Advice appreciated
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I’m relatively new to MB, but have completed 6 new sign up bonuses and made about £100 profit. I understand the stats and the maths (I’m a pharmacist, who works with stats every day), but I’m really struggling with betting terms and the T&C having never really bet much in my life before. For example: I have no idea what wager through, in play betting (especially at the Exchange), accumulator really mean. I’m making OK profits (75%), but I realise I need to get a better understanding of the whole betting terminology to realise more profit.
Should I: Find a good book/website that would explain the terminology OR join a subscription site e.g. Odds Monkey (claim to have a lot of tutorials)/Profit Accumulator etc. etc.
Are there any good sites that explain the fundamentals beyond the standard MB, without trying to sell you something?
Does anyone have any experience of subscription sites – is it worthwhile financially while you’re learning; do you leave them after you’ve learnt to stand alone or are their tips/odds matcher features worth staying for?
Are the sites offering ‘strategies’ a scam as some I’ve seen talk about loss and that goes against the whole MB ethos?
Sorry for the long post – just have lots of questions!
Hope someone a bit more experience than me can help, thank you+0September 18, 2016 at 8:58 pm
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New to matched betting?
My Matched Betting Academy is the best place to get started. Learning the fundamentals takes 10-15 minutes and you’ll make £15 in the process.
Learning the fundamentals takes 10-15 minutes and you’ll make £15 in the process.
Any questions just ask here. I don’t think the pay for sites give anything extra – except maybe odds matching to help find you your close matches. But it’s easy enough to find yourself.
For terminology just ask here if you have specific questions. Some of the other newbies will have just gone through the same questions and answers and will be fresh in their minds.
+0Thank you for the reply. I find searching for odds matching quite laborious and takes up far too much of my time. Maybe I’m being too picky in trying to find good odds matches. I was hoping someone could point me to sources I could read and learn from, rather than just ask questions if and when. I’m a research pharmacist and I’m used to finding the answers I need, rather than asking other people for help! I doubt someone would be available to answer my questions on a busy betting day when I really need help e.g I missed a good enhanced bet on CL midweek because I wasn’t entirely sure on the calculation for back odds. My calculation was correct, but by the time I knew that it was too late. Did try again today, but Man U and JM messed that right up (to put it politely)! Made £20, but missed out on £43 bonus, which I was hoping to convert to £35. Good job I’m a Liverpool fan and can see it from the fan side.
Unfortunately I don’t seem to have found a good guide to betting and I’ve been forced to ‘phone bookmakers to ask them to explain things to me. That makes me feel fairly stupid and I’m not.+0Should add that my knowledge about horse racing stretches to knowing what EW means. That’s it!
So, I know I should be aiming for ‘more adventurous’ bets and the ability to lay them off, but as I don’t understand the ‘more adventurous’ back bets, in play bets, accumulator etc etc of any kind, I’m too scared to try them . Any advice?+0Another question: Do people use their knowledge of a sport in any way to place back bet or do you act in a dispassionate way when betting and laying i.e take the best odds?
I ask, because I’m a fairly knowledgeable football fan (yes, women do understand football!) and I’ve started off in football betting and try to place my back bets the way I think the results will play out (yes, I know nothing is certain in betting). I try to win at the bookies and not pay the exchange %, but that doesn’t always work obviously. Losing at the bookies will obviously add to you looking like a mug better and get you re-load offers. Interested to hear other people’s take on this.+0
You talk about odds matching being laborious. It is I guess but you get the hang of it. Big events have better liquidity and horse races in the last five mins before the off is when the odds will tighten up. You get the knack.
I have no knowledge of horses either. You don’t need it. I think it’s better not to. I think that you need to understand that the bookie is the expert. Nobody beats the bookie. If they say a team is 1/5 to win then they are 1/5 to win. There is no deciding that they are wrong or that you are going to win at bookie or win at exchange.
So I just look at odds. If I want a cheap qualifier I will look to back and lay at short odds like 1.5. Don’t even look at the teams or form or who I think will win. If I am looking at extracting profit from a free bet then I’m just looking for 5.5 to 10.0 and getting lay close.. Again I don’t care if I have never heard of the horse before.
Stick to the big events and leagues (channel 4 racing/premier league/ champs league), they will have most action on the exchanges and you will blend in with the mugs.
Other than that I think you are over thinking it a bit. All you need to know is to back and lay. There is nothing very adventurous. There is probably some terminology and bet types to learn but nothing complicated and you will pick them up as you go along…
+0Actually Wiki, has a good basic start when it comes to explaining match betting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matched_bettingAnd for the record, the first time I ever went into a bookies was the day I went for an interview to become a betting office manager, (in the days, when we had a guy listening to the speakers and marking up the starting prices on the sheets, before the internet was invented and even before live racing on the telly), it doesn’t take long for anyone good with figures to get a grasp of this industry. Don’t try and learn it all at once, and don’t worry about making mistakes. It’s by the mistakes that you remember and learn.
You’ve already made £100 profit, so for someone with no previous experience with gambling, you’ve done ok so far. 🙂
+0Thank you for the replies,
I realise I am probably ‘overthinking’ the whole thing, but as an educated person I like to know what I’m doing and getting into. Yes, I’ve been doing pretty well so far. It’s not very difficult to follow a formula, so you don’t really need to know anything about gambling in the beginning.
I understand everything both of you have said all be it rather patronisingly, but neither of you have actually answered my fundamental question(s). Wiki is not really what I was looking for as an info source.
By ‘adventurous’ I meant taking things to the next level rather than just simple backing and laying off short odds for a qualifying bet and longer odds for a free bet. That can obviously only take you so far, unless you want to stake huge amounts of money. I’d like to understand in play betting and accumulators.
Maybe I’m asking the wrong people or on the wrong site??+0
Welcome Alchemist6
Matched betting is “getting a free bet and extracting the value to guarantee a profit” So its not much more advanced than that. sometimes the bets themselves are trickier in that you have to back and lay on certain markets and sometimes make an extra lay, but the actual theory behind it is the same. there are other techniques to make more money, like underlaying or place arbing, but these are more akin to gambling and not guaranteed profit.
To answer your specific question, in play betting is just betting while the match is being played. this usually has its own webpage once the game starts. It is of no use unless there is a bonus being offered. usually these are bet x get x so its just the same but with quicker moving odds. The other offer is the risk free in play offer, again the same idea but with fast moving odds.
As for Accas, there are loads of threads about them in the forum, just use the search function. Here’s a long discussion – https://matchedbettingblog.com/topic/acca-profit-spreadsheet/#.V99v62frvIV
and one about pay websites – https://matchedbettingblog.com/topic/accumulator-generator/#.V7b5cfn5zCM
I’m sure you have more questions so feel free to ask, I understand that you want to learn as much as you can but its a bit tricky knowing what you want to know and what you already know if you see what I mean. Also, its very useful for others to have a thread with answers to common questions and would be good to have a thread on this forum.
HTH+0@Alchemist “I understand everything both of you have said all be it rather patronisingly,”
errrrr, I’m not sure that either myself or Fog were patronising in anyway, both were trying to give a newbie some encouragement and advice. Perhaps we were wrong to do so.
You seem to mention on numerous occasions about your high intelligence, something you appear to be proud of, (“I’m a pharmacist, who works with stats every day”, “I’m a research pharmacist”, “That makes me feel fairly stupid and I’m not”, “because I’m a fairly knowledgeable football fan.”, “as an educated person I like to know what I’m doing and getting into”), although I suspect, you have had issues in your past where people doubted your intelligence.
As a research pharmacist, you say that you are used to finding the answers you need, rather than asking other people for help, but during your training, you would have read other research papers, and referenced other people’s work whilst writing yours. With match betting you appear to be trying to run before you can walk. All I can suggest, and I’m trying to be as unpatronising as possible here, is that you take your time with this, after all, these offers come up every week, and if you miss a few this week, or make a few mistakes, then there is always next week to do better in.
Well that’s my two penneth worth, for what it is worth.
ps, the word is albeit, not all be it. 🙂
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If you want to learn the methods for other profitable offers, such as accumulators, I would suggest searching for previous threads on this forum – there’s plenty of detailed answers (deathstar linked one above).
I really can’t recommend paying for a service… For example, OddsMonkey employ plenty of staff to create spreadsheets which calculate stakes for accumulator offers, yet their s/s doesn’t even guarantee profit. One of the users on here, Jez, posted a s/s which guarantees profit 100%. Imo, it’s clear that paid services don’t have the ability to tackle “harder” offers.
I am a huge advocate of taking the time to derive solutions to problems yourself. That way you can understand the methodology and even apply to future chances.
Good luck!
+1Hi
New to form so I thought I would start here. I just have a quick question. How can I lay a
1X2 + Under/Over 2.5 bet ? I have offer that requier a qualifying bet on this tipe of bet. I have seen the BTTS and O2.5 strategy, but I can not seem to figure one out for the 1X2 + Under/Over 2.5 bet.Any help would be great.
Thanks+0Thank you for answering my questions. My reason for asking them was that I’d like to read, digest, try to understand betting beyond simple Win, Draw, Place scenarios and apply my knowledge. I agree with your post ‘I am a huge advocate of taking the time to derive solutions to problems yourself. That way you can understand the methodology and even apply to future chances.’ I’d like to try to work out the answers myself, rather than rely on other people, who may not have the time to help me.
I don’t think gaining knowledge is a bad thing At best it can help me, at worst I can ignore it. I appreciate the replies that say I don’t need to know anything about betting or the market you’re betting in to use MB, but having some knowledge means you can potentially direct your bets to Bookmaker or Exchange if that’s what you want e.g. Backing Barcelona v Celtic would probably mean you win your Back (extreme example and very short odds) Of course there are always upsets as there are no certainties (that’s why you lay), but I hope you understand where I’m coming from.
Odds Monkey etc – I was thinking about using their filter to show your chosen bookmaker back odds and your chosen exchange lay odds for different events, without having to jump back and forward between their windows, especially if you’re trying to find good matched long odds to maximise the profit on your free bet. Trying to find close odds seems to take me far longer than I’d like. I’m sure I’ll get quicker with experience.
Thank you again for your reply+0
Not sure that Mark’s post was any more helpful (or any less patronising!) than those you had already received, but you seem to like what he had to say despite him basically telling you to figure it out for yourself. Not sure he answered a single one of the questions you have actually asked.
No need to tell us that you might use Oddsmonkey as it is intended to be used; to speed up finding close matches. Trouble there is that you will be getting on the same events/horses/teams as everyone else using it which will do nothing to help you blend in with the real mug punters.
You asked about understanding specific sports and whether that will help you. The answer is that it can’t hurt. If you intend to do horse racing then a basic understanding of things like Rule 4 will help, as will some appreciation of the different types of racing, tracks and offers that are readily available.
Some other points based on things you have said so far (these are aimed at helping you, not patronising you!):
-try to avoid ringing a bookie to explain an offer to you. In fact, try to avoid doing anything that will draw attention to your account. Unless you mug bet plenty (at the same kind of stakes as you use for offers and promos) then a quick glance over most Match Bettors’ account will reveal you for what you are; a promo/bonus whore
-“wager through” or wagering requirements means the numbers of times that you must bet the bonus amount before any proceeds become cold, hard withdrawable cash. So, if you have to wager through your deposit AND bonus x3 (e.g. deposit £200 to receive a £400 bonus from Bet365) then you will need settled bets of £1,800 (presuming you don’t lose it all into your exchange first, of course)
-you don’t need “adventurous” bets or strategies to make a good return at this. I’m not sure why you seem to think you do. Acca offers are what they are, and while some offers will require you to place some in play bets, these are not golden tickets that will net you a significantly higher monthly income than just following the offers blogged here and mentioned in the forums. Each way arbing is probably the nearest thing I can think of to being “more adventurous” so check out the big thread about that in the Match Betting subform if it’s something that interests you.
If you have specific questions then post them in here. We are (mostly!) a friendly bunch and many on here will take the time to try and help others out, particularly newbies.
+0@deathstar
Thank you for your reply.
I appreciate that ‘Matched betting is “getting a free bet and extracting the value to guarantee a profit” ‘. By adventurous or advanced, I meant I’d like to start backing and laying more than simple Win, Lose or Draw bets on football etc. I’ve managed that and I can keep doing that until I take up all the free bets on the market, then move onto reloads. While I’m extracting maximum value from those, I’d like read/learn everything about betting and be able to understand things like accumulators etc. and how I might be able to use them to extract more profit, i.e they are generally longer odds.
I appreciate your comment ‘ its a bit tricky knowing what you want to know and what you already know if you see what I mean’. As I’m new to this I don’t really know what I want/need to know, I just know I have already mastered the basics in a couple of weeks and I know that I could do more.
Thank you again for your advice+0@Tony
I thanked Mark, because he said do your own research and I was asking for advice about doing that – at least he said to do that. That’s what I do for a living, so nothing new!
I’ve only been doing this 2 weeks so I don’t have a clue about OddsMonkey, so if I’ve said something that is obvious to everyone else, I’m sorry Why would I know that?
Thank you for acknowledging that knowledge of different sports may be useful and your explanation of betting through – didn’t have a clue what that meant.
I don’t have a clue what an Acca offer is – you may as well be speaking Chinese. That was what I was asking ….
I’m sure no one deliberately tried to be patronising. I think they probably said the usual things to newbies. I think I’ve mastered the basics as demonstrated by a £100 profit in 2 weeks. As I said in the post to Mark I could and will continue with all the free bet offers and reloads, but I’d like to move on with more profitable bets.+0
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