A few days ago I hit a major milestone in my side hustle journey…
I made my first £1,000 from matched betting!
Matched betting is a way of making money from home using bookmakers’ special offers.
It took me just under 12 weeks from placing my very first bet to reaching the £1,000 mark.
The power of extra income
This is just a phenomenal feeling for me. Before I started my side hustle journey and learned about matched betting – just three short months ago – I worried about money all the time.
I was always stressed, always moaning about being underpaid, and did not know of any other way to make money. I basically felt completely powerless when it came to money.
A few weeks after hearing about matched betting and here I am:
£1,000 is a serious amount of money to me and it literally feels like I pulled it out of thin air. It is the best feeling to know that I have taken control of my financial situation and that I now have a regular source of extra income each month, so long as I keep putting aside a few hours a week in my evenings and weekends for it.
Making money every day
The crazy part is…
£1,000 in 12 weeks is not a lot of money by matched betting standards.
Seriously.
Some people in the forums of the matched betting service I use (Profit Accumulator) are regularly making over £1,000 every month. In fact, Profit Accumulator has a members-only forum thread where the staff post exactly which bets you need to place each day to make £1,000 each month.
The Profit Accumulator forum is my favourite matched betting forum by far, by the way. There are always experienced betters and staff on hand to talk you through any questions or confusion. It’s also a great way to stay up to date with special offers.
Anyway, the main reason I didn’t hit the £1,000 mark quicker is that I am only using PayPal for matched betting, to keep bookie transactions out of my bank statements until I get a mortgage.
A lot of bookies don’t accept PayPal, which means I have only actually been able to take part in about a third of the offers out there. I’m looking forward to getting the mortgage sorted so I can take advantage of the rest of the sign up offers!
Oh, and by the way – matched betting earnings are all tax free in the UK! 😉
Although matched betting is not gambling, the money technically counts as ‘winnings’, which you don’t have to declare.
Click here to start making money with matched betting
What is matched betting?
In case you haven’t heard of it before, matched betting is an amazing way to make money from home by taking advantage of the free bet offers that all the bookies do. You know – things like ‘Bet £10, get a £30 free bet’.
Matched betting is NOT gambling.
If done correctly, you should make money each time.
It’s completely legal, and what’s more, it’s tax free.
How to take advantage of free bets
The thing that makes matched betting different from gambling is that we balance out each bet we make by placing an opposite bet (this is called a ‘lay bet’) on a different website.
We use special software available from a service like Outplayed (the one I use; previously known as Profit Accumulator) to calculate exactly how much to bet and where.
This means that our two ‘matched’ bets balance each other out, so we don’t lose any of our own money. But we do make profit from the free bet.
If you’re interested, I recommend heading over to their website and having a look at the free training videos.
You can also take a look at my post on my first month matched betting, and my matched betting glossary that I wrote for beginners.
Let me know how you get on, and I hope you see your first £1,000 soon too!
Related posts:
- Matched Betting for Dummies: Your Questions Answered!
- Does Matched Betting Affect Your Credit Score?
- How Much Can You Make From Matched Betting [in 2023]
See all matched betting content here.
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I’m posting this almost a year later and matched betting still does work! I have made £17,500 since March 2017 and this is amazing! The fact that earnings are taxfree really does make a HUGE difference!
Adam
That’s awesome, well done Adam! Yep it is still one of the best ways to make money online in my opinion!
£15K in 3 months… Thats over 3 times the salary for a 40 hr week on minimum wage… wow
Yes it’s amazing!! I don’t think that’s the average, but it’s definitely possible for the average person to earn an extra few hundred per month with matched betting 🙂
Which bookies don’t accept PayPal? I have the same reason to keep bookie transactions out of my bank statements!
Hi Keryn!
Here’s a list I kept when I did my first round of sign ups of bookies that didn’t take PayPal:
Sun Bets
Betbright
188bet
Smarkets
Unibet
Genting
ComeOn
BetSafe
SeanieMac
Dafabet
21bet
Marathon bet
LeoVegas
Apollo Bet
TLC Bet
138 Bet
Fun 88
Bet At Home
Toals
Bet East
Jetbull
Tonybet
Bet On Brazil
Matchbook
Sporting bet accepts paypal BUT paypal does not qualify for signup offer
Xtip
Tommy French
If you are working through the sign up offers on Profit Accumulator, you’ll find most of the first ones are ok (the bigger, more established ones) and the further you get into the weird ones, the less likely they are to accept it haha.
Do check first though because my list might have changed. There is sometimes a row of payment logos at the bottom of the page, or in the FAQ. Also check the T&Cs of individual offers. There are a couple that accept PayPal in general, but you don’t get bonuses for some reason.
Hope this helps!
And to add to that, here’s a list of all the sites I used that do accept PayPal:
32Red
888 Casino
888 Sports
Angry Bingo
Bet Victor
Bet365
Betbright
Betdaq
Betfair
Betfred
Betstars
Betway
Bgo
Boylesports
Bwin
CasinoEuro
Casumo
ComeOn
Coral
Frozen Bingo
Gala Bingo
Ladbrokes
Ladbrokes Exchange
Lottoland
Magical Vegas
mFortune
Monkey Bingo
Paddy Power
PartyCasino
PocketWin
Real Deal Bet
Rio Bingo
Simba Games
Sing Bingo
Sky Bet
Sligo
Slot Crazy
Spinson
Spinzilla
Sporting Bet
Stan James
Titan Bet
Totesport
Video Slots
William Hill
Treasure Bingo
Virgin Games
Netbet
Wish Bingo
Hi
I like the idea of this match betting gig.
I have tried to do my first one this evening with coral to get their £20 free bet but because I deposited funds with them through PayPal I don’t qualify for the free bet. Great start to my new money making on the side hobby!!
Oh no! I’ve definitely used them with PayPal before but I guess they have changed the rules! No worries, once you get the hang of matched betting you will make that back quickly. I also made some small mistakes in the beginning but £1000s in profit over all. Good luck!
Hi there is this match betting opportunity available to people residing in the uk only or is it available global wide specifically to the asia Pacific region???
Hi Shana, I’m afraid I can’t comment on that. I only have experience with matched betting in the UK and the matched betting help service I use is only open to residents of the UK and Ireland. It’s possible there is something similar where you live but it would depend on things like gambling laws and the rules of the individual betting sites in your country, so I can’t advise, sorry!
Hey,
Great read. I am about to start my MB journey and also in the middle of remortgaging. I have a main account with one bank and I use Monzo for my spending account.
Do you think it will be okay to do this on my Monzo account? From what I remember, I only need to provide my main account statements to the mortgage adviser at the time. But I am not sure If things have changed!
I am assuming if you can get away with it on PayPal, that it is the same with Monzo (although it is a bank account)
Can you shed any light on this?
Kind regards,
James
Hi James,
I think you will probably be fine. Most mortgage providers only want to see your main account statements, and this was the case for us when we got our mortgage a few months ago. But one of my friends was asked to show statements from every account in their name, hence why I was so cautious! I think this is fairly rare but at the end of the day it’s up to you whether you want to take that small risk or not. If you are worried, the safest thing to do would be to put the matched betting on hold until you’ve secured your new mortgage. Good luck!
Hi, What about wagering. Lots of sites only pay out after you’ve paid in a certain amount of money yourself.
thanks
Hi Louise, with wagering you simply have to keep placing new matched bets (placing back and lay bets using the calculator) until you’ve either got all your money into the exchange or you’ve fulfilled the wagering requirements and can withdraw your money from the bookie. It’s a bit more time consuming, and you will lose a few pennies in commission with each wager, but overall you still make a profit. I would recommend leaving these sites with wagering requirements until after you’ve had plenty of practise on other sites and got quicker at everything.
I started matched betting after reading this post in Jan 19. However, I didn’t find it as profitable as I’d hoped due to needing to build a pot with the exchanges. I ended up giving up after a few months because, while I was in profit, I wasn’t yet in a position where I could withdraw any of the winnings.
I’m hoping to start it up again as I want to save up to go to Orlando next year (so I want to earn about £5k from it if I can). How long did it take you to build up a pot to use for the bets?
So it took me about 3 months to earn the first £1000, during which time I didn’t spend any of my earnings, and then I tried to keep around £1000 as my pot and let myself keep anything above at the end of the month. On average I tried to keep around £700 in the main exchange I used, and around £300 for betting, which I would withdraw and shuffle around as needed.
This pot was enough to earn around £300 a month, just doing an hour or so a few times a week. If I wanted to hit it harder and earn more each month I think I would have needed a bigger pot for that.
It’s a balancing act between how fast you need the money (ie if you can be patient while you build up a pot!) and how much you want to make in the long run. I am just getting back in matched betting again myself after a break, and am aiming for the same £1000 pot before I start withdrawing, but then it’s just a side hustle for me and not a major source of income. It should def be possible to earn 5k in a year or so but I would say you should try to do a bit every day and maybe keep it all in the pot so you don’t have to limit the amount of bets you can do. This will be especially useful during key events like the horse racing festivals! Good luck 🙂