There was uproar among horse racing punters up and down the country yesterday when a horse unseated it’s jockey in the shadow of the winning post. Those that backed what looked like being the winner until the mishap were outraged. Naturally, anyone that had a bet on the actual winner will be counting their lucky stars but users of matched betting sites probably won’t have minded either way.
Jockey Unable To Stick To The Plan
The drama took place in the closing stages of the 4:20 Southwell, a Class 4, 3 mile novice hurdle sponsored by 188Bet. Stick To The Plan was the 7/4 favourite and looked set to oblige with less than half a furlong to travel. However, conditional jockey Bridget Andrews was caught off-guard when the horse veered right, causing her foot to come out of the stirrup. This put her off balance and once gravity took control there was no staying on board.
Andrews’ mount was five lengths clear and seemingly had the race at it’s mercy until losing its pilot 20 yards from the line. The victory looked so assured that over £50,000 was matched at odds of 1.01 on betfair com. 9/1 chance Nemean Lion ended up being the beneficiary, crossing the line unchallenged with the chasing pack trailing by 20 lengths.
The 24-year-old amateur jockey was clearly upset about the incident and told the Racing Post;
“Maybe I should have put my stick down but he’s a horse who only just does enough and I wanted to make sure I had the race won, but there you are.”
The horse’s trainer, Dan Skelton added;
“He jumped the last well and Bridget has just become a bit unbalanced. It’s happened to better jockeys and will happen again in the future. It’s just one of those things unfortunately.”
Phil Kirby, trainer of Nemean Lion was pleased with his unexpected triumph;
“You need a bit of luck now and again and it’s usually the other way around. I’d have been happy to finish second and didn’t really see what happened.”
Southwell is no stranger to these incidents, as in 2015 leading National Hunt jockey Sam Twiston-Davies unseated with a race seemingly won. He was aboard Hawkhurst for a novice hurdle and eight lengths clear when the gelding was spooked and sent him flying with a sudden change of direction.
Matched Bettors Not Overly Concerned
A handful of bookies, including Paddy Power and Betfair decided to pay out Stick To The Plan as a winner but for the vast majority of punters it was tough luck. These things happen in racing, especially over jumps and anyone betting on horses should be well aware of that. Still, it didn’t stop the armchair jockeys coming out in force on social media to suggest foul play. I wonder if any of them have ever jumped off a galloping horse? Probably not!
When betting in the traditional way, you risk your stake for a chance of winning a return from the bookmaker. Matched betting allows you to reduce the risk to a nominal amount and in some cases can give you a free chance of making a profit. And it’s for this reason, that matched bettors are unlikely to be too fussed about whether their bookmaker bet wins or loses.
How Does Matched Betting Work?
Both online and high-street bookmakers promote betting offers. These are attractive propositions to bring in new customers and keep existing punters coming back for more. Matched betting is a process used to potentially make real money profits from the bonuses and free bets associated with such offers.
By using a betting exchange like Betfair or Matchbook, you can place lay bets to counter the risk your bookmaker bets. A lay bet is to bet something won’t win, meaning it’s possible to cover both sides of the equation and get a return, no matter what the outcome of the event is. This technique allows you to qualify for the bookmaker reward for next to nothing and you can then lay another bet against your free bet or bonus to convert it into real cash.
To the uninitiated, this may sound a little long winded but I can assure you that it’s worth the effort. Bear in mind that there are stacks of online bookies and many of those have welcome offers and ongoing promotions for existing customers. A typical £10 free bet can be made into around £8 cash and there are many matched bettors that consider the practice to be a secondary income stream.
For just a few hours of effort a week, it’s possible to bring in more than £500 a month. It can be done in your spare time and those that have more free time on their hands can put more hours in to make even more. It’s a favoured money spinner of students, pensioners and stay at home parents but anyone of legal gambling age can do it.
Attempting it on your own would be tasking to say the least but there are matched betting sites to help you. They provide odds matching software to find the right bets and matched betting calculators to take care of all the working out. On top of this, they will find and curate all of the best betting offers and explain how to approach each one in detail.
We have all of the top matched betting sites reviewed for your convenience, allowing you to make an informed decision on which service to go with. Many of the sites offer some kind of trial access, some of which are completely free. This will allow you to get a feel for matched betting and see if it is for you.