I was always interested in making money on-line as a side hustle to my office job and spent several years trying affiliate marketing and online surveys. I had limited success with affiliate marketing and found the hours I put in simply didn’t return the income for effort. So I decided to go back to basics and asked myself two questions.
- What did I like doing?
- What was I good at?
I had always enjoyed watching and betting on sports and horse racing as a weekend hobby and was good with numbers and math. So typing these interests and skills into a google search at the time I received some interesting search results. One of the common results that came up was sports arbitrage betting and matched betting. Sports arbitrage betting is where you make a profit regardless of the result on two bets placed with opposing bookmakers. For example:
Bookmaker A – Football Team A odds of 2.20 to win
Bookmaker B – Football Team B odds of 2.20 to win
In this scenario you could place a $100 bet on both teams and you would lock in a profit of $20 regardless of who wins. It’s known as a risk free bet as you cannot lose given the mathematical advantage.
$100*2.20 = $220-$200 stake =$20 profit
This is known as arbitrage. These opportunities do exist everyday but generally not for very long as bookmakers adjust their odds accordingly.
There were many sites on-line selling arbitrage software for $1000+ upfront and a monthly fee . Arbitrage seemed great however I was concerned about the level of cash needed just to start and how was I was going to be available for the 5-10 minutes these arbitrage bets actually existed for at anytime of the day.
Bookmaker Promotions
I was still interested in arbitrage as a skill to learn and as I started reading sports arbitrage forums much of the talk was about how many bookmakers offered deposit bonuses as part of their promotional activity to entice new players. People on these forums would refer to these bonuses and promotions as free money that could be turned into real cash. Bookmakers try to entice people to join with a matched deposit bonus anywhere up to $500 at a time. For example, I open an account, deposit $500 and they credit $500 in bonuses in addition to my $500 cash deposit. Using arbitrage, you can turn these bonuses into real cash. On average I would turn a $100 bonus to $80 in real cash I could withdraw to use how I wished. These deposit offers still exists in many jurisdictions but only after you have established a new account first in Australia while in the USA they do not have this restriction.
My First $100 Profit
At first I was reluctant to deposit any more than $100 into a bookmakers account as it seemed a lot at the time. However, I did have about $1000 in cash and thought what do I really have to lose and just took the plunge. Before I knew it I was taking up to $500 deposit matched bonus offers with new bookmakers and converting these $500 bonuses to up to $400 in cash. I had a goal to make $10,000 over the year as at this time there were over 20+ bookmakers who would often offer these promotions. The biggest challenge I had was making the cash available to deposit as I would use the profits from one bookmaker bonus to fund the next deposit. Within 2 months I had about $4000 in cash floating around several accounts with $3000 of this all profit.
More Than Just Deposit Bonuses
Always motivated to make more off the punter bookmakers offer bets with enhanced odds, money back offers and numerous other promotional bets. An example at the time was AFL Friday night games where Sportsbet offered $2 odds to win on the favorite regardless of their true odds that were often as low as a $1.30. Given its a promotional offer the bets are usually capped at $20-$50 stakes but still a great opportunity to lock in risk free profits every week. I soon started scanning all the weekly offers from.each bookmaker I was surprised how good these offers were, essentially free money for someone like me.
Matched Betting in 2025 and Beyond
As I mentioned in the title I have made well over $100k in cash through matched betting. It took just over 3 years to hit $100k in profits through bonuses/offers and other sports arbitrage opportunities I identified through my journey. Once you use bonus and promotions bookmakers will eventually restrict your bonuses and offers as what is known as gubbing your accounts. The reality is it took a weekly commitment of 10-15 hours mainly over the weekends. Its not a business but I treated it like one. It’s a genuine tax free side hustle that can help you get ahead whether your a student, working full or part time or even unemployed.
To be successful at Matched Betting discipline is the most important part. If you have any tendency towards addiction I suggest you look at other opportunities and stay away from matched betting. If you have an interest in sports and understand basic math it does make the journey a little easier.
To Learn More about matched betting there is a community that I am part of called BONUS BANK . It’s a great way to learn how to make money Matched Betting for beginners. My chat profile is DT2010 and will be happy to chat and help to get you started on your journey. Click Here to Learn More.
Thank you and good luck!
Dave
Melbourne, Australia
P.S. If you live in the USA its a great time to be a matched better as the USA is 20 years behind Europe and Australia when it comes to Matched Betting. There are so many opportunities now regulations have opened up. There is a great community called profitduel.com if your wanting to learn to make money Matched Betting in America.1
Matched Betting 