Bookie Bashing - Bookmaker Free Bets

The main issue with the bookies’ Ts & Cs is that, prior to the free bet bonus being credited to an account, you are required to risk your own money by placing a qualifying bet on the outcome of an event. Although we cannot get around this, let’s see how you can obtain a free bet without exposing too much of your money.

In outline, a qualifying bet is placed on a horse winning its race with the bookie offering the free bet and then laying as much of the bet off, as is possible, on a betting exchange. In this way, it becomes a low/no risk bet. The only issues here are that:

• Betting exchange odds are generally greater than bookies’ odds by about 10% - 20% and sometimes more. As such, it is possible that a relatively small amount of money could be lost due to the odds differential. The greater the differential is, the greater is the potential loss. Therefore, it is best to wait until a horse can be identified whose difference between it’s back and lay odds is as little as possible. In this way, the potential loss is also as little as possible. It would be ideal if the back odds were greater than the lay odds, but this situation rarely occurs.

• Generally, in a fast moving market, odds change relatively quickly and we may not be able to obtain the odds that we require. The best advise that we can give you is to be patient and to place the qualifying well before the start of the race since betting markets tend to be more stable at this time.
  

Let’s take an example:

Back a horse to win with the bookie that is offering the free bet. Let’s say that the minimum bet, to qualify for the maximum free bet, is £20 and that the odds to back the selected horse to win is 4.0. If the horse wins, £60 will be won. If the horse loses, £20 would be lost.

The the same horse must now be layed on a betting exchange. The exposure must be identical to the amount that will be won if the selection wins i.e. £60. Let’s say that the odds to lay the horse is 4.0. The stake must therefore be £20.00 (£60/(4.0 - 1). If the horse loses, £19.00 (£20.00 - 5% commission) will be won. If the horse wins, £60.00 would be lost.

The profit/loss is identified in the following table:

From the above, it can be seen that the maximum potential loss is £1. At best, a break-even situation is achieved.

If the selected horse can be layed at odds of less than 4.0, the potential loss will be less than £1 and a profit may even be made on the two bets. If the lay odds are greater than 4.0, the potential loss will be greater than £1. The greater the odds, the greater is the potential loss.

That’s your qualifying bet dealt with. Now let’s deal with the free bet.

Let’s say that the free bet is worth £20 and that a minimum profit of £5 on the bet is to be made. Back a horse to win, using the free bet, with the bookie that has offered the free bet. Let’s also say that the odds to back the selected horse to win is 4.5. If the horse wins, £70 will be won. If the horse loses, the £20 free bet.

Now lay the same horse on a betting exchange. Let’s suppose that the odds to lay the hose on the exchange are 4.6. The liability on the lay bet must not exceed £70 (the potential win on the first bet) minus £5 (profit). This equals £65. At lay odds of 4.6, the stake must not exceed £18.05 (65/(4.6 - 1.0). If the selection is layed on the exchange to lose at odds of 4.6 and the stake is £18.05, the liability is £64.98 if the horse wins and £18.05 minus £0.91 (assuming 5% commission on winning bets) would be won if it loses.

The table below summarises the two possible outcomes of the race, from the selection’s point of view, and the profit:

From the above table, it can be seen that if the selection wins, £5.02 would be won. If the selection loses, £17.14 would be won but the £20 free bet would be lost. So, we have placed ourselves in a position such that, no matter what the outcome of the race is, we win

Now let’s combine the two tables to determine what the overall effect of the two sets of bets is:

From the above, it can be seen how, using the strategy identified in this article, a win-win situation can be achieved.

What would prevent this win-win situation from being achieved?:

• Be aware that this is very much dependent upon the relative odds of the selections with the bookies and on the exchanges. Should the odds on a selection change dramatically between placing the first and second bets such that the differential is large enough and not in our favour, we could find ourselves in a lose-lose situation.

• You are very much in the hands of technology, especially on betting exchanges. Should the technology fail between placing of your first and second bets, you could very easily lose money.
  

Conclusions

• It is possible, using the above method, to bash the bookies, but it is, by no means, a forgone conclusion and, though unlikely, it is possible for you to lose money in attempting this. For this reason, you should never risk more than you can afford to lose.

• You should read the bookie’s terms and conditions and be aware of their implications. For example:
  

  
  You need to risk your own money first before the free bet is credited to your account.

  The value of the free be cannot be withdrawn as cash and is not returned as part of a winning bet.

  The free bet is one-time and cannot be re-used if it wins.

  There is a maximum placed upon free bet amounts.

  You must satisfy minimum requirements before you qualify for a free bet. e.g. you must risk a minimum amount of your own money first.

  Some free bets are only payable providing that your first bet wins.

  To qualify for some free bets, you must bet on events with more than two outcomes. i.e. Tennis and snooker matches etc. are excluded..

  To qualify for some free bets, you must bet on selections whose odds are evens or greater.

• When laying off your bets on a betting exchange, the smaller the difference between the back odds obtained from the bookie and the lay odds on the exchange, the better. The ideal situation is when the lay odds are less than the bookies back odds.

• Before attempting to bookie bash, it is suggested that you have several dry runs (no real money is involved) in order to satisfy yourself that the method is both profitable and practical.
  
• Each bookie can only be bashed once and there are only so many bookies out there offering free bets. Given this and the limited amount of money that could be won, is all this effort worth it? If a free bet could be re-used if the previous bet won, then it would definitely be worth it. But a free bet can be used once, and once only. And there’s the rub!