Unlock the Secrets of Early Payout: A Guide to 2Up Offers

2Up offers have become extremely popular amongst football fans, and it’s not hard to see why…

You can do them with existing accounts, and generate above-average returns and the strategy involved is simple. It’s a great way to build up your balance, risk-free. Armed with this guide, a free 2up calculator and a season of football you’ll be off to a rolling start.

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In this 2up guide, we cover:

You can skip to the relevant section by clicking on one of the links above!

What is a 2Up Offer?

Bookmakers such as Bet365 and Paddy Power are known for their 2up offers, sometimes referred to as ‘early payout offers’.

The concept is simple; when your team goes two goals up, they will pay out your bet as a winner.

Great news when you consider this happens almost every day…

Football Results Screen

With some bookmakers, there are some additional terms, such as maximum early payout. However, this tends to be the smaller bookmakers like Betway.

The two larger firms already mentioned aren’t particularly restrictive with this offer. As an example, Bet365 does not have a maximum cap on its 2up offer at the time of writing.

If there are limitations to a 2up offer you’re interested in don’t worry, we’ve got it covered, as you’ll find out later in this 2up guide…

For extra matched betting tools, check out OddsMonkey Premium here.

How to Profit From Bet365 / Paddy Power 2Up:

Making money from 2up offers is shockingly easy, once your team are two goals in the lead. Finding a football match where there’s likely to be lots of goals is the harder part (similar to laying the draw).

Fortunately, Bet365 and Paddy Power offer 2ups to a large range of matches. If you’re looking to make some money, why not do more than one at once?

From the Bet365 promotional terms:

Place a pre-match bet on the standard Full Time Result market for games from the English Premier League, English Championship, English FA Cup, English EFL Cup, Spanish Primera Liga, Italian Serie A, German Bundesliga as well as Group Stage matches from the UEFA Champions League

That’s a lot of football matches!

With only three possible outcomes and competitive pricing, it’s not that hard to find matches where bookmaker and exchange prices run parallel. If you need help finding them, it’s advisable to use a price matcher.

Before the match starts you then need to place a back bet on the team you suspect will go 2up (or multiple teams) and lay off the liability on an exchange. Using 0% commission deals are perfect for profiting from 2up offers.

We’ll guide you through an example, including all the numbers shortly…

Next, once your team have gone ‘2up’ and the bookmaker pays out we’re able to lock in the profit. Essentially we’re selling off the Bookmakers 2up promotion, before the match finishes.

Using a 2up calculator is ideal, particularly if you have multiple bets running.

Using a 2Up Calculator for Matched Betting:

You can find an early payout calculator for free (shown below).

2up calculator guide

It’s extremely simple to use, as you’ll see in the next section of this guide.

You can use it for qualification and cashing out parts of the 2up strategy.

Seeing always makes things easier to understand so let’s dive in with an example walking you through the process now…

Matched Betting 2Up Strategy in (3) Steps:

There are several different ways to play a 2up offer. In this guide, we’re going to focus on the safest way to make a profit, although we will touch on additional strategy after. Getting the basic strategy nailed down before you start changing things is preferable.

Step One:

First, we find a football match where the 2up offer is available and the bookmaker’s odds are similar to the exchange.

Here’s a primary example:

2up matching odds

Step Two:

Using the available odds with a 2up calculator we are able to see the potential results, before placing a bet.

In the image below there are 4 arrows. To explain them one by one from top to bottom:

  1. Back stake –  is how much you are willing to bet with the bookmaker.
  2. Early payout trigger – for this step we have ‘NO’ selected because there isn’t any 2up yet.
  3. Results – this is your potential lay stake for the exchange and the liability required to cover it.
  4. Bet Breakdown – A short breakdown to show you how the bets will counter each other.

All very simple…

2up calculator guide 1

In this case, it would cost us 37 pence to ‘qualify’ for this 2up offer.

If there is no 2up triggered, we will lose 37p. However, if the team goes 2up and the early payout is activated we proceed to step 3.

Step Three:

This is where things become more interesting!

Assuming the early payout is triggered we would then activate ‘YES’ on the 2up calculator.

Again, those 4 arrows explained:

  1. Triggered? – the team is 2 goals ahead so we have clicked ‘YES’.
  2. You could back for – the back bet you will need to place on the exchange, at the exchange odds.
  3. Exchange back odds – the odds on the exchange at the time of this step (the match is still in-play).
  4. Bet Breakdown – much like before, all of the potential outcomes if you place the advised bet.

Check out the returns from the initial £50 back stake.

2up calculator guide 2

For clarity: assuming we had placed a £50 back bet at 2.7, and a lay bet of 49.63 at 2.72 pre-match. The team had then gone 2up, and we placed an additional back of £112.50 on the exchange at 1.2, we would be £22.13 in profit.

Not bad, right?

You should also remember its possible to do this on far larger stakes, you just need enough money in your exchange account to cover the liability.

In this example, we haven’t used the Max Payout feature. If the bookmaker does impose limitations to their 2up offer, just input the figure and the 2up calculator will adjust the figures accordingly.

Getting Maximum Profit?

The advantage is in the 2up offer, so its wise to take the profit straight after the early payout. However, if you believe there will be counter-goals it could be worth adjusting your 2up strategy. Effectively you are gambling when you do this though, so bear that in mind. The upside is; you’re playing with ‘free money’.

If the score should change to 2 – 1 or 2 – 2 the exchange odds will increase. This makes cashing-out with the 2up calculator more profitable.

For example: if the exchange odds were 1.7 instead of 1.2 in the previous screenshot, you would have £55.22 profit instead of £22.14.

Alternatively, if you let it run and there is no counter-goal then you’ve wasted some potential profit. The 2up strategy you employ is solely on you, we can only guide you through the process.

Another option you may want to consider is factoring out a portion of your bonus. You can do this by using the 2up calculator but with a reduced initial back stake during step 3. Thinking of our example – if you staked £25 instead of the initial £50.

Long-Term 2up Strategy in Matched Betting:

When playing these offers it’s important to consider your long-term 2up strategy. To make the most money possible, you need an effective plan…

Sure, 2up’s can be lucrative in the short term with Bet365’s max payout being uncapped and Paddy Power setting a limit at £2,500 for early payouts. BUT, you don’t want to identify yourself as using a matched betting 2up strategy. The bookies do look out for such patterns!

By keeping your stakes reasonable (£50-£200) and avoiding arbs, you’re a lot more likely to blend in with the crowd – looking like an ordinary punter.

Creating a schedule for future fixtures and setting reminders something like google calendar is the best long-term 2up strategy. Matched betting isn’t about gambling or taking risk, the best results come from steady profits so don’t get carried away!

Warning: Problems With 2Up’s

Aside from acts of god such as internet outages, your device malfunctioning or no goals, 2ups are risk-free.

In an attempt to help you pre-empt mistakes, here are 6 common 2up problems:

  1. Slow early payout – always confirm the bookmaker has paid out before you proceed with the third step, placing your counter-bet. In most cases, it’ll be instant from the bookie but you don’t want to overexpose yourself if there is a problem.
  2. Multiple bets – if you’re placing multiple bets on the same market for whatever reason, make sure you use a 2up calculator. It takes seconds and avoids unnecessary pain.
  3. Qualifying for 2ups – efficiency is always top of the agenda, make sure qualification bets are tight (would advise a 0% commission account).
  4. Stake limits – if you’ve got a good opportunity stake more! There’s nothing worse than regretting it after. The best opportunities are usually quite obvious.
  5. Early or late goals – you can’t control when goals will come. Be patient as the majority of goals fall within the last 15 minutes of a match.
  6. Low goal-scoring matches – target matches where there are more goals predicted. A top tip is to look at the unders/overs markets on the exchange first, often they give away the high goalscoring matches.

Thanks for reading!

If you found this 2up guide of use or have anything to add for other readers, please add it below.

Recommended: 5 Matched Betting Tips to Win Regularly

7 thoughts on “Unlock the Secrets of Early Payout: A Guide to 2Up Offers

  1. Nice! I’ve not tried this tactic before. If I steam in with loads of value bets, won’t bet365 flag up my account? I’m already gubbed with Paddy – will it still work with them?

    1. Hi Mick,
      Sure they probably would, although with this you’re not placing bets at ‘value’ or arbing thee price. You’re just exploiting their generosity with the 2up early payout. The first bets pre-match won’t be flagged as the football margins are quite tight anyway, and you have to remember how many people are betting at those prices too!
      My view is; take all you can while they’re still doing it (end of the year at least I think they have committed to it). If you’re doing the right things you’ll get restricted at one point or another anyway so wouldn’t fret too much.
      Caan

  2. Hi Caan, I found this extremely helpful, I love your style of a breakdown anyway but the specific detail for the early payout for backing again after 2 goals via the exchange than the bookie I think is really helpful. I can understand it too as it’s a fair price than re-backing via the bookmaker. I’m impressed with this, thank you!

    1. Hi Jeshu, glad to hear the articles are of use. You can see more like this in the future then! 2up’s are a reliable way to make money at the moment it seems. Long may it continue for you.
      Caan

  3. This and 14up (same offer on the NFL) made me a good profit last season. Bet365 have worsened their odds and changed the NFL offer to 17up (I don’t think that’s worth the effort) meaning it isn’t as good as it was. The value of the offer really is in keeping your qualifying loss low. Absolutely essential, as it is high variance and those losses build up. But, if you have a sizable back and the patience to only get on close matches then you could make serious money from this offer.

    1. Well pointed out, Mike. The 14up offers are increasing in popularity too. Early payout is still a bit of an untapped resource for the matched betting scene I thing. I mean, it’s still an edge wide open.

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