A month isn’t a long time in the world of Matched betting, but I wanted to show you my progress so far. Being a complete beginner, I had low expectations in the earnings department. Even in the first month I was pleasantly surprised.

My original plans can be found here. You might want a read through that to see my thoughts before even opening an account at any bookmakers.

WARNING Matched Betting isn’t for everyone. I should probably note that If you don’t agree with gambling or have had a problem with gambling in the past, this probably isn’t for you. There is money to be made here, but if you don’t trust yourself not to sway from the system, I’d steer clear.

Not that I’ve ever had any association with gambling, but to me there is no heart in matched betting. I don’t bet on the team I support every week as I imagine your regular punter would. All I’m looking at are the odds. As long as the odds calculate correctly and there’s not too much difference between them, I’m good. I could be betting on Premiership football one minute and Bulgarian Snail Wrestling the next… I really hope that’s a sport!

MY PLAN OF ACTION FOR MATCHED BETTING – THE FOLLOW UP

SETUP A NEW BANK ACCOUNT FOR MATCHED BETTING

To try and avoid any potential issues should I want a new mortgage or other financial aid in the near future, setting up a new bank account seemed like a good idea. I had read this in other places before stating matched betting. The addition of a new account was straight forward online. Or it should have been! I caused a bit of confusion by an error on my part. A quick phone call to Lloyds rectified this, albeit in a few days. It was sorted by the time my new Visa debit card fell to the doormat. No major delay here. Thanks Lloyds!

£200 was my initial idea as a deposit. For some reason, I couldn’t justify “playing” with that amount (probably for the best after needing some emergency spends recently). I transferred £100 to my new matched betting account. £50 of that went straight into my exchange account (Betfair) and the rest was available as deposits for my qualifying bets at the bookies. I wanted to make at least a 100% return on my investment within the 1st month. £100 every month there on in seemed like a realistic target with the time that I had available. You can read below to see how I got on.

CREATE A MATCHED BETTING SPREADSHEET

I started to create my own matched betting spreadsheet. I don’t mind working in Excel (or Google Sheets because it’s free), but I think I was trying to over complicate things. Luckily, in my continued research into the Matched Betting minefield, I found a handy spreadsheet where all the hard work was done for me. It’s linked here.

I’m still determined to make my own spreadsheet at some point. However, for now I’m good with what I have.

SIGN UP FOR PROFIT ACCUMULATOR TEAM PROFIT

I had the intention of signing up with Profit Accumulator for £17.99 a month after a free trial. This trial offered you two sign up offers with a full hand holding service. Brilliant! However in my extensive research, I stumbled upon the fine work of Jon over at Team Profit. Up until a certain point all their services are FREE, 8 or 9 weeks worth of free offers to guide you through! The plain and simple, no nonsense step by step guides give you the basics to learn from. They provide you with the knowhow to carry on yourself, however their advice is that you sign up with their own preferred partner. They are not pushy here which is where some free services lack. I think I could benefit from this in the future. Though I will hold off for as long as possible.  They’re well worth a look and I can honestly recommend them thus far.

SIGN UP FOR BOOKMAKERS (THROUGH QUIDCO?)

Planning to sign up to bookmakers using Quidco or TopCashBack was good in theory. Not all of the bookmakers offer programmes through these cash back sites though. Still, I checked every time I needed to sign up and am already looking at around £90 tracked cash back so far. This is not guaranteed income (and you should never class it as that!) so I won’t count it fully in the report below. Besides, I’ll probably withdraw any cashback in the form of Amazon vouchers for the 3% boost.

MAKE MATCHED BETTING HAPPEN

With the Team Profit guides being so simple, I quickly got the hang of things. Kind of. There have been a few occasions where I’ve got a bit too excited and not followed the instructions properly and have made simple mistakes. Not checking the minimum required odd, or even not betting on the required sport for the trigger bet to work. I’ve kicked myself for these shortly after placing the bets. Read the terms and conditions of each offer properly!! If you do make a mistake, you just have to swallow it. I would put my mistakes down as to cost me about £30. There may be times when you’re convinced that you’ve done everything correctly, but you’re not getting your free bet. Just read the Terms again, or most bookies have online live chat help. They’ve been brilliant for me in clearing up any issues.

For EVERY bet you make in the bookies, you must Lay the bet at the exchange. If you don’t, you’re not matched betting, but just gambling and at massive risk of losing.

Every bet you make with your own money in both the bookie and exchange (the qualifying or trigger bet), you will come out at a loss. It’s usually no more than one pound In my experience. You make up for this with your free bet…

After completing the qualifying bet, your bookmaker account will get credited with the free bet balance. Your free money. Woohoo. Different bookies have different rules. Sometime you need to wait for the trigger bet to settle, others will give you your free bet as soon as you’ve placed a bet. It’s not as easy as withdrawing that straight away. You still need to wager it and in almost all offers, the free bet amount is not included in your winnings (Stake not returned). We calculate the odds to make sure that you will always profit.

We keep track of these bets in our spreadsheet where we can clearly see that the small loss is outweighed by our winnings on the free bet.

You will either end up with winnings at the bookie or the exchange. It can take some time for the winnings to come out of the bookies back to your bank account when you withdraw it. I always hope for the bigger wins to be at the exchange. It just means that it’s quicker to get on with the next bet.

PROFIT

I am definitely up. There’s no doubt about it. I can’t say I’m rolling in it, but I’m pleasantly surprised after being so sceptical. As with everything, time equals money. I’ve maybe put an hour in every other night into this new found hobby. Or is it an addiction? I sometimes think it might be going that way. Save me!

I’ve taken an export of my Matched Betting bank account statement from day 1 to day 41 and created a graph to show how much I’ve made so far… £265.06 in the bank with over £60 in the exchange.

I can post the CSV export from my bank account if you’re interested – post it in the comments! I was also trying to get an export of my exchange balance but I’m struggling to get the information I need.

Throughout this period, my exchange (Betfair) balance has been mostly healthy, but has needed topping up due to losses in the exchange (wins at the bookmaker).

In most instances I hope that most of my bigger wins – for the free bets – end up in the exchange. I can get straight onto the next matched betting offer at the next bookie if that’s the case. Withdrawing from bookies takes time. It’s a pain.

Matched Betting Thoughts

I’m not going to throw in the towel just yet. There is still more money to be made, and I’ll keep going. A point in time is bound to come when the offers dry up, I’m gubbed, or offers are just too complex for me to have the time to deal with.

Keeping to the programme has been pretty easy for me. There has been no point in the process so far that have tempted me to intentionally stray from the rules provided over at Team Profit.

Have you tried matched betting? How have you got on? Let me know in the comments.