In our latest “Meet the Members” interview, Maria Eardley tells us how she’s made over £20,000 from matched betting with OddsMonkey!
What is your average weekly profit? Does this include a partner’s profits as well?
That’s a tough one because I track my profits monthly. I would say around £250 per week on average. This includes my partners accounts and also casino. During big events like Ascot this increases massively, but how much you make is dictated by how much time you have to enable you to take advantage of all of the offers.
What do you do with your matched betting profits? Any exciting purchases or stories to share?
At first I didn’t spend anything, I got massive satisfaction out of watching the pot grow. My main aim was to raise some extra cash to help pay for my husband’s 50th birthday present which was a trip to Finland to see the Northern Lights. As time went by though, I realised that I would have more than enough to cover his present, so we started to enjoy ourselves.
We have enjoyed holidays to the Lake District and Wales, a new TV, meals out, shopping trips, theme park visits and I was even able to treat my best friend to a trip to Budapest for her birthday. Being able to enjoy ourselves without worrying about the cost was priceless!
However, by far the cutest purchase of all was the new addition to our family, Woody. A much wished for puppy and we now have two happy girls.
What is your bankroll? How much did you start with?
I started with around £500 and just two exchanges, but now I use all 4 of the main ones and probably have around £6000 spread across them all. During Ascot I actually had to deposit more because it was so full on. I couldn’t believe the number of offers that were available. It was non stop!
How long have you been matched betting?
I started on the 1st of March 2021, so at the time of writing it’s 16 months. In that time I’ve made just over £20,000 which is absolutely unbelievable!
At first my two daughters, who are 13 and 9, would say “are you gambling again?” and I would tell them off because it’s not gambling. They now ask me if I’m “making free money” which is a much better description I think!
How much time/hours in an average week do you spend matched betting? Any particular days that you do more than others?
When I first started and was learning, I seemed to spend every waking hour doing it! It was strangely addictive.
These days I still spend a good chunk of time on it, mainly weekends though as these are the busiest days for racing offers and football. During the week I spend the most time on casino offers in the evening.
So on average I would say for matched betting 2 hours in the week and around 6 hours across the weekend and for casino around 8 hours per week.
What type of offers do you focus on? Why?
I focus on anything that I can get profit from. Even the small wins all add up.
My routine would involve checking the OddsMonkey daily offers page for anything I can take advantage of. If I spot anything I fancy then I’ll get those completed first.
I’ll then check my emails for any account specific offers. Unfortunately, these aren’t as common as they were 12 months ago but it’s still worth the five minutes it takes to check.
I will log on to Facebook and turn on notifications for the price boost thread so that I get notifications for any good boosts. It’s really helpful when forum members post their discoveries, the profits can really add up.
At some point in the morning I will open the racing matcher and check for any good matches for bookies that I use. I’ll then keep this page open for most of the day and keep checking it every so often. I do like a low qualifying loss and am still adverse to anything over about 70p!
If things are quiet I might have a quick look at the extra place matcher, but to be honest I generally keep extra places for the big events. I’m still pretty rubbish at them and I find that the best matches are just before the off when the odds are massively fluctuating and I find it too stressful!
Tell us more about your background and how you came across matched betting.
I’m a seasoned bargain hunter, I’m the sort of person that likes to hunt down discounts and save money. I had heard about matched betting and knew it was a thing and occasionally had sat down and started to read about it. After 5 minutes I would give up as I just didn’t understand it. I had no betting experience and had no idea how a betting exchange worked. Then one weekend I came across a website that explained it really well and also recommended the OddsMonkey free trial. I signed up for the trial and worked my way through the first few tutorials and I actually understood what I was doing. It was like a light bulb moment. That was on the 1st of March 2021 and I haven’t looked back!
Can you give us a breakdown in % of where your profits come from? I.e. is it 10% boosts, 70% 2ups etc.
Another tricky one. At the moment my biggest earner is in fact casino, that has only been since the football season ended though. I expect that to shift a bit when the season is up and running.
So currently it’s around 50% casino, 20% bet and gets, 20% racing offers and 10% boosts. Although I have had some success with 2UPs I wouldn’t say that I get regular profit from these.
Do you do low risk casino? If so, tell us more about that.
I love casino! I didn’t touch any casino offers at first, I truly saw them as gambling and I’m not a gambler. The more I read about expected value though, the more it started to appeal to me. I tried a few welcome offers and did really well from them, but still concentrated most of my efforts on the matched betting side. When the football season ended I found that my profits took a hit and I found myself doing more and more casino offers, and doing really well from them.
Casino is now part of my routine and I do offers daily. I am still picky about which offers I do. I really dislike BJ, even though it has the highest return and live casino drives me to distraction, mainly because it takes so long to complete an offer.
With casino I like the fact that the offers are more flexible and can be done in the evening, unlike racing offers etc which have to be done in the morning or afternoon.
Do you have any advice or tips to offer to the members? (advanced and newbie members)
Never did I think that I would be giving tips about matched betting!!
If you are just starting out, take your time and try to make the effort to understand what you are actually doing. Don’t just follow the tutorials blindly. By taking your time at the start, you will save time in the long run. Also, don’t be afraid to ask if you don’t understand something. There’s a wealth of information out there and so many helpful and willing members to ask.
The welcome offers will see you making good profits from bet and get offers. Don’t be disheartened when the welcome offers have dried up. There’s plenty more to learn and the reloads and boosts will keep you ticking over.
Try and free up as much time as possible for big events like Ascot. There are so many offers to take advantage of and it’s also a good time to have a go at extra places. During Ascot this year I made as much as I usually would in a month!
Make sure you use the OddsMonkey profit tracker. It’s great for tracking all of your bets and profits. In addition to this, consider knocking up a basic spreadsheet to track the balances you have in accounts, along with any withdrawals you have made.
Most importantly- enjoy making all of that free money!
