Matched Betting Quick Start Guide (2) – Place Qualifying Bet

Matched Bet Starting Guide (2) 

Qualifying Bets are required by bookmakers to qualify for free bets or bonuses which enables you to implement matched betting risk-free.

In matched betting, placing a qualifying bet is an important process to receive the bonus or free bet which is our profit source.

This Matched Bet Starting Guide (2) – Place Qualifying Bet will cover the specific process of placing qualifying bet risk-free as well as the best tactics to sign-up bookmakers & betting exchanges.

GEM Matched Betting Starting Guides

This article is the 2nd of the 3 Matched Betting Start Guide series. In this guide, we instruct on a bit about sign-up strategy & qualifying bets. So if you have not read Guide (1), suggest you read;

OK, then, let’s start;

Matched Betting Guide (2) – Sign-Up & Placing Qualifying Bet

Bookmaker Sign-Up – CAUTION

As cautioned in the Guide (1), avoid sign-up directly with bookmakers before checking the availability of Cashback Offer because if you go through cashback sites you may receive both bookies’ own welcome bonuses & cashback (big operators like Bet365, PaddyPower, Ladbrokes & Corals are usually listed).

Sign-Up Priority – We Start-up with the Easiest One

Recall 3 Popular Type of Welcome Offers for New Player explained in the Guide (1);

This section is a quick recap of what we discussed

• Qualifying Bet First before you receive Free Bet, typically “Bet XX Get XX Free Bet”
• If You Lose Your Qualifying Bet, Receive Bonus, typically “We Refund If You Lose Your 1st Bet”
• Receive Bonus When you Deposit and Make Qualifying Bets based on the required Rollover / Turnover before Withdrawal, typically “We Match 100% Bonus of Your Deposit”

The 1st “Bet XX Get XX Free Bet” is by far the most popular in the UK & Ireland and actually the easiest one to tackle. Therefore, this starting guide focuses on this type of offer.

For 2. of “We Refund If You Lose Your 1st Bet”, you will find the Specific Instruction in How To Lock-In Profits from Risk-Free Bet Sign Up Offer By Matched Betting.

For 3. of “We Match 100% Bonus of Your Deposit”, the most popular type among Continental Europe & Caribbean bookies. The best way to deal with this offer is to use the Under Lay method, go to How To Guarantee Profits from Sports Deposit Bonus With WR (Wager Requirements).

Go through Placing Qualifying Bet & Extracting Free Bet

Regarding “Bet XX Get XX Free Bet”, you need to go through 2 stages before withdrawing your profit earned by Bonus / Free Bets.

Sign-Up – Step by Step Process

Open Account Strategy & Process – Betting Exchange

As the first step, you need to sign-up for Bet Exchange for Laying Bet and Bookmaker for Backing Bet. Here, we use Smarkets (not Betfair (suggest use of Betfair Alternatives) as the market leader, why? see the next section) for Exchange and William Hill for Bookmaker as examples.

Bet Exchange Sign-Up

As you already know, the betting exchange is essential for matched betting. Therefore, it’s critical to take the right approach from the beginning which will affect your profit for the long term. Suggest you take a look at Bet Exchange Ultimate Guide. I will extract a few tactics from the documents here as follows.

Bet Exchange List

There are the following 4 Major Betting Exchanges;

Betfair (see Betfair Alternatives)

Smarkets

Matchbook

BetDaq (Warning)

Bet Exchange Sign-Up Tactics

Basic Principle

Firstly, we have matched bettors, which means we rake cash from every promotional offer. Same as the bookmakers, all the above 4 betting exchanges provide you with sign-up offers. Therefore, there are no reasons to be picky but you should sign up all to extract cash from the welcome bonuses.

So, what I will explain next is a few tactics on sign-up orders, daily use & a bit of caution.

Suggested Tactics

Core Bet Exchange Smarkets; Given the competitive 2% commission, you may want to use it as a core exchange for your daily matched betting. This means, your first sign-up is to be Smarkets.

Stand-By Bet Exchange

Betfair: Given its vast market coverage & liquidity, you always want to keep Betfair stand-by whenever you can’t find the appropriate market such as Greyhound in Smarkets. Besides, note that Betfair also provides a conventional bookmaker service called Betfair  Sportsbook in addition to the betting Exchange.

Since Betfair is famous for bet Exchange, many newbies are initially confused. Importantly Betfair Sportsbook offers a lot of juicy promotions for matched bettors.

Warning

While you’re using Betfair Sportsbook, suggest don’t be obvious at Exchange. What does it mean by obvious? Find out more about account restrictions. Never ever lay off at Betfair Exchange while backing the same event at Betfair Sportsbook.

It’s exactly demonstrating that you’re a matched bettor. Then your Sportsbook account could be quickly gubbed. So, ensure you use Smarkets when you do matched betting at Betfair Sportsbook.

Anyhow, once your Betfair sportsbook is gubbed, it’s high time to start using the exchange function aggressively together with Smarkets. Don’t worry, Betfair will gubb your Sportsbook but Never Gub Your Exchange.

Open Account Strategy & Process – Bookmaker

T&C Check Points

The most important thing that should be done first in the process of sign-up is to carefully check the Terms & Conditions (T&C) of the sign-up offer.

Boring Thing, I know it’s cumbersome & boring to read the T&C of every sign-up offer. But strongly suggest you do, because skipping it may lead to a costly mistake. For Exchange, once you complete the sign-up offer, you may not have many reload offers.

However, for bookmakers, the real income comes from such re-load offers to the existing customers. So get accustomed to reading T&C every time, and get insight into which points you need to check. Find the below list of key T & C checkpoints;

, etc. The condition varies for each bookmaker, so you need to check each bookie’s detail requirements before you implement the matched betting.

Odds Decimal Format

You need to change the Odds Format from Fractional to Decimal. UK bookies usually set fractional as a default format for easy comparison between exchange odds & bookies’ odds. A brief explanation about these formats is, Decimals show how much money you will win if you win your bet including your original stake.

Therefore if a decimal is 2, I would win 2 overall (£1 profit + £1 stake). Just add ‘1’ onto your fractional odds if the denominator is ‘1’. So, for instance, fractional odds of 5/1 become 6. In cases of fractional odds denominators not being 1, it’s just as easy.

Say the odds were 13/2, simplify the equation to 6.5/1, and then add 1 to 6.5. So your decimal would be 7.5. It means £6.50 profit for every £1, and £7.50 including your stake. It’s much easier to compare the odds of 2.25 and 3.38 than it is to compare 5/4 and 11/8! See the below comparison table for your convenience;

Placing Qualifying Bet – Step-By-Step Process

Qualifying Bet (This Process Will Apply To Any Reload Offers)

This is the step-by-step instruction on How To Complete a Qualifying Bet to Unlock your Free Bet.

I’m using William Hill’s welcome offer of “Bet £10 Get £30 Free Bet” See T&C to carefully check the following points for your practice;

• Deposit method required – often Neteller / Skrill are not eligible to use for bonus
• Availability of Bonus / Offer Code and the timing to Input
• Type of Offer – Qualifying Deposit or Qualifying Bet
• Within how many days do you need to deposit after sign-up
• Qualifying Bet – Within how many days do you need to bet after the deposit (or code input)
• Again Qualifying Bet – Within how many days do you need to use up Free Bet
• Qualifying Deposit – Number of Rollovers required to make a withdrawal
• Again Qualifying Deposit – Within how many days do you need to complete Rollover
• Qualified odds you need to bet such as 1/2 (1.50) or greater both for Qualifying Bet & Free Bet

BTW, the time I originally prepared the below process was 2016 but William Hill’s offer basically stays put and even if it changes, the basic principle & the whole process perfectly applies to this “Bet xx Get xx Free Bet” type offer.

So, don’t be bothered by the old events in the instruction below but just follow the process;

Free Odds Matching Software

Firstly, we need to find an opportunity for Matched Bets in the market. We use Free Software to do it. Probably, the best software for FREE is the one provided by Bonus Bagging (The no. 1 Matched Betting System for Newbies), as shown below;

QUALIFYING BET

Let me start up with the basic principle of Odds Selection. In matched betting, it is important to locate the sports event with close back and lay odds. The closer the odds are, the less we will lose on our qualifying bet.

Therefore the more profit we will make overall. Besides, for qualifying bets, it’s better to look for selections with short odds. Ideally as close to the minimum odds requirement as possible. The Odds matcher shows you all the current matched betting opportunities in the order of profitability.

At the left end column, you see the % in descending order from 100%. The 100% indicates your loss is 0. As said before, in the stage of qualifying bet, you need to prepare for the marginal loss.

Thus it’s great to find the 0 loss opportunity, and the nearer to 100% the lower the loss. At the top centre, you can choose the bookmaker (currently over 70 bookmakers are listed) and select William Hill like below;

Then, you will see the below page;

Luckily, there is a 100% opportunity which is EURO 2016 Switzerland vs France on 19 June 2016 (the first one). It shows Bet on France Win in the Market 1×2 (means home wins or draw or away wins) with the Odds of 2.00 at William Hill and 1.98 at Smarkets (Exchange).

Here you need to be careful with the Odds. The bookmaker usually set minimum odds requirement like ‘Your first bet must be placed on a selection(s) with single/cumulative odds greater than 2.0‘ etc. William Hill’s condition is greater than 1.5, so this opportunity satisfies the requirement.

Specific Instruction on What You Should Do with Matched Betting Calculator

Although there is a separate dedicated Free Calculator, the software conveniently instructs what you should do when you click the Info box at the right end column. So, click the box for the Switzerland vs France match, you see the below table;

How To Read Calculator

This table shows; If you bet £10 in William Hill (£10 is the default amount in this software and William Hill’s newcomer offer is ‘Bet £10 Get £30 Free Bet’ therefore you don’t need to change at all), under the Qualifier (it’s again the default setting at the right top. you should change into SNR – Stake Not Returned or SR – Stake Returned when it comes to Free Bet), you can maximize your profit as;

• You need to lay £10.20 in Smarkets (remember Lay stake amount differs from the back amount).
• Your net profit/loss is 0 (usually a small loss but here 100% opportunity means no loss, which is good) no matter the outcome of the event will be as;

Back Wins (at Bookie): +£10 (William Hill) – £10 (SMarkets) = £0 Lay Wins (at Exchange): -£10 (William Hill) + £10 (SMarkets) = £0

Placing Bets Both in Bookmaker (William Hill) & Exchange (Smarkets)

Log in William Hill Account and adjust odds into Decimal;

Locate the match between Switzerland vs France. Then choose Back France. Make sure the odds is still 2.00 because it is quickly changing. If it already changes, you have to go back to the above Calculator Table to consult by inputting the new odds to see how your profit/loss will be. If it creates a bigger loss then you’d better search for a new opportunity.

After you confirm to place the bet, the bet slip should show like below;

Lay at Exchange – Smarkets

At the same time, you access Smarkets and locate the match as below. Importantly, you do LAY in the exchange thus ENSURE YOU CHOOSE BLUE BOX (not green). In this case, 1.98 is in the blue box in France.

This is the Odds of France Will NOT WIN, which means it includes both Loose & Draw. Again, you have to confirm the odds stay put as you found in the Odds Matcher. If it already changes, the same thing applies as said for William Hill. You have to get back to the table & re-calculate.

Since it is the same odds now, you click the 1.98 blue boxes and input the LAY STAKE instructed in the calculator table which is £10.2 as below;

Lay Liability

Here, you see the word ‘Liability’ of £9.99. Let me briefly explain this concept. Lay liability is the amount of money you need to have in exchange to place the lay bet. When our lay bet loses, we lose our liability.

On the other hand, when a lay bet wins, we receive the amount in the ‘backer’s stake’ box & we get our liability back. The calculation is Back Stake (£10.2) x Odds (1.98 – 1 = 0.98 to calculate the genuine part of loss when your lay loses) = £9.99 In this case, odds are short (means small).

The longer (bigger) the odds, the bigger the liability is. Say the odds is 8.00, then the liability will be £71.4 (£10.2 x 7.00). Coupled with your back stake of £10.2, a total of £81.60 will be required in your exchange.

That amount will be locked until the bet is finally settled. For this particular topic, you may want to take a look at How To Minimize Exchange Lay Betting Commission & Liability For Matched Betting.

In Guide (3), we will talk about extracting profit from Free Bet. In general, the longer (the larger) the odds, the bigger your profitability. As you see here, you need a larger fund in your exchange when you chose larger odds.

Therefore, you need to balance out the profitability & bank size (or say liquidity) at the starting point. That’s it. You basically completed the Qualifying Bet placement by covering all the possible outcomes of the event.

Namely, Back France won in William Hill & Lay France – Not Win in Smarkets without incurring any loss in this case. After the match settles, you will receive £30 (£10 x 3) Free Bets in your William Hill account.