Week 1 23 August – 29 August

As newbie diaries seem popular I thought I would also do my own – if you have any questions let me know. Note I was a bit slow starting so week 1 and 2 are here, but sh

Before this diary began my only experience of betting was limited to the occasional punt on the grand national. However I have experience of other methods of exploiting systems and loopholes, being an experienced stoozer (earning money from credit cards legally.) So I was confident if I kept to the system I could do this.

Ok I got started after thoroughly reading the advice on MSE and doing a dry run without placing any stakes just to check I understood the principles of matched betting – thanks to TimL in particular for helping check my dry run.

I opened a Corals account and Betfair accounts via rpoints and then placed a matched bet on Chelsea to beat West Brom at 1.2 on Corals and 1.23 on Betfair. I subsequently learnt at Corals the bonus could never be withdrawn, so I would need to lose at Corals (thus winning at Betfair). This proved harder than expected taking me four goes to lose at Corals – I have learnt for future to probably use longer odds, than a football draw, with a ‘sticky’ bonus otherwise you just dwindle it away losing a few percent each time.

I then opened Totesport and Stan James accounts as they offer straight forward £25 free bets which are stake returned and can be used at any odds. I matched up Rangers to win at home against Hibs for both at bet odds of 1.22 and lay odds of 1.24 for a small loss. Hibs shocked Rangers with a win making me glad I did match the bets – there is a temptation at very short odds to think I can’t be bothered to lay, but I’m very glad I avoided the temptation and stuck to the system, another valuable lesson. The free bets were matched on Federer to win the first round of the US open, which he did.

Learning points & Notes:
Coral – offers £20 bonus from an offer in the Sun!.
Betfair – get referred by a friend and you can get a £20 bonus.
I know Quidco offer some bigger rewards than rpoints but for now until Quidco is established I will stick to rpoints

So ended my first week of matched betting, I learnt a fair bit and was glad to avoid any major errors, the account for week 1 shows:

Week 1 Transactions
(Bookmaker/offer/cashback&points/matched bet return)

Coral/bet £10 get £10 bonus (stake returned but can’t withdraw)/750rpoints/£7
Betfair/-/1500 rpoints/-
Totesport/bet £25 get £25 free bet (stake returned)/500rpoints/£23
Stan James/bet £25 get £25 free bet (stake returned)/-/£23

Weekly Cashflow
£87 loss (worth noting I’m cashflow negative as rpoints take time to come through and I have also built up a float at Betfair)

Cumulative P&L
Matched Bets £53
Rpoints £28
Total £81

Matched Betting Diary... by Donglemouse at moneysavingexpert.com