Is matched betting your route to profit heaven?
Said to be “the way” to make money, what’s wrong with matched bets
Matched betting is promoted like it’s the route to the promised land for punters. For anybody in fact.
YOU CANNOT LOSE.
This is the premise of matched betting, and when it’s explained, it does appear to make perfect sense. And a result it has become one of the easiest sells on the market – everybody’s doing it, they can’t stop winning… why aren’t you?
So whether it’s an individual, or a company, there’s plenty of material out there which would make you believe that you have indeed stumbled across the Holy Grail … and I’m writing this now having just watched yet another sales video which paints the picture of simple, quick and sustainable profits from this so-called fool proof method of betting.
But before I talk about its merits (well, more its ingrained drawbacks) let’s just refresh our minds about the subject of discussion.
What is matched betting?
Simply put, matched betting involves strategically placing bets on an event (or a given market) in a way that guarantees you to win no matter what the result. As such it’s a purely mathematical exercise where there is simply no possibility of losing.
Example
A tennis match (the matched betting advertisers ideal pitch as there’s only two outcomes – there’s no draw like we get in football, for example).
You back Player A with one bookmaker for £10 at 11/10 (2.1)
You back Player B with another bookmaker for £10 at 11/10 (2.1)
So whoever wins, your combined is stake £20, and your return (whoever wins) is £21.
A guaranteed profit. It might seem small (£1) but this equates to 5%.
Rinse and repeat until the end of time… and you can type out that resignation letter to the boss, start thumbing through holiday brochures to exotic locations, maybe get the diggers in to break ground on that wine cellar you always promised yourself.
Simple.
Well, before you rush off to open a Swiss bank account, you need to be aware of a few practical issues with this kind of betting. Because there is more to the long-term sustainability of matched betting than meets the eye.
Problems with matched betting
When you scratch the surface, and look a little deeper, there are several very real obstacles which will impact on your long-term success with this kind of betting strategy.
And here are just a few…
(1) The availability of free bets
Many of those who actively promote matched betting quote the use of free bets – concessions which bookmakers make available to, usually, new clients or good clients, generally in the form of a “free bet” worth some notional monetary value… £10, £20, whatever.
Now, in the example above, the use of free bets isn’t necessary. Because however you finance the illustrated matched bet, you’re going to win.
But free bets sometime come with enhanced odds, or might help you out with your cashflow (something which I’ll come on to in a moment).
My point is this… advocates of matched betting often create the impression that free bets grow on trees, and are thrown at punters left, right and centre. This is not the case.
Free bets are given out rarely, and most often they are reserved for new clients – so you only get one chance to use them with each bookmaker.
More to the point, their use might be limited to certain markets not suitable for matched betting, or to a value which is too low to be worth deploying in bets of this kind.
Yes, they can be helpful in theory, but if you’re being sold the premise of matched betting based on the ready availability of free bets, you’re going to run out of road very quickly.
(2) Spoiler alert! Bookmakers aren’t stupid.
Straight away, in terms of free bets, layers will be checking who uses what concessions, where and how.
Free bets aren’t given to help you make money… their sole purpose is to get you betting (and potentially losing) more.
Also, whether you use free bets or not, with more bookmakers being affiliated these days, or coming under one umbrella organisation (GVC, Flutter, Kindred), your dual-trade across two firms could very well be “in-house”… so how long do you think you’re going to last before someone cross-references your accounts. Not long is the answer.
And with this comes the dreaded tag of possessing a restricted account, or even a closed one.
Both of which mean it’s pretty much game over for matched betting.
(3) Funding and basic admin
So you want to be the world’s best matched bettor… and guarantee yourself a huge profit on an almost daily basis.
Well, think on this… how many betting outlets are there where you could feasibly perform this style of betting? I would say upwards of 20 (just look on a website like Oddschecker, and this just lists a small number of leading UK firms).
Take the example above, where you’re making 5%. That’s £1 for every £20 invested.
So even if you place £100 on each player (£200) it’s only going to make you £10 profit.
Now you need to be able to strike these matched bets in seconds, as layers will spot these loopholes, and fast. So ideally you need funds in these accounts, ready and waiting to go.
But you don’t know which firms will generate the two required prices – could be Bet 365 and Ladbrokes, Coral and Betvictor, Pinnacle and 888. You have no idea.
So what you’ll need is £100’s in each account, all at the same time.
Multiply that by 20+ bookmakers, and your start-up capital is not insubstantial. We’re talking thousands of pounds.
Not just money deposited, but then administered. Records kept, withdrawals made, top-ups when required (because for every account in this two-part bet that goes up, one will go down).
It is a potentially huge undertaking of time and effort. And money!!
(4) But what about Betfair?
Here you can use just the one account, keep all your money in one place, and not have to worry about restrictions. Sounds good.
However, there are issues about liquidity of markets. The exchange is by no means as “liquid” as it once was.
There’s also no guarantee that Betfair will offer one half of the required matched bet “pair” of prices.
And of course, you won’t find our two favourite tennis players – Player A and Player B – both at 11/10 on Betfair. Certainly not at the same time, anyway.
Factor in Betfair’s service charge on your account, and its effectiveness is massively impacted.
(5) Are you free 24 hours a day, 7 days a week?
Sorry, but matched betting opportunities don’t last long and their timing cannot be predicted.
If you do a form of work, have a social life, possess a family or plan any other commitments, or plan to sleep at anytime during the day, or night, then you will miss an awful lot of these bets – whether you find them yourself, or your advisor alerts you as to when one appears.
So these are just five reasons as to why matched betting isn’t quite the blueprint for betting success.
Yes, it is a brilliant concept in theory.
It is a genuine cannot lose situation. And as such it is the golden ticket for any punter, or anyone wishing to promote this as a viable betting strategy – whether they charge you for it or not.
But, sadly, all that glitters is not gold.
There are some fundamental issues with matched betting. And whilst, yes, it can work as a one-off, and certainly would have worked much better a few years back, when bookmakers weren’t as sharp with either their pricing, or their client monitoring.
Now it seems that you’re very much trying to catch a falling knife.
If pushed, I would suggest a better option, if you have a low risk-profile, and want to snag yourself some low hanging fruit… would be to try and trade on Betfair itself.
Keeps all your money in one place, limits any external interference, but an still offer small, regular wins. But, as they say, this is a discussion for another day!
OPINION: Don’t get me wrong, I am not suggesting for a moment that matched betting doesn’t work, or shouldn’t be done/offered. My issue comes with the sustainability and practicality of this method of betting. Highlighted are just 5 reasons, I could mention more, which, for me, hole this strategy below the waterline. If you’re a long-standing, winning matched bettor by all means get in touch… but my hunch is that my inbox isn’t going to be over-flowing with emails.
