Matched Betting Explained: How It Works and How to Profit

Borrowing a few elements from arbitrage betting, matched betting is where bettors back wagers on both sides to guarantee a profit regardless of a game’s outcome. Matched betting is a bit more complicated because you’re taking advantage of free bets or welcome bonus funds and combining them with a betting exchange to turn the trick. It sounds tricky, but we swear the basic idea is easy to learn and pick up, even if you’re a complete novice. Once we describe the mechanics of how it works, it will all make perfect sense.

The key to successful matched betting is finding a sportsbook that doesn’t outline the practice unfavorably in their terms and conditions and offers a good enough bonus bet or free welcome bets where you can make a profit. The benefits of matched betting for risk-free profits include the following:

• Minimal initial capital to pull off
• Matched betting can be done at any time
• You’re assured to make a profit regardless of the outcome
• Using free bets to your advantage
• Low risk

Something we need to inform you about upfront before we dive into our guide is that matched betting is considered a moral gray area to some bettors, while some sportsbooks outright condemn the activity and either keep a close eye on the practice or outright ban the activity in their terms and conditions. How each sportsbook feels about matched betting can vary, and you have to look at this when choosing a sports betting site to use for your strategy.

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• What Is Matched Betting?
• How It Works
• Tools and Resources
• Strategies for Maximizing Profits
• Risks and Challenges
• FAQs

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The Basics of Matched Betting

Matched betting is similar to arbitrage betting, where the punter places multiple events in a game or event, giving them a profit regardless of the outcomes. However, matched betting differs because the bettor uses free bet offers to fund their strategy, which involves signing up with online sportsbooks as a new bettor.

Where matched betting is different from traditional betting is that punters are placing multiple bets on a single game to ensure they make a profit. In traditional bets, you’re betting on a single outcome. This makes matched betting far more complex—it involves math more so than actual sports betting strategy. If that sounds complicated, please don’t worry. Plenty of helpful matched betting software is available online that helps you find the best, most profitable matched bets between the books and exchanges.

Understanding the Mechanics of Matched Betting

Now that you know the concept of matched betting, how does it look in execution? Let’s dive into the mechanics of how this betting strategy works. Remember that matched betting involves exploiting the welcome or sign-up bonuses offered by the sportsbook you’re joining, so operators look out for this activity. Some even spell it out as a fraudulent practice in their terms and conditions.

Bookmaker Offers

With most online sportsbooks, welcome bonuses are offered to brand new bettors—they are designed to help newcomers get their footing with a sports betting site. A nice boost of extra cash can give bettors a decent shot at holding their own as they navigate a new platform as a new user, especially if their gambling budget is tight. Even bettors who don’t have problems funding their online account can benefit significantly from additional bets—this is where matched betting comes in.

Standard promos or offers you’ll find with online sportsbooks involve getting bonus bets after you’ve placed your first bet. Depending on the site, your first bet may result in a loss for you to qualify for the bonus bets. Some sportsbooks will give you the funds regardless, so long as you make your first deposit and place your first wager. It’s much better to choose a sportsbook that will give you bonus bets no matter the outcome of your first bet, especially if you want to use matched betting as a strategy.

In addition to welcome bonuses and the free bets commonly associated with this kind of promo, matched betters can take advantage of other offers like reload bonuses, deposit match deals, boosted odds, or profit boosts.

Backing and Laying Bets

In sports betting, the bookmakers act as the layers, while betting exchanges have the bettors act as both backers and layers.

• Backing bets is when a bettor is wagering that the outcome will happen, which can be done on a sports betting site or using a betting exchange.
• Laying bets is where a bettor is wagering that anything but the outcome in question will happen. Essentially, bettors believe that the outcome won’t happen at all.

Step-by-Step Process

The matched betting strategy is easy enough to employ, but we’ve included a short guide to give you an idea of how to begin in case you’re unfamiliar.

As you get more familiar with matched betting, finding good opportunities will become second nature, as will navigating new sportsbooks and the betting exchanges you choose to frequent. Remember that matched betting entirely within the confines of the sportsbooks won’t yield a significant profit due to how the odds are set up. Back your bets on the sports betting site using free bets and lay the bet via the exchange.

Essential Tools for Successful Matched Betting

You have to get a few ducks in a row if you want to use this matched betting strategy properly. We alluded that you want to choose a sportsbook that’s not too restrictive and has members using matched betting. You also want to find an opportunity to lay a bet on the specific game or competition you backed on the sportsbook!

Matched Betting Software

Even though matched betting involves extensive research and a significant time commitment, the great news is that there are online matched betting tools and software available for bettors to make the entire experience simplified and streamlined. By using these helpful tools, you can save precious time and find matched betting opportunities worth the effort!

Here are a few examples of matched betting software that help you pair bets at online sportsbooks with lay bets at exchanges:

Benefits of Matched Betting Software

Check out the main perks and benefits of using online tools and resources for finding the best-matched bet opportunities:

• Find valuable odds at multiple sportsbooks
• Discover lay bets at betting exchanges
• The software will show you the most profitable opportunities
• Bettors can find out the strengths and weaknesses in their strategies
• It’s difficult to lose money using matched betting software

The biggest reason that matched betting software can benefit a sports bettor is the time it can save someone looking for matched betting opportunities. If you’re worried about a significant time commitment, software that helps bettors find matched bets might be right up your alley.

Advanced Strategies for Matched Betting

What creative ways can you leverage welcome bonuses and other promotions to work into your matched betting strategy? Try out these advanced techniques and strategies to ensure you use the welcome bonuses’ free bets so you don’t arouse suspicion, plus enjoy long-term success with other promos that can be used for match bets.

Maximizing Welcome Offers

One of the best methods for making matched bets is to use the free bets you earn as a newcomer to any sports betting site, though the amount you can get will vary based on the platform. While these are typically the biggest bonuses you can earn, using the funds all at once to place on a big matched bet can alert bookmakers to your strategy, which many sportsbooks frown upon.

Your Best Play with Welcome Bonuses

The best course of action for matched bets is to use the free bets gradually over several bets. You don’t want to make it completely obvious that you’re a matched bettor. Otherwise, you could be denied your payout, limited in how much you can bet, or barred from using promos in the future.

A few other things you can do to come across as an average recreational bettor would be to:

• not always bet the maximum
• not bet only on obscure markets (which are lucrative for these opportunities)
• use exact amounts when placing your wager

These could all be signs that you’re using the matched betting strategy, and the sports betting site could act against you! Your best play with the welcome bonus bets is to spread the funds over a few games and into some major markets—the idea is to throw off the scent so you can go undetected.

Sign Up with Multiple Books

If you’re signing up with multiple bookmakers to take advantage of numerous welcome bonuses, you should stray from multi-accounting, where you create multiple accounts under fake personas. It’s a fraudulent practice. There’s another way you can do this, and it’s less frowned upon and harder for the sportsbooks to detect—it’s called “gnoming” and involves gamblers creating new accounts using their friends’ or families’ information.

Reload Offers and Other Promos

Think of matched betting as a long-term strategy—you don’t want to use the technique every day but combine it with other methods. So, this means taking advantage of more than just the welcome bonus. Online sportsbooks feature ongoing promos such as profit boosts, reload bonuses, deposit matches, and others.

• Reload Offers: These are promos where customers can earn additional bets if they reload their online accounts with a certain amount of new funds. Online sportsbooks will extend these offers to customers every week or several times throughout the year, so reload bonuses can be a lucrative, viable strategy for matched bettors.
• Deposit Matches: Deposit matches are welcome bonuses, but some sportsbooks extend them to their customers at other times. If bettors deposit a certain amount of money into their account, the sportsbook will match the funds up to a certain amount.
• Boosted Odds: These are discounted prices on odds, so bettors get a deal when adding these selections to their bet slip. It’s technically not free money, but you catch a break on the pricing, and it can be used in your matched betting strategy.

Multiple Accounts

A favorite technique for matched bettors is creating multiple accounts to take advantage of as many welcome bonuses as possible. There are two primary ways a bettor can pull this trick off, both of which are morally shaky but one that’s far easier for the bookmakers to prove when they take their users to task for match betting.

• The first technique gamblers will use to have multiple accounts going on one sports betting site is “multi-accounting,” this is a straight-up fraudulent practice because the bettor is making up fake accounts and passing them off as if they are another person. This strategy is more straightforward for the books to pick up, especially now with all the security systems they have to detect this practice.
• Some gamblers will ask their friends or family members for permission to use their information to create a new account, as many sportsbooks will ask for identification for a new account or may limit the number of gamblers who can sign up from a single household. This is called “gnoming,” it’s harder for sportsbooks to prove that this occurs when they feel they’re dealing with a matched bettor.

IMPORTANT:

Managing multiple accounts can yield higher profits, but it’s not an airtight approach, for the sportsbooks can still find out what you’re up to. Many platforms use advanced systems or algorithms to detect multi-accounting, so we recommend that our readers take it easy with too many accounts going at a single sportsbook. Using one account and taking advantage of other bonus offers outside the initial welcome, such as profit boosts, reload offers, or deposit bonuses.

Navigating the Risks in Matched Betting

Technically, there’s no financial risk associated with matched betting because the entire point is that you’re guaranteeing a profit for yourself between the back bets with the sportsbook and the lay bets on the exchange. You can run a financial risk if the sportsbook refuses to honor your winnings, but we’ll get into that more below. The biggest roadblocks you could run into with matched betting include interference by the bookmakers, bad decisions on the bettors’ part that give them away to the bookmakers, and improperly managing your time while planning matched bets.

Bookmaker Limitations

One of the biggest problems you could run into is your account being shut down by the bookmakers or having them refuse your payout if they detect or sense that you’re using a matched betting strategy. Matched betting ensures you make a profit no matter what, so you don’t have to worry about financial risk per se unless the sportsbook refuses to pay you out if your bet was right on the money.

Bookmakers can make it hurt for matched bettors by severely limiting what they can do on the site, including the following:

• Account closure
• Denying them access to any promotions
• Withholding your winnings
• Set smaller betting limits
• Restricting access to certain features

This is why checking terms and conditions before using online sports betting sites is essential. Many of these platforms reserve the right to limit what you can do if they are on you and your matched betting strategy. Using matched betting software can be helpful, too, because it can help you find the best back-and-lay bets between books and exchanges that guarantee a profit but aren’t so obvious as to get you in trouble.

Human Error

Matched betting spells financial instability for online sportsbooks, so bookmakers do everything they can to prevent the practice when they see the signs of players using the technique. As a matched bettor starting, it’s essential to take the mindset that you’re being watched by the sportsbooks for fishy activity. Don’t make the crucial error of making it completely obvious that you’re there only for the freebies!

There’s even a term for when sportsbooks limit their users so that they cannot take advantage of special offers or promos: a gubbing. To avoid a gubbing from the sportsbook you’re using, follow some of these tips for managing bookmaker relationships and ultimately avoiding detection:

• Look to other promos outside of free bets, like odds boosts, refund offers, deposit bonuses, extra places, etc.
• Don’t place the maximum bet every time. Be okay with sacrificing a bit in profit every now and then to go undetected as a matched bettor.
• Avoid high-stakes betting on obscure events too often. This is the classic sign of someone who is either matched or arbitrage betting.
• Don’t make a lot of deposits and withdrawals. This signals that you’re gaming the system to make a profit.
• Avoid betting using exact amounts. Just as you would avoid making the maximum bet every time, you must round down your betting amounts to come off as a recreational bettor.

The idea behind matched betting or any other strategy is to reap the long-term benefits without alerting the sportsbook as to what you’re doing. You want to come across like you’re a recreational bettor.

Time Management

You also run the risk of spending too much time and energy looking for opportunities where you can successfully pull off the matched betting strategy. If your time is valuable to you, we’d recommend using tools like matched betting software, which does a lot of the legwork for finding lay bets in exchanges to pair with your back bets on the sportsbook. Balancing time spent on matched betting with other activities can be a victory if efficient time management is your goal.

If you have a lot of time on your hands and don’t mind doing the research yourself, time management can be a much lesser risk than factors like getting into trouble with your sportsbook. Using matched betting software, tools, or calculators helps maximize your efficiency and lets you enjoy matched betting without dedicating a lot of thought or energy to it.

Matched Betting FAQs

Even though matched betting is a common strategy that’s been around for years, we still get a lot of readers and customers asking about the technique and how to employ it in their betting routine successfully. Let’s look at the most common questions we’ve gotten on matched betting.

Start Your Matched Betting Journey Today

Matched betting can be a valuable strategy to ensure you walk away from any bet with a guaranteed profit, but employing this tactic successfully is all about the timing. Before you try your hand at matched betting, remember to keep these critical points in mind:

• Use welcome bonuses, reload bonuses, deposit matches, boosted odds, or profit boosts to play the long game of matched betting.
• If you use multiple accounts, try to create accounts using your friends or family (with their permission).
• Come across like a recreational bettor—don’t always bet the total amount, don’t always bet the obscure markets, and don’t make excessive deposits and withdrawals.
• Don’t use all your free welcome bets right away. Spread these funds over several bets to not hand them to the sportsbook.
• Use matched betting software to quickly pair good odds on the sportsbooks with lay bets at sports betting exchanges.
• Be willing to sacrifice some profit here and there—don’t always bet the max or in non-round numbers. Place some dud bets every now and then to be perceived as a recreational bettor.

As always, we encourage you to apply the strategies and tools outlined in this matched betting guide. Remember to bet responsibly, look for ways to improve your skills, and continuously hone your betting strategy.

Take the Next Step in Matched Betting

We mentioned earlier in the guide that matched betting should be one of many betting strategies in your quiver—you don’t want to rely solely on matched betting to see you through your sports betting experiences. For one thing, you have to go about it discreetly to avoid detection. If you get caught, you could burn a bridge with the sportsbook you’re using.

Exploring other strategies is preferable so you don’t have so much riding on matched bets. Check out our betting strategies section to develop a well-rounded approach to sports betting!