21 Awesome Matched Betting Tips
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Matched betting is a great way to make some extra cash. If you’re just getting started you may be looking for a few easy to follow matched betting tips to help you on your way with this tax-free side hustle.
What is Matched Betting?
Matched Betting is a system which allows you to make money by placing bets that take advantage of the free bets offered by bookmakers. It’s not gambling as if you follow the steps correctly then you won’t lose money – you’ll actually make a profit every single time. It’s completely legal and tax-free too.
The process can be a little bit difficult to get your head around at first but once you have done it a few times it does become much quicker and easier. I’d advise watching lots of Matched Betting YouTube videos that clearly explain the process before getting started
You’ll need around £40-£60 to start with but you should make that money back pretty quickly. It’s also worth signing up to a Matched Betting service such as Profit Accumulator as they do all the hard work for you with their calculators. While PA is a paid service, you’ll easily make the monthly fee back in profit and they often have free trials, so if you find matched betting isn’t for you, you won’t have lost any money.
Is Matched Betting a Con?
Nope. Matched betting is absolutely legit. There are articles about it on Money Saving Expert and it’s been featured in articles by the Guardian and other national newspapers.
How Much Can You Make From Matched Betting? Matched Betting Profits
The amount you can make from matched will vary quite a bit depending on several factors, including hor much of your own money you can afford to start with and how much time you can dedicate to learning the ropes.
If you’re starting with a minimum of £40-£60 I think you could expect to make £300 to £400 in the first month.
If you’re starting with £500 I think you could expect to make £1000 to £1200 in the first month.
After this, it will depend on how much money you keep in your bank and how much profit you take each month, how much time you can dedicate to matched betting on what type of offers are available.
21 Awesome Matched Betting Tips
1. Matched Betting Tip: Open A Separate Bank Account
Once you understand the principles of matched betting and are ready to get started, then my first matched betting tip is to open a separate bank account to use. This will make it much easier to manage your matched betting money, keep track of your profits and keeps bookie deposits away from your main bank account.
When I started matched betting I simply opened up a current account online through Halifax.
It only took a few minutes and they sent me the card and other details through the post in a few days. I then transferred my initial deposit over to that account from my main current.
You don’t need anything fancy, the most basic account will do.
2. Use a Dedicated Email Address
You’ll also want to create a dedicated email address to use for matched betting.
Again this keeps your main email account free for your normal emails and keeps all your matched betting in one, easy-to-manage place.
I also set up a dedicated browser (with Google Chrome you can just add another person and then save it as a shortcut on your desktop).
This made it easy to save all my emails and passwords separate from my usual online activity.
It also meant I didn’t get distracted looking at other things while I was matched betting, such as Facebook and Twitter which I usually have open in my browser.
3. Do Your Research
Once you’ve done the above, it’s worth just going everything one last time before you start. Even with your first bets, it’s worth having videos open to make sure you’re doing each step correctly.
As I mentioned above, the best way to get started with Matched Betting is with a Profit Accumulator account as they do all the hard work and calculations for you as you go.
4. Matched Betting Tips: Write Everything Down
I’d also advise writing everything down as you go. Some people like to use spreadsheets, personally, I prefer a pen, paper and not book.
While PA does offer some tracking tools as you work through offers and to record your profits after each bet has settled, I think it’s still good practice to keep your own records.
5. Take Things Slowly
One of the best matched betting tips you can follow, especially when you are first starting out, is to take things slowly.
It may not seem like you’re making much money at first but it’s far better to learn how to do things and double, even triple-check each step for placing your bets.
You’ll be far less likely to make mistakes and end up losing money.
6. Don’t Try to Run Before You Can Walk
The same goes for when you’re ready to move onto more complicated offers such as horse racing refunds and 1ups. Don’t try these until you’ve exhausted all the sign-up offers on Profit Accumulator and feel ready to take the next steps.
7. Place Mug Bets
If you’re making a good profit from Matched Betting then it might be time to place some ‘mug bets’ This is the term given to making real money bets in the way a normal punter.
While matched betting itself is completely risk-free, there is always the risk that your account with the bookies could get shut down. To try and stop this happening, some experienced matched bettors put aside a small portion of their profits each month for mug bets.
These bets are real gambling and do carry a risk of losing your money.
But they help make your betting account look like a ‘normal’ account and therefore it’s less likely to be flagged up and restricted or closed so it does help you continue matched betting in the long term.
Other ways you can help prevent your account from being closed are to avoid betting on very obscure matches and to add more than the deposit required for any offers.
8. Build Your Bank
While you can start your matched betting journey with around £60, if you can manage to leave to profits untouched for a few months, you’ll give yourself the best chance of making matched betting work for you in the long term. This money is called your bank.
The more money you have in your bank the more bets you can place at once and the more offers you can take advantage of. It’s up to you how much you keep in there, but lots of people like to keep around the £1000 mark and then keep any profits over than at the end of each month.
9. Check Your Emails
One of the best matched betting tips I can offer, always take a look through your emails, including spam or junk mail. Often, bookies offers for free bets and free spins are short-lived so need to be taken advantage of quickly.
This is one of the best ways to keep your earnings up after completing the initial sign up offers.
Emails can also alert you to other things, such as any restrictions placed on your account and upcoming events such as big horse racing meets like Cheltenham.
10. Keep Learning
As with anything in life, it pays to keep learning. Once you’ve got the hang of matched betting there are always new areas to learn, such as casino offers.
Learning new things will help keep your profits from matched betting on the up.
11. Stop Matched Betting If You Plan To Apply for Credit or Mortgage
If you’re planning on applying for a large amount of credit, such as a mortgage then it’s worth stopping matched betting three to six months beforehand. While bookies do only do soft searches on your credit file there is still a potential risk that it could be flagged up – personally, I just wouldn’t want to take that risk.
As soon as your mortgage is completed then you can pick it right back up again. Matched betting is also a great way to build your income for a house deposit. While income from matched betting is tax-free, it can’t be counted as income on a mortgage application, so it’s worth bearing that in mind.
12. Matched Betting Tips: Be Consistent
Sometimes when matched betting it can seem like you’re not making money. One of the best ways to see good returns is to make you’re being consistent.
To help with this you could set a challenge of making a set amount each day, such as £10 or £20. This should help keep you motivated and over the course of the month it’ll add up to a decent amount.
13. Stop If You’re Tempted To Gamble For Real
If you ever start to find yourself placing real bets, spending more than you planned to on mug bets or not sticking to the Matched Betting principles it might be time to stop.
Always be gamble aware and seek help should you need it.
14. Learn From Any Matched Betting Mistakes
Provided you follow the correct steps, matched betting will always make you a profit. However, it can be easy to make mistakes.
This can come from trying to do things in a rush, being tired, not fully understanding an offer or process or a genuine mistype or press of a button.
Generally speaking, most people make enough money from matched betting that any small mistakes will be outweighed by their overall profits.
So if you do something wrong, do try not to panic too much. There may also be ways to limit the damage if you have made a mistake. However, as with anything, it’s good to try and learn from these mistakes so you don’t lose money again in the future.
15. Don’t Panic If You Get Gubbed
Getting ‘Gubbed’ is the term used when a bookmaker suspects unusual activity on your account and either limits the special offers you can use (making matched betting very difficult as it relies on free bets) or closes your account entirely.
While matched betting is perfectly legal, of course, bookies don’t like people making money from it.
The first couple of times you get gubbed you may panic a little bit and worry how you’ll continue long term without certain bookmakers.
It’s worth remembering that some bookmakers gub pretty much everyone after they’ve completed one or two offers.
There are also always new online gaming websites opening up so even once you’ve completed all the signup offers initially, new ones should trickle in as time goes on.
As I mentioned above, you can reduce you can chance of getting gubbed by placing mugs, adding extra money to your account from time to time and avoiding placing bets on obscure events.
16. Read Offers Carefully
I mentioned earlier about making mistakes, and one common error people make when matched betting is not reading offers properly.
Most offers, such as free bets and free spins have a limited time frame they can be used in, sometimes as little as twenty-four hours.
Offers can other requirements too – such as placing the bet on mobile via an app rather than on the website or being required to bet with minimum odds.
Make sure you fully read and understand each offer before proceeding.
17. Don’t Compare Yourself to Others
If you’ve been researching matched betting tips before getting started yourself then you may have seen lots of other people sharing how much they have made and often this amount runs into the thousands.
When you finally get going and make significantly less money than other it can be disheartening and make you feel as though as you’re not doing very well. However, there are loads of factors involved here so do try not to compare yourself to others and what they have made.
Factors that affect peoples matched betting earnings include:
- Having a bigger bank to start with.
- Having more experience, therefore being quicker and able to do more offers.
- Lucky casino wins.
- Doing more complicated/risky offers.
- Having more time to dedicate to Matched Betting.
- They started a few years ago when sign up offers were much more lucrative.
18. Get Support From Experienced Match Bettors
Getting support from others can be a great way to ensure you’re making the right decisions and double-check if there’s something you’re not sure on. There are a lot of places online you can do this including the Profit Accumulator Forums, dedicated matched betting Facebook groups and online hubs such as The Money Shed.
I’ve found that generally speaking people are pretty helpful when it comes to sharing matched betting tips, especially as it’s something you are not able to discuss with friends and family.
19. Remember it’s Tax-Free, But . . .
Matched betting is completely tax-free, however, as I mentioned above it can’t be counted as your income when applying for a loan or mortgage.
While matched betting may seem like a great way to build a deposit for a house if you’re asked to prove where the money came from and it’s all from gambling winnings, this may be a red flag to your mortgage provider.
20. Matched Betting Tips: Your Partner Can Sign Up Too
If you’re making a good profit from matched betting and enjoying the extra income it can bring, you may be wondering if your partner can sign up and make some extra cash too.
While not all bookies allow this, the good news is that some most definitely do. My advice is to take a look at the Parter Friendly Bookies list on the Profit Accumulator website and go from there.
21. Treat Yourself
Don’t forget, if you’re putting your free time into a side hustle, you need to pay yourself!
Whether the money goes towards debts, a holiday, or a house deposit it doesn’t matter as long it’s going towards something that matters to you and that you will enjoy.
Finally, is Matched Betting Worth it?
Yes, matched betting is definitely worth it. While the initial sign-up offers are less lucrative than they once were you can still expect to make £500 a month matched betting without too much effort and more if you have more time to dedicate to it.
Sign-up offers are where the best money is, so even if you only do matched betting for a few months to make some extra cash to pay off debt or for a holiday I think it’s one of the easiest ways to make some extra cash, risk-free and relatively quickly too.
