Matched betting review and tips

Matched betting review and tips

It’s been just over 2 weeks now since I went back to my old university town and got chatting to an ex-housemate who talked me into starting up matched betting. In the time since then I’ve been busy most evenings setting up accounts, laying bets and watching mind-numbing automated bingo games. So the big question is clearly; how much have I made so far?

The financials

I started this side hustle with a separate bank account containing £1000. It’s extremely important to have an entirely separate account for this so that it has less of an impact on credit checks and makes it easier for you to keep tabs on the income/expenditure. As things currently stand: I have just over £400 in the bank, £250 in various bookie accounts and £1000 currently in transfer back to me, giving a grand total of £650 profit in the 13 days I’ve been running this.

It’s important to ensure you have a suitable bankroll to be able to fund this. One offer I signed up for required £1200 worth of wagering before you could withdraw the funds! The last thing you want to do is end up having all your funds tied up with a single bookie and nothing left to lay off the other side of the matched bets.

The recording

I very quickly learnt that keeping up to date and accurate records is totally essential for this. With hundreds of pounds flying all over the place it can be very easy to lose track of things and not know where your money is going. I currently keep 2 spreadsheets detailing what bets I’m making and exactly where all my funds are at a given point. This lets me then cross-reference the profit from bets against the increase in funds and spot where I’ve missed tracking something.

I’m also careful to ensure I lay off each bet individually. Where I may be betting on a single match across multiple bookies, I always place individual lay bets to help track everything.

The time

I’ve been very fortunate to have had a quiet 2 weeks of work which has allowed me to dedicate alot of time during the days to this. If you’re short on time you can stick to just evenings and weekends yet still make a decent return. My friend who also does this makes around £300 a month doing almost only Saturdays.

If you have more free time there’s lots of other offers to take advantage of such as online bingo or slot machines. These have an element of risk attached to them however will on average come out quite a far bit ahead in profit. I’m currently working my way down a list of about 100 online bingo sites and have made about £100 out of it so far.

My tips

  • Start off slow. If you run out of cash to lay off the bets; you could very easily end up with all your money stuck in a single bookie account with no ability to withdraw.
  • Keep good records. A number of times now I’ve noticed that refunds or bonuses haven’t applied to my accounts in the allocated timeframe. Luckily by having everything tracked I’m able to spot these and chase the website for them.
  • Be realistic. There’s alot of information about matched betting out there with some people making thousands off of it every month. Unless you can commit full time to it and with a huge bankroll to fund it all, you’re not going to come anywhere near to this.
  • Be brave but careful. I was extremely cautious approaching this and very careful to only invest funds I could afford losing if (when) I made a mistake. Take your time, focus on one offer at a time and always double check the odds before placing any bets.

 

So there’s my review of the past 2 weeks worth of matched betting. A very healthy profit but one I think I’ll struggle to sustain once all new account offers have been completed. As always I’ll keep this site updated with the income/expense reports each month.

6 thoughts on “Matched betting review and tips

  1. Hi Guy
    Well done and congrats on making a great profit. As I was reading your post, it crossed my mind briefly that I could get back into matched betting….but no, my gambling days are behind me, I’ll stick to my small bets on match days and my lotto ticket!

    I have won over £100 on online bingo before but have only signed up using the topcashback deals.

    Best of luck with this and look forward to seeing how your winnings boost your savings/networth!

    1. Thanks Weenie. As I’m sure you know though; it’s not really gambling mostly ;)

      I make the quickest money from the bingo sites. Ones which have a ‘Deposit £10 get another £50’ are a goldmine if you can spend the entire balance quick enough before any winnings start coming in. I’d expect to make a good £15-£30 profit from each of those sites and there’s literally hundreds doing those offers.

    1. It does seem to be popular at the moment. I’m not sure that it’s very sustainable though, once all the signup bonuses are done I struggle to see what else can be continued. However for signups alone it should be an easy £500-£1k for most people.

  2. This is one of those picking pennies up in front of a steamroller things – congrats on keeping an eye on the beast enough.

    And this is a dude who isn’t maxing sharesave because…? Same sort of thing, but a real one-way bet!

    1. Ermine, one day I wish to be as rich as you and able to refer to hundreds of pounds as pennies :D

      The Sharesave problem was due to a lack of current and future liquidity, hopefully this side income will help with that problem and allow me to chuck another £250 in the scheme from next year.

Leave a Reply to EarlyRetirementGuy Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *