Placing Your Qualifying Bet

Now that you have opened both your exchange and bookmaker accounts, you are ready to start placing some matched bets and generating some profit. Follow the steps below to place your qualifying bet. This will unlock the free bets that will generate your profit.

Step 1 - Change The Odds From Fractional to Decimal

The first thing that you need to do is change the odds on Coral from fractional to decimal, so that they match the odds at the betting exchange.  To do this, click the dropdown in the top right hand corner and change to decimal.

If you are on a mobile device, select "My Account", then "Settings" and change the odds from fractional to decimal.

Step 2 - Pick a Close Matched Bet

Once the odds at Coral and Betfair are in decimal format, you can start to place your qualifying bet. You will see a table of results provided by our OddsMatcher software. These results show the bets with the closest odds at the bookmaker and the exchange, minimising your qualifying loss when placing your qualifying bet. 

We recommend sticking to football matches when you first start matched betting because the odds tend not to move very quickly, so it’s easier to get your bets on at the odds shown in the OddsMatcher. If you can stick to popular teams, even better.

In this table you can see that there is a match Switzerland v Belgium, Belgium Win. The odds are 2.15 to back at Coral and 2.2 to lay at Betfair. You can see that the qualifying loss for this bet is £0.25

Click the blue icon to bring up the popup showing you what you need to bet.  

You can see from the popup that you need to place a bet of £5 at odds of 2.15 at coral. You can also see that you need to place a lay bet at betfair of £5.00 at odds of 2.2. The first thing to do is go to coral and betfair to check that these odds are still the same. 

Click "GO TO CORAL" and "GO TO BETFAIR"

For Coral, if the bet doesn’t load in your betslip automatically,  you will need to find the market that is displayed in the OddsMatcher. In this example, we are backing Belgium to win. 

I can see that the odds are still 2.15

Next I look at betfair and check that the odds are still 2.2 to lay. I can see that it is.

 

Step 3 Place Your Back Bet

Once that you have checked that the odds are the same on both Coral and Betfair, you can place your qualifying bet. On the Coral website, click the "Belgium" to wim on the "Match Result" market (or 1x2 market) to add to your betslip and enter your stake as £5 and press place bet.

Step 4 Place Your Lay Bet

Now we need to place our lay bet at the exchange. To do this we click on the pink button next to "Belgium". We enter £5.00 as the lay stake and press "Place bets". You have now placed your first matched bet. Now if the bet wins at the bookmaker you will lose at the exchange and if the bet loses at the bookmaker you will win at the exchange. No matter what happens you will lose just £0.25 regardless of the result, but you have £20 in free bets (4x£5 free bets) to come.

Step 5 Confirm and Save on Yesbets

The last thing that you need to do is confirm and save the bet on Yesbets. This is so that we can track all of your bets, profit and balances from matched betting for you. To do this, simply go back to the popup on Yesbets and press confirm and save. 

You can see all the matched bets that you have placed under the Accounting section in Yesbets

Step 6 Settle Your Qualifying Bet

Once the event is over you need to check whether the bookmaker bet won or lost. The easiest way to do this is to check your Betfair My Bets section

If the status says won, then the Lay won (your bet won at the exchange , if it says lost, then the back bet won (your bet won at the bookmaker.). 

Next you need to settle this bet on Yesbets. Go back to the Coral tutorial and click the orange icon. 

Then select back win or lay win. It’s also good at this point to check that the figures returned are the same in Yesbets as they are at the Coral and betfair. If they aren’t, you update the figures accordingly and then click back win or lay win.