Posts Tagged ‘free bets’

Over one third of betting accounts are opened solely to claim free bets.

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

Patrick Hourihan, Yahoo’s head of research for the UK, is quoted in the Racing Post saying that more than 1/3 of all online betting accounts are opened solely to claim a free bet.  

The study, Yahoo suggested, show that free bets achieve high awareness for bookmakers. It also confirmed that 76% of gamblers prefer to bet with a brand that they trust.

Research by Mintel, the global consumer research company, back this up saying that brands with a strong high street presence such as William Hill and Ladbrokes are more trusted. Putting them in the top three online trusted brands.

We saw further press coverage about free bets in this weekend’s guardian (25.07.10). An article in the alternative investments section by Jason Shearer entitled “Free Bets mean you can clean up, as bookie meet their match”. Gives an unbiased independent review of how simple it is, with just  a couple of hours work a week, to make a few hundred pounds completely risk free. Sites such as http://www.ifreebet.co.uk show their users all the latest free bets, offers, bonuses and also offer a fantastic matched betting calculator, sometimes known as an oddsmatcher, and a matched betting video guide. Making it very easy to take advantage of many of these risk free offers.

Free bets have historically been an excellent tool to reach new customers. Used properly, they can be simple way to make some extra money.

Multiple bookmakers improve your odds.

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

You can’t influence the chances of your team winning, unless you are “match fixing”, but you can improve the odds you take.

Impossible. No.

Use multiple bookmakers.

All you have to do is go to an odds comparison site such as betbrain or oddschecker and you will see a significant spread in prices being offered by different bookmakers. For example, a month away is the first day of the 2010/2011 Premier League season the spread of odds for Man City to beat Tottenham are 2.75 with Totesport to 3.25 with bet-at-home. That doesn’t mean always bet with bet-at-home and never Totesport. In fact, bet-at-home have the worst odds for a Spurs win 2.15 compared with canbets 2.40.

The differences happen because bookies rate teams differently and as their customers place bets the odds change as bookmakers try to balance bets on both sides of the fixtures. For these reasons the odds on the above example will change dramatically between now and kick off in a month’s time.

Statistical Facts:

If you were to be regularly using 5 bookmakers compared to 1-2 regular bookmakers, your returns would improve by 10-12% in the long term.

If you were to use the best odds from 10 bookmakers your returns would improve by 15-20%.

By choosing the best odds for each bet, you will massively increase your returns.

What to do

If you have followed my matched betting technique you will have a number of bookmaker accounts already. You will also have a nice betting balance. Choose your favourite 10 bookmakers and place equal amounts in each.

If you haven’t use our matched betting technique, I suggest you do. Otherwise simply open 10 accounts fund them and you will get a few free bet bonuses to boot. To see a list of the best bookmakers and free bets click here.