Matched Betting

Matched Betting is a way of making money for free from betting without really risking any of our own money.

Best Matched Betting Sites

  • OddsMonkey – Free Trial available – £19.99 a Month or £180.00 for 12 Months.
  • Profit Accumulator – Free Trial available – Platinum Membership @ £24.99 a Month or £180 for 12 Months – Diamond Membership @ £39.99 a Month or £300 for 12 Months
  • Profit Maximiser – £1+Vat for 14 Days Trial or £97+Vat for 12 Months
  • Betting Mastermind – 13 Betting Systems Included – 4x £58.80 or 1 Payment of £216 for life

Above are the best matched betting subscription services available in 2021.

Matched Betting

These matched betting sites will walk you through the process and show you how it works.

They essentially hold you hand while you’re doing it.

When you break down the costs, it works out at the equivalent of the profit you would make from a couple of £10 free bets a month.

What is Matched Betting?

Matched betting is a process of making risk free money from free bets. It’s not gambling, and is not taking risks.

Although we are placing bets – we are not betting!

It’s simply a process of placing a series of bets in a particular order. And at the end of the process, we have risk free cash.

To get matched betting working for you, you will first need to open an account with a betting exchange.

Then when you are ready to make your first risk free profits, you will need to open a bookmakers account.

Betting Exchanges

Before we start, you will need to open an account with a betting exchange for matched betting.

Why do I need a betting exchange? You may ask!

Simple – because in order to make money from matched betting, you need to be able to lay a bet. And you can only lay a bet on a betting exchange.

The best one out there for getting bets matched is Betfair. If you haven’t already got a Betfair account, you can open one here.

  • Betfair
  • Betdaq
  • Smarkets

Free Matched Bet Vs Risk Free Bet

The best type of bet for Matched Betting, is a free matched bet.

A free matched bet is a free bet you receive no matter what the outcome of your qualifying bet. This is opposed to a risk free bet, which you only get if your qualifying bet loses.

Free matched bets are found with most of the household name bookmakers. A selection of bookies currently offering free matched bets are….

  • Skybet
  • Ladbrokes
  • Coral

How Matched Betting Works

Once you have opened your first bookmakers account, and a betting exchange account, there are six stages to matched betting. They are as follows….

  1. Place Qualifying Bet with Bookmaker
  2. Place Lay Bet on Betting Exchange to offset Qualifying Bet (so you don’t lose your money)
  3. Receive Free Bet from Bookmaker
  4. Place Free Bet with Bookmaker
  5. Place Lay Bet on Betting Exchange of proportion of Free Bet amount to ensure profit no matter what happens
  6. Withdraw Risk Free Easy Money!

You can add a No. 7 to that process if you wish, it’s simply repeat process with as many bookmakers as you can.

Matched Betting Example

I’m now going to give you an example of how a typical matched bet may work.

Before I go on, you will find that a lot of bookmakers stipulate that your qualifying (first) bet is placed on an event at minimum odds, such as Even money (2.00) or greater.

They do vary though. Some are 1/2 (1.50), or it could be 4/5 (1.80). You do need to check this before placing bets. As you do with all terms and conditions.

For this reason I’m going to base the qualifying bet for this example on odds of Even money (2.00). I’m also going to call the bookmaker, Bookie A….

1. Qualifying Bet

This is my qualifying bet….

  • Back Team A @ Even money (2.00) with Bookie A for £10.00.

2. Lay Off Qualifying Bet

You will now need to lay Team A on a Betting Exchange to make sure you don’t lose your £10.00.

  • Lay Team A @ 2.00 (Even money) or nearest price possible on a Betting Exchange (such as Betfair) for around £10.00.

You need to get as close as possible of your £10.00 back.

You will find that Team A is probably going to be at odds of 2.02 or 2.04 to lay, so you won’t get exactly £10.00 back.

After the match has finished and your bets are all settled, your money will either be in your Bookie A account, or Betfair account (depending on which account wins the bet).

3. Receive Free Bet from Bookmaker

  • By now, you should have a free bet showing in your Bookie A account.

4. Place Free Bet

This is how I would use the free bet…

  • Back Team D @ 8.0 (7/1) with Bookie A with your £10.00 free bet.

It’s best to find an event with odds of 4/1 or greater to use your free bet on.

You will find it difficult to find an exact match with the odds. For example, if Bookie A is offering 5/1 on the event you wish to use your free bet on, the chances are it will be 6/1 or more to lay on the betting exchange.

Try and find odds as close together as possible. But don’t spend all day at it, as this can be time consuming for little reward.

5. Place Lay Bet on Betting Exchange for risk free Profit

  • Lay Team D @ 8.0 (7/1) on Betfair for approximately £8.00.

Again, you probably won’t be able to lay at 8.0. It will probably be about 8.2 or 8.4 (don’t use a bet with odds at higher than 8.6).

You should be looking to get around £7.50 to £8 back from the lay.

The free bet outcome will break down like this…..

  • If Team D wins – Bookie A will give you £70.00 winnings back, but you will lose around £62.00 on the Betting Exchange from your lay of Team D.

Profit of roughly £8.00.

  • If Team D loses you get nothing back from Bookie. You don’t lose anything though, as it was a free bet)!
  • You win about £8.00 on Betfair.

Profit of roughly £8.00.

So either way, you should get a profit of around £8.00, whatever the outcome of the match.

6. Withdraw Money and Repeat Process

  • If the money is in the bookmakers account, withdraw it and move onto the next bookmaker.

You now need to repeat the process with as many bookies as you can find.


You’ve now made risk free money just from placing a handful of bets in a particular order. Which is all matched betting is.

You will probably have lost around 50p to £1.00 placing your qualifying bet, so all in all you should be making around £7.00 – £7.50 clear profit from the free bet.

As a general rule of thumb, I try and ensure I get back no less than £7 profit on a £10 free bet.

Always check Bookmaker’s Terms and Conditions First

This is an example of how Matched Betting works. Before you start, I would just like to point out that it’s always important to check the terms and conditions of the free bets with the bookmakers.

Make sure you fully understand what you are doing, as the terms and conditions can vary from bookmaker to bookmaker.

Some bookies impose different minimum odds for their qualifying bets. In the example above I used odds of Even Money (2.00). I believe that if you stick to minimum odds of Even money, you should be okay.

There is hundreds to thousands of pounds to be made from Matched Betting

There are hundreds of pounds of free bets for new customers just waiting to be claimed.

I’m not exaggerating, they are everywhere.

And when you’ve used all of them, you move onto free bets for existing customers.

It’s from these free bets – also known as reload offers – that you start to go into the thousands of pounds.

If you are making somewhere in the region of £7 for every £10 worth of free bets, then that is a lot of money.

Matched Betting For A Living

There are people who have taken Matched Betting to another level and are making thousands from it.

More advanced methods of matched betting can involve using casino offers such as free spins in casinos. Bingo sign up offers and spread betting offers are also used.

The main earner for the professional matched bettor though is the reload offers. They are the bread and butter, as they are available every day of the year!

You don’t have to be that extreme with your matched betting if you don’t want to. You can simply just use the new customer free bets and make hundreds from them.

If after that you exhausted all the free bets, and you like what you’ve seen, then consider taking it onto the next level.

Remember, there are professional subscriptions services out there that will help you if you think it’s too daunting. They are…..

You don’t have to stick with these services either.

If you just want a bit of help to get you going, then use the pay monthly option on one of OddsMonkey or Profit Accumulator.

Then once you feel confident enough to go it alone, simply cancel.

Matched Betting FAQs

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