Sky Bet In Play Offer – West Ham v Southampton

West Ham host Southampton today and you don’t want to miss this Sky Bet in play offer! Place a pre-match bet on West Ham v Southampton and Sky Bet will give us a risk-free in play bet to the same stake (up to a maximum of £75.00) on the big match. These in play offers are the best around as there are big profits to be made. We can make a guaranteed profit of £47.96 on this offer and here’s how…

The Offer:

This offer has a limited availability and will be removed once it has run out.

We must opt-in to this offer and place a pre-match bet of up to £75.00 at odds of 1.20 (1/5) or greater on West Ham v Southampton, to be eligible.

Once the game starts, we need to place another bet in play up to the same value as our pre-match bet. Our in play bet will be risk-free. This means that we are required to place the in play bet using our own funds and if this in play bet loses, Sky Bet will refund it in full in cash (which is withdrawable straight away).

There are two completely different strategies we can use to do this offer. We can either use the dutching method, where we place a back bet on all three possible results or we can use the matched betting method which uses a betting exchange to lay our two back bets.

The Dutching Method:

The first step when doing these offers, is to decide which outcome we should place our in play bet on. I like to place my in play bet on the draw. If we’re quick at kick-off, we shouldn’t have any problem getting our in play bet on at the pre-match odds. If we’re not quick, then the odds are likely to drop slightly and it’s always worth bearing that in mind when calculating our stakes.

I’d like to add at this point that it’s always best to stick to round numbers when placing your bets as odd amounts such as £75.79 can easily be flagged up as a matched bet. You should instead place £75.00 on Southampton pre-match at Sky Bet and place the extra £1.00 on Southampton with another bookmaker, especially if you can get better odds elsewhere. Similarly, with the West Ham bet, I would stick to round numbers and place £55.00 instead.

One of the main advantages of using this dutching method is that we can often combine these in play offers with other bookmaker promotions.

• Coral will double our winnings up to £100.00 in cash if our pre-match selection wins both halves.
• Paddy Power will give us a £25.00 free bet if the team we bet on pre-match is losing at half-time.
• BoyleSports will refund all losing pre-match bets (up to £25.00) if either team hits the crossbar and the ball bounces back into play.

We could therefore spread our West Ham bet across any of these three offers for a bit of extra value.

Let’s have a look at our profit/loss for the three potential outcomes…

As you can see, no matter what the result of the game, we stand to make a guaranteed profit of £47.96 on this Sky Bet in play offer! How long did that take? 10 minutes?

If the odds change between now and kick-off, which is almost a certainty, it’s really easy to recalculate your pre-match stakes.

Start by working out your returns on the pre-match Southampton bet. So if the Southampton odds have changed to 2.50, your returns on a Southampton win would now be £187.50.

To work out your pre-match stake on West Ham, you would just need to divide the £187.50 by the odds (in decimal form) on a West Ham win. To work out your stake on the in play draw bet, you would need to add the refund of £75.00 to the £187.50 which gives you £262.50 and then divide this by the odds (in decimal form) on a draw. Any problems, just give me a shout!

The Matched Betting Method:

When I’ve blogged these in play offers in the past, I’ve always recommended the dutching method, but I always receive a few emails asking why we don’t just use straightforward matched betting to bank more profit.

To answer the question, it’s absolutely fine to use matched betting for these offers but our overall profit will depend on what odds are available in play.

If you’re not yet familiar with matched betting, please read my matched betting guide for more information.

Having looked at the odds available, I’ve opted to place my qualifying bet on a West Ham win.

I like to place my exchange lay bets with Smarkets as they have great liquidity, the site is really easy to use and they only charge 2% commission in comparison to the 5% charged by other betting exchanges.

We can calculate our lay stakes using my matched betting calculator…

As you can see, the calculator tells us that our lay stake should be £73.11…

Let’s have a look at our potential profit/loss for the possible outcomes…

So, regardless of the result of match, we will lose £3.35 in qualifying for our £75.00 risk-free in play bet.

If you’re not sure how to extract a profit from risk-free bets, please have a read of my Risk-Free Bet Strategy page for more info.

We need to place our £75.00 risk-free in play bet using our own funds and if it loses, Sky Bet will refund it after the game in cash which is withdrawable straight away.

My advice is to place our in play bet at half-time. This is simply because the odds don’t fluctuate as much as when the game is live. There’s nothing worse than placing a back bet on a market and then something happens in the game that changes the odds before you have chance to get your lay bet on! Depending on the half-time score, I would have a look at the Match Odds market and if those are too short, I would then have a look at the Correct Score market.

It’s impossible to know what odds will be available until the game is live, but here is an example of how things might pan out…

We can use the ‘Risk-Free Bet’ setting on my matched betting calculator to work out our correct lay stake…

As you can see, the calculator tells us that our lay stake should be £56.34…

Let’s have a look at our potential profit/loss for the possible outcomes…

So, regardless of the result of the match, we will make £55.22 profit from our risk-free in play bet. If we take into account our qualifying loss of £3.35, we should make a profit of around £52.00 on this offer, but this all depends on what odds are available in play.

Pros and Cons of both methods:

• The matched betting method is potentially more profitable but this depends entirely on the in play odds.
• We can combine the dutching method with other bookmaker promotions to add value.
• The dutching method has a lower outlay.
• The dutching method is done and dusted once you’ve placed your in play bet at kick-off.
• The dutching method may appeal to those who are unfamiliar with matched betting.
• If you’re unable to place your in play bet at kickoff, the matched betting method can be done at half-time, which gives you a 15 minute window to get your bets on.

It’s entirely up to you guys which method you opt for but my preference would be the matched betting method. We can usually make a bit more profit and we can do the other bookmaker promotions separately.

* These in play offers are by far the best around but for those of you who have never come across matched betting, there are so many more offers to profit from. I make over £500.00 risk-free profit every month from bookmakers’ offers just like this one.  If you’re interested in finding out more, feel free to have a read of my matched betting guides. My blog is completely free to use! *