Firstly, I promise I’m not turning this site into a matched betting forum! But I admit, I have been doing a bit more of it lately, mostly since my maternity pay ended in August, so I’ve been topping up my income in other ways. Matched betting started off as a bit of an experiment, but I realised that it was quite easy to make around £200 per month with hardly any time put into it.
As you may have read from my previous post (and Weenie’s ensuing comments!) on matched betting, one of the extra ways you can make money is through accumulators, otherwise known as accas. Plenty of bookmakers offer ‘acca insurance’, which is usually a free bet refund if one of the selections in your acca loses, but all the others win.
Check the rules carefully
Here are some examples: Ladbrokes offer a refund up to £25 if one of your five accumulator bets loses; WIlliam Hill offer insurance on a sixfold; BoyleSports offer fivefold acca insurance, but all the matches must be played and settled on the same day. Many offers appear similar, but you need to check the terms and conditions to make sure you fully understand the rules.
Many offers appear similar, but you need to check the terms and conditions to make sure you fully understand the rules e.g. ‘offer can be claimed once per day’, ‘minimum aggregate odds must be 4.0+’, or ‘offer can be claimed four times per month’. Make sure you are familiar with the specific rules of the acca, or else you could end up losing and not getting your refund.
This is not so much of a problem if lay your matches sequentially, or lay all at the start, because you are aware of your qualifying losses. However, if you do no-lay accas (which is just risk-reduced gambling, rather than matched betting) then losing your refund when your acca loses means you lose your entire stake. I did this recently on Ladbrokes, where I had included a football match that was not part of their offer (it was late, I don’t even know what I was thinking!) and I lost my stake, even though only one match lost, I didn’t get my refund 🙁 so I learnt my lesson!
So, onto the good stuff. How much can you actually make?
Well, as I write, I’ve made £597.03 between the 3rd of September and the 13th of December. That’s from £20 per acca (I never do the full amount, but am building up gradually). It works out to about £9 profit per acca. That’s a 45% return. Not too shabby! And certainly a lot more than I usually get from the stock market. However, unlike the stock market, it is rather risky, but only if you do no lay accas, which I generally do. If you have the time and flexibility to do lay sequential, you can lock in a guaranteed profit every
If you have the time and flexibility to do lay sequential, you can lock in a guaranteed profit every time though. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to muck about on my phone or computer to lay each leg separately. So for me, the no lay acca is a calculated risk. I know that over 100 accas placed, the probability is that I will win 60-80% of the time (obviously this varies based on the aggregate odds). I understand this is not for everyone, and it is technically gambling, not matched betting, so go for one of the lay methods and you’ll feel better about it.
As you know, I use OddsMonkey (*) and I cannot fault them. Their acca matcher is super, and includes no lay, lay at start, lay sequential, and lay sequential lock-in profit methods, and they’re always adding new functionality and guides to their site! So do consider them if you want to start matched betting.
Let me know what you think about accas 🙂
Cheers
The profit you’ve made from your no lay accas is excellent but as I said in your previous post, I don’t appear to be lucky with no lay accas and I can’t stomach the losses, even though I know in the long run, I should make an overall profit. Plus it’s too much like gambling for me. That said, I do still sprinkle the odd no lay in amongst my lay sequentially accas (to make it look more muggy), but not more than £5-£10 per acca.
My lock-in sequentially laid accas can net me anything between £2-£10 per acca – moving odds can reduce your EV by loads, but can sometimes swing in your favour. I haven’t done £50 accas yet, mostly £40 and £25 ones.
I don’t tend to have more than 10 accas going at the same time – that’s as much as I can manage in the time I dedicate to MB.
BTW, note that William Hill have just changed their rules regarding their insurance, it’s only 5 legs now, on any sport and any legs not on their football list need to be at odds of at least 1.2 to qualify for acca insurance.
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I never bothered with accas when I was into Matched Betting, but your post has tempted me to look into it. I still do the odd matched bet from bookies that haven’t gubbed me because it’s basically free money (especially Bet365’s £50 risk free). I’m not the fan I once was of the practice, but I wouldn’t knock it either.