Wan’t to make it in matched betting long term? Then this article is for you! I break down the key steps to ensure longevity in your matched betting side hustle, including why 90% of people end up failing at theirs.
New to matched betting? Read here to get the low down on how you can join thousands making a second income online. My beginner advice gives a few handy tips before you get started with matched betting.
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Debunking the myth
An educated guess is telling me you’re reading this because the sign up offers are starting to run out, profits are dwindling, and the vision of making £1000’s each month is getting further and further away.
Unfortunately there are lots of articles and websites out there that give false claims of being able to make thousands as a side income matched betting every month, this is simply not true. I’m calling out Profit Accumulator and Oddsmonkey for this as they are both culprits of this.
One of the reasons people give up quickly is due to these false expectations. That’s not to say there’s nobody out there making thousands a month. People do earn this but they will have multiple accounts in different names to achieve it.
Should i join a matched betting website?
The short answer to this is yes, you should join a matched betting website. Matched betting websites cost between £15 – £17.99 a month which can put allot of people off joining. But with the paid membership comes benefits. And if you want to make a decent income from matched betting, the tools available to paid members is a must. There are many websites available but the most common are Oddsmonkey, Profit Accumulator and the newer Profit Squirrel. You get access to 0% Smarkets commission with both Oddsmonkey and Profit Accumulator which throughout the month will reduce the cost of the membership. For more information on free vs paid membership check out Oddsmonkey premium vs free.
What is the achievable?
- What is the achievable? There are four things that are going to have a direct impact on how much money you will make after the sign up offers. These are time, speed, month and casino.
Time
How much time can you dedicate to matched betting? Ultimately this is the big one. Matched betting is not a passive income, you are investing your own time to make money. The more time you have, the more money you can make. An experienced matched better will make around £35 per hour on average, not a bad ROI in my eyes. There is however limited to what offers are available per week, and this is the reason making thousands a month is not realistic. Between 3 and 5 hours per week is definitely possible giving a monthly income of between £400 – £700. I personally spend between 3 and 3.5 hours per week and average £500 per month, some months a little more whilst some less.
A great thing i always remind people with matched betting is that its TAX FREE. You are not paying tax on anything that your earn. Putting that into perspective, if you earned £35 an hour whilst employed, 20% of your earnings would go in tax and roughly 7% in national insurance, leaving you with only £25.55 for the hour worked. Taking this into account, your time is more than likely better spent on matched betting, than working overtime for the boss.
Speed
Time is money, and if you want to be successful in matched betting you need a routine. A routine that allows you to place offers quickly so you can move onto the next. A few do’s and don’ts below will ensure you have a perfect routine to reaching that £35 per hour target.
Do’s
- Ensure filters are set up on the oddsmatcher software for all of your reload offers , including minimum odds so you don’t have to manually input these each time.
- Bookmark all of the regular bookmakers onto your search engines bookmark bar for quick access, this includes exchanges.
- Link your exchange account to the oddsmatcher software for one click lay betting. This is a must and one of the best features of PA and OM in my opinion.
- Use a PC or Laptop for speed. If you only have a tablet, make sure you buy a keyboard and mouse. Using touch screen or a laptop mouse pad is far to time consuming.
- Download the bookmaker apps onto your phone. I use the apps to make sure i have enough money in the accounts before placing bets. If you are going to spend half an hour after work placing bets, checking your accounts have sufficient funds in them each morning can save time when you come to place the bets.
- Create a routine, and stick to it. Overtime you’ll naturally know what bets need to be placed on what days. Stick to set times throughout the week to ensure you can cover these in the shortest possible time.
- Keep a spreadsheet of weekly bet club offers. Having one spreadsheet showing progress of your weekly offers is far easier than checking each individual bookmakers website.
- Don’t waist time trying to maximise profits. This may seem ridiculous to say, and goes against everything, but it’s important. What i mean is getting caught up trying to maximise your free bet profits, and has direct relation to your match rating % and SNR %. The general rule of thumb is that you want an 80% retention from free bets, meaning £4 profit from a £5 free bet. As you are probably aware, it can sometimes be hard to get this from every free bet. Don’t worry if you can’t find a match that gives you your 80% retention. Just find the best you can at that time, place your free bet and move on. Otherwise you can find yourself spending days refreshing the oddsmatcher to find a decent match, that may only make you an extra 20p. Even worse, your free bet may expire. The time spent finding the bet that maximises your profit can be better spent elsewhere.
Month
Unfortunately football season doesn’t last forever, and your going to find your monthly profits can fluctuate dependant on the month and offers available. My £500 profit per month is an average and can range anywhere from £400 – £600 depending on what offers are available. Your main income is going to be coming from Football and Horse Racing offers, so its handy to know when the best offers are going to be available. Keeping a calendar of the major events and tournaments throughout the year will help you to understand when the bookmakers are going to be giving the best offers.
Casino
Love them or hate them, casino offers are an amazing way to make money. I stick to a few guidelines that ensure i make a profit from them every month. If you want to be making more than £350 per month, casino offers are a must.
- Only complete offers with 5x wagering requirements or less. I find this is the sweet spot for casino offers. Any more than 5x wagering requirements I’ve found my profits drop.
- Keep a spreadsheet of all casino offers completed throughout the month that shows profit and loss. You will find this easier to keep track of profits than using the profit trackers on Oddsmonkey and Profit Accumulator.
- Do all offers on the Oddsmonkey and Profit Acuumulator Daily Offer Calendar casino offers. If there’s an estimated profit on the offer, you need to be completing it.
- Always check your emails for offers. Foxy Bingo, Jackpot Joy and BuzzBingo are a few that often send personal offers that you may not see on the Daily Offer Calendar.
- Have faith when you are making a loss. This is the big one really. Unlike the sportsbook offers, casino offers you can make a loss on, and when you are, its not a nice feeling. But if you stick with the above guidelines and ride out the losses, in the long run you will always be in profit.
Do not get gubbed
The most important advice for long term success is not to get Gubbed.
Gubbed is the term used when a bookmaker puts restrictions on your betting account. Usually because they suspect you of matched betting or abusing there promotional offers. These restrictions can be different depending on the bookmaker but are usually either one of two things.
The first more common restriction is the bookmaker excluding you from free bets and promotions that they offer. Ultimately making your account with them useless for matched betting.
The second may be the bookmaker putting a restriction on the amount of money you can place on each bet. Although you can still take part in the promotions, the restrictions on how much you can place per bet makes it more time consuming than its worth. To put this into perspective, i have a gubbed account that only allows me to place around 80p per bet which is useless when it comes to any of the offers.
When a bookmaker puts restrictions on your account, it’s near impossible to get these removed. So the best thing you can do is to try and not draw attention to yourself.
Make sure when placing bets you go for well know popular events. This means sticking with premier league and championship football, World Cups cups or major events in other sports. Bookmakers track your account by location and by your betting patterns. So betting on a league two eastern European football team that nobody’s heard of because you can make 20 pence less qualifying loss is asking for unwanted attention. Any betting that looks out of the ordinary can highlight as a matched betting account to the bookmaker.
It’s worth placing mug bets from time to time on your accounts as well. These are bets that don’t go towards a free bet and assures the bookmaker you are not just using them for their offers. Mug bets should be placed on popular events and layed to minimise the loss. Mug betting is important on the following accounts who have a high rate of restrictions; Coral, Skybet, Paddypower, Betway and Moplay.
Key accounts for long term success
For long term success, keeping key accounts open is important. Once initial sign up offers have been completed, you will be relying on adhoc and reload offers as your income. The accounts listed below have the highest quality and quantity of offers available so extra focus on not getting gubbed is important. Of course there are many more accounts with good offers available, but the accounts below will make you the most from sportsbook offers.
- William Hill
- Bet365
- Betfred
- Skybet
- Coral
- Paddypower
- Ladbrokes
- Betway
My Best Advice
To me, matched betting is a way of making money to achieve my future goals. After matched betting for over two years, i’d advise you to ask yourself two questions. The same two questions i asked myself when i was thinking if it was really worth it.
What are you trying to achieve by matched betting?
Can you achieve it quicker by doing something else?
If you are answering yes to the second question, i’d say matched betting would not be the best way to invest your time. If you answered no, then my best advice would be to stick with it. Build up your routine, and focus on speed. The quicker you can complete the offers, the more offers you can complete and the more profit you make. But ultimately this takes time and persistence, and always having a clear goal of what you are trying to achieve, will help you to keep on track.
Get in touch
I love to hear from fellow matched betters and anyone who is interested in earning income online. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions on matched betting in general or long term matched betting. Don’t forget to subscribe to get the latest content including my own weekly matched betting routine and an up to date list of the offers i complete. Thank you for taking the time to read my article.
Dominic