PROVIDING YOU WITH ALL THE BEST BETS
Nobody wants to be gubbed. We want to carry on Match Betting to supplement our incomes. Got your eye on a five star holiday? The tax free profits from matched betting can be a great source of additional dough.
And to keep that income coming in we need to make sure that we stay onside with the bookies. Don’t forget, they are monitoring all of their accounts like the Eye of Sauron to make sure punters aren’t making too much money from them. They want to make money from us. Not the other way round.
The larger bookmaker accounts can be worth up to £200 per month each. If that was a work incentive you’d try pretty hard to work towards your bonus, wouldn’t you?
The good news for us is that there are a few ways that we can stay under the bookies radar and keep on making those profits. This guide is intended to help you blend in with regular punters, but don’t forget Yesbets has plenty of other useful resources to help you, such as its Matched Betting Guide.
All of these resources, blogs and articles are there to help maximise the amount of profit you make from free bets for the longest possible time. That holiday isn’t going to pay for itself, now is it?
Step Away from the Ponies
Not all of the time. Going wild at big racing festivals like Ascot, Cheltenham and Aintree is perfectly normal. During these festivals online bookmakers are falling over themselves, and each other for that matter, with free bets to encourage us to punt on the nags. This is anticipated, expected and perfectly normal.
But having a punt on a third favourite in the 13:40 Westwood Handicap on a Thursday at Beverley when you normally stick to betting on football matches at the weekend is going to raise a flag to the powers that be. Even professional horse racing gamblers are seeing their accounts limited. Bookies are trying to limit their liability at every juncture. Stick to the big races and we are on the inside track and final furlong when it comes to avoiding being gubbed.
Create a Mug Punter's Profile
The idea is that we seem like a normal punter. We have to behave like a normal punter. “Normal” people tend to bet on their favourite teams because they have an emotional attachment to them. They want their teams to do well so they back them to the hilt, even if it means losing every week. I mean, we wouldn’t bet on our favourite teams to lose, now would we?
By betting on the same team every week we appear to bookies that we are just another Joe wanting our team to do well. Don’t forget, we aren’t punting this money. We are always backing and laying, matching these bets so the actual outlay we are spending on staying under the radar is limited.
As a general rule, place two mug bets for every bonus you take up. Don’t do this robotically. A system like this could also raise a flag for the bookies’ mysterious trading teams. But it’s a good idea to throw in some mug bets when you’re attracted by a bonus offer to throw bookies off the scent that you are matching these bets for profit.
Don't Lap up Every Reload Bonus
Who doesn’t want to take advantage of free bet offers? After all, that’s why bookies put them up there. That’s why they send you the texts and the emails day after day. They want you in, flashing your dough like you own a pizza parlour.
But if you’re taking offer after offer after offer from an online bookie without ever placing any of your hard-earned readies on the line, the bookie is going to see you taking them for a ride. However, if you take the reloads while still maintaining your mug punter’s profile then you are more likely to go unnoticed. The bookies will think, “Sure, he’s taking advantage of our free bets but he still keeps betting on Swindon every week.”
Stick to the Big Football Leagues
As we said in our last blog, “What does Gubbed mean?”, wading in with a weekday bet on a low-key Serie C match is going to stand out like a sore thumb. As are Colombian or Chinese matches, unless you happen to have an oriental or Hispanic-sounding name. And even then it’s a risky strategy.
That’s not to say that you can’t bet around Europe. Bayern Munich and Real Madrid at home are bankers. But even then, are the odds going to be high enough for there to be enough in it for the bookie? Top four teams like Dortmund, Schalke, Roma, Napoli, Atletico Madrid and Sevilla are big enough to be attractive to punters while also not raising too many eyebrows with bookmakers. Premier League matches and European games are also sure to attract every day punters with a healthy interest in the beautiful game.
Don't Go for Top Dollar Every Time
This may seem counter-intuitive. On the one hand we say we want to extract maximum profit from no risk matched betting. We are aiming to take 80% profit from our Free Bet matches (so from a £25 Free Bet we are ideally looking to take £20 profit). But at the same time settling for less profit for a more common bet lets you blend into the crowd.
Think Neo in The Matrix. We’re ploughing through the streets of the Matrix, thousands of Matched Bets streaming past us. We see the attractive bet in the red dress and boom! Agent Bookie is leveling a nine at our chops.
Venture from the Sportsbook into the Casino
Most online bookmakers also offer online casino and slots games. The word on the street is that playing a few casino games can help keep our sports accounts open. There is no way to verify this, but it makes sense. The built-in house edge make casino games and slots a much more attractive proposition for bookies.
Don’t be surprised to see free spins on certain slots and free chances at table games coming your way from your various sportsbook providers. There’s no harm in taking them up on some of these offers, and maybe even sitting down at the Live Blackjack table to throw some hands. Who knows, you might even walk away with a few quid.
Don't Just Deposit the Minimum
All the Sign-Up bonuses will require us to deposit an amount in order to qualify for the free bet bonuses that we are really after. The bookies are basically putting out on our first date. If they think we don’t respect them anymore, they won’t answer their phones the next time we give them a booty call.
If the Sign-Up bonus calls for a £20 deposit, deposit £30-£50 into your account. This avoids being flagged with the bookies as a potential bonus abuser and gets us into long-term relationship territory. We are the matched betting equivalent of playing the field. But don’t feel bad about this. They’re cheating on you with literally millions of others.
Take Your Gubbing Like a Pro
There are scores of bookies on the Internet. Keeping multiple accounts open is more of an art than a science. What works for one bookie might not even work for another. The bookies are constantly trying to limit accounts that don’t make them money. If we get the dreaded gub email, don’t sweat it. There are plenty more fish in the sea.
Enjoy It
Plenty of Yesbets members aren’t sports fans. You don’t have to be a die-hard blue, red, yellow or stripes to enjoy gleaning tax-free profits from online bookmakers. And remember, don’t take things personally. You are just another number to a bookmaker, just another sack of dollars. There is no harm in treating them the same way. And for that reason, not sweating it if you find yourself being gubbed is key. There’s no point in getting stressed out. And, if you do find yourself getting stressed or anxious, leave it well alone. Go for a walk and buy yourself a treat.
One thing to remember is the expiry time on free bet offers. While in most cases the free bets can take up to 48 hours to appear in our accounts, the expiry times are often within 7 days. But they do vary. Yesbets reminds us of free bet expiries and other important information in the What You Need To Know tabs when we activate free bet offers. Like the other bits we need our attention drawing to, these tabs are helpfully highlighted orange. The better bookmakers will also send us reminders that our free bet bonuses are set to expire, but if you have got 20+ bookie accounts these can easily get lost in the email quagmire. Get into the habit of sifting through your bookmaker emails and even follow the links to show the bookies that you respond to their marketing spiel and like their brand.
Just remember to throw in some mug bets while you’re there.