In this guide, I’ll walk you through making another £23 profit, this time from Betfred’s sign up offer. I recommend taking your time and completing this guide at your own pace. So, if you’re ready, let’s get going…
1. Open a Betfair account
Before placing any bets, you’ll need to open a Betfair account.
Matched Betting Blog receives a small commission when you sign up to Betfair via the link above. It helps support the site and keeps it free for everyone to learn matched betting.
You’ll also get Betfair’s new customer offer as an added bonus. If your first Exchange bet loses, you’ll receive your money back as cash, up to £20.
2. Open a Betfred account
Betfred are offering new customers a £30 free bet when they place a bet of £10.
There are bigger welcome offers elsewhere, but I always recommend starting small and working your way up. Once you’ve completed your first couple of offers, you’ll feel more confident and have a bigger bankroll for completing the larger offers.
3. Switch to decimal odds
Betting exchanges use decimal odds by default, so switching to decimal odds at Betfred makes sense. You’ll be able to compare odds a lot easier that way. You can learn more about decimal odds in my Betting Odds Explained guide.
You can usually switch to decimal odds at the top of the page, in the sidebar, or in your account settings.
4. Qualifying bet
Now you have your accounts set up, you can claim your offer! The bet you’ll place to qualify for your free bet is your ‘qualifying bet’.
The key terms of your Betfred sign up offer state that you must make a first deposit of at least £10. You can place your qualifying bet on any sports market, but it must be at odds of 2.00 (evens) or greater. It’s important to check the terms of each offer, as there may be specific requirements you need to meet.
You should place your bets on popular events that regular people will be betting on. This will make it easier for you to match your bets. Football matches are usually the best option.
Qualifying bets should always be placed at low odds. You should also look for close odds between your back bet at the bookmaker (Betfred) and your lay bet at the betting exchange (Betfair).
Doing both enables you to claim your free bet by losing just a few pence overall. If you need to go in-depth on qualifying bets, please see my Qualifying Bets Guide.
Place your back bet
At the time of writing, I’ve found odds of 2.20 for Newcastle to beat Leicester at Betfred. This is your back bet. On Betfair (your betting exchange), you can lay Newcastle at odds of 2.32. (Remember, ‘laying‘ means you’re taking the role of bookmaker and therefore betting on Newcastle NOT to win).
So, your outcomes will be covered as below.
You can now place your qualifying bet at Betfred. You know you need to place a bet of £10 to qualify, so you can do that now.
Simply click the ‘2.20‘ button for ‘Newcastle United‘, enter your stake of £10 and click ‘Place Bet‘.
Place your lay bet
You need to know how much to stake at Betfair to even out your bets. This is where my Matched Betting Calculator comes in!
You simply select the ‘Qualifying Bet’ setting and input the stake and odds from your back bet, plus the odds of your lay bet. The calculator will then tell you how much you need to stake at Betfair to be as close to breaking even as possible. Based on my Newcastle example, that is a stake of £9.57, resulting in a slight overall loss of 63 pence. You can see the calculator populated with my numbers below.
Now, you can place your lay bet. Click on Betfair’s ‘2.32‘ lay button and enter your stake of £9.57.
It tells you that your liability is £12.63, and it’s good practice to check this figure against the expected betting exchange loss on the calculator. As you can see, they’re both the same, so you know you have entered the correct lay stake.
You’ll need to deposit enough funds into your Betfair account to cover your £12.63 liability, as this is the amount you stand to lose if Newcastle win. Don’t worry, though. Your winnings at Betfred will cover this but for a few pence.
Your Betfair screen should now update to display your potential profit or loss for each possible outcome.
Outcomes
Let’s look at your overall profit/loss for the potential outcomes.
| Outcome | Betfred | Betfair | Profit/Loss |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newcastle win | + £12.00 | – £12.63 | £0.63 loss |
| Newcastle lose or draw | – £10.00 | + £9.37 | £0.63 loss |
As you can see, regardless of whether Newcastle win, lose or draw, you’ll incur a slight loss of £0.63. However, this loss is worth it, as you’ve just qualified for a £30 free bet!
5. Using your free bet
Nice work! You’ve just completed your second qualifying bet!
Now, you could just place your free bet on anything you like and see if it wins or loses, but you’d be relying on luck! With matched betting, you want to know you’ll profit from the free bet. How do you do that? You simply repeat the process you’ve just done.
Betfred will credit your account with a £30 free bet within 10 hours of your qualifying bet settling. Again, check the free bet terms for any specific requirements.
As with most free bets, your Betfred free bet is ‘stake not returned‘. Your £30 stake will not be returned to you with any winnings. You only get back what would have been your profit on a regular bet. The free bet is valid for 7 days.
This time, the only real difference in the process is that your free bet should be placed at high odds to maximise your profit. As always, the closer the back and lay odds, the better. If you need to go in-depth on free bets, please see my Free Bets Guide.
Place your back bet
When writing this guide, the following odds are available for a football match between Man Utd and Burnley.
The odds for Burnley to win are pretty high, and back odds of 8.00 and lay odds of 8.40 are nice and close.
You can go ahead and place your £30 free bet at Betfred. The free bet should be available via a checkbox on your bet slip.
Place your lay bet
Again, you need to calculate your lay stake at Betfair. This time, on my Matched Betting Calculator, you simply select the ‘Free Bet’ setting and input your odds and free bet stake. You can leave the ‘Stake returned’ box unchecked as your free bet stake is not returned for this offer.
As you can see, the calculator tells you that your lay stake should be £25.06. So, as before, you click on Betfair’s ‘8.4‘ lay button and enter your stake of £25.06.
It tells you that your liability on this bet is £185.44. It’s good practice to check this figure against the expected betting exchange loss on the calculator. As you can see, they’re both the same, so you know you have entered the correct lay stake.
You’ll need to deposit enough funds into your Betfair account to cover your £185.44 liability, as this is the amount you stand to lose at Betfair if Burnley win. Don’t worry; your winnings at Betfred will more than cover it. Once done, just as before, you’ll see your potential profit or loss at Betfair for each possible outcome.
The higher your lay odds, the more funds you’ll need in your Betfair account to cover your liability. You can reduce your liability by opting for lower odds. It will just mean a slightly smaller profit.
Outcomes
Let’s look at your overall profit/loss for the potential outcomes.
| Outcome | Betfred | Betfair | Profit/Loss |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burnley win | + £210.00 | – £185.44 | £24.56 profit |
| Burnley lose or draw | – Free bet | + £24.55 | £24.55 profit |
So, regardless of whether Burnley win, lose or draw, you’ll make a minimum of £24.55 cash from your £30 free bet! Your qualifying loss was just £0.63, so you’ve made at least £23.92 profit from Betfred’s welcome offer.
If your qualifying back bet at Betfred won, Betfair will refund your losing lay bet as cash up to £20 as part of their new customer offer. If you’re due a refund, your cash will be credited within 72 hours of your qualifying bet settling.
Learn matched betting the free, easy way.
The Matched Betting Academy
- Logically structured to tackle strategies and offers as you’re ready for them.
- Bag profits every step of the way. About £600 from welcome offers, and another £500 monthly.
- Make £15 from your very first offer.
Got a question?
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Matt Kirman – Matched Betting Blogger
Since 2014, I’ve blogged over £85,000 worth of profit, and made it my mission to make matched betting accessible to everyone.