If you have heard of the concept of matched betting, you probably know what it is about – a way to bet without dealing with the risks of traditional sports betting. It can be a lucrative idea and people have indeed earned a lot of money from it.
But can matched betting go wrong and if so, what are the consequences? We’ll be taking a look into the possible risks of matched betting.
How Matched Betting Can Go Wrong
While matched betting is indeed a risk-free way of sports betting and earning money from it, it can go wrong with even just the smallest mistake. What are these mistakes or missteps that can cause this betting strategy to fall apart?
Setting the Lay Bet Without Planning
One thing you MUST always remember about making matched bets is that the back bet MUST always be the first bet you place. This is because your back bet is the foundation of the matched bet, and you stand to lose less on it should it not pan out eventually.
Also, placing the lay bet first opens you to a huge potential risk as there could be a number of reasons for a back bet with your bookmaker to not go through – your account may get restricted, your bookie might suddenly close the betting for the game, or your bet might fail for any other possible technical problem.
Not Qualifying for the Sportsbook Bonuses
Remember that the strategy for a matched bet relies on you getting your free bets or free credits. Without these freebies, betting against yourself is just a waste of time and a waste of your money.
Most casinos offer a welcome bonus for new players which is great if you don’t already have an account. Otherwise, online casinos will give you more free bets the more you play on their site.
Another way to waste the opportunity of your freebie is to simply let it sit on your account and leave it unused until it expires.
Falling into the Gambling Trap
A lot of people do not consider matched betting a form of gambling. While you do technically wager for a pick, the elements of matched betting eliminate the risk and thus make it far from the definition of gambling.
However, with the amount of money that you can potentially earn from matched betting, getting enticed to actually move into traditional sports betting is very likely. Once you begin to actually gamble, you open yourself to the huge risks that come with it. Not that it is bad, but it completely contradicts the point of why you got into matched betting in the first place.
Getting Your Sportsbook Account Gubbed
To get your sportsbook account “gubbed” means to get yourself banned or restricted from using the bookie platform. This could be for a lot of reasons, both legitimate and not-so-legitimate ones. You can try to appeal a gubbed account to your bookies’ customer support, but the chances of your restrictions getting lifted are very unlikely.
Why would your account get gubbed? This can happen if your sportsbook gets a suspicion that you may be exploiting your bonuses and freebies too much and they no longer earn money from you. After all, a business is still a business and they wouldn’t want to keep a customer who stands to make money from them than the other way around.
So can matched betting go wrong? Yes, but only if you don’t do it properly, so stick to our helpful tips and you can make money from matched betting.
How to Get Matched Betting Right
Matched betting mistakes, as small as they may seem, can end up costing you a lot of money, or put your potential profits at a huge risk. As you may already be aware, making these mistakes can be easy, and anyone from a newbie to an experienced bettor can fall for any or all of these mistakes. So, how do you avoid this and keep doing matched bets the right way?
Here are some tips.
Always Consult a Match Betting Calculator or Odds Matcher Tool
You may think you are good at math or you can make quick calculations in your head, and that is okay. However, using an oddsmatcher, an online tool that matches you the best back and lay bets you can make from different bookmakers can help you save a lot of effort and time – possibly, even save you potential financial losses, too.
What an oddsmatcher or an odds calculator can do for you is give you an overview of the best odds you should bet on, the potential profit you can gain, and what potential match you can bet opposite it. Find a good oddsmatcher and you can see for yourself the benefits it can give you.
Go Through a Sportsbook Bonus Terms & Conditions
Who really reads through the terms and conditions? It’s safe to say that almost everyone simply clicks on “agree” whenever they are prompted with T&Cs about anything and everything they do online. While that is generally okay for most things, it may be with your time actually reading the terms when it comes to sportsbooks bonuses.
It is in the terms that most sportsbooks hide the important details in fine print such as qualifying bets, wagering requirements, and other restrictions and limitations that surround whatever free credits or bets they would give you.
Do Not Mix Gambling and Matched Betting
As previously mentioned, the absence of the risk in matched betting makes it different from actual gambling.
If you want to try the usual way of betting (with all the risk and everything), the best way to do it is through a separate account or a separate bankroll. Although, one way to avoid getting your account gubbed by the sportsbooks is to make real “gambling” on sports such as basketball from time to time, too.
Take “Mug” Bets
“Mug” bets help you avoid having your account getting gubbed by the sportsbooks. A mug bet is a traditional bet on a small amount. The goal of a mug bet is not to make money. It is not even related to making a matched bet at all. The entire purpose of this wager is to “mask” your matched betting from your sportsbook and avoid getting your account flagged for suspicion.
In a way, think of it as giving a little money to the bookies just so that they think they’re still earning money from you.
Bet on Popular Markets
This is another way of avoiding getting your account gubbed. Betting only on the popular markets such as American football and not taking the best value all the time is a good way to stay off the suspicion radar of the bookies.
