• This question comes up from beginners more than you think. The principles of matched betting can be quite a steep learning curve to get your head around. However, once it clicks, we use the same process over and over and over again.

  • Coral Sign Up Offer

    If we take a look at the Coral sign up offer, it’s the first offer we recommend new users to take up when they get started with matched betting. It offers a moderate profit level of around £16, but as the free bets come in 4x£5 free bets, it gives you a great opportunity to put the matched betting principles we have learnt into practice.

    Coral Sign Up Offer

  • Qualifying Bet

    Below we can see the OddsMatcher table we show on the “qualifying bet” section. This is where users start asking the question, why is there no profit?

    The purpose of the qualifying bet is to give us access to the free bets. In the majority of circumstances, bookmakers don’t just give us free bets for nothing. Coral offer us 4x£5 free bets, but only after we have placed a £5 qualifying bet using our own funds. As we are using our own funds for BOTH the back and lay bets, our goal here is to lose as little as possible. The profit is all made from the free bets.

    Qualifying Bet Oddsmatcher

    Qualifying Bet Calculator

  • Free Bets

    Now we have made our qualifying bet and lose around 10p. We now have access to the juicy free bets. This time around, the bookmaker is paying for half of the matched bet for us (the £5 back bet at coral), we only use our cash for the lay bet.

    For example, Coral are offering us a £20 free bet (4x£5 free bets), so using the yesbets integrated OddsMatcher we can see there are a number of events here that will net us up to £4.58 per £5 free bet (£20 free bets = £18.32 profit)

    Free Bet Oddsmatcher

    If we take the “Benfica” example, using the free bet if the bookmaker wins we win £4.20 and if the exchange wins (lay bet wins) we make £4.20.

    Free Bet Calculator

    Place Back Bet (using £5 free bet)
    So I’ll first go and place my bet at Coral

    Free Bet - Coral Back Bet

    Place Lay Bet
    Now let’s go to betfair and lay the event

    Free Bet - Betfair Lay Bet

    Now this means, if “Benfica” win, we’ll win £55 in my Coral account and lose £50.80 (the liability) in my betfair account, leaving me with a £4.20 profit

    But if “Benfica” lose, I’ll win £4.20 (the lay stake) at the exchange, but we won’’t lose anything in the Coral account as that was placed with bonus funds (free bet) not cash, leaving me with 4.20 profit once Betfair has taken their commission (paid on winning lay bets)

    To summarise, you will make at least £4.20 per £5 free bet no matter what happens. As Coral provide us with four £5 free bets, we can either place them on exactly the same event or look for alternative matches using the Oddsmatcher.

  • To Summarise

    We make money because the bookmakers give us bonuses to place bets with, this essentially means they are are paying for half of the matched bet for us. By backing and laying an event we cover all eventualities and therefore extract the bonus money from the bookmakers by fulfilling the requirements without risking any of our own funds.

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