On the smart money betting profits

Sports trading is another great way to compile some extra money too if done correctly. The key to successful sports trading is not to get over greedy.

Sports trading works by using movements in the betting exchanges backing and laying markets to open and close positions on various sports events. Below are a couple of examples of how I have used sports trading to profit from betting exchanges.

euro 2008 football tournament in switizaland

I backed Holland to win the tournament at the start with  odds taken at 16 decimal. After their first match they beat Italy 3-0 Holland’s odds of winning the tournament fell from 16.0 to 8.0. When this happened I swiftly traded out of the bet by laying them on betfair to secure profit. Even though Holland did eventually get knocked out of the tournament I still managed a decent profit.

Wimbledon 2008

I hedged my bets in this trade by backing both Murry and Nadal.

Murry was at odds of 50 at the start to win the tournament, after his first three matches his odds fell to 30. I traded out on the murry bet to green up on all possible outcomes.

As Nadel was joint favourite for the tournament his odds of winning were only around the 3.5 mark. I decided not to trade out on Nadal as the Murry trade meant that i was green on all outcomes anyway.

Despite not trading out on Nadel he happened to win anyway so I came away with a great profit.

Trading styles

There are plenty of different methods and techniques that you can adopt in sports trading; I personally prefer to stick to long term trading on events such as football/tennis/golf tournaments and antipost bets. I find this approach more profitable.

Other people i know prefer the quick ‘in and out’ approach making trades on specific football matches. For example a popular approach is backing and laying the ‘draw’ market on betfair. Trading the correct scores market is also a popular  too on the exchanges.

Sports trading doesn’t necessarily have to be confined to sport either i placed a successful trade on X Factor (im ashamed to say) for a group called JLS last year at the beginning…the odds of them winning halved as they reached the final weeks. The same trading principals can also be applied to numerous other events such as politics and trading currency pairs.

Matched betting definition
Matched betting by definition is a form of arbitrage that allows you to generate risk free profits by using free online bets in conjunction with betting exchanges. Using an appropriate matched betting strategy appropriately you should be able to compound a decent amount of profit within the regions of £700 to £1000.

Matched betting strategy
To apply a matched betting strategy you need to open a ‘betting exchange account’ such as betfair and also a ‘bookmaker account’ that is offering a ‘free bet’ promotion.

Matched betting works by placing a bet at the bookmaker and then laying (betting  against) it off at the betting exchange, essentially all your doing when applying a matched betting strategy is hedging your bets to create a profitable scenario that eliminates risk. The value in matched betting exists because of the ‘free bet’ entity. If online bookmakers were to stop offering free bets tomorrow matched betting would become obsolete.

To apply a matched betting strategy you’ll need to place two separate bets. Firstly a qualifying bet using your own money, and then another bet using the free bet stake. A typical example of how it’s done is shown below.

Real life matched betting example - using a £50 free bet

Qualifying bet
Bet type: Qualifying bet- £50

Event:Bolton v Fulham: Saturday 14th March

Bet: Bolton to win

Odds: Bookmaker odds: 2.1 | Betting exchange lay odds: 2.16

Profit /loss: £-2.73

Free bet
Bet type: Free bet- £50

Event:Barnsley v Crystal palace: Tuesday 17th March

Bet: Draw

Odds: Bookmaker odds: 2.2 | Betting exchange lay odds: 2.45

Profit /loss: £33.53

Matched bet overall profit: £30.80

The figures above all include betting exchange commission set at 5%

Matched betting Tips
When matched betting the idea is to maximise profits the higher the free bet stakes the better your overall return will be. A £50 free bet is much better value than a £10 free bet for example. From personal experience I have found the best time to take advantage of high value bets are when special events are taking place. A prime example is the famous ‘Cheltenham horse racing festival’ in March. For some reason at this time of the year bookmakers love to give big free bets away that you normally cannot get at other times of the year. An example this year (2009) is ‘ladbokes’ they were offering a free £200 bet throughout the festival. To qualify all you to do was open an account place a bet and you would receive a free bet to the same value. This type of great offer never seem to materialise at others times of the year. So take advantage when they come along.

Another important tip when matched betting is to also take higher odds on your free bet stakes, if you follow this rule your return will be better, this is because most bookmakers will retain the free bet stake, so in order to maximise profits you must take larger odds. If the free bet is indeed retained by the bookmaker I tend not to place the free bet at odds any lower than 3.0 in a decimal odds format. This strategy I find gives me a fairly good return on investment relative to my free bet stake.

To learn or find out more about  matched betting and for free tools including a matched betting calculator and matched betting guide take a look at www.onthesmartmoney.com