Is Matched Betting Legal? A Legitimate Way to Make Money Online 2024

Matched Betting is without a doubt one of the best ways to make money online in 2024. From blogging, Amazon FBA and various other methods. There’s nothing beats low risk consistent tax-free profits like this!

One of the biggest concerns for new Matched Bettors is the question of whether “Matched Betting is Legal?”

Which is an odd question, however when things seem too good to be true. People are usually looking for the secret catch. In this article, we’re going to explain precisely why Matched Betting is completely legal, and a superb source of income on the side.

Serious about making money with your matched betting? Check out OddsMonkey Premium here.

What Is Matched Betting?

Matched betting is very simple, it is a method used to make tax-free profits from the free bets offered by bookmakers.

You will often see promotions from bookmakers like “Bet £20 Get £20”. Matched Betting uses a process to make a small loss on the initial bet £20 and then maximizes the profit on the get £20 part of the offer.

It only takes a few simple steps to do this, outlined in the example below.

Step 1:

Place your qualifying bet. (This is the “Bet £20” part of the “Bet £20 Get £20” offer.)

When doing this we look for ” a good match.”, Basically we want to minimize the loss on our first bet. In some circumstances, we can negate any losses at all. We do this by finding a qualifying bet that has similar back and lay odds.

A matched betting Odds Matcher will allow you to find good match quickly.

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Step 2:

Lay off your qualifying bet. To do this you will need an exchange account, here’s a choice between three low-commission options:

After finding the best bet to place in the Odds Matcher, we now need to lay off the initial qualifying bet to to lose a very small amount.

To find the correct stake to lay on Betfair, we use a Betting Calculator. The calculator will tell us the exact stake to lay at the odds to give us the smallest risk possible. For this step, make sure you use the calculator in NORMAL mode.

Step 3:

Use our free bet.

We have got a free bet from Step 1, now we just need to turn it into withdrawable cash.

Again, we can use the same logic as in Step 1 – using the Price Matcher to find the best possible bet.

Step 4:

Lock in profit!

In Step 4 we can lock in a profit by using the same logic as Step 2, except this time the stakes and odds will be different so we just use the Bet Calculator again.

Remember to select Free Bet Stake Not Returned (SNR) in this step otherwise, your calculations will be wrong.

There’s a very decent amount of money to be made from matched betting. It’s worth taking the time to understand it fully. Most matched betting sites charge money but you can check out OddsMonkey which has a free step-by-step walkthrough taking you through the whole process.

Is Matched Betting Legal?

The answer to this question is yes. Matched Betting is 100% legal.

When people promise you can make thousands of pounds, the honest and quick reaction is; is this legal? and it’s a completely fair question.

The reality is that there’s nothing wrong with using free bets from bookmakers to make money. It’s just using free bets intelligently!

Not many punters will think of using their free bets this way, laying off on exchanges and locking in a profit – they will just gamble them and most likely lose.

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If bookmakers didn’t want to offer free bets, they wouldn’t. It’s as simple as that. If they weren’t making money on a promotion they wouldn’t do it – they are a business after all. The reality is for every person who uses matched betting to profit, there will be ten “mug punters” who waste their free bets.

The worst thing that can happen to you when matched betting is that the bookmaker will close your account or restrict it. This is called getting gubbed in the betting industry. There’s nothing illegal about it all, however, the bookmakers don’t like losing money so they will close down the intelligent accounts.

When bookmakers look at an account and see that they won’t make any money from that person; they simply close the account. It’s grossly unfair but it’s very common in the betting industry now, unfortunately. The good news for matched bettors is that there are hundreds of bookmakers to open an account with, so once one closes you down you can simply move on to the next one!

Is Matched Betting A Scam?

This is a question that will make experienced matched bettors roll their eyes, but for someone new, it’s a fair question to ask. You can definitely see the angle of “matched betting scams the bookmakers for their free bets” for someone completely new to betting.

Is matched betting a con or a scam, no it isn’t that’s a fact. You can look at the hundreds of glowing reviews on Trustpilot for our recommended matched betting service Oddsmonkey as proof.

Think about the betting industry like this; every bookmaker ultimately offers the same service.

6.0 at Paddy Power pays the same as 6.0 at Bet365. The only way that they can stand out is through their marketing and promotions. That’s where all the free bet offers come from and that’s how matched betting started!

Not everyone will do matched betting, and for that reason, the bookmakers will end up with a large profit on their promotions.

We’ve got a couple more important points to make below, but first, you should check out this short YouTube about the legalities of matched betting and how multi-accounting is viewed by the authorities.

How Much Money Do I Need To Start Matched Betting?

You can start with any amount of money. Obviously the smaller your betting bank is there more limited you are with offers and such.

Anywhere between £500 and £1,000 is an excellent starting bank and should give you plenty of opportunities to make profits. There’s a tonne of sign-up offers out there, and when you’ve made your way through them you can move onto existing offers. For more advanced matched bettors there are excellent offers like 2 Up and Double Delight And Hat-trick Heaven.

How Much Money Can You Make With Matched Betting?

Money made from matched betting varies from person to person. For example I have personally made over six figures from matched and know many others that have even more. However I have also introduced friends to matched betting who made a few hundred and then got bored. 

Realistically the amount of money that you can make will depend amount of time you spend doing offers and developing your matched betting skills.  A large amount of people are making between £500 and £1,000 per month from matched betting making it one of the best side hustles around in 2024.

Is Matched Betting A Legitimate Way To Make Money Online

Matched betting is a legal and very legitimate way to make money online. In fact I will say currently it is one of the best side hustles available online for people that are looking to make an extra income. Given that matched betting profits are also tax free, you have an amazing opportunity in front of you.

In comparison with other side hustles such as Youtube, blogging, reselling, Amazon FBA there are several advantages to choosing matched betting as your focus.

  • Quick profits and turnaround – Once one offer is completed you can move onto the next.
  • Can start instantly – You could start from a bank of £50
  • Time efficient side hustle – Your work pays off immediately. Compare this to blogging/youtube where it can take months/years before you see an income.
  • No need for storage space – You are not dealing with anything physical.
  • Your not wasting your time – Other side hustles can see you put in plenty of work for no return. This is not the case with matched betting, work done equals profit!
  • Tax Free – You don’t need declare your profits to the tax man. Gambling winnings are tax free.

We have only really scratched the service in this article.

If you want to delve deeper into matched betting and learn about the strategies you can use to start making consistent tax free profits. We recommended clicking the article below!

Related: Odds Monkey Review: Best Matched Betting Service?

One thought on “Is Matched Betting Legal? A Legitimate Way to Make Money Online 2024

  1. Because of the pandemic there were a lot of bonuses and in my opinion there were more opportunities to earn on matched bets, do you guys have similar feelings?

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