When I started matched betting a few years ago, I was apprehensive at first. You know – making free money online – it almost seems too good to be true! Anyway – lots of people have asked me how I got on with matched betting – and how I do with it today (Yes I still do it now!) So I decided to put together a proper matched betting blog.
What is Matched Betting Anyway?
Matched betting is when you essentially cash in on the free bets from the bookies. You will be working in two accounts – the bookies and the Exchange such as BETFAIR EXCHANGE.
The way it works is this – You place a bet and lay the bet (bet against) on the exchange so that you come out almost even. Then the bookies will release a FREE BET to you and so you do the same again – place the bet with the bookies and lay it on the exchange. When it completes, the money will either end up in the bookies or the exchange, but either way it will end up somewhere that you can draw it out from!
You can usually cash in on about £6-8 from each £10 free bet.
Most people use a website platform such as Profit Accumulator which has videos and talks you through the process step by step. it also has calculators and spreadsheets to help you to work out your lay bets and track your matched betting earnings.
Starting out in Matched Betting
I’d heard about matched betting from a few university colleagues, but they’d called it something different – bonus blagging! I’d read about matched betting on save the student and then started to realise it could be a genuine money maker, but I was too scared to take the plunge.
In 2017, the year I started matched betting I had just decided to quit a full time teaching career in UK classrooms in favour of earning online for myself through freelancing and online teaching. I read an article by Emma Drew about matched betting and decided that this could be another source of income for me.
And guess what? Tax free! Yep, if you live in the UK, you don’t have to be taxed on gambling winnings. Be aware that you
Matched Betting Blog – My first Year 2017
When I started matched betting I started out with £80 in the bookies which was BETFAIR and £40 for free bets which were used on CORAL and WILLIAM HILL.
Basically, the more money that you start with in the matched betting pot the quicker that you will grow your pot and the more bets that you will be able to do at any one time.
When I decided I wanted to make a go of matched betting, I signed up to Profit Accumulator because they have all of the best offers and videos to show you how to do matched betting. As I’ve already mentioned they have matched betting calculators and spreadsheets – everything that you need to get started.
If you want to know what I managed to earn when starting matched betting here are my first 3 months of earnings:
- Month 1 – £1872.46
- Month 2 – £986.21
- Month 3 – £878.18
This above was made doing about an hour a day roughly, some days I’d just do half an hour but some days (especially busy match days) I might do 2 hours.
Now, why haven’t I included my earnings for the rest of the year? Now, it’s not that I stopped earning, but I just stopped meticulously recording my bets in the spreadsheet – oops! I basically got lazy with my records! But according to my bank balance I was making about £500-800 a month consistently for the whole of the first year for 5 hours a week.
Matched Betting Blog – My Second Year 2018
In my second year of matched betting I managed to save for and do 3 BIG things. Firstly I was able to spend a month in Thailand in Mach/April. In June was our wedding and in October we had our honeymoon in Mauritius. When I looked at my matched betting earnings and they were around £100 a month for say 1-2 hours a week of matched betting. But, in the months when I had something big to save for I increased to 5-10 hours a week and earned around £800.
In my second year of matched betting I found myself moving more towards
Do I still do Matched Betting?
The short answer is YES!
Matched betting is a relatively easy tax free way of making money in UK. You can also do matched betting abroad but you need to know the tax systems.
Although I do LESS matched betting than I used to because you do have to work a bit harder with signups, I still do it, especially when I am saving up for something big such as a holiday or new laptop! It also depends on the sports.
2020 has been a bit of a right off due to Coronavirus, but I will do more when the football and races pick up again next year. There may well be an abundance of free bets encouraging people to get back into gambling and so I will be taking advantage of those!
Now, why does the amount you make go down slightly after the first few months? This is a question that I often get asked. Well you make a lot more money a lot quicker when you first start because of all the SIGNUP offers that are available. These are often much bigger such as Free bets that are £20, £30 or even £50. The biggest signup offer I did was £100 with BET365. So you can earn large amounts quickly from the sign up offers.
Once you have been through all of the signup offers you will then move on to RELOADS which will usually be
Matched Betting Tips
- Sign up with a Matched Betting site like Profit Accumulator to be guided through starting matched betting and have resources and matched betting calculators.
- Start with about £100 at least if you can because your pot will grow quicker.
- Do the horses if you want fast completing bets.
- Avoid Matched Betting if you have an addictive personality and may be tempted into gambling away the winnings from the free bets.
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