WHAT IS MATCHED BETTING?

Many bookmakers offer free bets, you know the sort of thing "Bet £25, receive a free £25 bet" as a signup bonus when opening an account, or maybe to encourage people to have a bet their site during a certain sporting event i.e. World Cup, Champions League, Grand National etc…

Matched betting is a technique involving backing and laying (on a betting exchange) an event in order to win regardless of the outcome using the free bonuses that are on offer as the stake money, thereby making risk free profit.

WHAT IS A BETTING EXCHANGE?

Betting exchanges have revolutionised betting industry in the last few years.  They are like the gambling equivalent of eBay, matching people who wish to bet for and bet against sporting events for an agreed amount of money at agreed odds.  If the bet wins then the bettor receives his winnings paid for by the person who bet against the event.  If the bet loses then the stake is kept by the person who accepted the bet.  The betting exchange itself, which automatically manages these trades, takes a small percentage of the winnings as commission, typically 5%.  Betting exchanges consistently offer a bigger than the regular    bookmakers and offer the extra advantage that you can ask for a better price than is on offer, and hope that someone will come    in and match your request.   There are many exchanges on the Internet now, but the biggest by far is Betfair, and should be the first stop for all players. Also worth a look is Betdaq who are the next biggest player, while several others are also starting to compete for a market share.  For more details and a full tutorial on using Betfair, please click here and select "Play for Fun"

WHAT IS A LAY?

Betting Exchanges offer the opportunity to lay outcomes, which is to bet that a particular participant in an event will not win. In effect you take up the role of the bookmakers by offering a bet for somebody to back that the participant will win.

If you think Team A will win a certain match and place a bet on it, then this is said you have backed that selection. The bookmaker offering that bet would be said to laying that selection. (they do not think it will win).  The two parties will agree the backer's stake and the odds. If Team A loses, the layer/bookmaker keeps the backer's stake. If the Team A wins, the layer will pay the backer winnings based on the odds agreed.

Every bet requires a backer and a layer and the betting exchange.  Although the exchange is not part of the back / lay bet itself it will take a small percentage of the winnings only (not loses) as commission, typically 5% basically for providing the mechanism to trade with.

A layer is always simply the opposite of backing the outcome.  Different events have different numbers of outcomes i.e.win-draw-win, as seen in regular football betting, or win-win, in an event with no draw i.e. snooker, darts, tennis or even win-lose, such as overall event bets such as England to win the World Cup, Reading to win the Champions League etc… Laying the home team is the same as backing the visiting team to win or draw. Laying one horse in a race is just the same as backing all of the other horses in the race to win.

You will also see the term liability used frequently in regard to betting exchanges.  The liability is the potential winnings you would have to pay to a backer should their bet be successful (you lose).  For example, a backer winning a £10 bet at 4.00 (3/1) would have received £40 back including his stake.  If you were the layer of that bet you would have had to payout £30 in winnings, the other £10 is the stake returned.  Therefore you must always have the funds available in your exchange account to payout the potential liability and these are taken by the betting exchange until the bet is settled.

ARE THE RISK FREE BETS TOTALLY RISK FREE?

The only real risk is the human risk.  If  you take your time when placing bets, follow the advice on this site and enter the stakes as directed by the bet72.com risk free calculator then there should be no risk.  If you are new to matched betting then we would advise you to do some paper trading first, i.e. calculate some bets through by working them on paper but without playing with any actual money until you fully understand the steps required.  Put in the odds and stakes for the bet to gain your free bet into our spreadsheet for your selected game.   Then do the same with the free bet you will have been credited to see what profit you would have made and remember if you are in any doubt about anything please don’t hesitate to contact us.

CAN RISK FREE BETS BE USED ON ANY SPORTS?

Yes as the techniques we are using rely on the mathematically placement of bets in a certain way rather than the event itself.  Generally we recommend football as there are so many options each day and with its popularity for betting, it much easier to get a good matched bet (i.e. back and lay). Sports with only two outcomes are also good choice, such as tennis, snooker, darts etc, however please be aware that some bookmakers and betting exchanges have different rules concerning these sports i.e. what happens to your bet if a tennis player retires hurt one side might void the bet and the other pay up on who was leading at the time, so you have to make sure you are always matching the bet on equal terms at both sides.  Always, always, always read the respective companies Terms and Conditions and if in doubt just ask us.

HOW CAN bet72.com GUARANTEE A PROFIT BY PLAYING CASINOS?

It is important to note that Casino strategies are NOT risk free.  Nearly every casino on the internet will offer new members a sign-up bonus; some even offer monthly bonuses to reward your loyalty.  Casinos make money because people lose their bonus money and THEN try to win using their own money.  Our primary objective is to reduce the House Edge (the advantage the casino has over the player) to the smallest possible level and make a long term profit.  The main focus of our strategies centre around Blackjack as this is typically the game with the lowest House Edge to start off with.  By following a strategy for playing Blackjack, you can reduce the house edge from around 5% down to less than 0.5%.  In money terms this means if you had a 100% deposit bonus on a £100 deposit, you would lose £1 of your overall £200 balance, meaning a £99 profit.  Remember the house does still have the advantage, however small, so you could lose on some occasions, but overall the statistics are on your side to ensure you profit in the long term.

WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO FIND OUT ABOUT THE LATEST OFFERS / BONUSES?

The bet72.com website is updated regularly with bets, offers, bonuses details.  Also the bet72.com Risk Free Spreadsheet is updated with the very latest offers and bonuses and includes a last updated date so you can always see if you have the most recent copy.  To receive a bet72.com Risk Free Spreadsheet sign up to our newsletter via our HOME PAGE and you will be sent one immediately. Always keep your personal details (i.e. home address,  email address etc) up to date at all times at the bookmakers and casinos you are registered to.

Companies like to reward loyalty, so keep your accounts active and use them as from time to time they will send out free bets and offers to existing customers.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FRACTION AND DECIMAL ODDS?

Online betting site odds are shown in either the traditional format ½ or decimal 1.5.   Most UK on-line bookmakers keep with the traditional format by default when expressing betting odds 1/2, 11/8 etc, however other companies like betfair.com using the decimal format 1.5, 2.38 so look for an option to set this to decimal on their respective site as it is the decimal figure that we use for the calculations on our spreadsheet.

If however you do need to calculate it yourself, the way to change fractional odds into decimal odds is to divide and add one, e.g. 10/1 + 1 = 11.00, therefore, fractional odds 10/1 becomes decimal odds 11.00.

The table below shows the conversion of the most commonly used odds.