Have you ever wondered if it’s possible to consistently beat the bookies?
If you are attempting to do so via standard betting, you’ll always struggle because the bookmakers also have the edge.
However, there are various strategies you can employ which can sway the odds significantly in your favour and often guarantee you profit.
I personally made over £40,000+ tax free beating the bookies (and loved every minute of it).
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How to Beat the Bookies
To beat the bookies is not easy as these businesses are designed to make money, and they make a lot.
However, there are various strategies and tips and tricks you can implement, some of which will even guarantee you a profit. If you insist on gambling, at the very least make sure you are getting the best value possible from any your bets you place to reduce the bookie’s edge as much as possible.
Tricks to Beat the Bookies
There are various ways you can beat the bookies. But be aware, the bookies are aware many of these, so you need to be aware of how you approach some of these tips and tricks without being too blatantly obvious.
#1 Matched Betting the Bookmakers Offers
The best way to beat the bookies is to exploit value from all their promotions which give you the edge.
To lure customers in, bookmakers offer free bet sign up offers.
Typically Matched betting involves using a betting exchange to offset what is referred to as qualifying bets at the bookie for minimal cost. An opposing lay bet is placed a betting exchange.
Once that qualifying bet has completed, we then qualify for the free bet.
We then strategically place the free bet on an event outcome that will maximise our profit, typically aiming for 80% of the free bet value. See here exactly how to make money from free bets, including examples.
Even better, once you are a signed up you’ll regularly be emailed free bet offers and all kinds of other promotions. In addition to these, there will be multiple other promotions available on the bookmaker’s website.
This is whereOutplayed.com comes in, a site dedicated to assisting you to profit from Matched Betting. With over 120,000+ members. They have all the easy to use software tools you need to profit from a wide range of offers.
I’ve been a member for 4 years and have made over £35,000+ tax-free just as a part-time side hustle.
Here’s my full Outplayed review with tips to make extra from the start. You can get started with a free trial and expect to make your first £40.00+.
If you are new to this concept check out my Ultimate Matched Betting Guide which explains the basics of how it works. Including many ways to even make money without free bets.
#2 Arbing Bookies
Did you know you can guarantee a profit if you can bet on higher odds at the bookie and lay at lower odds at a betting exchange? This is known as arbing and it’s especially lucrative while there are 0% commission deals on at Smarkets for members of Outplayed.com.
You can use tools like Outplayed.com Oddmatching software. Keep an eye on arbs that come up. They also have a dedicated Arbing forum thread where arbs are shared in real-time between members.
Other times its a matter of timing and taking watching odds manual on split screens on your laptop or over a couple of different screens and devices. Any set up that enables speed because odds can change in an instant.
Learn here how to arb here and find out whether you should arb or match bet depending on the current stage you are at.
#3 Dutching for Profit
Another way to beat the bookies is to pit their odds against each other to guarantee yourself a profit no matter what the result.
Dutching works best when used on 2 ways bets. Although, for the more advanced and experienced it can be used on 3-way football bets and even a whole field of horses.
The best and simplest ways are to bet on 2 ways outcome bets, like Over/Under 2.5 goals. Using a tool like Outplayed Dutching Calculator, you can find profitable Dutching opportunities and place bets accordingly.
In the example below, you can see how a profit is made by betting on opposing outcomes. On high profile matches, you can get much larger stakes on some of these kinds of 2-way bets.
#4 Shop Around for Best Odds
Whenever you place a bet, make sure you are always getting the best odds. Odds are prices and not all bookies are offering the same price, in fact, some will be offering awful odds for you as a punter.
Use a site like Oddschecker.com. Put odds in decimal format. It makes them much easier to compare. Simply click the COG symbol in the menu and change the odds format.
In the example below, the white bold squares highlight the best odds for each outcome. If for example, you wanted to bet on Man City to win v Man Utd, you would choose the odds that will give you the highest return when you win, in this case, the bookies offering odds of 1.81.
#5 BOG – Best Odds Guaranteed
If you bet on horse racing as well as making sure you get the best odds price, it’s aways worth considering betting with a bookie which offers Best Odds Guaranteed.
This can work in your favour because let’s say for example you bet £10 on a horse at odds of 5.0 (4/1 in fractional) and the odds drift out to 9.0 by the start of the race, you can get paid out at the better price.
Best Odds Guaranteed also works well with Matched Betting and can significantly boost your risk-free profits because you will have lay bet the outcome and much lower odds than the boosted best odds.
List Bookies that offer Best Odds Guaranteed
Always double check before placing a bet.
- 888Sport
- Bet365
- Betfred
- Betway
- Betfair Sportsbook
- BetVictor
- Boylesports
- GentingBet
- Paddy Power
- SkyBet
- Sport Nation
- Unibet
- V Bet
- William Hill
Best Odds Guaranteed is something that can be taken away if you are Gubbed. It isn’t every time, and in my experience is usually one of the last promotions taken away.
#6 Price Boosts
When the bookies raise the odds as a special offer price boost, take advantage and back and lay when the lay odds are lower at the exchange to guarantee a profit. Price boosts offer of the easiest ways to make money from a bookie.
If you are a member of Outplayed.com be sure to follow the Price Boosts thread for alerts. There are price boosts daily. They can be extremely profitable around big spring events like when Matched Betting Cheltenham, or World Cups and Euros events.
#7 Refund Offers – 2 Ups and Similar
2 Ups and Refund Offers are a form of Matched Betting. Sometimes a bookie will pay out early, for example if a team goes 2 goals ahead. However, if there’s still time on the clock the end result might be different. Even if the result doesn’t fully change it’s possible to still make a profit using a 2 Up calculator as a site like Outplayed.com.
Back and lay and if the results go in your favour you can end up winning both the back and lay bets. Or using 2 Up calculator you can cash out your lay bet for a profit during the match.
It’s essentially a form of Matched Betting tactic, but one which can be highly lucrative if you win both bets.
#8 Sharbing
What is Sharbing? Sharbing basically stands for “shop arbing”. This involves spotting opportunities at your high street bookmakers when they are offering odds are higher prices than the betting exchanges.
The same way arbing works as outlined above, just out there in the real world rather than from home.
If you live in a town or city with lots of bookies there will be more opportunities to profit from shabing
You can also extend other Matched Betting strategies to offers available in the land-based bookies too.
#9 Partner Friendly Bookie Accounts – Boost Household Profits
Do you live with a partner who might also be interested in profiting from bookmaker accounts?
You have to be careful here, as not all bookmakers allow more than one account per household, or if they do, they won’t always let the second account qualify for offers.
However, there are many partner-friendly bookies, including many of the best ones like Bet365 for making money from free bets.
There’s plenty of ways you can both mix up your account activity and both profit without breaking any terms.
#10 Value Betting
Value betting is when you only bet when you believe the odds of an event happening are better than the odds being offered by the bookmakers. You basically believe the bookmakers have the odds wrong and there is the value at the odds price they are offering.
Experts in a particular sport may spot value bet opportunities.
Another way of spotting them is when you see exchange odds are lower, like an arb. But instead of backing and laying, you just bet. This is a lot riskier than arbing, and over the long run, your profits are likely to be the same with 0% commissions available at Smarkets for Outplayed members (at the time of writing).
Horse racing can also offer plenty of opportunities because you can bet when there is very little value at all if the bet is combined with BOG, best odds guaranteed offers value on top.
Value Betting is an advanced, risky form of beating the bookie. Personally, it’s one I avoid. However, if you are interested this is a good Value Betting guide.
#11 Bookie Casino Offers
Most bookies have accompanying casinos which often have separate welcome offers you can profit from. Once signed up, take advantage of any good value EV casino offers and offers like risk-free spins and daily rewards promos. You might even be able to get cashback via one of the best cashback sites. upon signing up.
There’s usually even more of these casinos offers to make money from around certain seasonal events like major sporting events like Cheltenham and Football Euros and World Cups. Also, Halloween and Christmas are usually a great time to profit.
Conclusion
There are multiple ways to beat the bookies by exploiting all areas of value they may be offering in order to exploit others.
Not only is it more profitable beating the bookie it’s a lot more fun.
