QUALIFYING BET STRATEGY
You may of already clicked straight through to this page to get stuck in... If you've already taken the time to read our MB Guide, well done, if you haven't we strongly advise that you DO read it first before embarking on any bets. Trust us, it will be hugely beneficial to your Matched Betting Journey.
We like to think of this like this... you wouldn't learn to drive a car without first learning the theory behind the practical stuff. Whilst this is clearly not as dangerous (and thankfully not likely to land you in jail, or worse!) it can potentially be dangerous to your bank balance. If you get something wrong, without reading our guides, taking your time and using common sense, then on your head be it!
When we first started Matched Betting over a decade ago, it was so simple. You would place two types of bets, a Qualifying Bet (BACK AND LAY BET) which would 'qualify' you for the free bet and after that had settled, a Simple Free Bet (BACK AND LAY BET) using the Free Bonus Money.
There were no Risk-Free Bets, Reload Bets, Correct Score Bets, In-Play Bets, NO Rollover Requirements, hell, even 3G was light years away at this stage! The betting landscape has changed significantly over the last decade and certainly over the last 6/7 years. It's a GOOD thing though, as many moons ago, yes we had easy tax-free cash to make from the sign-up offers, BUT, that was where it stopped! The sign-up offers were it. Nowadays, we can make so much more from the reload bets, several thousands of £'s per year is REALISTICALLY ACHIEVEABLE and tens of thousands of £'s, if your in this for the longer game. Its important to mention that this is NOT A GET RICH QUICK SCHEME, we're pleased to report it is also NOT A SCAM.
We digress slightly, enough of the history lesson, back on track to the Qualification Bets..
There is no better way of explaining this than to give you a real life example. The vast majority of free bets, certainly free bet reloads, require us to place a simple 'BACK & LAY' bet, in order to qualify for the free bet.
9 times out of 10, we will likely lose a small amount on the Qualifying bet, this is not a problem though because we are losing a small amount to gain much more from the impending free bet...
We could choose from any of the 40+ Bookies we recommend. However, in order to best exemplify the Qualification Bet Strategy and also the Simple Free Bet Strategy (next step in the process) we will use Ladbrokes as the example Bookie.
As far as simple free bets go, this Ladbrokes offer is the best in the business. For as long as we can remember, certainly since 2008, Ladbrokes have offered a 'Bet 50 get 50' sign-up welcome bonus. No strings, no rollover, just use promo code F50 when signing up via our S2B LINK on our FREE BETS PAGE. Then deposit £50 and bet the £50 at odds of 1.5 (1/2) or more and you will qualify for your Free £50 Bet. Happy days.
Although we make every effort to check and update the terms and conditions on our Free Bets Section. Please make sure you give it the once over yourself, you don't want to get caught out, if they decide to change the minimum odds (as an example) from 1.5 to 2.0. If you then place your Qual bet at 1.8, you won't get the Free £50 Bet. Just double check to be on the safe side, after all its your hard earned pennies at stake!
The picture below shows the odds between Everton vs Arsenal...
Odds from the Ladbrokes website...
Odds from the Betfair website...
Now we know from our vast experience that it's better to place QUALIFYING BETS at low odds, this reduces the loss amount and also your LIABILITY at the Exchange.
You may not know this though, as you're just learning the ropes right? So lets explain in a bit more detail why we do this...
For this we get chance to show off our trusty Matched Betting Calculator, this does all the hard work behind the scenes to ensure you get speedy and accurate numbers and figures to plug into your Bookie account and your Exchange account.
Now we know we want to bet £50, as we want a FREE £50 Matched Bet... So we plug the variables into the Calculator:
We have highlighted the areas of importance:
BACK STAKE - £50 (this is the amount you should BACK in Ladbrokes)
BACK ODDS - 1.90
LAY ODDS - 1.94
CALCULATOR SAYS LAY £50.26 (this is the amount you should LAY in Betfair)
* Don't forget to pay attention to the Lay Commission, in this instance 5% as we are using Betfair *
Lets go into a bit more detail about why we choose the low odds for Qualifying Bets and it all comes down to ensuring we incur the smallest losses in qualifying for our next Free Bet amount. A smaller loss initially, allows for a greater profit after the Free Bet.
Based on our £50 Qualification Bet at Ladbrokes the results chart would look like this:
Result Back Odds Lay Odds Bookie Profit Exchange Liability Qualifying Profit/Loss
Arsenal Win 1.90 1.94 £45.00 £47.24 -£2.24
Draw 3.60 3.85 £130.00 £135.00 -£5.00
Everton Win 4.33 4.6 £166.50 £171.29 -£4.79
As you can see, firstly we didn't graduate from the school of design, its a pretty basic results chart/box!
However, all the relevant info is in there thankfully...
This box shows why we bet on Arsenal to WIN as our Qualifying Bet. If you look over to the all-important Qualifying Profit/Loss box, then we only lose -£2.25 in qualifying for our £50 free bet.
If we bet on the DRAW then we lose -£5.00 and if we bet on the Everton WIN then we lose -£4.79. Usually the lower the odds, the lower the qualifying loss and the higher the odds the higher the qualifying loss. Once you get up to over odds of around 5+ you can expect to lose over £5 on a qualifying bet (assuming you are staking £50 with the Bookie) so where possible we recommend you stick to odds of under 5, ideally under 4.0 or 3.0, to ensure a low qualifying loss.
The other heading its worth mentioning is the LIABILITY. The lower the odds, the lower the liability. This is especially important if you are starting with a low betting bankroll in your Exchange account and can mean the difference between you being able to get your bet on or not. Once you've built your bank up over the coming weeks and months, this should not cause you a problem (unless you keep emptying the profits that is!) we advise you keep as much as you can afford to in your Exchange account, just as the old saying goes 'if you've got money you can make money'! With less in their it restricts the amount of reload bets you can crack on with and make more and more profits with...
So lets remind ourselves of what we are doing:
We are placing a BACK bet on Arsenal to WIN at odds of 1.90 at Ladbrokes. We know we want to stake £50, to get a £50 free bet. Click the BACK odds of 1.90 and then add £50 into the bet-slip amount... Then click 'Place Bets'... It should show you a bet receipt, saying Bet Accepted. You will also likely notice that the 'funds amount' will show zero. If you ever want to triple check, you can check in 'my account' in the 'my bets' or 'bet history' section.
We are placing a LAY bet on Arsenal to NOT WIN (lose or draw) at odds of 1.94 at Betfair. Our calculator tells us we need to stake £50.26. Click the pink box showing odds of 1.94, again it will bring up your bet in a bet-slip. Place the desired figure of £50.26 into the box and click 'Place Bets'. You should get a bet receipt saying 'bet matched'.
Your bets are ON!
No matter what happens in this football match, we are guaranteed the following...
So if Arsenal DO WIN we lose -£2.24
So if Arsenal DO NOT WIN (lose or draw) we lose -£2.25
Either way we lose -£2.25, however we qualify for the £50 FREE BET. This is where we cash in and make our juicy profits...
S2B Top Tip: Try to place your QUALIFIYING BETS at lower odds, as you will have a smaller liability and you will incur less of a Qualifying Loss on your first bet, ensuring you make more profit overall from your Free Bet. With the vast majority of our Qualifying Bets, we try to find tight odds on the DRAW when betting on Football. You can usually find pretty tight odds, which minimises losses, PLUS you don't want to BACK the favourite every time, mix up your bets and don't always choose the best value (we talk more about this in our MUG BETTING STRATEGY) because we WANT the bookie to like us and send us lots more FREE BETS.
NEXT UP - SIMPLE FREE BETS STRATEGY