How I Made Almost £200 From Matched Betting - A Very Brief Guide

Credit - SlightlyAstray.com

As a quick disclaimer, this is absolutely not a 'get rich quick' scheme nor is it something I want to be regularly blogging about. I simply consider it worth it to inform other students out there of this relatively risk free method for earning a little bit of money on the side.

A few weeks ago, around the end of January, my friend G said he couldn't play games just yet because he was finishing up with some 'matched betting'. This made me curious because it takes a lot for G to not have the time to hop on Skype and start up a game and he also isn't the sort to recklessly gamble. When he was free, he told me to Google it and have a look at some sites about it. Essentially, matched betting is when you 'back' a result (e.g. Manchester United will beat Leicester) and also 'lay' a bet (in this case, Manchester will either lose or draw with Leicester). You do this by signing up to bookmakers and claiming the free promotional sign up rewards - free bets in most instances. Importantly for me, this is both legal (as long as you're 18!) and relatively little work, it being more of a waiting game than anything. G said he'd made a little bit but expected to make a lot more once he'd looked into it more. I tagged along and started doing it myself.


I followed this guide by Owen Burek, hosted on Save the Student (Bookmark it now!), to learn exactly what matched betting consists of and how to do it. This page is useful because not only does it give you gist of what you need to do; it also provides an Automatcher for the following bookies:

1. William Hill 
2. Ladbrokes
3. Coral
4. Paddy Power

 What this means is that you simply select the offer and it does the rest. It offers you a football match, tells you what it will cost you and gives you step by step instructions on how to place a qualifying bet. Once you've done that and earned your free bet, you simply select the other tab and it will do the same again, only this time it tells you how to place your free bet and how much profit you will make. With the smaller offers of £20 or so, you stand make about £10-15 back. You can't get all the money because your free bet stake is not returned.

My results:

So far from matched betting, I have made £174 profit from no more than a couple of hours work. I had a heart stopping moment where I thought I'd fucked up and basically thrown away £200. Thankfully, through massive amounts of luck and a tiny smattering of understanding what on earth I was doing, I came out the other end with a tidy sum. G has made only £13 but he has also only attempted a couple of signups - again, £13 per hour is almost double what either of us earn working in our respective supermarkets. Our mutual friend JK is also pleased to have been told about matched betting and is up over £30 himself. Not bad for a bit of reading and a few minutes work!

So there you have it - matched betting is a legal, safe way of making a tidy sum of money online. You won't get rich from it as the offers are often only for new customers and any secondary accounts would be quickly shut down by the bookie. However, it pays dividends in just a few days, money which can be put towards computer parts and travelling as I am.

Finally, I will say that I don't like writing posts like these. I am pleased that I am putting content on this blog fairly regularly, but I am not happy that the majority of posts so far have involved making money online. Whilst it obviously interests me and many others out there, it is not something I would describe as a hobby or a pastime and as such, is not what I planned on putting on this blog. I promise the next few posts will be about things I have photographed or enjoyable media which I have watched or listened to.