The Ultimate Matched Betting Guide For 2024
Last Updated on April 6, 2024 by The Betting Dad Team
Matched Betting is suitable for anybody who has some spare time and wants to make some extra money from home.
Over the past few years, it’s been a hugely popular side income for students and stay-at-home parents in particular.
Here, you’re going to learn all about how Matched Betting works and how you can get started today.
You’ll also find a long list of common questions where we cover all you need to know about the world of Matched Betting in 2024.
What Is Matched Betting?
Matched Betting is a low-risk betting technique that allows you to lock in profits by covering all outcomes of an event.
The profit comes from the free bets and incentives offered by bookmakers.
This probably sounds too good to be true.
However, it really is a genuine way to make money from home.
But don’t just take our word for it. The topic has been covered in national newspapers.
How Does It Work?
In order to unlock profit from bookmaker’s free bets and bonuses, you need to follow five steps:
(These steps are made much easier to follow using a Matched Betting service such as OUTPLAYED).
What Are Back Bets And Lay Bets?
The Matched Betting process involves placing two types of bets.
A back bet and a lay bet.
Here’s our explanation of these bets using farm animals!
We can confirm it was Cow, the rank outsider, who went on to win the epic Farmyard chase.
Don’t worry if you don’t quite grasp the difference between a back and lay bet just yet.
When you begin a free trial of OUTPLAYED you will have unlimited access to five beginner tutorials.
Here you will see how back and lay bets fit into the process:
You’ll not only see how to place back and lay bets but also how they can lock in a profit each time.
How To Start Matched Betting
You’ve already made a great start by taking the time to read this guide.
To understand Matched Betting in more detail and see the process in action, your next step is to set up a free trial of OUTPLAYED.
Alongside that, we’ve also created an eBook specifically for people just like you who are new to Matched Betting.
We explain the steps you need to take in order to make your first £1000 profit.
We recommend starting with £200, and I estimate it should take you no longer than 3 months to achieve £1000 profit by spending around 30 minutes a day taking action.
The process is quite straightforward, however, for many people, the biggest hurdle is getting started.
We’ve broken the process down into manageable steps for you to focus on.
Matched Betting Frequently Asked Questions
How much money can I make from Matched Betting long term?
Naturally, people want to know the answer to this before they start.
We’ll estimate some realistic amounts you should be able to achieve.
However, the truth is, the amount you can make depends on a few things:
Patience – you’ll need to put some effort in to learn the basics. If you’ve made it through this guide so far, you’re well on your way!
Time – Once you know the basics, the more time you put in, the more money you will make.
Starting Bank – The bigger your starting bank, the more offers you can complete simultaneously. Meaning you’ll make more profit in a shorter space of time.
With the factors above in mind, you can see it’s a difficult question to answer.
Still, we think anyone with patience, a bit of spare time, and some money to invest can expect to make £500 – £1000 profit from new account offers.
Beyond that, a reasonable target to aim for is between £200-£500 per month. This would be from using ongoing offers.
How much money do I need to start with?
You’ll need at least £200 to start Matched Betting.
This will be enough to work through a few new account offers, to begin with.
The more money you start with, the more money you can potentially make sooner.
That being said, if you are completely new. I think it would be sensible to still start slow.
Do one or two offers at a time until you are fully confident with the process.
After that, go ahead and increase the number of offers you are doing.
How much time do I need to spend?
The majority of people do this in their spare time as an extra side income spending an average of 30 minutes to an hour a day.
The more time you dedicate to it, the more you will earn.
If you are brand new, it’s naturally going to be more time consuming as you learn.
You’ll be much more efficient when you can quickly navigate bookmaker and exchange websites.
In addition, when you master tools like OUTPLAYED‘s Oddsmatching software and calculators, you’ll be flying through offers.
In short, the more experience you have, the more efficient you will be.
This will result in an increase in your ‘hourly wage’.
I don’t know anything about sport! Or betting! Can I still do it?
You don’t need any sports knowledge or betting experience.
The outcomes of the bets you place are irrelevant, so there is no prior knowledge of sports needed.
There is no predicting or guessing (like most normal punters are doing).
In fact, we think having no invested interest in sport and betting is an advantage.
You won’t have any emotional involvement with any teams or events.
Also, the aim is to start off by treating your Matched Betting as a business.
Therefore, you’ll only see placing bets as your work and part of the process.
You’ll be less likely to ever view it as ‘fun’, ‘leisure’ or be tempted to gamble.
You’ll feel the opposite of how bookmakers want you to feel about betting.
How long does it take to learn?
The great thing about Matched Betting is that you can earn as you learn right from the start.
So rather than try and put a time scale on when you to learn it all, just start with one offer at a time.
Matched Betting sites such as OUTPLAYED exist to make learning and doing Matched Betting easy.
You can read our full OUTPLAYED review to find out more.
With step-by-step guides for hundreds of offers. You can complete one offer at a time, and make money as you’re gaining experience.
OUTPLAYED offer a free trial where you will learn to complete a couple of signup offers and earn around £40 in the process.
You can sign up for the free trial here.
If you can complete these first offers, there are plenty more waiting, and you’ll have the skills to complete them.
There are different types of offers and strategies to learn as you become more experienced.
The priority at first, however, is to complete the signup offers.
Why do bookmakers allow it to happen?
The gambling industry is extremely competitive.
There are a large number of bookmakers all desperately seeking your custom.
They do this by running promotions to try and attract both new and repeat customers.
These types of promotions are easy to exploit for profit by using Matched Betting techniques.
Bookmakers don’t ‘allow’ Matched Betting as such. They just can’t prove you’re doing it.
All you are doing is placing bets with the bookmaker.
They don’t know you are sneaking off to a betting exchange to lock in a profit.
As a result of doing Matched Betting, you will be an unprofitable customer for bookmakers.
Consequently, they will eventually restrict your promotions. This is known in the Matched Betting world as, being ‘gubbed’.
When this happens, you have to accept it and move on to the next bookmaker.
There are some sensible ways to reduce the chance of being gubbed too fast.
What risks are involved?
When Matched Betting is done correctly, there is no risk.
Providing the bets are placed correctly, there is no way you can lose money.
However, your money could be put at risk by making a mistake.
Some potential mistakes that could be costly are:
- entering the incorrect stakes and end up losing or winning more than the Matched Betting calculator suggested.
- backing and laying the incorrect market or event so you don’t have a matched bet.
- forgetting to use your free bet before it expires (although you’d only end up with a small qualifying loss).
- Not checking bookmaker terms, conditions and minimum odds required for your qualifying bets.
By taking your time, being organised and double-checking everything, you can avoid all these mistakes.
Being a member of a Matched Betting site like OUTPLAYED will help you avoid a lot of common mistakes.
This is particularly important when starting out.
Is this legal?
Matched Betting is 100% legal.
We are simply using Bookmaker’s promotions.
There is nothing illegal about locking in a profit using a betting exchange.
Is this a scam?
Matched Betting is not a scam.
Although, we also thought it was when we first read about it!
Most things that sound too good to be true, usually are.
There are a lot of scams especially involving the ‘making money online’ industry.
Here are a few reports from National newspapers that have covered Matched Betting:
Do I have to pay tax on my profits?
Your Matched Betting profits are completely tax-free in the UK.
Despite Matched Betting being very low risk, it falls under the ‘gambling’ category which is fully exempt from tax charges.
What deposit method is best?
You’ll notice bookmakers have a few different deposit methods to choose from.
We would always recommend using a Debit card.
E-Wallets such as PayPal, Skrill, Neteller can seem like a good idea to keep your Matched Betting activity separate from your bank.
However, many bookmakers state in their terms that their promotions are not available to customers depositing via E-Wallets.
We are only interested in promotions. So we need to make sure we qualify for them.
If you want to keep your betting activity separate from your everyday banking. It’s a great idea to open a bank account just for Matched Betting.
Having a dedicated ‘Matched Betting bank’ will help you see it as a small business.
This helps avoid the temptation to spend your profits too early.
You can keep reinvesting and growing your bankroll as you learn more strategies.
Will this affect my credit rating/score?
No.
When you sign up for a bookmaker account, you aren’t asking for credit. You deposit your own money.
So, it makes sense that they don’t need to perform any credit checks on you.
They can, however, perform a ‘soft search’.
They do this to make sure you are indeed who you say you are. And also to check you’re not money laundering.
A soft search is when a credit search is made on your credit file.
This doesn’t affect your credit rating/score.
It is recorded as a search, but lenders will never see it. So, it doesn’t affect their decision about whether to lend to you or not.
You can have lots of soft searches on your file and they will not affect your credit rating/score.
Will this affect my mortgage application?
Potentially, it can.
Having lots of betting activity on your bank statement can look suspicious to lenders.
Lenders won’t be impressed, even if it is clear from the transactions that you are making money.
It is, however, still possible to get a mortgage even with these transactions on your statement.
We’d strongly advise though, to open a separate bank account for your Matched Betting activity.
Some lenders will only want to see your main bank account that you’re wages go into.
In addition to this, we would always recommend using a good mortgage broker.
The best brokers are free to use (they get a fee from the lender, not you), and you can be honest about Matched Betting.
A broker will advise the best course of action for you to take in order to secure a successful mortgage application.
Can I do Matched Betting outside the UK?
All the information here is based on our experiences of Matched Betting in the UK.
Different rules and regulations may apply in other countries.
You need to carry out further research in your country if you want to start Matched Betting outside the UK.
I’m still stuck with something. Help!
If there is something you’re still unsure about send us a message.