£200 welcome bonus

Yeah, I do worry about these offers and people not knowing what they’re getting themselves into. The problem with Matt’s blog is that of course Matt wants to earn money from it, and in doing so, he ends up advertising and encouraging the use of potentially risky bookmakers’ sign up offers. An example being the Royal Panda issue someone had. Royal Panda screw matched bettors over constantly, and a warning hidden on the tutorial is not enough – simply put, if there was no referral/advertising involved, Matt would jut remove them completely. I understand his position, but feel it has to be pointed out, because people might forget this, particularly newbies.

Winner & Titanbet are maybe historically two of the most ‘well known’ shit ones. Their T&C’s are absurd, and you cannot get close to the “risk free” matched betting people come to expect. Yes people will have come away with their money, but a few good stories doesn’t make it any less risky.

Any offer where you tie up “bonus money” that has to be rolled over should only be done with the most trustworthy of bookmakers, because otherwise its as good as gambling. You might as well put 2k down on a bet at odds of 1.5, or something. Because when it comes down to it, that’s kinda what you’re doing.

The only real time I did vaguely untrustworthy bookmakers’ offers was when the bonus would be given AFTER you’ve placed X amounts of bets with your real money – in those cases your money is not tied up by T&C’s and is always your money to withdraw. The free bet that followed would be a one off free bet, which, if you won (worst case), could immediately withdraw anyway. 12bet and that line do those, and I’ve done them all – but had they been “roll over the free bet 12 times” or whatever, I would not have gone near them.

At the end of the day, you CAN lose money matched betting. You need to weigh up risk vs reward at all times. If part of an offer could lead to have 2k tied up or such at the bookies, you have to make a judgement on whether you trust that bookmaker. Bet365 is one of the only ones that I would trust in those instances because they’re obviously incomparably massive and more trustworthy (in particular, complains can get properly handled and dealt with if necessary).