Matched Betting Tips for Beginners

So you've seen matched betting being mentioned in forums and on make money blogs or maybe you have a friend or family member who does matched betting and they've persuaded you to give it a go. Well, welcome to the community! There is a wealth of information out there which can help you along your matched betting journey and although matched betting may be a bit of a learning curve for you, it will most definitely be worth it.

All of us were beginners at one point and so we've put together some top tips for matched betting beginners to ensure you make the most profit possible and avoid any obstacles along the way.

it may be tempting to jump in and get started. After all, you've probably heard how much money others are making with matched betting and how it only takes them 30 minutes a day to do it. That may be true but the people who are making money are doing so because they how how to do it and know how to avoid making mistakes. It's essential that you not only understand what to do what matched betting but also why you are doing it. If you understand the logic behind the offers and the calculations then you're much less likely to make a mistake.

You've probably read that matched betting is risk-free, right? It's not. Mathematically, matched betting is risk-free but there's always the risk of human error. You'll be placing bets with your own money and although you should be guaranteed a profit if you place the correct stakes, it's not that difficult to make an error and it happens to all of us at some point. By understanding the bets you are placing and how each offer works, you'll know when to spot a potential error and minimise your chances of making a mistake.

You'll find all the information you'll need for free on the internet including right here on matchedbettingsites.com. We'd advise you to read as many articles as you can until you are 100% clear on how matched betting works and why it does.

Now that you've read everything that you can, you probably have a number of questions. Thankfully, the matched betting community are extremely helpful and most will take the time to help others of all levels. Some people have been matched betting for several years and are very experienced and regularly participate in forums and matched betting chat groups.

The best place to communicate with other matched bettors is to join a matched betting service. Matched betting sites such as OddsMonkey and Profit Accumulator have huge communities and very busy forums. It's likely that someone has already asked the question you have previously but if not, get involved and ask it yourself. You'll usually get an answer within minutes.

MatchedBets.com and ProfitSquad.co.uk joined forces in March of 2018 and offer members a private matched betting chat group via 'Discord'. There are members online 24/7 and it's a great tool to get an immediate response when you have questions.

You may hear of some matched bettors making hundreds of pounds from a single bet with promotions such as Bet365's Early Payout offer or Paddy Power's 2up offer. However, as a beginner, it is strongly advised that you leave these offers until you have completed the majority of the new customer offers. There are a few reasons for this.

1. You'll be able to build up a large bank. Completing the new customer offers at the bookmakers will see you make around £700-£1,000 profit. Once you have this amount in your bank, you can use it to place larger bets for the more popular existing customer offers.

2. The new customer offers will give you experience. The new customer offers are generally pretty straight forward to complete. However, they'll give you essential experience in placing both back and lay bets at bookmakers and on the betting exchanges and teach you about common terms and conditions such as wagering requirements and minimum odds. You'll be surprised at how much you will have learnt by the time you complete all of the offers.

3. You'll get offered more free bets. Bookmakers can only offer you free bets and promotions if you have accounts with them. Therefore, it's important to sign up to as many bookmakers as possible in order to receive these offers. The more bookmaker accounts you have, the more offers you can take advantage of and the more profit you can make!

Once you have signed up to 30+ bookmakers, you'll notice that your inbox gets full pretty quickly. Bookmakers are notorious for sending out promotional emails on a daily basis and it's advisable to keep these separate from your personal inbox. If you don't, you'll probably end up missing personal emails as well as some great offers which you receive. Email addresses are free and take a couple of minutes to set up. Do this before you start matched betting.

Being organised has huge advantages when matched betting. Just like opening up a new email account can help you organise your emails, there are a number of other things to keep track of including:

1. Your bets. If you're placing 10+ bets a day at 5 different bookmakers, it's easy to lose track of them. Keep a note of what you have bet on and where so you don't forget.

2. Your profits. Keeping a record of your matched betting profits is one of the most important things you can do. You'll be surprised how much motivation it can give you when you check your total profit at the end of the month or the year and think about what you could do with all that money. Our advise would be to convert your profits into a graph. You'll see your profits visually grow which will inspire you to get involved more and to make even more profit.

3. Your free bets. Sometimes you'll only receive a free bet once your qualifying bet has settled. This may be the same day or it may be next week. As it's likely you'll be participating in other offers during that time, it's easy to forget about the free bets which you are due. Unfortunately, the majority of free bets expire if they are not used within a few days. Therefore, it's important to know what free bets you are due and with which bookmakers to ensure you don't forget about them.

Thankfully, the issue with keeping track of your betting activity and profits has been addressed by many matched betting sites and now sites such as MatchedBets and OddsMonkey have built-in features which track everything automatically and allow you to view your profit and bet history from within your account. If you prefer keeping track of everything using spreadsheets, you can find a list of the best matched betting speadsheets here.

Even experienced matched bettors get caught out with clauses which are hidden in the offers terms and conditions and it's important to know everything there is to know about the offer before participating in it. If you came across the offer on a matched betting site then it is likely they will have done the hard work for you and will provide a guide on how to complete the offer to make a profit. However, it is advisable that you read the T&Cs yourself for each offer which you do to make sure nothing has been missed.

The forums and matched betting communities mentioned above are great ways to hear about any sneaky T&C's which bookmakers include in offers and members are usually pretty quick to notice and raise the alarm to other matched bettors.

Bet clubs or 'loyalty schemes' as they're also known, are a way for bookmakers to reward customers, usually on a weekly basis, for using their site. A typical bet club offer is something along the lines of 'Bet £25 this week and get a £5 free bet'. A lot of matched bettors don't bother with bet clubs as they usually only return around £3-£4 profit each on a weekly basis. However, there are numerous bet clubs about and when you add up the potential profit from all of them on a monthly basis they are definitely worth doing! Bet clubs are usually pretty straight forward and can be done in your spare time throughout the week. With over £200 profit each month to be made from bet clubs alone, you'd be a fool not to take part.