If you’re new to matched betting, I would recommend checking out my free beginner’s guide here.
Most bookies offer bet returns on horses, sometimes every day, and they look like this:
Let’s break this down into its basic parts.
The promo is saying: Bet on a horse to win, and if it doesn’t win but manages to come 2nd or 3rd, your bet will be refunded as a bonus bet.
We can turn this promo into a guaranteed profit on every horse race.
To put this bet together, we’re going to need to place 3 bets.
Here’s the play:
- Bet #1: Back any horse.
- Bet #2: Lay against the same horse (to win)
- Bet #3: Lay against the same horse (to place)
There are only three possible outcomes:
- Our horse wins: We win Bet #1, lose the other two.
- Our horse doesn’t win but places: We win Bet #2, lose the other two (and we also win a bonus bet).
- Our horse doesn’t place: We lose Bet #1, but win the other two.
The best thing about these outcomes is, we profit on all of them.
To work out the numbers, we need to use a calculator.
In the examples below I will be using the 2nd/3rd Calculator at BonusBank.
This is a premium feature and you will need a premium account to access it. You can use the code BL123 to get 25% off your first month at BonusBank.
Let’s run through an example.
This type of matched bet requires 3 different bets:
- A back bet on the win market.
- A lay bet on the win market.
- A lay bet on the place market.
Let’s go through them one at a time.
Here are the odds for a horse race at Matamata (A New Zealand track):
Generally with this type of matched bet, you get the best return when you take the favourite.
We can see at the top, the favourite is a horse called Cornflower Blue, paying 1.85 to win.
That’s going to be our horse.
We can now fill in the first line of the calculator:
Our stake is $50, the odds to win are 1.85, and we’re assuming we can retain 80% of any bonus bets we win.
For our next bet, we need to place our first lay bet.
We will be laying against the same horse to win, Cornflower Blue. Here’s what the lay market looks like:
We can see the lay odds for Cornflower Blue to win are 1.88.
With that we can fill in the second line of our calculator:
The lay odds are 1.88, and by checking the “Rules” button on the market at Betfair we know the Betfair commission at Matamata is 6%.
The calculator tells us to place a lay bet for $28.85, so let’s do that:
The final line of the calculator is to work out how much to lay on the Place market.
Simply click the “PLACE” tab (see the screenshot below) to see the place odds.
Here are the odds for our horse to place:
We can see the lay odds to place are 1.27. With that we can fill in the final line of our calculator:
The calculator is telling us to lay the horse on the place market for $33.06 at odds of 1.27.
Let’s do that:
Now that all bets have been placed, the end result of the calculator will look like this:
As you can see at the bottom, it doesn’t matter what happens in the race.
Whether our horse wins, places or is unplaced, we will make a profit of $8.19.
Here’s how that happens:
Horse wins:
Win $42.50 at the bookie.
Lose $25.39 on our first lay bet (because the horse won).
Lose $8.93 on our second lay bet (because horse placed).
Total profit of $8.19.
Horse places:
Lose $50 at the bookie
Win $28.85 on our first lay bet (because horse didn’t win).
Lose $8.93 on our second lay bet (because horse placed).
Win a $50 bonus bet because our horse ran 2nd or 3rd, which is worth $40 cash.
Total profit of $8.19 (after Betfair commissions).
Horse doesn’t place:
Lose $50 at the bookie
Win $28.85 on our first lay bet (because horse didn’t win)
Win $33.06 on our second lay bet (because horse didn’t place)
Total profit of $8.19 (after Betfair commissions).
While $8.19 might not seem like a lot of money, it will compound quickly over time.
100 of these bets = $819.
1,000 of these bets = $8,190.
And when you get more familiar with horse racing, it will be possible for you to place 10+ of these bets in an hour.
On a typical Saturday, you can potentially get hundreds of bet return promos across the major bookies.
When you’re first starting out with matched betting, they are an ideal way to get familiar with horses, and slowly build up your float.
Want to learn more?
This article is an extract from one of the lessons in my course Simple Bets.
Simple Bets teaches you how to make a reliable income of $1,000+ per month from matched betting. The course is designed for those who know nothing about sports or betting, so you will be taught everything from the very beginning.
We also cover horse racing in much more detail, including an improved strategy on the one explained above that gives higher (and faster!) returns.
Hundreds of Kiwis have already used Simple Bets to create a second income. Learn more on how you can get started by clicking here.