Whatever you do this weekend, DO NOT MISS this Bet365 Grand National 2021 offer! Simply place your bets on the Aintree Grand National 2021 and Bet365 will give us half our stake back for every each way bet we place, up to a maximum total refund of £125.00. Translated into matched betting terms, this gives us a minimum guaranteed profit of £83.40 and here’s how…
Key terms
- Applies to bets placed between 00:00:01 on Thursday 8th April 2021 and 11:59:59 on Saturday 10th April 2021.
- Available to eligible Bet365 customers who opened their account before 23:59:59 on Wednesday 7th April 2021.
- Applies to each way single bets.
- Bet365 will refund half of our total stake, up to a maximum total refund of £125.00.
- Cash refunds should be credited within two hours of bet placement.
How it works
If you’d like more information about each way bets and how they work, please see my each way arbing guide.
Bet365 will refund half of our qualifying each way bets up to a maximum total of £125.00. So, in order to claim the maximum £125.00 refund, we need to place each way bets totalling £250.00.
Bet365 are paying 5 places on the Grand National. If we lay our selection to place in the top 4, this offer then becomes an extra place race too. If you’d like more information about extra place offers and how they work, please see my extra place offers guide.
Qualifying bets
Option 1
You can place one each way bet totalling £250.00 or a number of smaller bets totalling £250.00. It’ll depend on your bankroll and how comfortable you feel with each approach.
In previous years I’ve suggested placing 1 x £125.00 each way bet to qualify for this offer. The benefit of opting for just the one horse is that the profit for hitting the extra place is pretty huge (£500+)! However, the downside is needing a huge amount (£1,000+) in your exchange account to cover your whopping liability.
Option 2
My advice this year is to place your qualifying bets as 5 x £25 each way bets. Only one horse can win the race, so we only need funds in our exchange account to cover the horse with the largest ‘Win’ liability, plus our ‘Place’ liabilities. With five horses selected, we stand a greater chance of hitting the 5th (extra) place, albeit for a much smaller profit.
It’s entirely up to you which horses you go for, but it makes sense to select some of the shorter priced horses, to help keep our outlay to a minimum.
At the time of writing, we could place one of our qualifying bets on Farclas at back odds of 21.00 (20/1).
Either exchange works for this offer
Betfair and Smarkets are both great options for this offer. If you’ve not used one of them, now is a great time to give them a try.
- Money back as cash up to £20
- 0% commission for 60 days
We can calculate our lay stakes using the ‘Extra Place‘ setting on my Each Way Calculator…
Placing our each way bet
Place £25.00 ‘Each Way’ on Farclas @ 21.00 = Total stake of £50.00
This means we have placed £25.00 on Farclas to win at odds of 21.00 and £25.00 on Farclas to place in the top 5 at odds of 6.00.
If you’re not overly familiar with each way betting, the place odds of our each way bet can be worked out as follows…
21.00 (decimal odds) – 1.00 (stake) = 20.00
20.00 ÷ 4 (place terms) = 5.00
5.00 + 1.00 (stake) = 6.00 (place odds)
For more information about betting odds, please see my ‘Betting Odds Explained‘ page.
Laying the ‘win’ part of our each way bet
Now that we have broken our qualifying bet down into two separate bets, we can lay each part at the exchange.
As you can see from the calculator above, we need to lay £21.89 against Farclas to ‘Win‘…
Lay £21.89 against Farclas to ‘Win’ @ 24.00 = Potential liability of £503.47
Laying the ‘place’ part of our each way bet
As you can see from the calculator above, we need to lay £19.28 against Farclas to ‘Place‘ in the top 4…
Lay £19.28 against Farclas to ‘Place’ @ 7.80 = Potential liability of £131.10
The overall profit/loss figures are shown at the bottom of the each way calculator above. We just need to add our £25.00 refund onto each total as follows…
So, as you can see, no matter the outcome of the race, we stand to make a minimum guaranteed profit of £15.34!
As mentioned earlier, Bet365 are paying 1/4 odds for the first 5 places. The ‘Place’ market at Betfair is for the first 4 places. This means that if Farclas finishes exactly 5th, we’ll win both the ‘place’ part of our Bet365 each way bet and also our ‘place’ lay bet at Betfair, giving us a potential profit of £165.34!
You’d be forgiven for thinking it’s an unlikely outcome, but we actually landed the extra place in 2015 for £419.04 profit!
At the time of writing, here are some other selections that we can place our qualifying bets on…
It’s entirely up to you which horses you go for, but try and aim for a guaranteed profit around the £15.00 mark and above. As you can see, the higher the odds, the larger your profit will be if you land the extra place.
If you don’t yet have a Bet365 account, make sure you sign up soon so you don’t miss out on any big offers in the future. Bet365 have one of the best welcome offers around (£100.00 in bet credits) and their free bet offers on some of the big football matches are hugely profitable.
NOTE: It’s worth mentioning that you don’t have to lay the ‘Place’ part of your bets in the standard ‘Place’ market where 4 places are paid. You could lay them in the ‘5 places’ market instead where the odds are better. Better odds means larger guaranteed profits, but you would no longer stand to make extra profit by hitting the extra place.
* If your first bet on the race was on the winner, Minella Times, you should have qualified for a risk-free bet on the next ITV race, which is the 13:50 Newmarket on Wednesday 14th April 2021. *
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With detailed walkthroughs for all the best offers as they’re released, you’ll be bagging recurring profits in no time.
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Jamie
Guest userHaven’t matched betted in ages as I’ve long been gubbed from all the main bookies but got an email from b365 inviting me for this so gonna do it. 2019 Anibale Fly won me the 5th place £731 so here’s hoping for similar luck!
Matt
1529Good luck Jamie! That some result, well played.
Dave
Guest userHappy days. I Had Anibale Fly too and I’ve had a sentimental £50ew on him again (£381 if he hits the magic 5th). I don’t matched bet much any more as I’m in the same bookie condition as you. I have managed to keep my 365 account though and their in play fee bets are a welcome bonus most months.
Jamie
Guest userThat’s lucky I’ve stopped getting invites to those sadly! Those were the days. I wanted to put a sentimental 50ew on Anibale too but odds weren’t favourable. Farclas wasn’t one of my 5 horses sadly but I did back Minella as my first bet so should have risk free bet for Newmarket on weds
Jamie
Guest userJust noticed bet365 paid my minella win at odds of 12 even though I placed it at odds of 11. Extra £31 wasn’t expecting happy days
Matt
1529Great stuff Jamie. You can’t beat a Best Odds Guaranteed top up!
Mark
Guest userI notice it says to put all horses in the same bet slip when placing the bet in the bet 365 guide? Is there a possibility that they won’t do the refund if placing bets at different times?
Matt
1529I think that’s just how they’ve worded their example Mark.
11. Refunds will be equal to half the total stake of all qualifying bets placed on the Grand National, taking place at Aintree on Saturday 10th April 2021, up to a maximum of £125* per customer.
COYY
Guest userI can confirm that placing bets at different times works perfectly. The credit was instant on my account.
Andrew F
Guest userI have done 5x £25 e/w bets (and layed them off as per the instructions using the calculator on this page).
Each selection in my B365 says Win and Each Way and the stake says £50.
However, after depositing £250 in my account, £125 is still showing as my balance after placing the 5 x £50 stakes.
Is this correct?
Matt
1529It sounds like you’ve placed 5 x £50 bets and had the £125 refund credited Andrew, so I think you’re good.
Dave
Guest userYep
Kristopher L
Guest userHi Matt, I am looking to take part in this offer. I would usually opt for the extra place offer but unfortunately much of my liability has been taken up with the masters. How could I place the 5 x £25 E/W bets and then just lay them in the exchange but not try for the extra places. So I just want to place my bets and lay them at 365 and try get the lowest QL then just take what’s left of the 125 cash back. What option in Smarkets or Betfair would I use to lay an E/W bet on 365?
Jack
Guest userCheck the last paragraph in italic above – lay 5 places instead of 4. That will shorten the odds and reduce the liability I think, but you won’t get additional profit from 5th place finish.
Matt
1529Yes exactly right Jack. You’re still going to need a fair amount in your exchange account Kristopher so you’ll have to crunch the numbers to see if it’s feasible. Splitting it into smaller bets will help. For example, you could place 10 x £12.50 each way bets instead of 5 x £25.
Kristopher L
Guest userHi Matt & Jack,
Do I need to place a lay win bet and lay place bet at the exchange to cover an E/W bet at bet 365?
Thanks
Jack
Guest userYes according to Matt’s note above you need to lay the win bet and the place bet separately. I had to read the note a few times to grasp the concept – not straight forward at all for beginners. Good luck!
Sam
Guest userHi Matt,
If I wanted to go for the 1x £125 bet would I use that same calculator as normal and just change the each way stake to 125?
Cheers
Sam
Matt
1529Yes that’s correct Sam, it’s the same process, just adjust your stake.
mm65
7This race will also be part of their £50 ITV 4/1 racing offer, so if you are putting smaller amounts on in stages it might be worth thinking about putting your largest value bet on first, on a bet slip on its own, to try and trigger that offer as well.
Matt
1529It’s certainly worth bearing in mind, although difficult to hit in a race with such a big field. At the very least you could place your shortest odds selection first with it having the supposed higher chance of winning.
Anon
Guest userThank you Matt for your guides on here, they offer excellent advice. I just followed the choices you indicated above so have won £200+, thanks 😎.
Out of interest. would Farclas e/w qualify for the ITV 4/1 offer? It was the first bet placed on the race and the terms mention winning bets on “a Win or Each Way single bet at odds of 4/1 or more” – we won on the each way bet?
Thank you
Matt
1529Congrats! Unfortunately not no, the horse has to win the race to qualify for a risk-free bet.
martin
Guest userHi – I bet on Minella Times first so should qualify but how do you know if you do. There’s no message or anything in my account.
Matt
1529You may not receive a notification Martin. If you received the cash refund for the Grand National without any issues then that would suggest your account is in good health and you’re eligible for the risk-free bet.
ga
0Matt, forgive the newbie question but using your Farclas example the liability on Smarkets is still very high, let alone if I placed 4 more bets. Is the liability required reduced for subsequent bets on the same market – as with matched betting?
Thanks
Matt
1529You’ll need enough funds at the exchange to cover your maximum overall liability. Say, for example, you place five lay bets against five horses to win and they have respective liabilities of £100, £200, £300, £400 and £500. You would only need £500 in your exchange account as you can only lose one of those bets (only one horse can win the race).
John W
Guest userSo in this example would you not need £1500 in your exchange account to get the bets on in the first place?
Matt
1529No John because it’s not possible to lose that much as only one horse can win the race. The system will calculate your maximum exposure with each exchange bet you place. Funds will only be deducted from your balance if your maximum exposure increases.
Eabok
Guest userIs it possible to just lay the win portion of the bet. So profit would be the 125 minus the cost of laying the win.
Matt
1529Yes you could just lay the ‘Win’ part of your each way bet Eabok but that wouldn’t give you a guaranteed profit. It would give you a small qualifying loss on the ‘Win’ part and you’d be relying on your horses to place to make a profit.
Eabok
Guest userThanks for the reply
I’m still confused though, for example let’s say I place a bet on the favourite 125 pound each way.
Laying just the win with a qualifying Loss of 20 pounds, wouldn’t that mean I’m guaranteed the 125 refund I get minus the qualifying loss of 20. So 105, and then if the horse placed I’d get even more.
Jamie
Guest userThat’s all well and good if your horse places but if your horse doesn’t place then you’ll make a loss despite the refund.
Clive
Guest userHi Matt, thanks for this. Just wondering how option 2 is better if you dont have a larger bank roll. If I place 5 bets at £25 ew wont we still need a large bankroll to cover the liability?
I’m just wondering how this is better than just backing 1 horse.
Matt
1529It’s a big offer Clive and with there being so many runners in the Grand National the exchange liability is naturally going to be quite high.
Splitting your qualifying bets into smaller amounts considerably reduces the amount you need in your exchange account.
Jonno1970
0Hi Matt,
First time I’ve attempted this. Can I just ask, you suggest option 2 of smaller bets and state that “Only one horse can win the race, so we only need funds in our exchange account to cover the horse with the largest ‘Win’ liability, plus our ‘Place’ liabilities”. Does that mean we only lay off the win part for the horse we are betting on with the largest odds, but lay off all 5 horses with place liability. Or do we lay off the win part and place part of all 5 horses. Many thanks for your time and really appreciate your blog too!
Matt
1529Hi Jonno, great to hear you’re enjoying the blog!
You still need to lay the ‘Win’ and ‘Place’ parts of all your selected horses. Instead of needing the sum of all individual liabilities in your exchange account though, you only need enough funds to cover your maximum overall liability. Say, for example, you place five lay bets against five horses to win and they have respective liabilities of £100, £200, £300, £400 and £500. You would only need £500 in your exchange account as you can only lose one of those bets (only one horse can win the race). I hope that helps.
Matt
Guest userHi there with reference to the 4/1, if I do 5x£25 each way and the first bet wins will that generate a £25 or £50 risk free bet on next race, thanks if u can help?
Matt
1529I believe it would be a £50 risk-free bet Matt as that’s the total amount you have staked.
Andrew
Guest userI’m pretty sure it’s only the win part that qualifies, so your risk free bet on the next race would be £25 if you staked £25 e/w
Matt
1529There’s nothing on their promotion page to confirm either way unfortunately Andrew.
Andrew
Guest userIsn’t giving me the option to reply to your comment below Matt.
Nothing in their T & C’s, but I had this happen when Tiger Roll won his first national a few years back.
I’d backed the horse each way as part of the promo, but only received the risk free bet on the next race to the tune of the win part of the bet
Andrew
Guest userLive chat on bet365 are pretty good, they’ll be able to confirm if the each way stake qualifies but I’m pretty sure it wont based on my previous experience. Things could have changed since then though so worth asking, especially if you back the national winner e/w through the refund promo.
I’ve done £125 e/w on Burrows Saint, changed the place odds to 2 places and got 14/1 rather than the 9/1 on offer. Will possibly part lay or fully lay to reduce liability if the odds drop dramatically, I expect they will as ground suits Burrows Saint, but as I only do matched betting to fund my actual bets I place I’m not too concerned if the bet loses. It’s a great value bet at 14/1 with half the stake already returned. (I don’t follow or bet on horses other than these offers, only place risk bets on football so don’t take my selection as a tip)
Good luck to all with their bets
Matt
1529I asked them the question on live chat and they confirmed that a winning £25 each way bet would return a £50 risk-free bet. So you could place a further £25 each way bet or a £50 bet on a horse to win. I tend not to take any information provided by live chat as gospel but Bet365 actually seem pretty knowledgeable.
James
Guest userHi Matt,
Sorry this is for sure a really stupid question, I just don’t want to get this wrong! But when you say 5x£25 bets, do we do this process 5 times on different horses in the same 17.15 Grand National event?
Thanks.
Matt
1529That’s correct James. Just repeat the process for each of your selected horses.
mbbinkman
3Long time gubbed but did this offer 3 times previously and was one of my faves for sure; my strategy each time was to do 10x£12.50 each way bets and only laying the win part think made £90-£150 each time. Good luck and enjoy the promo 🙂
sam_69
14So how much do I need to have in the exchange account for your example 5 bets above? Is Smarkets a good option as well?
Matt
1529You would need just over £1,000 but that’s based on the five horses listed. You don’t have to select a horse as high as 41.00 (40/1) if you don’t want to.
Yes Smarkets is also a fine option, though the odds appear to be more favourable with Betfair from what I’ve seen so far.
Fred
Guest userIs betfair commission not 5% rather than 2% though?
On the calculator its in as 2%?
Cheers
Matt
1529Yes 5% is their standard rate Fred, though you can opt in for 2% via Betfair Rewards. Just select the ‘Basic‘ package.
Alistair
Guest userHi Matt, do Smarkets or Betfair refund your stake(s) if any of your lay selections become non runners?
Matt
1529Yes Alistair, if any of your horses are declared non-runners, all matched bets on that horse will be voided.
It’s the ante-post markets where your bet stands regardless of whether the horse runs or not.
mm65
7Betfair have just opened up their exchange market on each way at terms of 4 places on 1/4 odds, as I said only just opened up so nothing worth laying off on at the moment but will be worth keeping an eye on, especially as the place odds at the moment are not close to Bet 365. It also means that you can lay the bet off in 1 go as opposed to 2 separate bets making it easier to work out the figures. It might even drive down the place odds.
Matched bettor
Guest userOnly been waiting 2 years for this offer !!! 😃
Kennyrogers777
Guest userAre bigger odds better for guaranteed profit or is it just better to find as close as possible?
And if you had one horse how do you work out the guaranteed return if you have different than the example.
Matt
1529Bigger odds can be better for larger profits, it just depends on the odds.
If you’re backing a different horse with different odds, you just enter your stake and odds into the Each Way Calculator and add your expected refund to the figures in the ‘Total’ column. Using the Farclas example in the post, if Farclas wins we lose £9.57 on our bets, but with the £25.00 refund factored in it’s a guaranteed profit of £15.43.
alan c
Guest userHi, as mentioned above if we use the eachway tab on Betfair to lay bets, do we just do that one or do we still need to lay the win market?
Thank you, great blog
Matt
1529Thanks Alan! My advice is to lay the ‘win’ and ‘place’ parts separately. You could use the Each Way market if you wish but you would have to stake the exact same amount on each part of the bet which isn’t ideal.
Matt
Guest userI’m not sure if I’m being thick, but Betfair and Smarkets have the odds halted on the Grand National for the last few hours. Is anyone else having similar issues?
Matt
1529The markets may get suspended from time to time, but it’s never usually for long Matt.
Bob
Guest userLets say I use betfair. So £250 on 365 (£125 EW)
Lay the win on betfair
Click on the ‘place’ tab on betfair. Lay the suggested stake via the calculator, and im done? Thanks again
Mark
Guest userHello,
So you need to Lay the horse with the largest liability to Win and lay the place. Then only lay the remaining 4 to place? Or do you have to lay all the 5 horses to win?
Matt
Guest userHi Mark, need to lay the win and the place for each horse backed each way, for it to be matched betting. If you leave some horse unlaid (unlayed?) on the win will cost you money when they do not win. Obviously if none of your selections win, you would make more money with your strategy, but straying into the realms of gambling rather than matched betting. That’s my take, but happy to be corrected if wrong.
Matt
1529Yes Matt is correct there Mark. You need to lay the ‘win’ and ‘place’ parts for every single horse you back, otherwise things could get costly.
bob
Guest userJust to double check this is correct before I do it.
I’m going for one £250 bet. So place the £250 bet on the win on 365 (£125 each way)
Lay the ‘win’ on Betfair.
Lay the ‘place’ on Betfair. Not sure how I’d work out the place stake. Need to do this today I won’t be available for the race tomorrow, If anyone could confirm that would be great.
That’s it?
Matt
1529Yes that’s correct Bob.
You just need to enter your each way stake and odds into my Each Way Calculator in the same way I have done in the post above.
Alastair G
Guest userHey, I’m following everything OK, just don’t understand how we get a refund on a winning bet with Bet365?
For example if Farclas wins or places, we end up circa -9.60, how do we get a +25 refund when the bet won (so we would already be getting our stake back which isn’t profit?)
Sorry if I’m missing something simple.
Thanks for all the help.
Matt
1529Hi Alastair. Try and think of it as money back rather than a refund. You get half your stake back pretty much instantly (within 2 hours) so it’s not a case of a losing bet being refunded. I hope that helps.
Alastair G
Guest userHey Matt,
Thanks for your reply, I’m just struggling to get my head round how I end up +15 quid if the horse wins or is placed?
In my head I have it sounding similar to winning an Betting 10 on Evens and Laying at Evens resulting in a 0 gain/loss but counting the stake back as a profit when it isn’t?
Sorry again if I’m missing something.
Ally G
Guest userSo if it places,
Its £10 winnings + £10 stake returned earlier on = £20
as opposed to the normal
£10 winnings + £10 stake returned = £20
Bob
Guest userThanks Matt. One last thing if you don’t mind. I’m going for Burrows Saint, still worried I’m not working this out right. He’s currently 10 on 365 and 12 on betfair.
£125EW at 10. £104.34 lay stake on the win.
My confusing is coming with the place lay.
I used your method for working out the lay stake. Current odds of 10, – stake (1) = 9. 9/4 (places) = 2.25. + Stake (1) = 3.25.
So am i now putting stake = £125, 3.25 as the back odds, 5 as the lay place odds and laying whatever it says or have i worked this out wrong. Thanks again!
Matt
1529You’ve worked the place odds out correctly Bob, but it’s actually an unnecessary step. That might be where you’re getting confused. All you need to do is enter the following figures into the Each Way Calculator and it works everything out for you…
Each way stake – £125
Back odds – 10.00
Each way terms – 1/4
Lay odds (win) – 12.00
Lay odds (place) – 5.00
Lay stake against the win = £104.34
Lay stake against the place = £81.58
For peace of mind if it’s bothering you, you can check your ‘place’ lay stake using the Matched Betting Calculator…
Back stake – £125
Back odds – 3.25
Lay odds – 5.00
‘Place’ lay stake = £81.58
I hope that helps.
bob
Guest userIt did help Matt, yeah I was just overcomplicating things! I have a tendency to do that. Not sure if I’ll get a risk free bet on Wednesday because I backed the winner but it was at the £125 stake. Thanks for clearing things up though, keep up the good work with the blog much appreciated!
Matt
1529There’s nothing wrong with being cautious and making sure you’ve got things right Bob. You should still qualify for a risk-free bet, it’s just capped at a maximum of £50.
Sukhi
Guest userHi Everyone,
I was just wondering if anyone could help me? When I try to lay on Smarkets it says the bets have been halted. Betfair says that the bets are suspended.
Is anyone having similar issues?
Thanks
Sukhi
Matt
1529I’m not seeing any issues at the moment Sukhi. Both exchanges seem to be operating fine.
JonB
Guest userMake sure you’re not looking at the Ante-Post market.
Ally G
Guest userI think I mite have it solved.
If I Bet £10 each way… I get £10 back instantly.
When the Place settles (if it wins) does it include the stake as well? i.e. £10 at 4/1 returns 50 still?
Matt
1529Yes the stake is yours to be returned Ally.
Try and think of your each way bet as two separate bets, a ‘win’ bet and a ‘place’ bet. You lay each bet off at the exchange and make a qualifying loss on each one. It’s then your cashback that takes you from a loss to a profit.
Jonno1970
0Hi Mat, hope you don’t mind me asking, am I correct in assuming that rather than betting £25 on 5 horses and receiving £125 back from Bet365 (£12.50 per horse), if I was to bet say £10 on 12 different horses that this would still qualify for £60 back (£5 per horse). Just wondered if this would give more chance of hitting the 5th place bonus (12 chances rather than 5), although I realise the guaranteed profit would be less. Just wanted to check that from you experience a max of 5 horses doesn’t flag up any negative activity on the betting account by Bet365. Thanks for the reply if you get chance.
Matt
1529£5 each way on 12 different horses would indeed qualify for £60 back. The more horses you spread your bets across, the more chance you have of landing the extra place. Like you say though, the guaranteed profit will probably be less due to poorer odds on average.
It’s difficult to advise on how Bet365 might see your activity. The Grand National is an event that ‘everyone’ likes a bet on so covering multiple horses shouldn’t look too far out of place.
Elizabeth
Guest userSilly question but I’m assuming the lower the lay bet odds for the ‘to be placed’ the better? If so, smarkets odds seem to be better at the moment.
Matt
1529Yes Elizabeth, the lower the lay odds the better. Betfair still appear to have the better odds at the moment. Are you looking at like-for-like ‘place’ markets? i.e. 4 places on each exchange?
Elizabeth
Guest userThank you for getting back to me. My bad, I was looking at the odds for to place top 5 instead of to place top 4.
I have 3 accounts in different names that I can utilise this offer on but the liability is too high. First time I’ve placed a bet of this kind so I’m praying I’ve done it right!
Matt
1529I’m sure you’ll be fine. That’s the thing isn’t it, it’s a great offer but you need a fair amount of exchange funds to lock in the profit. Splitting into smaller chunks on different horses is the best way of reducing your overall exchange liability.
Matthew
Guest userHi Matt, what does the free bet have to used on? Can we hold it back for events later in the week or does it have to be used on the GN and is there a time limit to use it?
Have tried to look, but couldn’t find this information.
Thank you in advance
Matt
1529There’s no free bet involved Matthew, it’s a cash refund.
Barry H
Guest userI’ve deposited £250 in to my B365 account. I’ve done 10 horses @ £12.50 e/w. so £25.00 total bet per horse to make £250.00
But my account is still showing £112.50.
Any help please
Matt
1529It sounds like you’ve had half your stakes back Barry for 9 of your 10 bets. You should be due one more lot of £12.50, making your balance £125.
Gilbs
Guest userIf you don’t have an exchange account or the large sums needed to apply Matt’s approach, you should consider the following which worked well for me 2 years running. Calculate the winnings from placing a £6 each way bet on each of the 5 horses at the top of the betting, remembering that the place bets are free. This will tell you what your returns would be if the 5 lowest price horses finished in 1st to 5th place. Ideally the returns should be more than £125. If not greater than £125, increase stakes until they are. Next you need to lay progressively smaller each way bets (£5 down to £1) on the remainder of the runners in the race, whist ensuring that your total outlay does not exceed £125.
By setting your bet levels appropriately, you should be able to guarantee yourself a good profit regardless of the race result.
Ben
Guest userPlease note this offer is now CLOSED. Bizarrely this offer ended at 11.59 this morning. Im absolutely gutted, I was purposely waiting until closer to the race to blend in with regular bettors.
Its really my fault for not reading the T&C more carefully but I kinda wish Matt had made it more obvious that the offer expired BEFORE the main race! Ugh. Hopefully next year it will still be on…
Charlie
Guest userSame here!
Matt
1529Sorry to hear that guys but it’s important to read the terms of any offers thoroughly yourself too.
I did include it in the key terms of the post and posted reminders on my Twitter and Facebook pages this morning. I also included a reminder in this morning’s email for those who have subscribed for updates.
Jonathan
Guest userRemember the extra places offer still applies though. Helpful if you only went in on part of the offer, which must be common as when I first did these kinds of things I was reluctant to have thousands in the exchange account at a time.
Hummingbird
0On Betfair the commission is 2% or 5%?
Matt
1529It depends which Betfair Rewards package you’re opted into. Their standard rate is 5% but you can pay 2% by selecting their ‘Basic‘ package.
rusty
Guest userI didn’t realise it has to be done by midday, so my 5th horse at £25 e/w is not going to be refunded so as it’s already layed, do I just lose 25 quid now in addition to what would have been the qualifying loss?
Matt
1529If you followed the steps in the post Rusty it should just be the qualifying loss displayed at the bottom of the calculator. You should still have a shot at a big potential profit if you hit 5th place.
rusty
Guest userThanks Matt yes as soon as I posted it I thought I’ll lose 12 instead of making 13 then hope for 5th. Appreciate the blog, I wasn’t sure how to do this one after receiving their email and have never looked at extra places before so even after the mistake there I’ll still be 50 up plus 4 chances or 150 odd extra for 5th 🙂
Matt
1529Not too bad then Rusty. Best of luck for the extra place!
Matt
Guest userFollowed your example of Farclas for a tasty £137.73 extra profit, thank you soo much.
Matt
1529You’re welcome Matt!
James
Guest userThis blog is absolutely amazing!!! Thank you so much! I also followed your example of Farclas and what a result!
Matt
1529Thanks James, it certainly was!
MB
Guest userWow Farclas actually came 5th, hit the EP for nice profit.
Matt
1529Great stuff!
manny
Guest userOMG, thanks for this blog. I had to read it 10 times to understand but it was well worth it with the Farclas 5th place.
Matt
1529Your perseverance paid off Manny! Well done.
Click
9Great result, cheers Matt for your hard work on this!
So those that backed Minella Times now get a £50 risk free bet on Sunday’s 3:05pm Kelso, calculated as SNR?
Minella Grimes
Guest userI believe it’s only £25 risk free as only the win part of the bet is refunded. Nice extra profit though!
I didn’t follow matts Farclas example 🙁 take me out back and shoot me.
Matt
1529I can’t say for absolute certain as you can never trust live chat 100% but when I queried it this morning, they advised that the risk-free bet is based on both the ‘win’ and ‘place’ parts. So, a £25 each way bet should return a £50 risk-free bet.
Matt
1529No problem Click. I believe the risk-free bet will be valid on the next ITV race, which is looking like the 13:50 Newmarket on Wednesday 14th April 2021. Keep an eye on their ITV Racing 4/1 Offer page for confirmation.
You can use the ‘Risk-Free Bet‘ setting on the main calculator and enter £50 as your ‘Cashback‘ figure. Take a look at my Bet365 4/1 Offer guide for a walkthrough of how it should be done.
Click
9Thank you 😀
Matthew S
Guest userI started MB about 7 week’s ago and this blog was my bible! Circa £1250 up now, need to do a cash check when us masters is done. Have graduated to monthly oddsmonkey subscription now for their tools/calculators, but check this blog every day, Matt is so helpful and approachable, I would not be doing MB if wasn’t for this blog. Thank you so much Matt.
Matt
1529You’re very welcome Matthew, I’m pleased to hear it’s all going well for you and you’re finding the blog useful! Thanks for sharing your story so far, keep it up!
Debbie
Guest userI also backed Farclas, made £275.73!!!!!
Matt
1529Fantastic Debbie, well done!
rd96
1Thanks Matt you absolute legend! +£225ish and potentially a free bet for Minella Times winning. I use Oddsmonkey but the tips you provide are incredible.
Matt
Guest userHere here. OM is great but this blog remains incredible, fantastic to benefit from matts experience
Matt
1529You’re welcome! I’d love to take credit for the tip but it was just a case of finding some favourable odds and hoping one of them hit!
Don’t forget to use your risk-free bet on the next ITV race, which is looking like the 13:50 Newmarket on Wednesday 14th April 2021. Keep an eye on their ITV Racing 4/1 Offer page for confirmation.
rd96
1Looking at the T&C’s I think it states it has to be the first horse you backed which I don’t think is the case for me…
Nevermind, still massively up and will still check on Wednesday just in case.
Matt
1529Ah yes it only applies to your first bet so I don’t think you’ll have qualified unfortunately.
Nat
Guest userThanks a lot, my profit from this offer: 201 pounds!
Matt
1529Great stuff Nat, well done!
Kevin M
3Well done on catching 5 place, I wish now I had blindly followed your example 🙂
I did however get on the winner. Reading your comment about the risk-free bet (which I hadn’t even thought about) how can I be sure I qualify? Was the comment regarding doubt about qualifying or doubt about which the next ITV race will be?
Also can you confirm for me the risk-free bet is only on the win part of the bet? I had £10 e/w so I get a risk free bet of £10?
Matt
1529I think you should receive a notification that you have qualified Kevin, though I’m not sure when that might appear. Was your first bet on the race on Minella Times as only your first bet was eligible?
The next scheduled ITV race is the 13:50 Newmarket on Wednesday but you should await confirmation of that on their promotion page. I was advised by their live chat that the risk-free bet is based on both the ‘win’ and ‘place’ parts but whether that’s correct or not remains to be seen.
Slinkypunts
Guest userJust wanted to share my result, I followed the 5 x 25ew approach above but decided to double down on one and luckily chose Farclas! Smashing promo and result with about 368 in profit. Thanks Matt 🤘
Matt
1529Very nice indeed, well played!
Spondy
Guest userHi Matt. Thanks for the help with the bet365 offer this weekend. Not only did I have £25 e/w on Farclas for the extra place payout but £25 e/w on Minella Times as well and with best odds from 11 to 12.
I thought Minella Times had qualified me for a risk free bet today at Kelso 15:05 as it was the next ITV 4/1 race on bet365 so I backed Mannochmore £50 to win at 11.0, after rule 4 deductions that’s £90 profit after paying out on the exchange.
I don’t know whether I would have been refunded if Mannochmore had lost however I note your comment that the risk free bet from the Grand National would be for Wednesday 14th 13:50 Newmarket. Where did you see this information?
Following Mannochmores win I now have a risk free £50 bet today for Leopardstown 16:50.
Thanks again,
Spondy
Spondy
Guest userNow on bet365…
ITV Racing 4/1 Offer Races:
Last ITV Racing 4/1 Offer Race 10th April – 5.15 Aintree
Day Race
Wednesday 1.50 Newmarket
Wednesday 2.05 Cheltenham
Wednesday 2.25 Newmarket
Wednesday 2.40 Cheltenham
Wednesday 3.00 Newmarket
Wednesday 3.35 Newmarket
Matt
1529Thanks Spondy, confirmed as the 13:50 Newmarket on Wednesday then.
Matt
1529Nicely done Spondy!
There are two versions of the Bet365 4/1 offer. One is on ‘Featured’ races and the other is on ‘ITV’ races. The two run separately, so if you back a winner in an ITV race (like you did on the Grand National), your risk-free bet will be valid on the next ITV race (not the 15:05 Kelso as that was a ‘Featured’ race). Check out each promotion page for more info.
It sounds like you’ve had a very profitable couple of days!
Les H
Guest userHi Matt,
In the Farclas example you had place odds at 1/4, shouldn’t that have been 1/5 with B365 paying 5 places?
Matt
1529Hi Les,
The each way terms are the fraction of normal odds at which the ‘place’ part of a bet will be settled. Bet365 were paying out on 5 places at a quarter of the odds.