Bookie Bashing - Bookmaker Free Bets

Recently, I read an article about Bookie Bashing - the latest craze ‘to hit the streets’.

So what is Bookie Bashing?

These days, bookies will do anything to get your business. They will even offer cash incentives. Some bookies will even continue to offer cash incentives as long as you remain a customer. Why do they offer cash incentives? Their business has become so competitive in recent years that, in order to attract new customers, they are prepared to offer inducements. If they don’t, other bookies will. If other bookies will, they have to follow suit. Otherwise, not only will they fail to attract future customers, they will lose their existing ones too.

The cash inducements offered by bookies places punters in a position whereby the bookies’ own cash can be used to relieve them of yet more cash. That’s why it’s called bookie bashing.

But are the bookies really giving anything away?

No, not really.

I mean no disrespect to anyone reading this article but bookies know that the vast majority of punters will quickly lose their bonuses since most do not have the necessary skills to win money over the long-term. Generally, it doesn’t take long for a bookie to recover their investment in a punter by winning back the cash that they gave them - and a lot more besides.

Now back to the article. It described a method by which the free cash incentives, offered by bookies, could be used to place the punter in a win-win situation. So, no matter what the outcome of an event is, upon which the punter has placed a bet, the punter wins. The article stated that the free cash incentives, offered by bookies, could be used to win money from the bookies.

But is Bookie Bashing as easy to perform as the article states?

We’ll let you be the judge of that!

So, how do you take advantage of these offers of free bookie cash?

According to the article, you need to perform the following:

1. Open an account with a bookie and deposit the necessary funds to secure the free bonus.

2. Select a sporting event and, using the free bonus, place a bet on the outcome.

3. Open an account with another bookie or Betfair and place a bet on the same sporting event, but this time on the opposite outcome. For example, suppose that, using the bonus bet, a horse is backed to win. Suppose that the same horse is backed to lose on a betting exchange. Alternatively, using the bonus bet, a bet is placed on a particular tennis player winning a match. A bet is then placed on a betting exchange or with another bookie on the other player winning the same match. Alternatively, the first player could be layed to lose on a betting exchange. Regardless of which option is selected, the bet is won before the event has even starts! It’s a case of heads you win, tails you win.

The article states that it’s that simple and, what’s more, it’s perfectly legal.

The bookie gives you a free bet in the hope that you will lose and will bet more of your hard-earned money with him, thus filling his already over-stuffed coffers.

The article claims, unfortunately for the bookie, to have come up with a sure-fire way of beating him and filling your coffers instead of his.

So, that’s the overview dealt with.

Now let’s get to the detail and the precise way in which the article claims that the bookie’s free bets can be used to fill our coffers instead of his.

Let’s take these two simple examples:

Example 1

Suppose that a bet is place on a tennis match between Tim Henman and Andy Roddick in the first round of Wimbledon. The odds on Tim Henman winning with the bookie that is offering a free £20 bet are 7.0. The odds on Andy Roddick winning are 1.25. The best odds available on the betting exchanges and with other bookies are as follows:

There are four options in which a win-win situation can be achieved:

Option 1

Using the free £20 bet, Henman is backed to win at odds of 7.0. The profit on the bet is £120 if Henman wins and the the liability is £20 if he loses. Henman should then be layed to lose on a betting exchange up to a liability of £120. Why? Because, if Henman wins, £120 is won on the first bet and used to offset the potential losses on the second bet. If Henman loses, the win on the second bat is used to offset the £20 loss on the first (free) bet. Therefore, regardless of whether or not Henman wins, the bet is won.

Let’s suppose that a profit of £5 is to be made, regardless of who wins the match.

The liability on the lay bet on Henman must not exceed £120 (the potential win on Henman on the first bet) minus £5 (the profit). At lay odds of 8.2, the bet must not exceed £15.97 (115/(8.2 - 1.0). If Henman is layed to lose at odds of 8.2 on a betting exchange and the stake is £15.97, the liability is £114.98 if Henman wins and £15.97 minus £0.80 (assuming 5% commission on winning bets) would be won if Henman loses. The table below summarises the two possible outcomes of the match and the profit:

From the above table, it can be seen that if Henman wins, £5.02 would be won. If Henman loses, £15.17 would be won but the £20 free bet would be lost.