be a good option. I was playing around with that. For instance if I did the free £50 bet on England to win ... that returns £550 profit on Skybet .... don't worry about the liability ... I can afford to put in whatever amount .... it seems provided you have £500/£600 to put into Betfair ... your profits can be even bigger. Anyways, I'm far too tired to think clearly anymore so I shall look into this tomorrow! I might even wait for Germany to get through their group and then trounce (Czech/Poland hopefully) - guaranteeing even bigger profits. Lots to think about!

[manchesterunited15]

England to win with Carroll top scorer. £50 gets you 20 grand at bet365

[Hopple]

(Original post by Skill)
Ye see my edit in above post ^ I realised that error.

I take it you put £33.33 on betfair so that the profit outcome is a guaranteed equal of around £31-33ish quid both ways?

Interestingly, that could be a good option. I was playing around with that. For instance if I did the free £50 bet on England to win ... that returns £550 profit on Skybet .... don't worry about the liability ... I can afford to put in whatever amount .... it seems provided you have £500/£600 to put into Betfair ... your profits can be even bigger. Anyways, I'm far too tired to think clearly anymore so I shall look into this tomorrow! I might even wait for Germany to get through their group and then trounce (Czech/Poland hopefully) - guaranteeing even bigger profits. Lots to think about!

Yeah, you try to balance it unless you do want to have a slight gamble one way or another.

Higher odds effectively reduce the percentage effect of the 'missing' free bet value in calculations, so you can get more back. However, high odds tend to be further away so that counteracts it a little. And of course they blow up your liability.

Just going through the winners' odds, Portugal are the best at 14/1 and 16.0, where you can guarantee £41.65.

[TheInvincibles14]

(Original post by manchesterunited15)
England to win with Carroll top scorer. £50 gets you 20 grand at bet365

Carroll is not going to end up as top scorer. He's not even going to start when Rooney's back in the team. Top scorer will be either Dzagoev or Gomez.

[Skill]

(Original post by Hopple)
Yeah, you try to balance it unless you do want to have a slight gamble one way or another.

Higher odds effectively reduce the percentage effect of the 'missing' free bet value in calculations, so you can get more back. However, high odds tend to be further away so that counteracts it a little. And of course they blow up your liability.

Just going through the winners' odds, Portugal are the best at 14/1 and 16.0, where you can guarantee £41.65.

I get £38? Close enough anyways.

One thing I don't get is the underlay/overlay thing. They give you an underlay outcome and overlay outcome but actually it's not as high/low as you can actually go. If that makes sense? I wonder why that is. I mean it's close enough but I'd have thought you'd go to the maximum possible.

[Hopple]

(Original post by Skill)
I get £38? Close enough anyways.

One thing I don't get is the underlay/overlay thing. They give you an underlay outcome and overlay outcome but actually it's not as high/low as you can actually go. If that makes sense? I wonder why that is. I mean it's close enough but I'd have thought you'd go to the maximum possible.

Portugal have gone up to 16.5 on betfair now, but still at 14/1 (you put decimal odds into the calculator, so that's 15.0) on sky so you can guarantee £40.42 from them.

I don't know why they haven't shown more range for under/overlaying, but you can work it out yourself. Say the sky odds are X, betfair odds are Y (both odds in decimal) and you lay Z there, then you will win 50(X-1)-Z(Y-1) if the thing wins, or win 0.95Z if the thing loses.

[Skill]

I posted this in the MB thread but I'd like to hear what you think Hopple -

'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? '