Matched Betting Guide Page 6
Limitation Factors, Drawbacks and Guidance:
Throughout this article there are a few things which I have touched upon which can limit your success doing matched betting and arbitage betting. The biggest factors are related to arbitage betting, and matched betting is generally safe aslong as you know what you are doing, which is also the first most important point.
Make sure you know what you are doing
This is self-explanatory really, but its paramount that you read and re-read this article before you even look into starting any matched betting. You need to understand that you are doing this to try and gain the Bookmakers bonuses, and maybe when you get used to it you can have a go at Arbitage betting too. You must understand that you can lose a lot of money if you do things the wrong way, such as forgetting to Lay an event, or by Laying the wrong event. You have to be very careful in your actions by taking your time over things, and double-checking your figures.
Stick to familiar sports and markets
You have probably noticed by now that every example written on this website involves football. This is because it is believed to be the 'safest' sport to bet on, in terms of the rules at the Bookmakers and the Exchanges. For example, in a sport like tennis, its quite possible that a player could retire during the match due to an injury. Some Bookmakers might have one set of rules for this event occuring, and decide not to pay out on the winner, and an Exchange might have different rules too. Also with horse-racing, if a horse is a non-runner and pulls out, the rules can again change depending on the Bookmaker. By all means you can bet with other sports than football, but just make sure you are familiar with the rules. Football is deemed to be pretty safe, in the way that most Bookmakers and Exchanges employ the same rules, so its rare that something would go wrong.
You must also make sure that you are familiar with the market that you are betting on, as again the rules can change depending on the Bookmakers or Exchange. Make sure if you back an event on a certain market at the Bookmakers, you are laying the same one at the Exchange. Also, sometimes the commission rates at the Exchanges will change for certain markets, so be careful of this too - you could be losing out on some extra money if you forget to knock the commission rate down to %3 in some cases.
Be Wary of your Commission rate
I mentioned earlier the changing commission rate on certain markets, this can also apply to the whole Exchange. For example Betfair is %5 for the majority of markets, so you will need to enter this value into your calculations for the lay. However if you were to use an Exchange called Mansion, I think their default value is about %1. You must make sure that you are entering the correct value for the commission rate at the Exchanges that you use, or else you could miss out on extra money.
I know that Betfair runs a scheme at the moment whereby if you spend so much at their Exchange, your commission rate can be reduced. You must be aware of these sorts of things otherwise you will not be able to maximise your earnings.
Liability
Liability is a very big factor when it comes to Laying a bet at an Exchange. In gambling terms the word liability basically means the amount which is to be wagered, the potential loss from an event. When you Lay an event at the Exchange, there will always be a value called the liability. This is the money which you will have to pay out, if the lay event happens. The higher the Lay value, and the higher the Lay odds, then the higher your liability will be. This is why Arbitage betting isn't for everyone, because in some cases you will need a large amount of spare cash in your betting account in the Exchange, incase you need to pay out. Of course if you matched the bet properly then you will have an equally large or larger amount won at the Bookmakers to cancel out this loss, but you will always need the money readily availble in the Exchange incase you have to pay out.
You can see in the screenshot above for an event at Betfair, the Liability on these bets is listed as negative £8.30.
Warning: Obviously if you don't fully understand matched betting, then it's well worth avoiding until you understand it perfectly. If not you could lose money, as matched betting involves placing bets of around £20, and also laying bets of around £20 - but remember when you lay a bet and it does win, you might have to pay out around the £80 mark. So you must understand that if you do something wrong, you might lose out a fair amount of money. However if you follow the instructions and do everything correctly, you shouldn't lose any money.
More Things To Look Out For When Matched Betting
Market Changes
This is an ever-constant problem which is basically unavoidable when it comes to bet laying. As someone sets a price for a Lay event, and an amount they are willing to accept for this, people will often rush to snap up the best price. All it takes is a matter of seconds and the amazing Lay price which you have used in your calculations will be gone, and you've already backed the bet at the Bookmakers. This happens to everyone, and is just one of those things. The only thing you could do in that situation is to hold back and hope for another low Lay price, or to just cut your loses and Lay at a higher price and thus lose some money. Some people try to avoid this problem by Laying the bet first of all, and then backing at the Bookmakers, but things can still go wrong, and its just one of those things. Its best to try and not rush, incase of errors, but be sure with your lay amount and prepare in advance of the event taking place. Often the market prices can change due to an injury to a player, or just to general feelings about the event, so you must be careful.
Bookmakers Limitations
This mainly applies for people undertaking Arbitage betting, who will be betting with large amounts of money. If you win too many times at a Bookmaker, or start winning large amounts, or even start betting with strange amounts (£23.57 for example), the Bookmakers might start to be alarmed. They don't like it when people start winning too often, so they will slap a limitation on you. This means that you could be limited in any bets you make, preventing you from winning big money. If you are aware of any limitations then you will be okay, but if you aren't aware and you suddenly spot a nice Arb and decide to Lay before backing an amount at the Bookmakers, you could find yourself down a lot of money.
Sometimes Bookmakers offer deposit bonuses, such as a %30 bonus for any deposit to a maximum value of £80. If someone works out the exact value which maximises the full %30 bonus, then sometimes the Bookmakers become suspicious. They don't like it when groups of people suddenly start depositing £46.73 for example, and could pull a bonus from the website. This is another thing to watch out for, as they might well limit you aswell. Try and round the value up, to £45 or £50, to avoid being noticed by the Bookmakers
 |
