Matched betting is a fantastic way to earn some extra money online. And it has been for a while. However, some veteran matched bettors claim that the landscape has changed. That bookmakers are getting wise and pulling their big offers. If that’s the case, is matched betting still worth it?
Is matched betting still worth it?
According to research published on Statista, the global online gambling market is currently worth almost £43bn. Online bookmakers have never been so popular. But with so many in operation, they need to stand out from the crowd. They need to offer something different than the competition. This is the sweet spot for matched bettors.
One of the most lucrative parts of matched betting are bookmaker sign up offers. Also known as ‘welcome’ or ‘new customer’ offers, these promotions are designed to entice people to open an account with a bookie. Some example sign up offers include:
- Bet £10 and Get £50 in free bets
- GET £40 in free bets when you bet £10 on football
- £20 in free bets when you bet £5
For offers like these, you need to bet your own money in order to unlock the free bets. However, with matched betting, your money is protected. This means you can see your bankroll grow with every new sign up offer you complete. Please be aware that you can only sign up to each bookmaker once. But with 70+ sign up offers currently available, you’ll have lots of opportunity to see that matched is still worth it.
Life after sign up offers
Once you’ve completed the available sign up offers, it’s time to see what other profit-making opportunities are around. As well as sign up offers, bookies also give out reload offers to their existing customers. These can occur daily, weekly, or randomly, but they’re all worth looking out for.
Reload offers can take many forms. Again, they can be straightforward “bet £x to get £x in free bets”, similar to many of the sign ups you’ll already have done. Another reload offer type is having your stake returned as either cash or a free bet if your bet doesn’t win. A more advanced offer is accumulator insurance. This is where your stake on an acca is refunded as a free bet if one of the legs loses.
As well as there being numerous offers available throughout high profile events, most bookmakers often have horse racing offers available every day of the racing year. There’s no limit to the number of reload offers you can take, which means that you could make matched betting profits every single day.
Other offer types
As your matched betting confidence grows, you can add more offer types to your arsenal. Again, you can do these as and when you want.
- Weekly Bet Clubs
- Price boosts
- Extra place offers
Weekly Bet Clubs
Weekly Bet Clubs are usually simple in so much as they require a certain number of bets to be placed in a given calendar week. In return, you receive a free bet to use the following week. Depending on the bookie, these bets may need to be placed on accas or a specific sport, but they’re generally quick and easy to do. And can generate additional profits every week.
Price boosts
Price boosts are enhanced prices which allow you to back and lay the same event and generate a profit regardless of the outcome. They are very popular and can cover any number of sports and events on a given day.
Extra place offers
Extra place offers are when the bookmaker is paying more place positions than the standard number on a horse race. If a bookie usually pays 3 places, they’ll pay 4 with an extra place offer. Therefore, if your horse finishes in the extra place position or above, you win both your back and lay bets on the place market. Extra place offers are also available on golf tournaments. Golf can be ‘easier’ for beginners because the odds are a lot more static than in horse racing.
Using a matched betting service
The key to matched betting is speed. The quicker you can do offers, the quicker your profit will build up. With that in mind, one of the most time-consuming aspects is finding offers to do. But if you use a matched betting service like OddsMonkey, all of the offers are found for you. Our Daily Offer Calendar lists all of the latest bookmaker offers available on any given day.
Another time-consuming part of matched betting is finding the best bookie odds and comparing them against exchange odds. OddsMonkey can help you with this, too. Our core tool, the OddsMatcher has been specifically built to find and compare odds – quickly. Again, the more time you save on actually finding odds, the more offers you’ll be able to fit into your matched betting schedule.
So…is matched betting still worth it in 2022?
If you’re looking to make some extra money online, then yes. Matched betting fits around your schedule and offers can be done as rarely or as often as you want. Recent entries in the User Profits thread on the OddsMonkey community forum, cite triple digit profits month after month. This tax free money has been used to change peoples lives, paying for anything from cars, holidays, to even a houseboat.
