In our examples so far we've been betting and laying the exact same event - this is very important. We've also been betting and laying at the same odds and the same amount of money at both the bookmaker and the betting exchange. In real life you very rarely get the same odds at both the bookmaker and the betting exchange. The skill of matched betting comes from finding odds as close to each other as possible.
What to Look For
Football is the easiest sport to use for this system. "Match odds" are the simplest thing to bet on, basically you bet who will win the match.
For this example we'll say the bookmaker's offer is "make a £25 bet at odds of 2.0 or greater and we'll give you a free £25 bet, stake not returned." Ok, first things first, let's make our qualifying bet. What shall we bet on? Let's take a match between Blackburn and Man Utd:
| Bookmaker - back | 1 | x | 2 |
| Blackburn vs Man Utd | 6.00 | 3.30 | 1.55 |
| Betting exchange - lay | 1 | x | 2 |
| Blackburn vs Man Utd | 6.20 | 4.20 | 1.66 |
In this example, 1 means "Blackburn to win", x means "draw" and 2 means "Man Utd to win". These are the only three options for match odds. Which option should we pick? If we picked "Blackburn to win" we'd have back odds of 6.00 and lay odds of 6.20. If we picked "draw" we'd have back odds of 3.30 and lay odds of 4.20. Finally, if we picked "Man Utd to win" we'd have back odds of 1.55 and lay odds of 1.66. BUT! The bookmaker's offer says our qualifying bet has to be at odds of 2.0 or more. That rules out backing Man Utd then. We're left with backing Blackburn or the draw. We need to work out which of these is the best. To do this, we use the FundMyDegree.com Matched Betting Calculator, or the FMD MBC for short.
The FundMyDegree.com Matched Betting Calculator (FMD MBC)
Just from looking at back and lay odds it's difficult to tell if they're good odds for someone trying to use this matched betting system. To help you determine the good from the rubbish, we have created the Matched Betting Calculator, just for you. Like everything else on FundMyDegree.com it's completely free of charge.
Click here to access the FMD MBC (opens in a new window)
Now it's a simple case of inputting the numbers in the top 5 boxes, choosing our type of bet and clicking Calculate! Simple! The fields are explained below:
| Back Stake | This is the bet you're making at the bookmakers. If you have to make a £25 qualifier bet to release the free bet then £25 would be your back stake. |
| Back odds | Whatever the odds at the bookmaker are for that event. |
| Back commission | A bookmaker might take 2% of your winnings, just because it's greedy. The vast majority of bookmakers have 0% commission thankfully so we can keep 100% of our winnings. |
| Lay odds | Whatever the odds at the betting exchange are for that event. |
| Lay commission | ALL betting exchanges charge commission. It sucks. Usually this is 5%, so enter 5 in the box. |
| Type of bet | Look in the terms and conditions to see if your free bet is stake returned or stake not returned, or choose "qualifying bet" if you're using your own money. |
| Lay stake | This is how much you should lay at the betting exchange. Input the numbers in the top 5 boxes, pick your type of bet and click calculate and this will be worked out for you. |
| Liability | You will need this much money in your account at the betting exchange to cover your lay bet. |
| Net profit overall | Does exactly what it says on the tin. This is your guaranteed profit from the values you entered. Because you back and lay the same event, it doesn't matter what the outcome is, you'll always make this much profit. |
| Percentage of original bet retained | This is probably the most important box. You want this to be as high as possible. |
Testing Combinations
Note: for any examples we will assume lay commission = 5.
Let's try the values for backing Blackburn - back stake 25, back odds 6, back commission 0, lay odds 6.2 and lay commission 5, then select qualifying bet. Press calculate. The MBC works out all the values for us! Note the numbers in the "overall profit" and "percentage of original bet retained" boxes, -1.83 and 92.68.
Now let's try the values for backing a draw - back stake 25, back odds 3.3, back commission 0, lay odds 4.2, lay commission 5. Qualifying bet. Calculate. Overall profit is now -6.11 and percentage of original bet retained is 75.54. What does all this mean?
Well, because the odds aren't exactly the same at the bookmakers and the betting exchange, and because the betting exchange charges a commission, we are guaranteed to make a loss from every bet. "But I thought we were guaranteed to make a profit!" I hear you cry. Calm down! We are guaranteed to make a profit overall. Think of it this way:
Stage 1 - make qualifying bet. Lose £1.
Stage 2 - use free £25 bet. Lose £1.
Stage 3 - withdraw free £25 bet (you've used it once so you're allowed).
Total profit is £23. Every bet you make will lose you a small amount of money, but then you get to withdraw your free bet and you're in profit! Think about it, if you made money on the qualifying bet, why not just do that over and over again, making a profit every time? You wouldn't even need the free bet. Unfortunately that's not the case, but it doesn't matter because we have free bets and we know how to use them!
We ideally want to minimise this loss, even if it is small. This is where the overall profit box is useful. We can see that if we back the draw we're guaranteed a profit of -£6.11 (a loss). If we back Blackburn we're guaranteed a profit of -£1.83. Clearly backing Blackburn would be the best choice. The "percentage of original bet retained" is important because the higher that it, the more of our money we get to keep.
Targets
It's hard to say what to aim for with the "percentage of original bet retained" box. As a rule of thumb you want 92 or more for qualifying and stake returned bets, and 75 to 80 for stake not returned bets. Anything above these is a good bet.
And that's it. Simple. You back a bet, you lay the same bet. Get free bet. Back a bet, lay the same bet. Withdraw. Easy as pie.
Want a go yourself? Follow this easy step by step guide and start making guaranteed profits.