Matched Betting is considered to be “risk-free” by many, however this isn’t the case. Whilst Matched Betting is proven to be a great earner and side hustle, there are some risks that you need to be aware of. The risks on this page are all an example of what could go wrong when Matched Betting.
1) Human Error
By far, the biggest risk when Matched Betting (and the most common) is human error.
We all make mistakes from time to time, it’s just nature. The problem with making mistakes when Matched Betting is that they can cost you money! It could be something as simple as typing the wrong number into the calculator, or perhaps betting on the completely wrong team! These things happen, and it’s a major part as to why Matched Betting isn’t completely risk-free.
Whenever you place bets, it’s always recommended to triple-check everything. Check the numbers work, check the dates of the game are correct, check the horse you are backing and laying is the same horse. Check everything, and then check it again!
DO NOT Matched Bet when you are in a hurry. Take your time.
2) Technical Issues
Online bookmakers’ websites and betting exchanges can experience technical issues, such as server crashes or payment problems. This can disrupt your betting activities and cause delays or losses.
Let’s say you placed a £5 back bet on Coral, and you wanted to lay this on Betfair, but Betfair had an outage. You would not be able to lay this bet until Betfair was back up and running again, and so your £5 would be at risk. Of course, the chances of this happening are small – but small enough to mean that we cannot call Matched Betting risk-free!
We recommend that you try to have money spread across a few different exchanges to minimise this being an issue. If one goes down, just use the other.
There are four main exchanges that we currently use: Betfair, Betdaq, Matchbook, and Smarkets.
3) Account Restrictions
It’s no secret that bookmakers dislike Matched Bettors. If they suspect you of Matched Betting or bonus abuse, they will usually restrict your account immediately. The majority of bookmakers will send you an email letting you know that this has happened, however, some websites will not. This can be an issue if you go to place your lay bet first.
Example
You place a £20 lay bet on England, and you are about to place the corresponding £20 back bet. Unfortunately, you have been restricted to just a £10 stake and you had no idea before you tried to place the bet. You can place the £10 back bet, but that means you still have £10 that is unmatched, and you are unable to place it. So, £10 on the lay side is currently at risk.
To counter this, we always place our back bets first. You just never know with the bookmakers, and so it’s always advised to back first, and lay later. Laying later does however come with it’s own issues which you can see in the next risk.
4) Lay Price Fluctuations
The prices on the betting exchanges are not fixed. They are set by other people like you and I, although mainly by the traders who are using the exchange to trade sports and make a profit. Because of this, the odds do move up and down regularly. This isn’t too much of a problem if you are betting far in advance, say on a Friday night before Saturday’s football. However, if you are betting just before an event then it can sometimes become an issue.
Example
It’s 2:50pm on a Saturday afternoon and you are about to place a £10 qualifying bet for William Hill’s welcome offer. You have decided that Manchester Utd vs Chelsea is the game you are going to bet on which kicks off at 3pm (in 10 minutes), and you have worked everything out on the calculator.
The back odds of Manchester Utd are 2.0, and the lay odds are 2.02. You now place your £10 William Hill back bet on Manchester Utd to win. But, in the time it takes you to switch over to the exchange, you notice the odds have gone up to 2.06!!! You now have to go back and re-calculate the lay bet, and notice that you are going to lose a little bit more money.
This can happen when you are betting just before an event. Perhaps a specific player looks unwell, injured, or is not starting. Or with horse racing, perhaps a horse looks like it’s going to dominate the race.
We recommend that you always place bets at least a few hours in advance to reduce the risk of this happening to you.
5) Internet Problems
Your internet connection can sometimes be a problem and cause an element of risk when Matched Betting. If your connection drops in between placing back and lay bets, you could be left exposed.
It’s worth making sure you have a backup internet, or make sure you are betting far in the future. A back up internet could be as simple as having a 4g/5g hotspot on your phone if you’re using your home internet, just in case.
6) Maximum Winnings
Some websites will only allow you to withdraw a maximum amount from a bonus. Perhaps they’ve given you a £10 bonus, and you’ve had to wager it a few times and ended up with £120 in your account. They may have a £100 max winnings clause, meaning that you only get to keep £100 out of that £120 from their bonus. Unfortunately, as you are Matched Betting, this means that £20 of that money will be lost as it was yours from the betting exchange.
This isn’t common practice and only a few “untrustworthy” sites do this. All of the websites you’ll find on Profit Pilgrims will have been tried and tested and WON’T have any nefarious terms like these. However, we do always recommend that you double check the terms and conditions of each offer you are about to complete yourself, just to save you the headache of any issues arising!
7) Withdrawal Issues
Sometimes a bookmaker may make it hard for you to withdraw your money. This is usually in suspected cases of fraud, or if they don’t believe you are who you say you are. Whilst this is usually resolved by sending off the required documents (drivers license, bank card etc), it can be troublesome for those who are multi accounting. If a bookmaker can see you sending money to your spouse for the purposes of Matched Betting, they may confiscate the funds.
We do not recommend multi accounting at all. We suggest that you only do Matched Betting in your own name, and ensure that you have all of the required documents should you be asked for them by the bookmaker. If a family member or friend wants to get involved, then feel free to share Profit Pilgrims with them!
8) Bookmakers Closing Down
Some of the smaller bookmakers over the years have ceased operations or closed down. When this happens, your funds could be at risk. A lot of them just leave the UK and so they’re not actually “closing down”, however some of them in the past have literally shut up shop. When this happens, you may receive some of your money back, or even all of it, depending on the company’s finances. However, this is not guaranteed, and there’s a chance you could lose it all.
This is obviously very rare and nothing to worry about too much, but it is one thing that makes Matched Betting not completely risk-free. We don’t have any specific advice for this issue, other than to avoid keeping large amounts of money in bookmakers, especially the smaller ones!
9) Betting Rules Differences
There are certain rules for each sport when betting, and not every site is the same. The main example of this is with tennis. When you place a bet, you’d expect your bet win if your player progresses through the match, but this isn’t always the case. There’s a rule called “retirement rules” that every site adheres to, and how each site interprets this rule can be very different.
Some websites require a whole match to take place before paying out any bets. So, if any player pulls out of the match then all bets are void. Betfair, Smarkets, and other exchanges however have a first set rule, which means all bets will stand as soon as the first set is complete.
The issue can arise here when a player retires after the first set has finished.
Example
Andy Murray is playing Novak Djokovic and clinches the first set 6-4. He takes a toilet break and decides he actually cannot play anymore as he’s injured. If you were betting on some bookies, they would refund your Andy Murray stake and void all bets as the match never actually finished. All bets are off. However, Betfair will settle your lay bet against Andy Murray as a loss because the first set was complete – meaning you are out of pocket!
There are other rules to be weary of too – for example if a Football match has been postponed, some websites will keep the bet, some will void, some will void after 48 hours etc. We try to keep on top of such bets, as they are rare, in our Facebook group.
Always check the rules of the sport you are betting on. Football is generally safe, and so is Horse Racing. For Tennis, you should check that the bookmaker shares the same rules with the exchanges. If they do, you’re absolutely fine.
Other sports such as Cricket, American Football etc do have different rules, so please get in touch if you have a specific query and we’ll be sure to help you out!
10) Gambling Addiction
The last risk of Matched Betting that I’d like to talk about (and perhaps the most damaging one) is gambling addiction.
Matched Betting is a fantastic way to make some extra cash online. It has been taken up by hundreds of thousands of people across the UK, and many more worldwide. But with so many people doing it, there’s bound to be some vulnerable people who have been unable to stick to just Matched Betting and have unfortunately gambled.
Gambling can be extremely devastating to not only yourself, but all of the people around you. It can make you angry, upset, on edge and snappy. This will in turn affect your other half, your family, your children, your friends.
At Profit Pilgrims, we want to help those who have been affected by gambling. Firstly, I’d like to outline below the three main reasons that people gamble after they have started Matched Betting. Please take a good read of these three reasons, and if you believe any apply to you already then don’t hesitate to get in touch.
- Already Gambling
You may have found Profit Pilgrims and have already been a gambler. The use of Matched Betting and free bonuses, as well as the constant updates on your social media from our community only enhances this addiction and makes you aware about betting constantly throughout the day. You quite frequently throw money on the horses and the football, and you love to play Blackjack and Roulette in the casino. - Loss chaser
Sometimes when Matched Betting things will go wrong. Whilst you may be making a lot of money in the long run, you don’t want to lose any money whatsoever. You may have made say, £1000 over the course of two months. Then, one Saturday when the kids were running around you accidently layed the wrong horse and it cost you £80. You’re pretty miffed about this and so load up Blackjack to chase this loss back. Or you might want to lay £80 on a horse in the next race. But, that Blackjack hand lost. And the horse you layed to chase also won. You’re now down £80 PLUS another £80 on top! That’s £160. Okay, sure, you can make that back. “Why not stick another £160 on a different horse, surely he won’t win?”. And then he does. You’re now down around £500 because of the liability – do you keep going? Do you keep chasing? - Closet Gambler
Perhaps the ones we worry about the most at Profit Pilgrims. These are people that may have never gambled in their life – however have been introduced to the world of gambling because of Matched Betting and ultimately because of us. If you fit in this category, then your journey may have started off great and you may have made a few hundred quid, maybe even a few thousand from the Matched Betting offers. But then the gubbings started to happen. First, you lost your William Hill account, then Bet365. Then your Coral accounts went and you’re really down in the dumps as you made quite the profit from them. You know about horse racing and the exchanges so you decide to just lay a few bets here and there. Before long, it spirals out of control and you find yourself in a hole.
These three types of gambler exist, and we have experience with them all. It’s not easy stopping, especially when you are down money. All you want to do is to get that money you lost back, and then you’ll tell yourself you’ll quit.
Believe me, this never happens. You may get your money back, but then you’ll continue. You may even be up a little bit and you’re flying high for a week – the world is fantastic. But trust me, the down swing will come again and you’ll be down lots of money.
The only advice I can give for these three types of gambling is to just walk away. When something goes wrong, walk away. And by walk away, I mean physically walk away. Get up and leave your computer, leave your laptop, put your phone away. Walk away. Go for a walk outside for 30 minutes and clear your head. You might be beating yourself up and that is absolutely fine – you’ve done something completely stupid but you’re not the first person in the world to ever do this.
Thousands of people before have done exactly what you’ve just done. They’ve chased losses, they’ve gambled the whole week, they’ve burned a hole in their pocket. But it is all reversible.
Now, at Profit Pilgrims we’re not qualified to give professional advice, however we are here for a chat and you can vent and let off any frustration you have. We’d firstly recommend that you head over to gamstop and put a block on all online gambling websites. Matched Betting is not for you. Yes, you can make £200, £300, or even £500 a month without much effort. But this is not worth it when you can just throw that all away without even thinking about it on the horses/football/casino.
Secondly, we’d recommend that you leave any betting related groups from your social media (yes, including us!). You can also unsubscribe from our mailing list via your email inbox. You need to remove all forms of gambling from your life. Unfollow pages on Facebook, exit the communities, and focus on yourself.
Thirdly, speak about it. If you have a family member that is close and you have been hiding it – it’s always good to be open and speak about it. You will feel much better getting it out in the open. Hiding it will eat you up inside and, so long as you’re removing all gambling from your life, your family member will hopefully be extremely supporting and help you over come the problem.
And finally, seek professional help. You can get in touch with GambleAware and Gamcare. There is so much help on these websites and you’ll find that they have helped thousands of people over the years kick the habit.
Matched Betting is considered to be “risk-free” by many, however this isn’t the case. Whilst Matched Betting is proven to be a great earner and side hustle, there are some risks that you need to be aware of. The risks on this page are all an example of what could go wrong when Matched Betting.
1) Human Error
By far, the biggest risk when Matched Betting (and the most common) is human error.
We all make mistakes from time to time, it’s just nature. The problem with making mistakes when Matched Betting is that they can cost you money! It could be something as simple as typing the wrong number into the calculator, or perhaps betting on the completely wrong team! These things happen, and it’s a major part as to why Matched Betting isn’t completely risk-free.
Whenever you place bets, it’s always recommended to triple-check everything. Check the numbers work, check the dates of the game are correct, check the horse you are backing and laying is the same horse. Check everything, and then check it again!
DO NOT Matched Bet when you are in a hurry. Take your time.
2) Technical Issues
Online bookmakers’ websites and betting exchanges can experience technical issues, such as server crashes or payment problems. This can disrupt your betting activities and cause delays or losses.
Let’s say you placed a £5 back bet on Coral, and you wanted to lay this on Betfair, but Betfair had an outage. You would not be able to lay this bet until Betfair was back up and running again, and so your £5 would be at risk. Of course, the chances of this happening are small – but small enough to mean that we cannot call Matched Betting risk-free!
We recommend that you try to have money spread across a few different exchanges to minimise this being an issue. If one goes down, just use the other.
There are four main exchanges that we currently use: Betfair, Betdaq, Matchbook, and Smarkets.
3) Account Restrictions
It’s no secret that bookmakers dislike Matched Bettors. If they suspect you of Matched Betting or bonus abuse, they will usually restrict your account immediately. The majority of bookmakers will send you an email letting you know that this has happened, however, some websites will not. This can be an issue if you go to place your lay bet first.
Example
You place a £20 lay bet on England, and you are about to place the corresponding £20 back bet. Unfortunately, you have been restricted to just a £10 stake and you had no idea before you tried to place the bet. You can place the £10 back bet, but that means you still have £10 that is unmatched, and you are unable to place it. So, £10 on the lay side is currently at risk.
To counter this, we always place our back bets first. You just never know with the bookmakers, and so it’s always advised to back first, and lay later. Laying later does however come with it’s own issues which you can see in the next risk.
4) Lay Price Fluctuations
The prices on the betting exchanges are not fixed. They are set by other people like you and I, although mainly by the traders who are using the exchange to trade sports and make a profit. Because of this, the odds do move up and down regularly. This isn’t too much of a problem if you are betting far in advance, say on a Friday night before Saturday’s football. However, if you are betting just before an event then it can sometimes become an issue.
Example
It’s 2:50pm on a Saturday afternoon and you are about to place a £10 qualifying bet for William Hill’s welcome offer. You have decided that Manchester Utd vs Chelsea is the game you are going to bet on which kicks off at 3pm (in 10 minutes), and you have worked everything out on the calculator.
The back odds of Manchester Utd are 2.0, and the lay odds are 2.02. You now place your £10 William Hill back bet on Manchester Utd to win. But, in the time it takes you to switch over to the exchange, you notice the odds have gone up to 2.06!!! You now have to go back and re-calculate the lay bet, and notice that you are going to lose a little bit more money.
This can happen when you are betting just before an event. Perhaps a specific player looks unwell, injured, or is not starting. Or with horse racing, perhaps a horse looks like it’s going to dominate the race.
We recommend that you always place bets at least a few hours in advance to reduce the risk of this happening to you.
5) Internet Problems
Your internet connection can sometimes be a problem and cause an element of risk when Matched Betting. If your connection drops in between placing back and lay bets, you could be left exposed.
It’s worth making sure you have a backup internet, or make sure you are betting far in the future. A back up internet could be as simple as having a 4g/5g hotspot on your phone if you’re using your home internet, just in case.
6) Maximum Winnings
Some websites will only allow you to withdraw a maximum amount from a bonus. Perhaps they’ve given you a £10 bonus, and you’ve had to wager it a few times and ended up with £120 in your account. They may have a £100 max winnings clause, meaning that you only get to keep £100 out of that £120 from their bonus. Unfortunately, as you are Matched Betting, this means that £20 of that money will be lost as it was yours from the betting exchange.
This isn’t common practice and only a few “untrustworthy” sites do this. All of the websites you’ll find on Profit Pilgrims will have been tried and tested and WON’T have any nefarious terms like these. However, we do always recommend that you double check the terms and conditions of each offer you are about to complete yourself, just to save you the headache of any issues arising!
7) Withdrawal Issues
Sometimes a bookmaker may make it hard for you to withdraw your money. This is usually in suspected cases of fraud, or if they don’t believe you are who you say you are. Whilst this is usually resolved by sending off the required documents (drivers license, bank card etc), it can be troublesome for those who are multi accounting. If a bookmaker can see you sending money to your spouse for the purposes of Matched Betting, they may confiscate the funds.
We do not recommend multi accounting at all. We suggest that you only do Matched Betting in your own name, and ensure that you have all of the required documents should you be asked for them by the bookmaker. If a family member or friend wants to get involved, then feel free to share Profit Pilgrims with them!
8) Bookmakers Closing Down
Some of the smaller bookmakers over the years have ceased operations or closed down. When this happens, your funds could be at risk. A lot of them just leave the UK and so they’re not actually “closing down”, however some of them in the past have literally shut up shop. When this happens, you may receive some of your money back, or even all of it, depending on the company’s finances. However, this is not guaranteed, and there’s a chance you could lose it all.
This is obviously very rare and nothing to worry about too much, but it is one thing that makes Matched Betting not completely risk-free. We don’t have any specific advice for this issue, other than to avoid keeping large amounts of money in bookmakers, especially the smaller ones!
9) Betting Rules Differences
There are certain rules for each sport when betting, and not every site is the same. The main example of this is with tennis. When you place a bet, you’d expect your bet win if your player progresses through the match, but this isn’t always the case. There’s a rule called “retirement rules” that every site adheres to, and how each site interprets this rule can be very different.
Some websites require a whole match to take place before paying out any bets. So, if any player pulls out of the match then all bets are void. Betfair, Smarkets, and other exchanges however have a first set rule, which means all bets will stand as soon as the first set is complete. The issue can arise here when a player retires after the first set has finished.
Example
Andy Murray is playing Novak Djokovic and clinches the first set 6-4. He takes a toilet break and decides he actually cannot play anymore as he’s injured. If you were betting on some bookies, they would refund your Andy Murray stake and void all bets as the match never actually finished. All bets are off. However, Betfair will settle your lay bet against Andy Murray as a loss because the first set was complete – meaning you are out of pocket!
There are other rules to be weary of too – for example if a Football match has been postponed, some websites will keep the bet, some will void, some will void after 48 hours etc. We try to keep on top of such bets, as they are rare, in our Facebook group.
Always check the rules of the sport you are betting on. Football is generally safe, and so is Horse Racing. For Tennis, you should check that the bookmaker shares the same rules with the exchanges. If they do, you’re absolutely fine.
Other sports such as Cricket, American Football etc do have different rules, so please get in touch if you have a specific query and we’ll be sure to help you out!
10) Gambling Addiction
The last risk of Matched Betting that I’d like to talk about (and perhaps the most damaging one) is gambling addiction.
Matched Betting is a fantastic way to make some extra cash online. It has been taken up by hundreds of thousands of people across the UK, and many more worldwide. But with so many people doing it, there’s bound to be some vulnerable people who have been unable to stick to just Matched Betting and have unfortunately gambled.
Gambling can be extremely devastating to not only yourself, but all of the people around you. It can make you angry, upset, on edge and snappy. This will in turn affect your other half, your family, your children, your friends.
At Profit Pilgrims, we want to help those who have been affected by gambling. Firstly, I’d like to outline below the three main reasons that people gamble after they have started Matched Betting. Please take a good read of these three reasons, and if you believe any apply to you already then don’t hesitate to get in touch.
- Already Gambling
You may have found Profit Pilgrims and have already been a gambler. The use of Matched Betting and free bonuses, as well as the constant updates on your social media from our community only enhances this addiction and makes you aware about betting constantly throughout the day. You quite frequently throw money on the horses and the football, and you love to play Blackjack and Roulette in the casino. - Loss chaser
Sometimes when Matched Betting things will go wrong. Whilst you may be making a lot of money in the long run, you don’t want to lose any money whatsoever. You may have made say, £1000 over the course of two months. Then, one Saturday when the kids were running around you accidently layed the wrong horse and it cost you £80. You’re pretty miffed about this and so load up Blackjack to chase this loss back. Or you might want to lay £80 on a horse in the next race. But, that Blackjack hand lost. And the horse you layed to chase also won. You’re now down £80 PLUS another £80 on top! That’s £160. Okay, sure, you can make that back. “Why not stick another £160 on a different horse, surely he won’t win?”. And then he does. You’re now down around £500 because of the liability – do you keep going? Do you keep chasing? - Closet Gambler
Perhaps the ones we worry about the most at Profit Pilgrims. These are people that may have never gambled in their life – however have been introduced to the world of gambling because of Matched Betting and ultimately because of us. If you fit in this category, then your journey may have started off great and you may have made a few hundred quid, maybe even a few thousand from the Matched Betting offers. But then the gubbings started to happen. First, you lost your William Hill account, then Bet365. Then your Coral accounts went and you’re really down in the dumps as you made quite the profit from them. You know about horse racing and the exchanges so you decide to just lay a few bets here and there. Before long, it spirals out of control and you find yourself in a hole.
These three types of gambler exist, and we have experience with them all. It’s not easy stopping, especially when you are down money. All you want to do is to get that money you lost back, and then you’ll tell yourself you’ll quit.
Believe me, this never happens. You may get your money back, but then you’ll continue. You may even be up a little bit and you’re flying high for a week – the world is fantastic. But trust me, the down swing will come again and you’ll be down lots of money.
The only advice I can give for these three types of gambling is to just walk away. When something goes wrong, walk away. And by walk away, I mean physically walk away. Get up and leave your computer, leave your laptop, put your phone away. Walk away. Go for a walk outside for 30 minutes and clear your head. You might be beating yourself up and that is absolutely fine – you’ve done something completely stupid but you’re not the first person in the world to ever do this.
Thousands of people before have done exactly what you’ve just done. They’ve chased losses, they’ve gambled the whole week, they’ve burned a hole in their pocket. But it is all reversible.
Now, at Profit Pilgrims we’re not qualified to give professional advice, however we are here for a chat and you can vent and let off any frustration you have. We’d firstly recommend that you head over to gamstop and put a block on all online gambling websites. Matched Betting is not for you. Yes, you can make £200, £300, or even £500 a month without much effort. But this is not worth it when you can just throw that all away without even thinking about it on the horses/football/casino.
Secondly, we’d recommend that you leave any betting related groups from your social media (yes, including us!). You can also unsubscribe from our mailing list via your email inbox. You need to remove all forms of gambling from your life. Unfollow pages on Facebook, exit the communities, and focus on yourself.
Thirdly, speak about it. If you have a family member that is close and you have been hiding it – it’s always good to be open and speak about it. You will feel much better getting it out in the open. Hiding it will eat you up inside and, so long as you’re removing all gambling from your life, your family member will hopefully be extremely supporting and help you over come the problem.
And finally, seek professional help. You can get in touch with GambleAware and Gamcare. There is so much help on these websites and you’ll find that they have helped thousands of people over the years kick the habit.
Matched Betting is considered to be “risk-free” by many, however this isn’t the case. Whilst Matched Betting is proven to be a great earner and side hustle, there are some risks that you need to be aware of. The risks on this page are all an example of what could go wrong when Matched Betting.
1) Human Error
By far, the biggest risk when Matched Betting (and the most common) is human error.
We all make mistakes from time to time, it’s just nature. The problem with making mistakes when Matched Betting is that they can cost you money! It could be something as simple as typing the wrong number into the calculator, or perhaps betting on the completely wrong team! These things happen, and it’s a major part as to why Matched Betting isn’t completely risk-free.
Whenever you place bets, it’s always recommended to triple-check everything. Check the numbers work, check the dates of the game are correct, check the horse you are backing and laying is the same horse. Check everything, and then check it again!
DO NOT Matched Bet when you are in a hurry. Take your time.
2) Technical Issues
Online bookmakers’ websites and betting exchanges can experience technical issues, such as server crashes or payment problems. This can disrupt your betting activities and cause delays or losses.
Let’s say you placed a £5 back bet on Coral, and you wanted to lay this on Betfair, but Betfair had an outage. You would not be able to lay this bet until Betfair was back up and running again, and so your £5 would be at risk. Of course, the chances of this happening are small – but small enough to mean that we cannot call Matched Betting risk-free!
We recommend that you try to have money spread across a few different exchanges to minimise this being an issue. If one goes down, just use the other.
There are four main exchanges that we currently use: Betfair, Betdaq, Matchbook, and Smarkets.
3) Account Restrictions
It’s no secret that bookmakers dislike Matched Bettors. If they suspect you of Matched Betting or bonus abuse, they will usually restrict your account immediately. The majority of bookmakers will send you an email letting you know that this has happened, however, some websites will not. This can be an issue if you go to place your lay bet first.
Example
You place a £20 lay bet on England, and you are about to place the corresponding £20 back bet. Unfortunately, you have been restricted to just a £10 stake and you had no idea before you tried to place the bet. You can place the £10 back bet, but that means you still have £10 that is unmatched, and you are unable to place it. So, £10 on the lay side is currently at risk.
To counter this, we always place our back bets first. You just never know with the bookmakers, and so it’s always advised to back first, and lay later. Laying later does however come with it’s own issues which you can see in the next risk.
4) Lay Price Fluctuations
The prices on the betting exchanges are not fixed. They are set by other people like you and I, although mainly by the traders who are using the exchange to trade sports and make a profit. Because of this, the odds do move up and down regularly. This isn’t too much of a problem if you are betting far in advance, say on a Friday night before Saturday’s football. However, if you are betting just before an event then it can sometimes become an issue.
Example
It’s 2:50pm on a Saturday afternoon and you are about to place a £10 qualifying bet for William Hill’s welcome offer. You have decided that Manchester Utd vs Chelsea is the game you are going to bet on which kicks off at 3pm (in 10 minutes), and you have worked everything out on the calculator.
The back odds of Manchester Utd are 2.0, and the lay odds are 2.02. You now place your £10 William Hill back bet on Manchester Utd to win. But, in the time it takes you to switch over to the exchange, you notice the odds have gone up to 2.06!!! You now have to go back and re-calculate the lay bet, and notice that you are going to lose a little bit more money.
This can happen when you are betting just before an event. Perhaps a specific player looks unwell, injured, or is not starting. Or with horse racing, perhaps a horse looks like it’s going to dominate the race.
We recommend that you always place bets at least a few hours in advance to reduce the risk of this happening to you.
5) Internet Problems
Your internet connection can sometimes be a problem and cause an element of risk when Matched Betting. If your connection drops in between placing back and lay bets, you could be left exposed.
It’s worth making sure you have a backup internet, or make sure you are betting far in the future. A back up internet could be as simple as having a 4g/5g hotspot on your phone if you’re using your home internet, just in case.
6) Maximum Winnings
Some websites will only allow you to withdraw a maximum amount from a bonus. Perhaps they’ve given you a £10 bonus, and you’ve had to wager it a few times and ended up with £120 in your account. They may have a £100 max winnings clause, meaning that you only get to keep £100 out of that £120 from their bonus. Unfortunately, as you are Matched Betting, this means that £20 of that money will be lost as it was yours from the betting exchange.
This isn’t common practice and only a few “untrustworthy” sites do this. All of the websites you’ll find on Profit Pilgrims will have been tried and tested and WON’T have any nefarious terms like these. However, we do always recommend that you double check the terms and conditions of each offer you are about to complete yourself, just to save you the headache of any issues arising!
7) Withdrawal Issues
Sometimes a bookmaker may make it hard for you to withdraw your money. This is usually in suspected cases of fraud, or if they don’t believe you are who you say you are. Whilst this is usually resolved by sending off the required documents (drivers license, bank card etc), it can be troublesome for those who are multi accounting. If a bookmaker can see you sending money to your spouse for the purposes of Matched Betting, they may confiscate the funds.
We do not recommend multi accounting at all. We suggest that you only do Matched Betting in your own name, and ensure that you have all of the required documents should you be asked for them by the bookmaker. If a family member or friend wants to get involved, then feel free to share Profit Pilgrims with them!
8) Bookmakers Closing Down
Some of the smaller bookmakers over the years have ceased operations or closed down. When this happens, your funds could be at risk. A lot of them just leave the UK and so they’re not actually “closing down”, however some of them in the past have literally shut up shop. When this happens, you may receive some of your money back, or even all of it, depending on the company’s finances. However, this is not guaranteed, and there’s a chance you could lose it all.
This is obviously very rare and nothing to worry about too much, but it is one thing that makes Matched Betting not completely risk-free. We don’t have any specific advice for this issue, other than to avoid keeping large amounts of money in bookmakers, especially the smaller ones!
9) Betting Rules Differences
There are certain rules for each sport when betting, and not every site is the same. The main example of this is with tennis. When you place a bet, you’d expect your bet win if your player progresses through the match, but this isn’t always the case. There’s a rule called “retirement rules” that every site adheres to, and how each site interprets this rule can be very different.
Some websites require a whole match to take place before paying out any bets. So, if any player pulls out of the match then all bets are void. Betfair, Smarkets, and other exchanges however have a first set rule, which means all bets will stand as soon as the first set is complete.
The issue can arise here when a player retires after the first set has finished.
Example
Andy Murray is playing Novak Djokovic and clinches the first set 6-4. He takes a toilet break and decides he actually cannot play anymore as he’s injured. If you were betting on some bookies, they would refund your Andy Murray stake and void all bets as the match never actually finished. All bets are off. However, Betfair will settle your lay bet against Andy Murray as a loss because the first set was complete – meaning you are out of pocket!
There are other rules to be weary of too – for example if a Football match has been postponed, some websites will keep the bet, some will void, some will void after 48 hours etc. We try to keep on top of such bets, as they are rare, in our Facebook group.
Always check the rules of the sport you are betting on. Football is generally safe, and so is Horse Racing. For Tennis, you should check that the bookmaker shares the same rules with the exchanges. If they do, you’re absolutely fine.
Other sports such as Cricket, American Football etc do have different rules, so please get in touch if you have a specific query and we’ll be sure to help you out!
10) Gambling Addiction
The last risk of Matched Betting that I’d like to talk about (and perhaps the most damaging one) is gambling addiction.
Matched Betting is a fantastic way to make some extra cash online. It has been taken up by hundreds of thousands of people across the UK, and many more worldwide. But with so many people doing it, there’s bound to be some vulnerable people who have been unable to stick to just Matched Betting and have unfortunately gambled.
Gambling can be extremely devastating to not only yourself, but all of the people around you. It can make you angry, upset, on edge and snappy. This will in turn affect your other half, your family, your children, your friends.
At Profit Pilgrims, we want to help those who have been affected by gambling. Firstly, I’d like to outline below the three main reasons that people gamble after they have started Matched Betting. Please take a good read of these three reasons, and if you believe any apply to you already then don’t hesitate to get in touch.
- Already Gambling
You may have found Profit Pilgrims and have already been a gambler. The use of Matched Betting and free bonuses, as well as the constant updates on your social media from our community only enhances this addiction and makes you aware about betting constantly throughout the day. You quite frequently throw money on the horses and the football, and you love to play Blackjack and Roulette in the casino. - Loss chaser
Sometimes when Matched Betting things will go wrong. Whilst you may be making a lot of money in the long run, you don’t want to lose any money whatsoever. You may have made say, £1000 over the course of two months. Then, one Saturday when the kids were running around you accidently layed the wrong horse and it cost you £80. You’re pretty miffed about this and so load up Blackjack to chase this loss back. Or you might want to lay £80 on a horse in the next race. But, that Blackjack hand lost. And the horse you layed to chase also won. You’re now down £80 PLUS another £80 on top! That’s £160. Okay, sure, you can make that back. “Why not stick another £160 on a different horse, surely he won’t win?”. And then he does. You’re now down around £500 because of the liability – do you keep going? Do you keep chasing? - Closet Gambler
Perhaps the ones we worry about the most at Profit Pilgrims. These are people that may have never gambled in their life – however have been introduced to the world of gambling because of Matched Betting and ultimately because of us. If you fit in this category, then your journey may have started off great and you may have made a few hundred quid, maybe even a few thousand from the Matched Betting offers. But then the gubbings started to happen. First, you lost your William Hill account, then Bet365. Then your Coral accounts went and you’re really down in the dumps as you made quite the profit from them. You know about horse racing and the exchanges so you decide to just lay a few bets here and there. Before long, it spirals out of control and you find yourself in a hole.
These three types of gambler exist, and we have experience with them all. It’s not easy stopping, especially when you are down money. All you want to do is to get that money you lost back, and then you’ll tell yourself you’ll quit.
Believe me, this never happens. You may get your money back, but then you’ll continue. You may even be up a little bit and you’re flying high for a week – the world is fantastic. But trust me, the down swing will come again and you’ll be down lots of money.
The only advice I can give for these three types of gambling is to just walk away. When something goes wrong, walk away. And by walk away, I mean physically walk away. Get up and leave your computer, leave your laptop, put your phone away. Walk away. Go for a walk outside for 30 minutes and clear your head. You might be beating yourself up and that is absolutely fine – you’ve done something completely stupid but you’re not the first person in the world to ever do this.
Thousands of people before have done exactly what you’ve just done. They’ve chased losses, they’ve gambled the whole week, they’ve burned a hole in their pocket. But it is all reversible.
Now, at Profit Pilgrims we’re not qualified to give professional advice, however we are here for a chat and you can vent and let off any frustration you have. We’d firstly recommend that you head over to gamstop and put a block on all online gambling websites. Matched Betting is not for you. Yes, you can make £200, £300, or even £500 a month without much effort. But this is not worth it when you can just throw that all away without even thinking about it on the horses/football/casino.
Secondly, we’d recommend that you leave any betting related groups from your social media (yes, including us!). You can also unsubscribe from our mailing list via your email inbox. You need to remove all forms of gambling from your life. Unfollow pages on Facebook, exit the communities, and focus on yourself.
Thirdly, speak about it. If you have a family member that is close and you have been hiding it – it’s always good to be open and speak about it. You will feel much better getting it out in the open. Hiding it will eat you up inside and, so long as you’re removing all gambling from your life, your family member will hopefully be extremely supporting and help you over come the problem.
And finally, seek professional help. You can get in touch with GambleAware and Gamcare. There is so much help on these websites and you’ll find that they have helped thousands of people over the years kick the habit.
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Check out the risks that are associated with Matched Betting, and why it's not truly "risk-free".