Basics
Football (UK football) is the best and easiest market to begin with. When placing a bet at a bookies, you place a 'stake' (your bet amount) on the outcome of some event, at particular odds. With a football game for example, if you were to place a £10 bet on Team A winning the football match at odds of 3/1 (4.0 decimal odds) you would win £40 (your stake of £10 and the winnings of £30). If however you lost the bet, the bookmaker would keep your £10 and you would receive nothing.
Now imagine that you are the bookie, offering the same odds to someone else on the same outcome, if the bet loses you gain their £10, however if their bet wins you have to pay out £40 (£10 of their money back, plus £30 of your money). This is called 'laying' a bet and is something which can be done only on Betting exchange like Betfair.
Now if you were to place the above bet and then lay the same bet at the same odds (acting like a bookie), then whichever the outcome of the game, you would not lhave lost any money, both bets would cancel each other out. This therefore means you can place a qualifying bet as above at a bookmakers for almost zero loss and you will then be given the free bet which if used with a corresponding lay bet, will give you a guaranteed £10 profit.
In reality, betting exchanges charge a small commission on winnings (5%), and it is not always possible to 'lay' bets at the exact odds as the bookies. Taking this into account it is still possible to make a 90% profit on each free bet without much trouble and without risk.
STEP 1: Locate a bookie with a free bet offer. Almost all online bookies have some sort of free bet deal for people signing up to them. Do a quick search on Google. For your first matched bet, look for low value free bet offers, (£10, £15 Free bets) as you learn the technique.
STEP 2: You normally have to place a qualifying bet before you can get your freebie. So deposit enough money to make your first qualifying bet. Credit cards may incur a charge whereas debit cards may not. I recommend using moneybookers to keep all your gambling transactions confidential from your bank. Open your betting account and read the T and Cs to check the type of free bet and the conditions for using it, some have stake returned bets (SR) others use stake not returned (SNR). If you aren't sure then email the customer service and ask what the conditions are.
STEP 3: At the bookie's site, change the odds into decimal odds byusing the tick box on your account page. Decimal odds are easier to compare between the bookies and the exchange. Decimal odds are represented as a single number, e.g. 6.0 (as opposed to 5/1)
STEP 4: Download a matched betting application which calculates exactly how much to back/lay when placing a matched bet. Download it below:
Now imagine that you are the bookie, offering the same odds to someone else on the same outcome, if the bet loses you gain their £10, however if their bet wins you have to pay out £40 (£10 of their money back, plus £30 of your money). This is called 'laying' a bet and is something which can be done only on Betting exchange like Betfair.
Now if you were to place the above bet and then lay the same bet at the same odds (acting like a bookie), then whichever the outcome of the game, you would not lhave lost any money, both bets would cancel each other out. This therefore means you can place a qualifying bet as above at a bookmakers for almost zero loss and you will then be given the free bet which if used with a corresponding lay bet, will give you a guaranteed £10 profit.
In reality, betting exchanges charge a small commission on winnings (5%), and it is not always possible to 'lay' bets at the exact odds as the bookies. Taking this into account it is still possible to make a 90% profit on each free bet without much trouble and without risk.
STEP 1: Locate a bookie with a free bet offer. Almost all online bookies have some sort of free bet deal for people signing up to them. Do a quick search on Google. For your first matched bet, look for low value free bet offers, (£10, £15 Free bets) as you learn the technique.
STEP 2: You normally have to place a qualifying bet before you can get your freebie. So deposit enough money to make your first qualifying bet. Credit cards may incur a charge whereas debit cards may not. I recommend using moneybookers to keep all your gambling transactions confidential from your bank. Open your betting account and read the T and Cs to check the type of free bet and the conditions for using it, some have stake returned bets (SR) others use stake not returned (SNR). If you aren't sure then email the customer service and ask what the conditions are.
STEP 3: At the bookie's site, change the odds into decimal odds byusing the tick box on your account page. Decimal odds are easier to compare between the bookies and the exchange. Decimal odds are represented as a single number, e.g. 6.0 (as opposed to 5/1)
STEP 4: Download a matched betting application which calculates exactly how much to back/lay when placing a matched bet. Download it below:

matcher.exe | |
File Size: | 73 kb |
File Type: | exe |