What is Gubbing & How Do You STOP It? (Quickly)

We’ve all been gubbed. If you’re a gambler, it’s bound to happen at some stage. It’s one of the worst feelings you can have!

For those of you that have been gubbed, you’ll know the feeling. However, for anyone new to betting this article can definitely help you avoid being gubbed in the future.

For those of you who don’t know what gubbing is; here is the definition: In short; being gubbed means a bookmaker has removed your right to free bets and promotions, and they may have also applied stake restrictions to your account.

Let’s be honest, bookmakers are always going to gubb accounts. It’s just part and parcel of the gambling industry. Bookmakers don’t like you winning, but they especially don’t like giving away free bets to Matched Bettors.

It’s important to try and keep your betting accounts free from betting restrictions and promotion restrictions for as long as possible, so now you know what gubbing means – let’s talk about how to stop it.

Five Ways To Stop Gubbing:

Nothing is full-proof in the online gambling world. However, there are certain things that you can do to keep your account open and hopefully fly under the radar in the bookmakers trading room. Unfortunately, all five will cost you money in the long run, but if keeping your account open is a priority then it’s worth trying some of these:

1) Don’t Do Every Free Bet Offer

Bookmakers aren’t stupid. They will spot you a mile off if you just focus on the Free Bet Offers and markets linked to them. Try spread these around; there are tonnes of offers and tonnes of bookmakers. Just check out the calendar at Profit Rush to see how many offers there are per day!

 

If you aren’t playing a free bet offer each day, the bookmakers are less likely to spot what you’re really doing and your account will stay unrestricted for longer. Also, break up your bets each day and week. So perhaps you play the free bet offer on Saturday but during the week you try to find some football bets that you can lay back on Betfair for minimal loss, this makes your account look more attractive to the traders.

2) Do Football Acca’s On The Big Leagues (Premier League and La Liga)

Unfortunately, this one is more than likely going to cause you money. Bookmakers love the “Acca Lads” though and these bets really make your account look profitable for the bookmaker. There’s a reason they are called “Mug Acca’s!”

The positive is that, every so often one of these will win. You might even break even on your Acca betting, all the while keeping your account open and profiting from some Matched Betting. Focusing on the big leagues helps because it looks like you just like to bet on the TV games. An Acca on Real Madrid, Barcelona, Liverpool and Manchester City is a bet the bookmaker wants to take, but it’s also not a terrible option in regards to winning the bet either.

3) General Mug Betting – Especially When Opening the Accounts

Bookmakers will be very quick to review your account, so the early bets are vitally important. They can easily judge you based on only four or five bets. It’s worth trying to look as “muggy” as possible early on so that once you get the “all clear” after an early review from a trader, your account is clear for a while.

You don’t want to appear to be an arber or a Matched Bettor straight away. That’s a red flag right there. Try to look as muggy as possible with football bets and bad value racing bets – Acca’s help too but at least you can lay back on Betfair for a small loss with the football and racing bets.

Obviously, there are a lot of opinions on whether this works or not. The argument a lot of people have is; you don’t want to lose money setting up an account only to get gubbed the week after when you start matched betting or taking the free bet offers.

The recommendation is simple; try it. Why not try it with one or two accounts and see does it work for you. Opening an account and getting it closed after a week maybe profitable for say £50, but why not reinvested £10 of that into setting up a “mug account” with another bookmaker.

4) Bet On Virtuals

Ever wonder why there is a limit on real racing but not on virtual racing? It’s obvious. It’s because the bookmakers know the odds are in their favour on virtuals. Obviously this is going to extreme lengths to look like a mug punter, but “throwing away” a couple of quid on virtuals each week is potentially a way to keep your account open.

It definitely has to be classed as “throwing away” money though. But you could get lucky and back the odd winner, meaning you break even on virtuals and it keeps your account open longer. There’s no doubt that bookmakers love people betting on virtuals, but it is costly. It’s personal choice how much you want to invest to keep an account going, bear in mind the time spent doing it.

5) Bet on the Casino

Betting on the bookmaker’s casino is very similar to betting on their virtual sports. Try to avoid doing to strategies where you just turn over money and lose the least amount of money possible. Again, this has to be classed as “throwing away” money but it all depends how much keeping the account open is worth to you.

If you’re making £100 a week from an account, and you spend £25 on the casino to keep it open. Isn’t that better than getting it closed down completely?

It’s personal taste, but it’s definitely an option if you want to make your account look like a mug punter.

What Are The Main Reasons You Got Gubbed?

The obvious reason is; your account isn’t profitable for the bookmaker. But there are many things that the traders will look at.

Let’s be honest here; there are so many accounts to look at the traders will likely only be looking at a couple of figures or certain things people do. The main ones will be turnover, ROI and things like are they just taking free bet offers, or good value bets. It will also be highlight how many times you have taken a price that is higher than the exchange price, otherwise known as arbitrage betting.

If your account has highlighted a couple of red flags; it will be looked at more closely and then you will get restricted or your promotions taken away. Another thing to be wary of is your IP Address; if you have opened an account in another persons name but used the same IP Address – that will be flagged up straight away to the bookmaker and you’re account will be heavily restricted or closed.

You must also be aware of where you come to the bookmaker’s site from. For example, if you always land on their site from Oddschecker they will be aware that you are likely always betting on the top price on your selections. If you keep coming to their site from the exchanges; they might feel that you are an arbing. These are all the things that bookmakers monitor and will be used you restrict your account; so be aware of them and avoid them.

Which Bookmakers Are Most Likely To Gubb Your Account?

The short answer is all of them. But some are more likely to than others. The smaller firms that pop up on Oddschecker or that are new into the industry are more likely to let you win less than the big established firms. However, factor in that the established firms deal with Matched Bettors and Arbors every single day so they will highly have a better idea of what to look for more than most.

If you see a new bookmaker come into the industry, it’s definitely worth doing a bit of research on them to see how other customers have experienced their site. You can easily have some trouble withdrawing your money from these smaller firms, and the rollover requirements from bonuses are crazy. The worst of all is when you have a rollover requirement but they’ve already restricted you; your stuck making really mug bets to try rollover your funds and ultimately you’ll end up losing.

What Bookmakers Are Worth Investing Some Anti-Gubbing Money To?

Investing anti-gubbing money doesn’t sound right, but it’s the best way to explain it! So, you want to ‘set up’ an account that will last longer than average for Matched Betting or Arbing. This means doing some of the five steps mentioned above – but you have to know that it will be worth it in the end.

The best bookmakers to employ these tactics with are the bigger firms because it’s more likely that you’ll fly under the radar because they have a bigger customer base.

The biggest four firms are;

• Bet365
• Skybet
• Paddy Power
• William Hill

These big firms love doing offers to get people to bet with them, so you’ll likely see a whole host of offers. That means there will be an above-average number of punters completing the offer and it’s worth keeping an account with them over the longer term. Because they have a bigger turnover and bottom line profit than the other firms; it’s a little bit more likely that they’ll let you profit a little bit more – but not by much! It’s worth placing some mug bets via mobile with these firms, but at the same stay completing their free bet offers.

Once You’ve Been Gubbed, Is There Any Way Back?

Jesus may have returned from the dead, but it’s unlikely to happen with bookmakers. Once you’ve been gubbed, all bets are off. It’s extremely difficult to ever get an account back after a trader has swung the axe. Because getting un-gubbed is so rare, there’s actually no blueprint on how to do it.

If you think about it; how can you even mug bet to change their minds when your account is so heavily restricted. The only thing to do is to keep checking your stake limits from time to time and see if anything has changed with the bookmaker policy. It’s really worth checking other sports; for example, you might be gubbed on horse racing but you can still bet on football – then the bookmaker may have some football offers if they haven’t taken away the promotions from you. It’s highly unlikely that your account will have promotions available to you after being restricted though, but in some cases, it can happen.

If you’ve been gubbed with the bookmaker and think that placing some mug bets will get you back; it’s probably a bad time to employ those tactics. Think about it; it’s a better time for mug betting at the start of the account. Just because you’ve been gubbed, now is not the time to employ the anti-gubbing tactics mentioned above because they’re already on to you. At that stage, mug betting really does become a waste of money (and time).

To Sum Up Gubbing:

Getting your betting account gubbed really is a pain. But unfortunately, it’s just part of the betting game. Shit happens and you have to get on with it. Getting gubbed isn’t the worst thing to happen you in life. Look at it this way; you’ve got gubbed because you’ve done something right. You have won money or the bookmaker already knows that you’re going to. It’s just really unfortunate when you get gubbed before even getting the chance to make any money!

If you’re going to avoid getting your betting accounts gubbed; you have to be very smart about your business from the start. Be aware of the things the bookmakers don’t like to see and try to avoid these things. Yes, you can do some of them – but mix it up and don’t make it obvious that you’re a Matched Bettor – make them think you are a normal punter.

Remember when you’re Matched Betting, every account you have is an asset. Every bet you make is an investment. You want to use your assets wisely and get the best possible return from them. As we noted above, just see the number of free bet offers there are daily, and just how many bookmakers accounts that you can open.

You might have to “invest” a little bit of money with the bookmakers to keep your accounts open, give a little away on mug bets. But in the long run, it is worth it to keep your accounts open.

Recommended Read: 5 Matched Betting Tips to Win More