You don’t need to be an avid gambler to make money off matched betting. If you’ve become interested in making a bit of extra money in a hands-off kind of way, then matched betting might be just the thing for you.
If you’re not familiar with matched betting (or with gambling in general), you may have some misconceptions about it. First, we’ll help you understand exactly what matched betting is and what it isn’t.
What is matched betting?
People often ignore matched betting because it does sound a bit “scammy”. What wouldn’t sound like a scam that claims you can make an easy profit off bookmakers?
Started in the early 2000s, matched betting sprung up with the rise of online bookmakers. Since then, it’s become something of easy money free-for-all and has even been featured in the financial times.
So, how does it work?
Basically, matched betting allows you to profit from free bet promotions that are offered by betting companies. Almost all bookmakers advertise matched betting offers to entice new customers into placing bets with them. What you do is sign up to bookies and stake the free bet offers. Then, using an online betting company, you bet against your original bet. By laying (betting) the right amount, which you can figure out with online betting calculators, you are guaranteed a profit—regardless of your original bet. It’s not totally free to do matched betting, you usually have to stake a bit of your own cash to get the free bet to start with, but by laying this carefully you can limit your initial loss and guarantee a profit.
Still, sound too good to be true? Here are 5 misconceptions about matched betting that might be stopping you from taking advantage of some easy cash:
It’s not legal
This is a pretty misconception. People hear about how matched betting works and they think: “no way this is legal”. But matched betting is, in fact, totally legal and the betting industry doesn’t have a problem with this use of free bets. However, bookmakers do often have people on their staff that will be scanning for people who are taking advantage of promotions too often. If your bad behavior is noticed, you risk getting banned by that bookmaker, but it’s not illegal.
It’s risky
Since matched betting is based on statistics and not chance, and since it’s based on free incentives offered by the vast majority of online betting companies, the risks are almost nonexistent. The only risk you run is that of a bookmaker marking your account as “unprofitable” and blocking you from taking advantage of free promotions in the future.
It’s expensive
While you do have to use a small amount of your own money initially, matched betting is based on taking advantage of sign-up incentives. Because of this, you don’t need to deposit tons of your own cash. One common example of this would be that you bet $5 of your own money to trigger the sign-up incentive, which gives you $20 of free bets.
It’s hard to get started
While the concept might seem initially daunting, matched betting is really quite simple. There are loads of in-depth guides online that can teach you the ins and outs of matched betting and loads of training pages that will show you how to do it correctly with maximum success.
It’s too good to be true
While it might seem that way at first glance, matched betting is a real thing and plenty of people are out there making a very decent profit off it.