If you read my guide to Matched Betting in the previous article then you’re ready to get started with matched betting. So here we go! But before we get started, here are the brokers I’d recommend signing up for to get your first lot of free bets!

• Bet365
• PaddyPower
• Coral

And of course, don’t forget, you’ll also need to sign up for a betting exchange as well. And like most others that do Matched Betting, I’d highly recommend signing up to Smarkets!

With that being said here’s a step by step guide on what you need to do to get started with Matched Betting!

Step 1: Find The Free Bet Offer & Sign Up

Your first step in matched betting is to find your free bet. Almost every bookmaker has these offers to attract new customers. Look for offers such as “Bet £10, receive £30 in free bets.”

Once you’ve found an appealing offer, sign up with the bookmaker, ensuring you meet all requirements to qualify for the free bet. It’s important to read the terms and conditions of the offer carefully to understand what’s required to qualify for the free bet.

For this example, I used the following:

Step 2: Signing Up To A Betting Exchange

Once you’ve found the free bet you’re going to use, the next step is to sign up to a betting exchange. I’d recommend markets. Signing up is incredibly simple, so once you’ve done that you can move onto Step 3.

Step 3: Change To Decimal Odds

To streamline your matched betting process, it’s essential to switch the odds format to decimal odds if they aren’t already set that way. Decimal odds are easier to work with when calculating stakes for both back and lay bets. Instead of working out fractions, you just need to multiply your bet by the decimal odds. For example if you put £10 at 2.5, then you’d have a £25 return.

Step 4: Finding The Right Odds

Once you’ve set the odds to decimal, the next step is to select the right bet. Look for events with close matching odds between the bookmaker and the betting exchange. The closer the back (bookmaker) and lay (exchange) odds, the more efficient your bet will be, minimizing your qualifying losses.

It’s often best to use a matched betting calculator to help you identify bets with the smallest loss and ensure profitability when you apply the free bet.

Step 5: Placing Your First Bets

Once you’ve done all this, you can place your qualifying bet at the bookmaker. In this example, the offer is “bet £5, get £30 in free bets.” So on the bookmaker I placed £5 with odds of Simultaneously, place your lay bet at a betting exchange against the same outcome to effectively cancel out the risk.

This initial bet is to qualify you for the free bet and will likely result in a small loss or break even, which is normal and expected.

As you can see from this example, I bet £5 on Denmark Vs England to draw with a potential return of £17.50. And then I also bet against Denmark Vs England to end in a draw, which brought a return of £17.51. So no matter what happens, I’ll be getting around £17.50, and also £30 in free bets.

Step 6: Claiming Your Free Bet & Profit

And then the last step is the simplest. Once the first bet you put down comes into play and finishes, you’ll be able to claim your free bet. And with this free bet, you just have to follow steps 1-5 again. However, instead of putting down your money on both sides. This time, you put the free bet down as your back bet, and you use the betting exchange for your laybet.

So whatever comes in the second time is 100% free profit!

Recap

And that’s how easy it is to do matched betting! The process itself is the easy part, the harder part is finding the deals every day to keep making a profit! I hope you’ve found this article interesting! If you did make sure to check out the rest of the website.

Otherwise, have a great day!