Make A Tax-Free Income From Match Betting

Matched betting came to wide public attention in 2010 when the Telegraph and Guardian featured articles explaining how hundreds of people were beating the bookmakers by clever use of free betting offers.

The practise has been around for as long as online bookmakers have been offering free bets as an incentive for new customers to open an account. Matched betting is gaining popularity as a means to earn tax-free income by ‘playing the system’ and it’s totally legal if you are aged 18 or over.

While matched betting involves placing bets with online bookmakers, it’s not actually gambling as you are using free bet offers to guarantee a profit.

Matched betting is so successful that some people claim to be earning over £20,000 per year without ever risking a penny of their own cash. Earning potential depends on how much time you can commit to matched betting and with the right tools it’s not difficult to make as much as £500 per month from as little as 20-30 minutes per day.

The great thing about matched betting is you don’t have to be a gambling expert or internet geek to make a guaranteed profit from bookmaker offers. Anyone can follow the step by step advice and make a steady regular income or dip into and out of matched betting to make money to pay for extra luxuries like a holiday, a makeover, special treat for the kids, tickets for a gig, follow your favourite team, the list is endless.

How Matched Betting Works

The basic principle of matched betting is to use free bets to guarantee a profit by backing both outcomes of an event, ie to win and to lose. This is generally done by backing a selection to win with a bookmaker and laying the same selection to lose on a betting exchange.

Because one of the bets is free, you can stake your back and lay bets in such a way that you will win whatever the outcome.

The process is twofold, in order to receive a free bet you will need to place a qualifying bet. Because of the exchange commission fee and the small variance in odds between bookmaker and exchange, matched bettors expect to lose on the qualifying bet. However, this can be kept to a minimal amount by choosing a selection trading at the same or close to the same odds with the bookmaker and on the exchange.

The profits made from the free bet far exceeds any losses in obtaining it and how you make money is by repeating the process with UK and EU online bookmakers as the profits soon begin to swell your bank account.

Example of Matched Betting

This is a simple example to help explain how matched betting works using Ladbrokes’ £50 free bet welcome offer.

To begin, you need to open an account with Ladbrokes and a betting exchange like Betfair.

First, make the qualifying bet in order to earn the free bet:

• Back £50 Team A to win on Ladbrokes at 2.5 -> potential win = £75
• Lay £51 Team  A to lose on Betfair exchange at 2.5 -> potential loss = £76.50
• If Team A wins, you win £75 from Ladbrokes less £76.50 loss on Betfair = -£1.50
• If Team A loses. you lose £50 on Ladbrokes and win £48.45 (£51 less 5% commission) = – £1.55

Therefore, it costs £1.50 or £1.55 to receive a £50 free bet.

Profit from the free bet:

• Back £50 free bet Team A to win on Ladbrokes at 2.5 -> potential win = £75
• Lay £30 Team  A to lose on Betfair exchange at 2.5 -> potential loss = £45
• If Team A wins, you win £75 from Ladbrokes less £45 loss on Betfair = £30 profit
• If Team A loses. you lose nothing on Ladbrokes and win £30 less 5% commission = £28.50 profit.

You must deposit enough money to cover the qualifying bet stake and potential losses on the betting exchange but beginners can start off by taking up smaller offers to begin with and build up a bank for those that require a bigger outlay.

Long Term Income from Matched Betting

Taking advantage of welcome offers is the first stage of earning money from matched betting. There are around 60 trustworthy online bookmakers accepting UK customers which means there is a finite number of welcome offers.

However, bookmakers offer a wide range of promotions to existing customers which provide the opportunity to receive free bets which can be turned into risk free profit.

In many cases, it requires a different approach to make the most of existing customer offers. But again, following straight-forward guidance ensures anyone can continue to make a regular income from matched betting for as long as bookmakers continue free bet offers.