Risk Free Betting Guide


Grow Your Betting Bank The Risk Free Way

From now on EVERYTIME you see a free bet or bonus offer from a bookmaker, just think one thing, RISK FREE PROFIT.

I know what people say when they first hear this, “Risk Free Profit, yeah right”, “You can’t get something for nothing”, “There is no such thing as free lunch”. Well actually there is, as you can now grow your betting bank risk free for a long as you want, at whatever rate you want to do it and it is within your grasp just by reading this article. So now you can have a free lunch, breakfast and dinner anytime you like!

As online bookmakers vie for each others share of punters nearly all, at some stage, offer free bets and bonuses as an incentive for new customers to sign up or existing customers just to have another bet with them. You know the sort of thing “bet £25, receive a free £25 bet” when opening a new account. This is great news for us, the punter, as using a technique called “matched betting”; it is possible to convert ANY such offer into risk free profit, regardless of the outcome.

This is a simple three stage process:-

Step One

Obtain the free bet for the lowest possible cost by BACKing a selection with the bookmaker and LAYing the same selection on a Betting Exchange. This makes the bet risk free.

Step Two

Now repeat step one but now using the free bet or bonus as your stake money to back 1 selection with and again LAY the same selection on the Betting Exchange to make the bet risk free but as you are not staking with your own money at the bookmaker you have now generated some risk free profit.

Step Three

Withdraw your cash from the accounts, move onto the next offer and go back to Step One.

Once you start looking you will find that the sky for your betting bank is, quite literally, the limit.

We have personally tested and can recommend almost £2000 in risk free bets offers currently advertised with approved online bookmakers and with average risk free return on a free bet being 60% (a very conservative average we must say), that is over £1200 that can be made to start off with and all risk free.

So let’s look at steps one and two in a little more detail to see how it is actually done.

We have selected the bookmaker Victor Chandler (VCBet), who currently offer a free £50 bet for new customers.

Once signed up to VCBET and of course a betting exchange to lay the bets off with, in our case BETFAIR, we have a look at the up and coming games and select the following premiership matches:

Newcastle v Everton to obtain our free bet, this is not credited until after the first bet has settled. So we select the Fulham v West Brom game to cash it out for risk free profit.

Step One – Obtaining a free bet risk free

Place a bet at VCBET to obtain a FREE bet or bonus and LAY this selection on a betting exchange to make your liability as small as possible thereby obtaining the free bet for the lowest cost.

Here is the selected bet (see figure one to see how this was calculated)

BACK Newcastle at VCBET with £50 at odds of 2.90

LAY Newcastle at BETFAIR with £50.52 at odds of 2.92 (you will need £97 in your BETFAIR account to cover this bets liability)

If Newcastle win we win £95 at VCBET and lose £97 at BETFAIR for an £2 loss

If Newcastle don’t win (draw/lose) we lose £50 at VCBET and win (after commission) at BETFAIR £48 for a £2 loss

A small loss is perfectly ok as, if you think about it, we now have gained a £50 bet or £50 of free stake money to play with and it has cost us just £2.

Note: ALWAYS read the site’s T&C’s regarding the free bet bonus and then read them again!

For example, you can only gain a free bet from VCBET if your first bet selection is 1/1 or above. Other offers some will require the bonus bet to be wagered a certain number of times before withdrawal. Naturally there are different strategies depending on whatever the wagering requirements are but if you read the rules and follow the system it really is all risk free.

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Figure One: Calculating the VCBET qualifying bet using the bet72.com online calculator

Step Two – Cashing out a free bet (stake not returned) for risk free profit

Generally the value of the FREE bet stake is NOT included in the return of any winning, as in the case at VCBET, this is referred to as a “Stake Not Returned (SNR)” free bet (as opposed to a “Stake Returned (SR)” offer where the free bet stake is included in any winnings) . So here it is no good backing a 1/100 shot to cash out as that would only return 50p so we have to aim a little higher with our odds selection to get some value back. Again ALWAYS check the site’s T&C’s regarding the free bet or bonus and again there are different strategies depending on whatever the wagering requirements are and whether the free bet stake is returned or not. All these methods are discussed on the website.

Place a bet with the selected bookmaker using the FREE bet or bonus as your stake and LAY this selection on a betting exchange to ensure a risk free profit whatever the outcome

Now we are using “FREE” stake money and because we have laid the bet off to guarantee a return whatever the outcome then we have just generated some risk free profit.

Here is the selected bet (see figure two to see how this was calculated)

BACK West Brom at VCBET with the FREE £50 bet at odds of 4.35

LAY West Brom at BETFAIR with £36.02 at odds of 4.7 (you will need £133.28 in your BETFAIR account to cover this bets liability)

If West Brom win we win £167.50 at VCBET and loss £133.28 at BETFAIR for a £34.22 profit

If West Brom don’t win we lose £0 at VCBET (as the FREE bet was our stake) and win (after commission) £34.22 at BETFAIR

That is just over a 68% return from our free £50 bet and even accounting for the £2 we lost to obtain the free bet, that is £32.22 overall profit, still a over a 64% return on investment!

Best of all, it is all totally risk free.

fig2

Figure Two: Calculating the VCBET free stake not returned bet using the bet72.com online calculator

The screenshots above were taken from our online matched betting calculator.

Just enter the stake, back odds, lay odds and your betting exchange commission rate into the red boxes, hit the calculate button and all the maths is done for you!

There is also a free downloadable spreadsheet (Excel and OpenOffice compatible) with a full step by step guide is available to do all the calculations for you.

When cashing out a free bet we are obviously looking for the very best returns. This generally means we are looking for two things, close BACK/LAY odds at the bookmakers and betting exchange and, for a standard stake not returned offer, then we need to consider backing at higher odds.

As a guide, for stake not returned offers, you can easily aim to recoup 65%+ of your free bet stake in cash, of course you can set you own profit guidelines. However when looking at any desired profit margin always balance this with the time it takes to find the bets in the first place and amount of money you can afford to have tied up for the duration of the bet. It is always possible to get higher returns using higher, and more closely matched odds, but this will increase your liability at Betfair and although this money is never at risk it will be tied up until the bet is settled.

In the example above we needed the following amounts to complete the bets.

Qualifying bet = £147

BACK Newcastle at VCBET with £50 at odds of 2.90

LAY Newcastle at BETFAIR with £50.52 at odds of 2.92 (you will need £97 in your BETFAIR account to cover this bets liability)

Cashout bet = £133.28

BACK Derby at VCBET with the FREE £50 bet at odds of 4.35

LAY Derby at BETFAIR with £36.02 at odds of 4.7 (you will need £133.28 in your BETFAIR account to cover this bets liability)

As a guide, with equal back and lay odds, the % return for a non returned stake offer will be approximately, assuming the back and lay odds are the same.

snr-returns

50% at odds of 2

60% at odds of 2.63

70% at odds of 3.7

80% at odds of 6

90% at odds of 20

94% at odds of 100

The best way to see this is by using the calculator. Just enter the figures to find out what the overall bets will cost and what the overall profits will be. Keep playing with various back/lay price until you find a combination that you are happy with in terms of outlay and profit margin.

For example, by BACKing a selection at 10 and LAYing it at 10.5 using the free £50 stake not returned bet would yield a £40.91 risk free profit, almost an 82% return. However whilst the £50 stake is free you would need £409.09 in your Betfair account to cover the bet as opposed to the £133.28 needed on the first example, so the choice is yours.

fig3

Figure Three: Calculating a higher stake not returned bet using the bet72.com online calculator

Of course matched betting doesn’t only work on football, it can be used on any event which allows you to place a bet within the T&C’s of the offer at the bookmakers and has an available on the betting exchange to be laid off. Generally we tend to stick to football, as with the sheer volume of games available you are never stuck for a good matched bet option to use and also the odds prior to kick off are fairly static meaning once you have calculated your bet using the onscreen prices, you are more likely to actually get the bet on at those odds rather than the prices moving one way or another all the time but the choice is upto you.

As a comparison let us look at a stake returned offer, like the current one at Coral, bet £10 and get £10 free. This is probably the simplest offer of all as the qualifying bet can be done at ANY odds and the free bet stake is included in any winning returns plus the free bet is credited instantly when you place your first bet so we can even cash it out on the same selection.

For this example we are using Arsenal in their recent game against Wigan. Arsenal are 1/4 (1.25) at Coral and 1.31 to LAY at Betfair.

Step One – Obtaining a free bet risk free

Place a bet at Coral to obtain a FREE bet or bonus and LAY this selection on a betting exchange to make your liability as small as possible thereby obtaining the free bet for the lowest cost.

Here is the selected bet (see figure four to see how this was calculated)

BACK Arsenal at CORAL with £10 at odds of 1.25

LAY Arsenal at BETFAIR with £9.92 at odds of 1.31 (you will need £3.08 in your BETFAIR account to cover this bet’s liability)

If Arsenal win we win £2.50 at CORAL and lose £3.08 at BETFAIR for a 58p loss

If Arsenal don’t win (draw/lose) we lose £10 at CORAL and win (after commission) at BETFAIR £9.42 for a 58p loss

We have gained our £10 bet or £10 of free stake money to play with and it has cost us just 58p, as shown below.

fig4

Figure Four: Calculating the Coral qualifying bet using the bet72.com online calculator

Step Two – Cashing out a free bet (stake returned) for risk free profit

The free £10 is instantly credited with this particular offer and the free bet stake money will be returned in the winnings if the bet wins at the CORAL so we can use ANY odds and still make a healthy profit, so place exactly the same bet.

Here is the selected bet (see figure five to see how this was calculated)

BACK Arsenal at CORAL with the free £10 at odds of 1.25

LAY Arsenal at BETFAIR with £9.92 at odds of 1.31 (you will need £3.08 in your BETFAIR account to cover this bet’s liability)

If Arsenal win we win £12.50 at CORAL and lose £3.08 at BETFAIR for a £9.42 profit

If Arsenal don’t win (draw/lose) we loss £0 at CORAL (as the FREE bet was our stake) and win (after commission) at BETFAIR £9.42 for a £9.42 profit

A 94.25% return on investment from our initial £10 bet and even accounting for the 58p we lost to obtain the free bet, that is £8.84 overall profit, still a over a 88% profit margin from our initial £10 bet.

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Figure Five: Calculating the Coral cashout bet using the bet72.com online calculator

This particular profit has been achieved from a starting bank of less than £20. As the whole process has involved depositing just £10 into CORAL and having £6.16 in BETFAIR.

There are over 40 approved offers that can be used at the time of writing. So there are plenty of opportunities to grow your betting bank. As you can see you can start with a very small bankroll doing the free £10 bet offers, move onto the free £20, £25 and £50’s and beyond as your bank increases.

Plus there is also our world renowned Oddsmatcher software. Oddsmatcher does all the work for you, making it the quickest and easiest way to maximise any online free bet offer. We have access to realtime, live odds from all the leading online bookmakers and betting exchanges so generating instant risk free profits could not be easier.

Don’t believe us, see for yourself…… Oddsmatcher

What next?

One of the most frequently asked questions via our site is, “I have taken up all of the sign up offers but what do can I do next”

Well the good news is we have seen a tremendous upsurge in offers for existing customers, as bookmakers are keen for your business and to reward customer loyalty. This is a growing trend that is set to continue. Each profit might appear quite small but these are quick and easy to do and quickly accumulate into some very useful amounts over the month. Best all these are all risk free.

There can be any number of “reload” offers during any month whereby you can claim a % of your deposit typically 10-20% in the form of a free bet that has to be wagered over a certain number of times before it can be withdrawn. Also refund offers whereby bookmakers will refund your stake money if say a match ends goalless or a certain play scores the first or last goal, again these can all be turned into risk free profit. Add to that some regular casino and games offers and you have a great foundation on which to build some consistent profits on a month by month basis.

You can apply the same techniques also to telephone / mobile account offers and some bookmakers will also allow what is known as “partner friendly” bonuses, whereby a second member of the same household can sign up and get a free bet bonus too. Or you could pull some friends or family in and split the profits with them, the opportunities are huge and ongoing.

Happy Risk Free Betting!