What is an OddsMatcher?

There are many tools and pieces of software which make matched betting quicker, easier and more profitable. One of the most useful matched betting tools is an OddsMatcher. In this article, we'll be taking a look at what an oddsmatcher is and where to find the best free oddsmatcher tools to use for matched betting.

An OddsMatcher is a piece of software which compares odds from dozens or often, hundreds of online bookmakers and exchanges. Also known as an 'AutoMatcher', this matched betting tool has a number of different uses and advantages.

There are many different OddsMatcher tools available. Most of the top matched betting sites provide members with an OddsMatcher with each one having slight differences such as the bookmakers included in the comparison results, available filters and the speed and accuracy at which the software finds close matches.

Although it is perfectly possible to be successful with matched betting without the use of an OddsMatcher tool, there are many benefits of using one. Some of these benefits are listed below.

Save Time - One aspect of matched betting is finding close matches. These are when the back odds on a bookmaker website are close to the lay odds on a betting exchange. There can be tens of thousands of available bets at any one time on any given sport and comparing these odds between the bookmaker and the exchange manually would be a very time-consuming process. An OddsMatcher tool does this job for you in seconds, saving you a considerable amount of time which can be better spent elsewhere.

More Profit - OddsMatcher tools find the best possible matches across thousands of events. Even if you were to manually compared odds, you wouldn't find any better matches than the OddsMatcher software would. Closer matches mean that you are able to make a greater profit from your free bets and also incur lower losses on your qualifying bets. Also, as you are not spending time searching for close matches manually, that time can be spent participating in other offers, thus increasing your profit per hour spent on matched betting.

Bet Preferences - The best OddsMatcher tools will allow you to filter the results of close matches. There are usually a number of options in the filter which allow users to find matches on sports, leagues, markets and specific events. 

Have you ever used an OddsMatcher only for it to return pages of close matches on obscur sports or markets? These may be very good matches that will result in a bigger profit from your free bets or lower losses on your qualifying bets but they won't look very natural to a bookmaker. After all, would a regular punter be betting on the number of corners in a Swedish third division football match? Most likely not. Using the filter on an OddsMatcher allows you to select specific sports, leagues and markets, allowing you to only bet on events which look natural to bookmakers, resulting in a greater chance of account preservation and less chance of being gubbed or having your account restricted for matched betting.

Find Arbs - Although arbing or arbitrage betting is generally not recommended when matched betting for account preservation reasons, locking in a profit from them can be beneficial on accounts which do not run many profitable offers or for which you have been gubbed with. OddsMatching tools are perfect for finding arbs as they are extremely difficult to find manually. Arbing opportunities, which are when the back odds offered by the bookmaker are higher than the lay odds for the same bet on the exchange, are generally not around for very long and so finding them quickly is essential if you want to take advantage of them. 

Calculator Integration - Most good oddsmatching tools are integrated with a matched betting calculator. This means that once you have found a good match using the OddsMatcher, you can click on it and it will open up the calculator with all of the bet details pre-populated. This saves you time in entering details such as back/lay odds, event name, exchange commission and stake into the calculator. It also eliminates the risk of human error when entering these details.

The ProfitSquad OddsMatcher has many features which makes it one of the best oddsmatcher tools available. 

One of the best features of the ProfitSquad OddsMatcher tool is that the odds update automatically when they change on the bookmaker or betting exchange websites. There is no need to refresh the page. This is also the case if you click through to the calculator once you have chosen a selection as the calculator will alert you that the odds have changed. You can then click the alert which will recalculate the ideal lay stake based on the new odds. Odds can fluctuate frequently if the start time of the event is nearby. This is an excellent feature which helps to reduce the risk of errors in placing incorrect stakes at the wrong odds. The automatic updating of odds isn't limited to just the OddsMatcher and calculator tools on ProfitSquad. In fact, this feature is integrated into all of ProfitSquad's matched betting tools!

MatchedBets.com also use the same OddsMatcher and tools as ProfitSquad with being owned by the same company. You can currently trial either service for 14 days for just £1.

The ProfitSquad OddsMatcher filter allows you to filter the search results using a number of options.

Some of the filters include:

• Bookmakers
• Sports
• Exchanges
• Markets
• Min/Max odds
• Min/Max rating
• Specific event search
• Competition/League search
• Min liquidity on the exchange
• Start time of the event

When using the ProfitSquad OddsMatcher filter, the results update automatically as you select the filter options and there is no need to refresh the results.

Overall, the ProfitSquad OddsMatcher is excellent and provides everything a matched bettor needs and more to find close matches, profitable arbs and make maximum profits from free bets.

Members of ProfitSquad have the option to save filter presets so that they can apply certain filters with the click of a button. This feature may be useful when searching for matches for specific offers which have set criteria.

For example, The Paddy Power 2UP offer is only available on matches in certain leagues & competitions and so the user could set these leagues into the filter, save it and then reload the saved filter at any time to display eligible close matches.

It's also useful when wanting to exclude certain bookmakers from the results which you may wish to do if some of your accounts have been gubbed or restricted.

OddsMonkey are one of the biggest matched betting sites. Prior to launching a matched betting site, they provided an odds matching service and so it's no surprise that over the years they've developed it into one of the best odds matching tools available.

The OddsMonkey OddsMatcher compares odds for a huge number of bookmakers against the four most popular betting exchanges Betfair Exchange, Smarkets, Matchbook and Betdaq which makes finding a close match for almost any bookmaker offer quick and easy.

Like any good OddsMatcher tool, OddsMonkeys OddsMatcher has various filter options to include and eliminate events from the results.

Users can filter the OddsMatcher results by:

• Sports
• Markets
• Bookmakers
• Exchanges
• Min/Max rating
• Min Max odds
• Min liquidity on the exchange
• Event date

Unlike the ProfitSquad filter, users have to manually apply the changes after selecting their filters, although this isn't a major hindrance. 

Overall, the OddsMonkey OddsMatcher is excellent. We were a little disappointed with the lack of mobile responsiveness but it more than makes up for it by including so many bookmakers.

You can try the OddsMonkey OddsMatcher out for yourself with a 7 day free trial. You will have limited access to features but it will give you an idea of how it works before you decide whether or not to upgrade to a paid membership.

The OddsMonkey OddsMatcher has a few additional features which can help narrow down your searches and help you find better matches.

The OddsMatcher Email Alerts feature allows you to receive emails when matches become available which meet your search criteria.

For example, let's say that you wanted to find a 95%+ match for the Liverpool v Arsenal match for 2UP but no results were showing in the odds matcher as the back and lay odds were too far apart at the time of searching. OddsMonkey allows you to save this search and activate email alerts for when and if matches become available.

There are two options for email alerts. The first will email you once when a match becomes available and then turn off the alert and the other will send you an email every 3 minutes when an appropriate match is found.

The first option is ideal for finding a match for a specific offer where you are placing just one bet and the second may be useful if you are placing multiple bets such as for arbs.

This is an extremely useful feature that allows you to reduce your qualifying losses and increase the profit you make from free bets by getting on the best matches available. It's unpractical to sit at your PC all day waiting for a close match and this feature allows you to get on with your day and be notified when the best matches become available at which point you can log in and place your bets.

Members of OddsMonkey are able to set the commission % of the exchanges they are using so that match ratings and lay stakes are correctly calculated. Many matched bettors are able to receive lower commission rates for different exchanges whether this be through a special offer or due to the level of their exchange betting activity. 

The OddsMonkey OddsMatcher has an auto-refresh option which will update the results of the search automatically.

Unlikely the ProfitSquad/MatchedBets OddsMatcher, the odds do not update in real time. Instead, users can set the results to refresh every 1 or 2 minutes.

Although this feature may be useful if you are trying to find a match for an event taking place in hours or days time, it isn't extremely useful if the event is starting in the very ner future.

When an event is close to the start time, odds can fluctuate very frequently and close matches usually aren't available for very long. Therefore, refreshing the results every 1-2 minutes is unlikely to be much of a help. We'd like to see OddsMonkey add real-time updates to their OddsMatcher which would be much more beneficial to users in these situations.

The OddsMatcher is one of the most used tools in matched betting. However, many people ask if it is possible to do matched betting without an OddsMatcher.

The answer is, yes.

In fact, many experienced matched bettors prefer not to use an OddsMatcher. The reason for this is mainly for account preservation. If you are using close matches continuously with a bookmaker, you may be more likely to have your account restricted as it is a sign that you are matched betting. By placing your bets on markets which have a slightly lower rating, you look more like a natural punter and are less likely to draw attention to your account.

Finding matches manually can take more time as you want to get the balance right between a good match and one that won't draw attention to your account. By taking lower-value matches, you will make less profit but will stand a better chance of preserving you account for longer which will mean that you can take advantage of profitable offers for longer. Many think of this to be a better strategy in the long-term.

You can still use an OddsMatcher with this strategy and instead of selecting the highest rated match, simply choose one further down the list with slightly less value.

There are some free OddsMatcher tools available on various sites which you can find with a simple Google search. These odds matchers may be useful for finding an occasional match but unfortunately, many of them lack the features you get with OddsMatchers provided by matched betting sites.

Like most things, you get what you pay for. Paid matched betting sites such as ProfitSquad and OddsMonkey are able to dedicate more time and resources into providing quality tools which contain a lot more advanced and useful features. For example, we haven't come across a free oddsmatcher which updates odds in real time such as ProfitSquad's, or one which allows you to set email alerts when matches are found with certain criteria as OddsMonkey's does.

If you're serious about making money from matched betting and prefer to use an odds matcher then we'd fully recommend using one at one of the top matched betting sites. Also, being a paid member of a matched betting site has a lot more advantages than just having access to an advanced OddsMatcher. There are also a number of other matched betting tools available along with daily offer guides, help & support and being part of a community of other matched bettors.

If you're not a member of a matched betting site yet, we'd recommend the following three sites.