If you have recently become involved in matched betting, you will inevitably hear the terms gubbing and restricted fairly early on in your matched betting career. This article aims to explain what a gubbing or account restriction is and what it means to you and your matched betting career.

What is Gubbing?

Gubbing and account restrictions are actually the same thing. Gubbing is the term that is used by matched bettors (and other gamblers) to express that their account has been restricted from receiving any more offers. This is usually accompanied with restricted betting stakes, so where you were normally able to put on bets of £100 plus, you will now find yourself unable to place a bet of more than £1.00 depending upon the event and the odds.

Coral Max Stake

Some bookmakers will limit stakes without you being gubbed, ones that commonly do this are betbright, Bwin and Betway. What you may find is that you try to place a bet on a horse at high odds and the stakes are limited. This is one of the reasons why it is of imperative importance that you always place the back bet at the bookmakers, before placing your lay bet at the exchange. If your stakes are limited, will still be entitled to offers unless you have received an email or other notification saying that you are excluded from offers in most cases.

Why Do Betting Accounts Get Gubbed?

Bookmakers want punters that regularly lose money, after all they are a business and exist to make a profit. This is conflict for those matched betting, as our aim is to make profit over the long term. Even if all your bets lose, you still may get your account gubbed and this comes down to account value. If you take too many bets that are low value, or take too many reload offers, the traders at the bookmakers will deem your account to be unprofitable and restrict it.

Some Major Reasons for Betting Accounts Getting Gubbed

  • Placing bets on obscure markets - believe it or not, there aren’t many people that bet on Brazilian Serie C games
  • Taking every reload offer under the sun and nothing else
  • Placing low odds qualifying bets and then high odds free bets
  • Betting on horse racing outside of large festivals
  • Not placing any high value bets like accumulators and featured bets

Brazilian Serie C

How Will I Know If I'm Gubbed?

Nearly all bookmakers will send you an email. This will usually go along the lines of “after careful consideration by our trading team, we regret to inform you that you will no longer be entitled to any bonuses or promotions from bookmaker X”.

It’s important that you check your emails regularly to make sure that you haven’t been gubbed. The last thing we want is for you to take advantage of a reload, hit a refund or free bet, only to realise that you are not entitled to it because you have been excluded.

What Can I Do When I've Been Gubbed?

You can always withdraw any money that’s in your account. You will also still be able to place very small bets, but you won’t be able to claim any bonuses as a result of placing those bets. You will also still be able to play and claim the casino, bingo and poker bonuses in the majority of cases, but if in doubt always ask. Casino and bingo bonuses can (in a lot of cases, with the correct strategy) still be immensely profitable, so the game isn’t over.

BetWay account close email

What Should I Do with a Gubbed Account?

Some people advise that you continue to mug bet your account in an attempt to get the account back, but in our experience that’s a pretty rare occurrence and we don’t want you throwing good money after bad. The best thing to do is to withdraw all your money and stick it in your bank account or exchange. You can then deposit at a later date to take advantage of any worthwhile casino, bingo or poker offers.

How Can I Avoid Being Gubbed?

We have a separate article on how to avoid being gubbed. But some simple steps are as follows:
Avoid horse racing outside of the big festivals. It’s not just matched bettors that are getting limited, it seems professional horse racing gamblers are being limited too. The bookmaker industry has a real problem pricing up horses and as a result seem quick to limit their liability to this form of betting

  • Create a Mug punters profile, bet on your football team every week, place some accumulator bets with them in etc
  • Don’t take every offer under the sun. You will look like a bonus abuser. If you do, place some mug bets at least outside of the offers
  • Stick to the big football leagues. Chinese division 2 bets stand out like a sore thumb
  • Don’t always go for the most profitable matched bet. Take less profit on a match but go for a more common bet, this is related to the point above
  • Bookmakers like to convert you to casino, bingo and poker products (these have a built in house edge). There is unconfirmed reports that playing a few of these products can keep your sports account open. There is no way to verify this, but sticking a few quid on the slots now and again may help
  • Accept that you will get gubbed at some point. Keeping accounts open is more of an art than a science. Remember that you are making money off the bookmakers and they are constantly trying to limit those accounts that don’t make them money. If you lose an account, accept it and move on.
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