What is Matched Betting and How Can You Make Money From It?

Beating Betting is not easy.

Unless you are doing Matched Betting.

Sports bettors across the globe have one common denominator, they all look for an edge. Everyone wants a piece of the pie and every bettor has one goal in mind – making money. What fun would sports betting be if one lost most of the time? Everyone knows that winning consistently is not an easy task, breaking even is not an easy task, and staying ahead of the game is a lot of work. Bettors are looking for ways of winning that actually work, such as matched betting.

Matched betting has become increasingly popular over the past few years in the United Kingdom as well as other parts of Europe and is now growing as an alternative in the United States.

Don’t get the wrong idea, traditional sports betting is alive and well around the globe, however, matched betting ups the ante in ways that most bettors have never imagined.

What is Matched Betting?

Matched betting is a simple system that players use to bet on all outcomes of a sports game. The bookmakers offer incentives/free bets and they often match sign-up bonuses dollar for dollar and upwards of 150% or more. Players use the bonus money to bet one way with an online bookmaker (Bonus Bet, also referred to as back bet) while playing against their own bet (Cover Bet, could be both a back bet or a lay bet), they are betting against the opposing outcome on a different bookmaker.

The Bonus and Cover Bets in Matched Betting explained

The first bet you place is called a Bonus Bet. This is the bet you place to win the free bet or progress towards freeing up the bookmaker sign up Bonus. Then you place a second bet, which we call the Cover Bet. This is done to Cover any potential losses that might occur and is what makes matched betting risk free. Combined the 2 bets are called a Matched Bet. Because the 2nd bet matches your 1st bet.

The difference between a Back Bet and a Lay Bet

The next part you do not really have to understand if you are just getting started, but we’ll explain it anyway. Your Bonus Bet is always a back bet. A back bet is as simple as it sounds. You are backing the outcome of a match. The Cover Bet can be a back bet or a lay bet. For example a Bonus Bet could be to bet on over 180 points in a basketball game, the Cover Bet is to bet on under 180 points. In this case the Cover Bet would be a back bet. The other option is to place a lay bet with a betting exchange. When betting the lay bet, you are betting against the outcome. So that would mean laying over 180 points in the basketball game. Essentially you are then betting on there NOT being over 180 points (lay bet). In contrast to betting on there being under 180 ponts (back bet). When laying a bet you are actually becoming the bookie.

The difference between Bonus Bookmakers and Cover Bookmakers

The Bonus Bets are placed with regular bookmakers offering sign up Bonuses. We call them Bonus Bookmakers inside Oddshero. The Cover Bets are placed with what we call Cover Bookmakers in Oddshero. The Cover Bookmakers offer the best odds in the market and do not limit winning players. Betting Exchanges are also considered to be in the the Cover Bookmaker category.

Betting Brokerages, the best way to place Cover Bets

When using Oddshero we recommend signing up with a Betting Brokerage such as Sportmarket or BetInAsia. They enable you to place bets with multiple Cover Bookmakers and Betting Exchanges with just 1 account. You can read more about Sportmarket in this article and BetInAsia in this article.

Matched Betting enables you to earn money online

The beauty of matched betting is that you are are able to clear the bookmaker sign up bonuses and free bets to make money! When it is done correctly, it is also completely risk free! Matched betting isn’t a “too good to be true” scam or hoax, it’s real and has been featured in several of Britains largest newspapers such as the Guardian, the Telegraph and the Sun. A matched bettor can earn a second income by staying consistent and finding betting sites that offer large sign up bonuses. Finding free bets and bookmaker sign up bonuses is easy with the 65+ bookmakers that Oddshero supports! Getting started with Oddshero is free, test it for yourself today! Just create a user on our website.

Get The Best Articles and News To Your Inbox

Subscribe to our newsletter and stay updated.