Reply With QuoteUsed to do it. Didn't think there was much money left in it any more. Hey day long gone.
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as the title
I was chatting to a mate on the weekend and he said he is clearing between 100 - 150 a week doing it, takes him maybe 1 hour a day
anyone do it ? ? ? is it really that much of a earner ? ? ?
Used to do it. Didn't think there was much money left in it any more. Hey day long gone.
As above. there are two types here: hoovering up bookie's sign-up bonuses; and then arbitrage. bonus bagging is relatively straightforward and profitable, as you don't need to be too worried about finding great matches, and you don't need a lot of capital. Used to be the case that there was a relatively straightforward £2k or so out there. But once you've done that, you need to find proper arbitrage opportunities which is harder, requires more capital and gives you a tiny return on capital, and is far more risky. Getting palped when you are betting big numbers is no fun. And a bit like internet poker, it was easy pickings in the early noughties but things have significantly tightened up since then.Originally Posted by simonp_ccfc
And I really must emphasise that matched betting is not without risk. A decade ago you had issues with:
- rogue bookmakers;
- issues with withdrawal (needing to provide passport details etc);
- bookies declaring odds a "palpable error" and cancelling one leg of the bet;
- assuming that bookies have the same rules (e.g. a tennis player retiring injured might result in one bookie declaring the opponent the winner; and another declaring the bets void);
- getting limited to £5 stakes at bookies who have spotted what you are doing; odds moving before you can match your bet out;
- human error (i once backed first goalscorer at the bookies and went to lay that at BF but managed to back it instead, doubling my exposure... fortunately the bet actually came in)
- freak events like the first goalscorer market in the league cup final in about 2007 when a lot of people misunderstood how the market worked and lost their shirts
- boredom/return on time invested. It is DULL, and good matches that are freely advertised normally have a very limited shelf life
- not sure if it is a real risk, but i was uncomfortable about my bank seeing me moving hundreds of pounds between bookmakers on a frequent basis - was unsure if it would affect mortgage applications etc
As you say, the margins with arbitrage are tiny. There was one in the Six Nations over the weekend, whereby France were 11/10 in a place and we were 21/20. It's not a proper arbitrage as the draw wasn't covered, although that's a very rare occurrence in rugby.
I don't even know what the term means. I get lost on anything past an each way double
I used to work for Ladbrokes and I’m fascinated by sports betting. I have seen what it can do to people though. I was just wondering if you could explain more about what happened with that league cup final you mentioned? Couldn’t find anything when I searched.
It was something to do with first goal scorers a glitch in the system giving people the opportunity to bet on every possibility or something like that Because of voids or something people was actually -5k +
This happened 12 months or so before I started ap’ing.... it was a sorry tale.
Original thread still available to read:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com...d.php?t=386063
There was a follow up thread aswell where people were helping each other to minimise losses.
Moral of the story- particularly true when backing/laying/ trying to take advantage of bookmaker offers or arbs- you need to understand EXACTLY what you are doing. And, if you do **** up (everyone does), you need to composure to rectify your mistakes/minimise losses quickly. Which is easier said than done- particularly when looking at a sizeable loss.
It was something to do with matched betting on a first goal scorer who wasn't named in the squad or first team (I forget). Some bookies refunded stakes which totally screwed people who were working with most of their pot. There was some confusion as to what to do to minimise losses as people were trying to fix it so quickly and that made it worse.
Pretty much. Arsenal v Chelsea, 2007. This was a ramped scam, but "someone" noticed an apparent underround on first goalscorer at betfair. (or overround possibly, as it was an opportunity on laying). BAsically you could lay every named player for first goalscorer and if you got your maths right, it locked in a guaranteed profit because the odds you could offer (and get matched) at BF were low enough to allow it across all named players. E.g. you could have say £10k in your BF account, put it all at stake on the first goalscorer market by laying all outcomes, and guarantee yourself say an £11k return regardless of whomever scored first (including no goalscorer). It was brilliant - and the margins really were that large.
Except that it was not.
The problem was that if a player did not start, the bets made on him scoring first were void. So the "profit" you made on those players never materialised. To make matters worse, some of the non-starters were favourites. Henry didn't start, for example. It was heavily pushed on boards promoting matched betting by what appears to have been people ramping this and backing the likely starters at odds inflated by the ramping. Shortly before kick-off a grown-up came along and told everyone that this was not going to work and to reverse out their positions asap, but then Walcott scored early on and the market closed. Those involved paid out massively on the walcott bets, but because the non-starter bets were cancelled they made nowhere near enough to cover their losses. People lost thousands, in some cases five figures.
What really rankled with me is that one of the main places that matched betting was promoted was on the Martin Lewis website, and the section which at the time was called something like "free easy money with matched betting". The people on that site were, I feel, badly misled about the risks involved and some of them who lost that money really could not afford to do so, and this is why whenever I see threads on matched betting I go out of my way to emphasise the pitfalls. I was actually following the threads at the time live, and while I didn't quite know what was going on I had just about enough nous to realise that something fishy was up and didn't personally get involved, but it was awful to watch.
I used to be able to find that thread on the Moneysavingexpert website, and it did make the news as well. I've had a quick search and cannot find anything either now, but it was a very real and very brutal lesson that there is no such thing as free easy money.
Follow up thread... the horror unfolds...
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com...6241#topofpage
There may even have been a third thread - the aftermath.
Fairly sure there were threads on the betfair forums running in parallel, where the sharps were laughing their socks off, hoovering up all of the insane FGS odds from the MSE layers...
Thanks for digging those out. A fascinating read, still.
This
thanks folks, reading forums it seems people think just doing the sign-up bonus bets and anything that comes along in the 1st month is worth between £1500 - £1800 , not massive, but i am only sat in my van or cafe, so might aswell take £1500 from them
never really been into betting as it spoils my day when i lose, so no risk of me getting the " bug "
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