⚠️ Ad blocker detected. Running an ad-blocking extension may hide offer titles and descriptions and break links to bookmakers. It is recommended that you disable it or add Matched Betting Blog to your ad blocker's allowlist.

🚨 IMPORTANT: Some bookmakers have temporarily withdrawn their welcome offers ahead of the 2026 Grand National. Find Out More

Log out

Free Bet Bonus tied up in NetBet

Hi all,

After doing some of the more straightforward bookies’ offers, I decided to try my hand at NetBet’s “£50 Welcome Bonus.” After depositing £100 and placing my qualifying bet with NetBet and my respective lay bet at Smarkets, I was awarded with what I thought was a £50 free bet.

I then tried to make my follow up free bet with their £50, but was unable to select the “use free bet” option that I had used with other bookies like PaddyPower, Betfair etc… After getting in touch with them it turned out that it was not a free bet, but rather a “bonus balance”, which would automatically be used once my real money had run out. I therefore tried to withdraw my initial deposit, but a message popped up saying that if I carried out the withdrawal I would sacrifice my bonus.

To try and move the money from NetBet to Smarkets, I decided to make a few more matched bets in the hope that the back bets would lose. Unfortunately none of my bets were successful on the Smarkets side, so I am now still stuck with £292.84 in NetBet. I am still £35.48 up overall in theory, but if I try to withdraw it I will lose the bonus and therefore £28.03 real money. Do I try and do another matched bet and hope that the back bet loses? The problem is that I don’t really have enough capital in Smarkets to lay an event with odds over 3.5

Does anyone have any advice on what to do next?

+0

pasturecgh
0

October 24, 2016 at 1:25 am

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.

Learn Matched Betting

deathstar 30 October 24, 2016 at 6:20 am

you basically need to meet the wagering requirement at the minimum odds needed for the offer. this does mean that it is more likely that the bet will win (although you need to get “high odds lose, low odds win out” of your head) but it doesn’t have to be at odds of 3.5.
The problem with trying to break out with high odds is if the bet wins, a lot of money ends up at the bookie, whereas if you bet at low odds it may seem like you are just sending money to the bookie but in fact its probably less over time.
eg £50 at 10 = £500, £450 more in the bookie than when you started
£50 at 1.8 = £90 but you are only £40 worse off in the bookie and you have done some wagering. hope that makes sense.

search the forums, there are lots of threads on these.

HTH

+0

pasturecgh 0 October 24, 2016 at 2:11 pm

Thanks deathstar, looks like I’m going to have to grind this one out!

+0

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.

Never miss an offer!

Subscribe for regular offer updates, tips and tricks, big offer alerts and more.

"*" indicates required fields

Follow meMatched Betting Blog