Long overdue catch-up

It's been about a month. I've been busy, though - some wins, some losses. This will summarise what's been going on.

First, a handful of sure bets mopping up small amounts of money in my accounts:

1. Deportivo v Elche
Centrebet, 1 £6.35 @ 1.53
SkyBet X £2.16 @ 4.5
SkyBet 2 £1.14 @ 8.5
Centrebet won £9.72, a £0.07 profit.

2. Real Betis v Castellon
Bet365, 1 £13.65 @ 1.66
SkyBet, X £5.66 @ 4
SkyBet, 2 £2.67 @ 8.5
Bet365 won £22.75, a £0.77 profit.

You'll notice two bets placed at the same bookmaker. Big mistake. My SkyBet account is now flagged as an arbitrage account and my available stakes are pitifully low and unusable for sure betting.

3. Konyaspor v Denizlispor
Bet365, Konyaspor -0.5 £4.64 @ 2.1
Sportingbet X2 £5 @ 1.95
Sportingbet won £9.75, a £0.11 profit.

4. Fenerbahce v Ankaraspor
Betdirect, 1 £77.77 @ 1.62
Sportingbet, X2 £45 @ 2.8
Betdirect won £77.77, a £2.86 profit.

Now for something unexpected. I identified a very profitable sure bet in the tennis:
Federer v Roddick, First Set
Unibet, 1 £163.90 @ 1.4
888sport, 2 £55.31 @ 4
This would have netted me about a tenner, but Roddick got injured, meaning that the bet was voided with both bookmakers. Now I had £163.90 in Unibet that I didn't expect and identified another very profitable sure bet:
Hoffenheim v Wolfsburg
Betsafe, <3.5 £152.98 @ 2.25
Unibet, >3.5 £163.9 @ 2.1
In fact, the Betsafe odds were so generous, I deposited a further £50 to bet again against another bookmaker. However, after depositing my money, I was surprised to see that my account was in excess of £200. My Betsafe bet had been cancelled! The reason (after a long email argument about the rights and wrongs of such a practice):

"Betsafe.com reserves the right to declare a bet partly or totally void, at it’s on discretion, if it’s obvious that the bet was placed or accepted due to an error in typing, matchups, odds/prices etc.

This odds was switched around, and opposite of what other bookmakers offered. We also had almost same odds on over/under 2,5 and 3,5, so a case like this we consider as an obvious mistake."

So, I now had a £163.90 bet with no counter bet. I needed to minimise the loss. I joined Bwin with a deposit of £185, getting a £20 bonus for my troubles. The intention was to lay with Bwin, but my maximum stake allowed was only £81.90. So, I joined PinnacleSport too, depositing £110 and getting a £11 bonus.
Bwin, <3.5 £81.9 @ 1.7
Pinnacle, <3.5 £117.72 @ 1.741

Sods law then came into play. If I had done nothing, and been totally ignorant about the Betsafe cancellation, I would have won my Unibet bet and been quids in. As it was, this was the result:
Unibet wins £180.29, a £19.33 loss, but £31 in bonuses added, so a £11.67 profit in real terms.

Betsafe have now flagged my account as an arbitrage account, too.

Company	Money In	Money Out	Profit
Centrebet	£6.35	£9.72	£3.37
SkyBet	£11.63	£0	-£11.63
Bet365	£18.29	£22.75	£4.46
Sportingbet	£50	£9.75	-£40.25
Betdirect	£77.77	£125.63	£47.86
Unibet	£163.90	£344.19	£180.29
Bwin	£81.90	£20	-£61.90
Pinnacle	£117.72	£11	-£106.72
Total	£527.56	£543.04	£15.48
Overall Profit			£461.12

Catch-up

First, let's catch up on all the sure bets:

1. Ice Hockey, Czech Republic, Liberec v Karlovy Vary
Ladbrokes, under 5.5, £81.95 @ 2.0
Unibet, over 5.5, £79.95 @ 2.05
Unibet won £83.95, a £2 profit.

2. NHL, Anaheim Ducks v Los Angeles Kings
VCBet, over 5.5, £25.50 @ 2.0
Bet365, under 5.5 £24.88 @ 2.05
Bet365 won £26.13, a £0.63 profit.

3. FA Cup, Eastwood Town v Brackley Town
Betway, 1, £25 @ 1.95
SkyBet, X, £13.54 @ 3.6
SkyBet, 2, £8.86 @ 5.5
Betway won £23.75, a £1.35 profit.

4. Annan Athletic v Montrose
888sport, Montrose, £100 @ 2.1
Betdaq, Not Montrose, £104.48 @ 2.03
888sport won £110, Betdaq lost £107.61, a £2.39 profit.

5. Gefle v IF Elfsborg
Ladbrokes, Gefle, £37.48 @ 4.5
Betdaq, Not Gefle, £38.51 @ 4.4
Betdaq won £37.74 (£38.51 less £0.77), a £0.26 profit.

6. Alloa v Stirling
Bet24, Draw, £10 @ 3.65
Betdaq, Not Draw, £10.34 @ 3.55
Betdaq won £10.13 (£10.34 less £0.21), but this has to be offset against a £0.20 charge on the deposit of £10. The money was deposited on the premise of a free bet offer which, on closer scrutiny, was not water-tight, so was declined. Loss of £0.07 on this bet.

7. Chivas v Real Salt Lake
Canbet, Chivas -0.5, £82.68 @ 2.31
Betdirect, Real Salt Lake +0.5, £100 @ 1.91
Betdirect won £90.91, a £8.23 profit.

8. Handball, Eurpoean Women, Gyori v Ikast-Brande
Centrebet, Gyori -3.5, £71.43 @ 2.1
Ladbrokes, Ikast-Brande + 3.5, £75 @ 2.0
Ladbrokes won £75, a £3.57 profit.

9. Sweden, Djurgarden v Trelleborgs
Betdirect, Djurgarden -0.25, £22.23 @ 1.8
Canbet, Trelleborgs, +0.25, £17.32 @ 2.31
Canbet won £22.69, a £0.46 profit.

10. Chornomorets v Vorskla Poltave
SkyBet, Draw, £2.29 @ 3.0
Betfair, Not Draw, £2.44 @ 2.86
Betfair won £2.32 (£2.44 less £0.12), a £0.03 profit.

Company	Money In	Money Out	Profit
Ladbrokes	£156.95	£150	-£6.95
Unibet	£79.95	£163.90	£83.95
VCBet	£25.50	£0	-£25.50
Bet365	£24.88	£51.01	£26.13
Betway	£25	£48.75	£23.75
SkyBet	£24.69	£0	-£24.69
888sport	£100	£210	£110
Betdaq	£0	-£97.48	-£97.48
Bet24	£10.20	£0	-£10.20
Canbet	£100	£40.01	-£59.99
Betdirect	£122.23	£190.91	£68.68
Centrebet	£71.43	£0	-£71.43
Betfair	£0	£2.32	£2.32
Total	£740.83	£759.42	£18.59
Overall Profit			£445.64

Three more sure bets

Three more sure bets placed before I went on holiday. None of them too big, just using money I already had with the bookmakers rather than depositing more.

1. Football, Spanish Segunda, Hercules v CD Alaves. Unusual bet combo this one; both teams to score with Bet365 £10.98 at 2.1 and NOT both teams to score with Unibet £11.82 at 1.95.
The Unibet bet won £11.23 meaning a £0.25 profit.

2. Football, German third, Kickers Emden v SV Sandhausen. Betdirect under 2.5 goals £27.10 at 2.1 and Unibet over 2.5 goals £29.18 at 1.95.
The Unibet bet won £27.72 meaning a £0.62 profit.

3. Football, Swedish Allsvenskan, Helsingborg v Trelleborg handicap Helsingborg -0.75 with Betdirect £82.43 at 2.0 and Trelleborg +0.5/+1 with Canbet £80.42 at 2.05.
The Canbet bet won £84.44 meaning a £2.01 profit.

Company	Money In	Money Out	Profit
Bet365	£10.98	£0	-£10.98
Betdirect	£109.53	£0	-£109.53
Unibet	£41	£79.95	£38.95
Canbet	£80.42	£164.86	£84.44
Total	£241.93	£244.81	£2.88
Overall Profit			£427.05

Sportingbet free bet email

I got an email from Sportingbet saying that they would refund the first losing bet up to £50 on each of Wednesday's Champions League and Thursday's UEFA cup games. Unfortunately, I didn't read my emails until Thursday, so I missed the first bet. I contacted Sportingbet for comfirnation that this offer was for all customers. Having received the confirmation, I bet £50 on the draw between Braga and Portsmouth at 3.2, with a Betdaq lay of £32.54 at 3.4. The bet combo was designed to give profit if the bet won, or give enough leeway for the bet refund to get profit if the bet lost.
Braga beat Portsmouth 3 : 0, so my bet lost. I added £31.89 (£32.54 less £0.65) to my Betdaq account.

As my Sportingbet bet lost, I got my £50 refunded to my account. I chose to bet on a draw between Stoke and Arsenal at 4.0, with a Betdaq lay of £37.88 at 5.3.
Surprise, surprise. Stoke won 2 : 1. My Sportingbet account is empty. My Betdaq account increases by £37.12 (£37.88 less £0.76).

I received an email during the week saying that Sportingbet were doing another losing bet refund - but I was away on holiday, so couldn't take advantage.

Bet	Sportingbet	Betdaq	Difference
Initial	-£50	£31.89	-£18.11
Refunded	£0	£37.12	£37.12
Total			£19.01
Overall Profit			£424.17

Betdirect

This should really have appeared bfore the last sure bet because my Betdirect account was funded and qualifying and free bets placed first.

I had a Betdirect account for some time, but never funded it. I got correspondence from their customer service saying that my free bet was still available if I funded and bet according to the free bet Ts and Cs. I deposited £25 and bet on Arsenal to beat Fenerbahce at 2.0 - the lay with Betdaq was £24.27 at 2.08 (£26.21 liability). The free bet would be credited after the qualifying bet was settled.
A stroll in the Turkish park for Arsenal means that I am £1.21 down.

My free bet became available soon after the Arsenal result, so I bet my £25 free bet on another Champions League game, namely Bordeaux v Cfr Cluj-Napoca - the away team to win at odds of 5.0, the necessary lay was £19.69 at 5.1 (£80.73 liability).
1 : 0 to Bordeaux, and a £19.30 profit.

Bet	Betdirect	Betdaq	Difference
Qualifying	£50	-£26.21	-£1.21
Free	£0	£19.30	£19.30
Total			£18.09
Overall Profit			£405.16

Sure bet #8

A quick one, because I had available funds in both bookmakers. A cup game in Finland between Honka Espoo and Tampere Utd. The bet, under 2.5 goals with Betdirect £49.61 at 2.2 and over 2.5 goals with Unibet £59 at 1.85.
The game ended 0 : 0, so my Betdirect account returned £109.14, a £0.53 profit overall.

Company	Money In	Money Out	Profit
Betdirect	£49.61	£109.14	£59.53
Unibet	£59	£0	-£59
Total	£108.61	£109.14	£0.53
Overall Profit			£387.07

Sure bet #7

A decent sure bet this one, with profit a little shy of 4%. Asian handicap Porto -0.5/-1.0 £100 @ 2.05 with Skybet against Dynamo Kiev +0.5/+1.0 £97.16 @ 2.11 with Canbet.
Kiev won 1 : 0, so my Canbet account won £107.85.

Company	Money In	Money Out	Profit
Skybet	£100	£0	-£100
Canbet	£97.16	£205.01	£107.85
Total	£197.16	£205.01	£7.85
Overall Profit			£386.54

Winunited

I joined Winunited for no particularly good reason other than they were offering a 50% bonus. They deal entirely in euros on the site, so it's a little confusing knowing exactly how much you are wagering for the comparison with Betdaq. I used a currency converter, but there's no guarantee that I will get the rate quoted. It's a bit 'finger in the air' this one. I also suspect I may get stung by my bank account when I use the debit card to deposit.

I deposited 90 euros. This appeared in my statement as £47.78 plus a £1.50 service charge.

I bet the full 90 euros on Manchester City to beat Newcastle United at 2.45. The lay with Betdaq was £61.91 at 2.41, so a good ratio.

Update: I was really hoping that Manchester City would slip up, so I wasn't best pleased when Newcastle contrived to go a man and a goal down in the first 15 minutes. Credit to them, they turned the game around and actually lead going into the last 5 minutes. The game ended 2 : 2, and my Winunited association ended. My Betdaq account improved by £60.67.

Company	Money In	Money Out	Profit
Winunited	£49.28	£0	-£49.28
Betdaq	£0	£60.67	£60.67
Total	£49.28	£60.67	£11.39
Overall Profit			£378.69

Sure bet #6

I spotted a free bet involving Unibet, and I had £200 spare cash in my account. I used £100 of it on the end of the first half result between Liverpool and Wigan. £100 at 1.83 with Unibet, £63.10 at 2.9 with VCBet and £16.64 at 11 with 888sport.
Update: Wigan were actually leading at half time, the ref got involved in the second half, so the ended up losing, but by then my 888sport bet had already won.

Company	Money In	Money Out	Profit
Unibet	£100	£0	-£100
VCBet	£63.10	£0	-£63.10
888sport	£16.64	£183.04	£166.40
Total	£179.74	£183.04	£3.30
Overall Profit			£367.30

Sure bet #5

I now had a spare £70.25 in my Ladbrokes account. Ice hockey yet again, the country this time is Denmark, the teams Frederikshavn White Hawks and Totempo HVIK. This time I bet on the Asian handicap, £47.77 on Frederikshavn -1.5 at 2.5 with Paddy Power and £70.25 on Totempo +1.5 at 1.7 with Ladbrokes.
Update: My Ladbrokes bet won, so it increases to £119.43.

Company	Money In	Money Out	Profit
Ladbrokes	£70.25	£119.43	£49.18
Paddy Power	£47.77	£0	-£47.77
Total	£118.02	£119.43	£1.41
Overall Profit			£364

Sure bet #4

I now had a spare £51.52 in my Ladbrokes account. Ice hockey again, the country this time is Germany, the teams Kolner Haie and Fuchse Duisburg. I again bet on the final result, so there was only two possibilities. I bet the full £51.52 with Ladbrokes on Kolner Haie at odds of 1.36 and £17.52 with bet365 on Fuchse Duisburg at odds of 4.0.
Update: Kolner Haie won, so my Ladbrokes account received the winnings.

Company	Money In	Money Out	Profit
Ladbrokes	£51.52	£70.25	£18.73
Bet365	£17.52	£0	-£17.52
Total	£69.04	£70.25	£1.21
Overall Profit			£362.59

Getting the third Boylesport free bet

So, the search for the next five £50 qualifying bets begins. I will have half an eye on sure bet opportunities and the other half on closely matched bet-lay combinations.

Qualifying Bet #1:
World Cup qualifier between Bolivia and Uruguay. Bet £50 on Bolivia at 2.5 and lay £48.64 with Betdaq at 2.59.
Update: The match ended in a 2 : 2 draw, so my Betdaq account bulges by £47.67 - a £2.33 loss.

Qualifying Bet #2:
World Cup again, this time Slovakia against Poland. Bet £50 on Slovakia at 2.63 and lay £49.07 with Betdaq at 2.7.
Update: 2 : 1 to Slovakia means the Boylesports account gets the winnings.

Qualifying Bet #3:
All the games with money on, and therefore close odds with Betdaq, seem to be the World Gup group games. As is the case with the next bet. Austria v Serbia, betting £50 on a draw at 3.25 and laying £48.80 at 3.35.
Update: Austria lost 1 : 3, so my Betdaq account increases.

Boylesports has suddenly changed. As of Thursday, 16 October, I can't place any £50 bets on anything over 2.0. I keep getting re-offers at a much lower stake or am told that the bet cannot be placed at all as it poses too big a risk to the bookmaker. I contacted their online support. They told me to place the bet by phone to get the full stake, so I phoned up only to be told that the best they could offer is £10. That's no good if I'm to get a £50 free bet. Fortunately, I also received confirmation from them that any odds count as a qualifying bet, so I don't have to look for over 2.0, and also don't have to stress my Betdaq account too much.

Qualifying Bet #4:
Tennis. Andy Murray against Monfils. £50 accepted for Murray to win at 1.4. The lay is £48.60 at part 1.45 and part 1.46.
Update: Murray won easily, so my Boylesports account increases by £20 and my Betdaq decreases by £22.09.

Qualifying Bet #5:
Back to football, and probably the most predictable game of the premiership weekend - Manchester United versus West Brom. £50 qualifying bet on Man Utd at 1.2, with a lay of £50 at 1.22 (£11 liability).
Update: Almost a foregone conclusion, it finished 4 : 0 after a goalless first half. Boylesports win, Betdaq loses.

Spending the free bet was going to be hard work if I couldn't get a decent stake at decent odds, and so it proved. There were to be 14 bets in all required to work through the £50.
1. West Ham to beat Hull City, £5.40 at 3.0; lay £3.45 at 3.15
Lay wins £3.38
2. Middlesbrough to draw with Chelsea, £4.55 at 3.75; lay £3.27 at 3.85
Lay wins £3.20
3. Everton to beat Arsenal, £1.35 at 9.0; lay £1.03 at 10.5
Lay wins £1.01
4. Liverpool to draw with Wigan, £3.55 at 4.5; lay £2.65 at 4.7
Lay wins £2.60
5. Aston Villa to draw with Portsmouth, £4.55 at 3.4; lay £2.93 at 3.75
Bet wins £10.92, lay loses £8.02, profit £2.18
6. Fulham to draw with Sunderland, £4.75 at 3.3; lay £3.09 at 3.55
Bet wins £10.92, lay loses £7.88, profit £3.04
7. Boltom to draw with Blackburn, £4.75 at 3.25; lay £3.18 at 3.45
Bet wins £10.91, lay loses £7.79, profit £3.12
8. Ipswich to draw with Swansea, £2.60 at 3.4; lay £1.77 at 3.55
Bet wins £6.24, lay loses £4.51, profit £1.73
9. Hamilton to draw with St Mirren, £2.75 at 3.25; lay £1.80 at 3.45
Lay wins £1.76
10. Kilmarnock to draw with Motherwell, £2.75 at 3.25; lay £1.80 at 3.45
Lay wins £1.76
11. Hearts to beat Hiberniam, £3.10 at 3.0; lay £1.98 at 3.15
Lay wins £1.94
12. Stoke to draw with Tottenham, £5.20 at 3.4; lay £3.49 at 3.6
Lay wins £3.42
13. Sheffield Wednesday to draw with Sheffield United, £3.85 at 3.2; lay £2.40 at 3.55
Lay wins £2.35
14. Barcelona to beat Athletic Bilbao £0.75 at 1.57; no lay - can't lay less than 50p
Bet wins £0.43, no lay loss, profit £0.43

That was hard work.

Bet	Boylesports	Betdaq	Difference
1	-£50	£47.67	-£2.33
2	£81.50	-£83.42	-£1.92
3	-£50	£47.82	-£2.18
4	£20	-£22.09	-£2.09
5	£10	-£11	-£1
Free	£39.42	-£6.78	£32.64
Total			£23.12
Overall Profit			£361.38

Sure bet #3

This one was placed because I had a spare £20.90 in my bet365 account, and it used another UK-based bookmaker in a 'two possible results' scenario. The sport was ice hockey, the country Sweden, the teams Brynas and Sodertalje. Ice hockey has to have a result - they go to penalties if it's a draw. I bet £30 with Ladbrokes on Brynas at odds of 1.7 and £20.40 with bet365 on Sodertalje at odds of 2.5. This is a £0.60 win whatever happens.
Update: Brynas won 1 : 0, so my Ladbrokes account received the winnings.

Company	Money In	Money Out	Profit
Ladbrokes	£30	£51	£21
Bet365	£20.40	£0	-£20.40
Total	£50.40	£51	£0.60
Overall Profit			£338.26

Unibet

I followed an affiliate link to Unibet rather than going to the site directly and discovered that they were offering a 50% deposit up to 30 EUR. I didn't know how this converted to GBP, so I deposited £50 and got a £23.62 bonus.

I identified a sure bet between Paddy Power and Unibet in the ATP Stockholm tournament. The game between Hernandez and Minar had unusually high odds of 3.9 on Unibe, meaning that a bet of £29.64 on Hernandez and a bet on his opponent Minar on Paddy Power of £84.77 at odds of 1.36 is a guaranteed return of £115.60 and a profit of £1.19.
The Paddy Power bet lost, so I made my money with Unibet. I will give the final reckoning in a table at the end of this entry - it's complicated.

This left £43.98 in the Unibet account. I identified a qualifying bet in the American Football fixtures between Pittsburgh and Jacksonville: A £43.98 bet on Pittsburgh at 2.90 with a corresponding lay of £42.80 with Betdaq at 3.0. The actual amounts were £43.97 and £42.66 due to Unibet not allowing me to bet my entire account due to 'insufficient funds' and Betdaq not laying the entire amount.
Pittsburgh upset the form book with a 26 : 21 victory and I won £83.54 with the bookmaker and lost £85.32 with the exchange, an overall loss of £1.78.

I then received an email entitled the 'Friday Freebie' telling me to log on to PartyBets to claim a 20% bonus. Sure enough, when I logged on, the bonus was waiting for me - I got the maximum possible (£25) by depositing £125. I then thought that I may as well use the generous Unibet odds again. to bet through the bonus on PartyBets. Now, for some reason, I was unable to bet the entire amount necessary on Unibet in one single transaction - the bets needed approval - whatever that means. However, all the bets were approved and were broken down into £4.15, £38.16 and £8.46 bets on Hernandez at 3.90. I bet the full £150 on Minar at odds of 1.32.
Against all the odds (well, the 3.90 odds) Hernandez upset Minar in straight sets. My Unibet bets all win. I win £16.19, £148.82 and £32.99 with Unibet and lose £125 (£150 less £25 bonus) with PartyBets.

I received a response to my email question from Unibet support regarding the outstanding bet through amount still to be wagered. They obviously have different bonus programs depending on which affiliate link you follow, because my requirement was still £159. This works out at approximately 12 times the bonus. Fortunately, I was able to identify a sure bet that involved Unibet and allowed me to bet the full amount in one go. The sport was basketball, the bet was Buducnost £160 to win at 1.48. The other two necessary bets were both placed with Ladbrokes. The draw £11.28 at 21.0 and the win for Split CO £59.20 at 4.0. This is an overall investment of £230.48 to win from £236.80 to £236.88, about a £6.40 profit, or 2.77%.
Update: Buducnost won 85 : 68, so my Unibet bet wins AGAIN - they must think I'm psychic.

Company	Money In	Money Out	Profit
Unibet	£50	£467.15	£417.15
Paddy Power	£84.77	£0	-£84.77
PartyBets	£125	£0	-£125
Betdaq	£85.32	£0	-£85.32
Ladbrokes	£70.48	£0	-£70.48
Total	£415.57	£467.15	£51.58
Overall Profit			£337.66

Sure bet #2

I have wanted to do another sure bet to prove that it wasn't a one-off. It actually doesn't take too long to identify one. I'll need to come up with a formula for calculating the odds and required stakes, though. Here's what I came up with for the AaB v Manchester United Champions League Game.

AaB to win: £2.16 at odds of 13.0 on Betdaq is a potential £0.25 profit.
Draw: £5.61 at odds of 5.0 on Betdaq is a potential £0.22 profit.
Manchester United to win: £20.05 at odds of 1.4 on Paddy Power is a potential £0.25 profit. Worst case scenario, that's a £0.22 from a £27.82 stake, which is a 0.79% profit. But the formula is wrong! I was applying the discount on the eventual profit instead of the initial winnings, so I actually will lose those amounts with Betdaq and my only winning bet will be the Paddy Power one.

Update (Tuesday, 30 September): Manchester United won 3 : 0, so my two possible losing scenarios didn't come to pass. I lose £2.16 and £5.61 on Betdaq and win £8.02 on Paddy Power. That's an enormous profit of £0.25.

Company	Money In	Money Out	Profit
Betdaq	£7.77	£0	-£7.77
Paddy Power	£20.05	£28.07	£8.02
Total	£27.82	£28.07	£0.25
Overall Profit			£286.08

Getting the next Boylesport free bet

I got confirmation from their online help at Boylesports that I must bet on five different markets to get their next free bet. The exact words of their response (sorry about the rogue apostrophe): Placing 5 bet's on the same selection at 50 each, can be seen as attempting to abuse our offer, I would advise against that, as we have the right to withhold free bet's if irregular betting patterns are found.

With this in mind, I used my bulging Boylesports account to make the first of five £50 bets on tomorrow's Champions League game between Zenit St Petersburg and Real Madrid. Zenit St Petersburg to win at 2.88 and a Betdaq lay of £49.32 at 2.94 will mean a £1.67 loss. If I can keep each loss below £2.00 and make a £30+ profit on the free bet, I will be £20(ish) up on each of the three further free bets on offer.

Update (Tuesday, 30 September): Zenit St Petersburg 1 : 2 Real Madrid, so my first £50 qualifier loses on Boylesports, but my Betdaq lay means that I collect £48.33 (£49.32 - £0.99) meaning that I'm £1.67 down as predicted.

Update (Wednesday, 1 October): I had enough funds in my Betdaq account for two more £50 qualifying bets. I identified two minimal loss qualifying bets as West Brom to win at home to Fulham at 2.25 together with a lay of £48.91 (£64.57 liability) and Swansea to beat Wolverhampton at 2.9 together with a lay of £48.99 (£96.99 liability). Two more to find, but I am hoping both of these lose at the bookmaker to avoid me having to add funds to the exchange.

Update (Saturday, 4 October): Both bets 'won', so my Boylesport account improved, and my Betdaq account reduced to almost zero. West Brom beat Fulham by a solitary goal, and Swansea upset the league leaders Wolverhampton 3 : 1. I won £62.50 and £95 on the bets and lost £64.56 and £97 on the lays. With two more qualifying bets to go before my next free bet, I am down a further £4.06.

Update (Sunday, 5 October): My next qualifying bet required a deposit of £55 into my Betdaq account to cover the lay. £50 on Osasuna to beat Racing Santander at 2.1 with a lay of £48.61 at 2.18. Osasuna lost 0 : 1, so my Betdaq account improved by £47.64 (£48.61 - £0.97), a £2.36 loss. One more qualifying bet to go.

Update (Thursday, 9 October): My final qualifying bet of £50 was on Georgia to beat Cyprus at odds of 2.10, a Betdaq lay of £49.53 at 2.14 counters the bet with a loss of £1.46.
Update (Saturday, 11 October): The game ended in a 1 : 1 draw, so my £50 bet lost and I won £48.54 (£49.53 less £0.99 commission) on Betdaq.

Update (Saturday, 11 October): Logged into my Boylesports account and discovered that my free bet was already available. I wasn't expecting to have the bet until my last qualifying bet was resolved. I had about £53 in my Betdaq account, so I bet on the Czech Republic to beat Poland at 2.63 with the £50 free bet. The lay was £30.41 (a £51.70 liability) at 2.7.
Poland beat the Czech Republic 2 : 1, so my free bet lost and I won £29.80 (£30.41 less £0.61) with Betdaq.

Bet	Boylesports	Betdaq	Difference
1	-£50	£48.33	-£1.67
2	£62.50	-£64.56	-£2.06
3	£95	-£97	-£2
4	-£50	£47.64	-£2.36
5	-£50	£48.54	-£1.46
Free	£0	£29.80	£29.80
Total			£20.25
Overall Profit			£285.83

Paddy Power Email

I was already a member of Paddy Power when I started the experiment, so couldn't include the free bet received from them. In fact, I probably squandered it on a long shot which I thought was a dead cert. I do receive emails from them, though, and one I received on Friday, 26 September caught my eye. The title was 'A Free Bet From Paddy Power!'. The contents of the email detailed a free bet of £10 for a £10 wager. Seemed to fit the requirements of the experiment, so I quickly logged into their site and wagered on the popular Everton v Liverpool game. £10 Liverpool to win at 2.2 was matched exactly by a Betfair lay of £10.53 at 2.14 - this is a £0.00 qualifying bet.

I used my £10 free bet on the almost as popular Middlesbrough v West Brom match. A 5.5 bet was countered on Betfair with a 5.5 lay of £8.26.

Update (Monday, 29 September): Liverpool won, but that match made no difference to my overall profit. West Brom also won, so my Paddy Power account increased by £45 while my Betfair account reduced by £37.17 - a £7.83 profit. The overall total increases to £265.58.

Going through my emails, I got a similar Paddy Power email one month previously, which I missed. I won't make that mistake again.

Boylesports

I was reluctant to join Boylesports because their registration form was not secure. I was concerned that my credit card details would be transmitted unencrypted over the web. You can actually register without supplying your card details and then register the card once logged in. Strangely this registration IS secure.

I deposited the required amount of £50 to be able to get the full free bet, and again chose the Everton v Liverpool derby as my qualifier. The odds have stretched a little for Liverpool, but I still managed a fairly good deal. A bet of £50 at 2.15 and a lay of £49.09 at 2.21 means I'll only be down £1.89. That's brought the Betdaq funds down a little.

My free bet became available before the weekend fixtures and I chose West Brom to beat Middlesbrough at 5.5, with a Betdaq lay at 5.5 as well. The higher the odds when betting a free bet, the bigger the profit, but you need lots more in your exchange account to cover it.

Update (Monday, 29 September): Liverpool beat Everton and West Brom beat Middlesbrough, meaning that both my Boylesports bets won. The Liverpool qualifying bet lost me £1.64, which was countered by the West Brom free bet which won me £35.75. The overall total advances to £257.75.

Pagebet

I noticed Pagebet on Setanta - they were displaying a quote from someone who worked for pagebet.com regarding the next Newcastle United manager. I thought I'd take a look and they were offering a free £25 bet for an initial £25 stake.

Having deposited my £25, I checked out the weekend's Premiership fixtures. Pagebet don't display their odds in decimals, so every bet has to be worked out. Luckily for me, the first fixture fitted the bill - Everton v Liverpool. I plumped for Liverpool at 11/10, which is 2.1 at £25 and a corresponding Betdaq lay at 2.16. This works out as a £0.96 loss for a qualifying bet, which is more than acceptable. I should get my free bet within 24 hours, so maybe I can bet again on the same fixture.

Update (Thursday, 25 September): Pagebet DO display their odds as decimals, it's a configurable preference, which makes life a lot easier. I got my £25 free bet today, so quickly used it to bet on Sunderland to do the business over Aston Villa at Villa Park at odds of 6.0. A corresponding Betdaq lay of £17.91 at odds of 7.0 should mean a £17.55 profit.

Update (Monday, 29 September): Sunderland failed to do the business, so I lost my free bet. Liverpool on the other hand did beat Everton fairly easily, so my Pagebet account has not been obliterated, which means that a withdrawal of funds will be required. For the record, my Liverpool qualifying bet lost me £0.95 and my Sunderland free bet won me £17.55, an overall profit of £16.60 meaning that the grand total now stands at £223.64.

Interwetten

The experiment must continue, but now I'm having to join the sites I have previously identified and passed over, due to them having betting through clauses. I chose Interwetten as they appear quite often in Sure Bets listings. I deposited my £60 and after a 5 minute delay for 'manual processing' it showed in my account along with a £30 bonus. There's also a 3% charge for card deposits, so that's £1.80 down already.

Now, the stake AND bonus needs to be wagered 5 times before it can be withdrawn. Ideally, I want to lose this as quickly as possible, like PartyBets, but football being football (West Ham were evens to win but still lost), and not having much funds in the Betdaq account, I selected relatively low odds by choosing Osasuna to beat Deportivo La Coruna tomorrow (Wednesday). The odds were 2.3 on the bookmaker site and 2.4 on the exchange, so not too bad, and a calculated loss of £4.76. If I can keep the loss below £5 for each of the bet throughs, I should still make a profit.

Update (Wednesday, 24 September): Couldn't have gone better - my Interwetten account is nullified after the first bet with Osasuna failing to beat 10 man Deportivo (0 : 0). I lose my £60 + £1.80, but win £85.23 (£86.97 - £1.74 commission) with Betdaq, a profit of £23.43. The overall profit now stands at £207.04.

PartyBets

I finally found the first deposit bonus terms and conditions for PartyBets. They match your first £25 immediately. So, I deposited £25 and got £50 to bet with straight away. The bonus must be bet a number of times at odds of at least 2.0, so I immediately bet the full £50 on the Carling Cup game between Watford and West Ham, with West Ham to win at odds of 2.0. A corresponding lay (roughly) with Betdaq means that, if West Ham win, I get £75 profit with the bookmaker, but lose £53.10 on the exchange. Alternatively, I get £47.80 with the exchange, but lose £25 with the bookmaker. No point talking overall profit until I am in a position to withdraw or have lost the bonus through betting.

Update (Tuesday, 23 September): Watford beat West Ham by 1 : 0 meaning that my PartyBets account was reduced to nothing in no time at all. I won £46.84 (£47.80 - £0.96 commission) with Betdaq and lost my £25 deposit with PartyBets, which is a £21.84 profit. The overall profit goes up to £183.61.

Sure Bets

I have been looking into this for a while - plus I had £10 in my Canbet account.

On site Odds1X2, there is a Sure Bets section. Most of the bets have a percentage gain of about 2%, but include Betfair as one of the bookies. If you're paying 5% commission, then this is not going to make it profitable.

I found a bet which pitted Canbet against Bet365, which supposedly gave a 0.42% profit. The website calculator is a bit rubbish, but it's fairly easy to knock one up yourself with Excel. To test it out, I added £11 to my Bet365 account, and bet £9.80 on Sporting Gijon +1 over Barcelona with the Asian handicap with Canbet at odds of 2.13 (still with me?) and £11 on Barcelona -1 over Sporting Gijon with Bet365 at odds of 1.9. Now, if I've worked this out correctly, I stand to make £0.07 with Canbet or £0.10 with Bet365. "Next year, we'll be millionaires!"

Update: A bit one sided, this - Sporting Gijon 1 : 6 Barcelona. My Bet365 bet is the winner, meaning that I am £0.10 up on the bet pair (I won £9.90 and lost £9.80 on the Canbet wager). The overall profit goes up to £161.77.

Bet24

I deposited £60 with Bet24. This cost an additional £1.20 - a 2% charge for using a credit card, despite me using a debit card. This will have to be taken off the profit on settling the account. To get my £30 bonus, I was required to claim it by email and send a government issued ID. They confirmed that this was a driver's license or passport, so I sent the encrypted ZIP file used with IASBet (less passport and debit card images). They credited my account within 30 minutes of me sending the details.

I decided to bet the full £90 on West Ham beating Newcastle at odds of 2.05 (a potential £124.50 profit). I laid £88.28 using Betdaq at odds of 2.11 (a £97.99 liability).

Update (Sunday, 21 September): West Ham beat Newcastle 3 : 1, giving Gianfranco Zola his first win as manager of the Hammers. I contacted Bet24 by email to clarify the terms and conditions regarding betting through the bonus before I can withdraw. Interestingly, because I bet the deposit and bonus as my first bet, this counts as betting my bonus through 3 of the 4 times, so I only need to bet £30 through once more before I can withdraw. I emailed them again to make sure.

For my final bet through, I put my £30 stake on Chelsea to beat Manchester United at 2.13 - the Betdaq lay was £28.53 at 2.26 (a £35.94 liability) and a loss of £2.04. There were cheaper bets, but I didn't have enough money in the Betdaq account to cover and was reluctant to put any more money in.

Update: Chelsea 1 : 1 Manchester United, so my Bet24 bonus is 'lost'. I win £27.96 (£28.53 less £0.57 commission) with Betdaq. This means that I have put in £60 + £1.20 + £97.99 into the Bet24 wagers and got £154.50 + £27.96 out. This is a net gain of £23.27. The overall total goes up to £161.67.

Bet Freddest

My second BetFred £50 free bet was awarded very promptly, and - now having funds to play with in my Betdaq account - I set to work identifying a Champions League bet. I went for a draw between Basle and Shakhtar Donetsk at odds of 3.25 with a corresponding lay of £33.28 at odds of 3.4 (a £79.87 liability). Now, Betfair were offering better lay odds of 3.35, but, with their commission at 5%, I was actually better off laying with Betdaq at the slightly higher odds but a lower 2% commission.

Update (Tuesday, 16 September): Basle 1 : 2 Shakhtar Donetsk, so I lost my free bet, but won £32.61 (£33.28 less £0.67 commission) on the Betdaq exchange, meaning that the overall profit moves to £117.37

IASBet - Betting Through Again

One more bet required before I can withdraw my free bet winnings from IASBet. I identified a PSG win against Nantes at odds of 1.62 and bet the required £112.50. I laid £114.62 (£73.36 liability) with Betfair at 1.64. A 1 : 0 win later and I 'won' my bet and have an overall loss of £3.61 on the bet BUT NOW I CAN WITHDRAW. I will wait for my first withdrawal to be processed before I process this one, though, and I won't be applying any of the profits or losses from the IASBet experience until I know exactly how much each transaction has cost.

Update (Tuesday, 16 September): My first withdrawal of £111 appeared in my bank account today IN FULL! I will now attempt to withdraw the rest of the IASBet winnings.

Requested my winnings using their Live Chat facility, which is excellent. If I get the full £211.50 that's in my account, and I've no reason to think otherwise, the whole IASBet experience had the following result:

£53.35 to deposit £50 (down £3.35).
£61 winnings on qualifying bet countered by a £63.72 exchange loss (down £2.72, overall down £6.07 - this £2.72 has already been taken into account as regards the overall total profit in an earlier post).
£112.50 winnings on free bet countered by a £82.39 exchange loss (up £30.11, overall up £24.04).
£29.25 winnings on first bet through of free bet winnings countered by a £31.37 exchange loss (down £2.12, overall up £21.92).
£69.75 winnings on second bet through of free bet winnings countered by a £73.36 exchange loss (down £3.61, overall up £18.31).

My overall profit is now £138.40.

Update (Sunday, 21 September): My bank account is showing the latest withdraw from IASBet and no commission charges.

Betdaq

The Betfair climate appears to be changing. They are about to start charging a fee for profitable accounts. Betdaq, recognising customer dissatisfaction have reduced their commission to 2% (if you ask for it) until the end of the year. They are also offering a £25 bet. In fact, they gave me the free bet retrospectively because I hadn't deposited and placed my first bet yet. The free bet calculator doesn't cater for exchange to exchange i.e. commission charged at both ends, so my betting was based on Betdaq being the bookmaker. For my £25 qualification bet, I chose Napoli to beat Fiorentina at 2.77, with a corresponding lay of £25.18 with Betfair at 2.8 (a £45.32 liability).

Update (Sunday, 14 September 2008): Napoli beat Fiorentina 2 : 1, so I won (£44.25 less £0.89 commission) and lost £45.33 with Betfair, meaning an overall loss of £1.97. This puts the overall total at £84.76 with a free bet to come.

IASBet - Betting Through

Got confirmation from IASBet online help that I can bet through the free bet winnings at any odds. Identified a close match between betting odds and lay odds for an Inter Milan win against Catania. A £112.50 bet at odds of 1.26 with a corresponding lay of £116.19 at 1.27 is a £31.37 liability and a guaranteed loss of just £2.12. I know this goes against the recommendation from Bet72, but I just don't have that much in my Betfair account at the moment.

Update (Sunday, 14 September 2008): Inter Milan duly beat Catania 2 : 1 despite playing the whole of the second half with 10 men, so my IASBet account improved by £29.25 and my Betfair account depreciated by £31.37, meaning a loss (as predicted) of £2.12. I won't update the overall total until all monies have been reclaimed from IASBet as we still have the unknown element of the exchange rate to contend with.

Bet Fredder

I now need to bet 5 lots of £10 at odds of at least 2.0 (Ts and Cs says cumulative, but I would rather avoid the possibility of miscalculation and make each bet viable) to get my next free bet of £50. I have £105 in the BetFred kitty from the qualifying bet win.

First £10 qualifying bet: Cardiff City to beat Bristol City at 2.1 with a corresponding lay stake of £9.77 at 2.2, which is a £11.72 liability and a guaranteed loss of £0.72.
Update (Sunday, 14 September 2008): Stalemate 0 : 0, so the Betfair account improved by £9.28 (£9.77 less £0.49) which is an overall loss of £0.72.

Second £10 qualifying bet: Identified Bordeaux to beat Marseille at 2.38, so laid at 2.52 with a stake of £14.65 THEN BET ON AUXERRE BY MISTAKE! Their odds were the same - so now I still have to bet on Bordeaux and then lay on Auxerre. So, to clarify:

Second £10 qualifying bet: Bordeaux to beat Marseille at 2.38 with a corresponding lay stake of £9.64 at 2.52, which is a £14.65 liability and a guaranteed loss of £0.85.
Update (Sunday, 14 September 2008): A 1 : 1 draw, so the Betfair account improved by £9.16 (£9.64 less £0.48) which is an overall loss of £0.84.

Third £10 qualifying bet: Auxerre to beat Nancy at 2.38 with a corresponding lay stake of £9.41 at 2.58, which is a £14.87 liability and a guaranteed loss of £1.07 - about £0.20 too much. More care needed.
Update (Sunday, 14 September 2008): Another 1 : 1 draw, so the Betfair account improved by £8:94 (£9.41 less £0.47) which is an overall loss of £1.06.

Fourth £10 qualifying bet: Stuttgart to beat Hoffenheim at 2.38 with a corresponding lay stake of £9.79 at 2.48, which is a £14.49 liability and a guaranteed loss of £0.70.
Update (Sunday, 14 September 2008): Another stalemate 0 : 0, so the Betfair account improved by £9.30 (£9.79 less £0.49) which is an overall loss of £0.70.

Fifth £10 qualifying bet: Roma to beat Palermo at 2.2 with two corresponding lay stakes of £5.47 at 2.32, which is an £7.22 liability and £4.18 at 2.34, which is a £5.60 liability and an overall guaranteed loss of £0.82 if Roma win and £0.84 if they don't. Not enough money in the lay to do a single bet.
Update (Sunday, 14 September 2008): Palermo beat Roma 3 : 1, so the Betfair account improved by £9.17 (£9.65 less £0.48) which is an overall loss of £0.83. The cumulative loss is £4.15, which reduces the overall profit to £86.73

BetFred

I decided to trust BetFred as their credit/debit card entry form is secure, although they would improve customer confidence if they didn't hide that fact by putting it in an IFRAME.

I deposited my £50 and bet on there being more than 2.5 goals in the Slovakia v Northern Ireland game at odds of 2.1. A Betfair lay of £48.84 at 2.2 meant that a 2 : 1 Slovakia win resulted in a £55 win with BetFred and a £58.61 loss with Betfair which is a loss of £3.61 meaning the profit is down to £59.17.

I got the free bet 24 hours later and bet on the match between Iceland and Scotland being a draw (match is on the 10th September). This had odds of 3.25, so the £50 free bet will return £112.50 if it wins. I had to lay twice with Betfair as the odds I wanted didn't have enough money behind them. I laid £20.40 at odds of 3.4 and £12.98 at odds of 3.45. This means that I will make a £31.74 profit if the match ends in a draw and a £31.71 profit if it doesn't. I will update the overall profit after the event.
Update: Scotland won 1 : 2, so my profit from this free bet is £31.71. My overall profit now stands at £90.88.

IASBet - Continued

Well. I've provided them with everything short of a DNA sample and they are still saying they don't have enough information to process my withdrawal. To make matters worse, Serena Williams only went and won the US Open, so my free bet was a winner. I will have to study closely the Ts and Cs to make sure that I bet correctly and don't forfeit the winnings - if my experience so far with IASBet is anything to go by.

The folks at bet72 advise that the best way to treat rollover type free bets (i.e. the type of bets that require you to bet the winnings a number of times before you can withdraw) is to try and lose them as quickly as possible, thus boosting the Betfair account rather than the betting site account. I won £112.50 with my free bet, and have double checked with IASBet that I will have to make bets totalling £225 before I can withdraw.

It appears that the ZIP file I sent them with my international bank details may have become corrupted, so I will try and send it a second time.

Update (Wednesday, 10 September 2008): Got confirmation today that the ZIP file was not corrupted, and they have my bank details. It's just a case of telling them how much I want to withdraw now ... maybe I'll check the exchange rate first.

Update (Thursday, 11 September 2008): Sent email telling them I would like to withdraw my first bet winnings without touching my free bet winnings. They have processed a withdrawal of £111 for me with assurances that my free bet winnings have not been affected.

IASBet - The Full Story

My deposit of £50 needn't have been. They should have given me my free bet for a £25 deposit. That was the first piece of misleading information from IASBet.

My £50 deposit actually cost me £51.85 - I'm presuming that the difference is in the currency conversion. I was also charged £1.50 by my bank. This is a loss of £3.35 before I even began to bet. Add to this the £2.72 loss from the qualifying bet, and I'm £6.07 down.
From the website (the exchange rate must be lousy):
All foreign currency credit/debit card deposits are billed at the CBA universal foreign exchange rate of the day.

My IASBet account is showing £111 and their online chat help informed me that I could withdraw without losing my free bet.

There are rules that Australian betting sites have to adhere to regarding fraud prevention, apparently. This means that the VISA debit card I used to deposit has to be verified, and my identity has to be verified before they will honour any withdrawal requests. This involves sending them an image of both sides of the debit card and enough photographic, address and signatory evidence to satisfy their scoring system. This effectively meant me sending images of my driver's license and my passport. I used encrypted WinZip to send the images by email.

The withdrawal request still didn't go through. Apparently, they don't process withdrawals back onto the debit card used for deposit if it is not Australian. This is contrary to the website which states:

We are unable to process withdrawals to MasterCard holders outside Australia. In the event that you have deposited via MasterCard and wish to make a withdrawal, you will be required to register your card prior to withdrawing to an alternative mechanism (i.e. bank transfer, NETeller, or Moneybookers). To register your card, please submit a legible copy of the front and back of your MasterCard and suitable government-issued identification.

In all other instances, all winnings must be withdrawn to the same card from which the initial deposit was made. Withdrawals to debit/credit cards typically take 5 business days.

I would interpret that as meaning that I CAN use by VISA debit card as the withdrawal mechanism, but I'm being told that I will have to send my bank details for an international bank transfer. I will probably lose money on the exchange rate again.

As far as the free bet is concerned, similar to CanBet, their free bet options are extremely limited. The one with the soonest result is the winner of the US Open Women's tennis. I bet my £50 free bet on Serena Williams to win at 3.25 with a corresponding lay of £31.69 at 3.6 (liability £82.39). This will give a £30.11 profit, but I can't withdraw the winnings without betting it through twice. We'll cross that bridge ...

Update: Just spoke to a nice man from Australia who phoned me while I was using the online chat. He has clarified the situation. I will need to supply my international account details, including IBAN and Swift codes if I am ever to see my money.

Sky+++

The final £10 free bet from Sky Bet became available and, with a sparsity of football bets available, I decided to bet on the tennis. In particular, the Del Potro v Murray quarter final match. I bet on Del Potro winning 3 sets to 1 at odds of 7.0 with a lay of £8.39 at 7.2 (£52.02 liability). This converts into a guaranteed profit of £7.97.
Update:Murray won by 3 sets to 1 and I won £7.97 (£8.39 less £0.42 commission) with Betfair meaning the overall profit is now £62.78

IASBet

I don't know how this one will turn out, but, having contacted customer support and got a positive response, I deposited £50 into IASBet. Following the Ts and Cs, I bet my entire deposit on there being more than 2.5 goals in the Sunderland v Manchester City game at odds of 2.22, and laid with Betfair £49.78 at odds of 2.28 (£63.72 liability).
Update: Shaun Wright-Phillips return game in Man City colours is a fairy-tale. He scores twice in a 0 : 3 win, and I win £61.00 with IASBet meaning a £2.72 loss. The overall profit is down to £54.81 with a free bet to come (in theory) - but that will be another story.

Ladbrokes

A £0.43 loss qualifying bet has been set up with Ladbrokes. The bet is that Wigan will beat Hull at 2.87 with the lay at 2.9.
Update: Hull were comprehensively beaten 0 : 5 by Wigan, so my Ladbrokes account now shows £28.75, my Betfair account is down by £19.13 and my overall profit is down to £52.38.

I used the £10 free bet on a Celtic win in the Old Firm Derby at odds of 2.1 with a lay of £5.42 (£5.85 liability) giving a guaranteed profit of £5.15.
Update: Celtic lost to Rangers 2 : 4 and I won £5.15 (£5.42 less £0.27) with Betfair making the overall profit £57.53.

Sky++

The third free £10 bet from Sky Bet became available in time for the midweek games. I bet on the Liverpool v Standard Liege Champions League qualifier, identifying the Half time/Full time bet of Draw/Liverpool as having the best bet/lay ratio of 5/5.1. A £10 bet together with a £7.92 lay (£32.48 liability) on Betfair gives an overall profit of £7.52 no matter what happens.
Update: Liverpool and Standard Liege couldn't muster a goal between them in normal time, so I win £7.52 (£7.92 less 5.05%) with Betfair making the total profit £52.76.

Candidates

I thought it about time I listed some of the sites I'm yet to join, or am expected to join but not yet mentioned.

Paddy Power, William Hill, Totesport, VCBet, BetDirect, BetHiLo and Coral have already been joined before the experiment started.

I cannot find the details and Ts and Cs of the free bets for bet-at-home.com, PartyBets, bwin, Spreadfair, GameBookers, IASBet and Mansion.
Update: bet-at-home.com 100% bonus, but deposit and bonus must be wagered three times before withdrawal.
IASBet $100 bonus for a $50 deposit, but free bet winnings must be turned over two times in full before withdrawal. Email from the company regarding deposit requirement and possible association with Canbet:
"Just to confirm you may claim this offer and you will need to deposit 50GBP thank you."

Bet24 will give a £30 bonus for a £60 DEPOSIT (not bet). The catch here is that this bonus MUST be wagered at odds of at least 1.5 four times before a withdrawal can be made.

BetSafe will give a £20 bonus for a £40 DEPOSIT (not bet). Similar catch to Bet24 in that the bonus must be turned over at least 10 times before withdrawal.

BetUK will give a £25 bonus for a £25 DEPOSIT (not bet), but the catch here is that to get the bonus, you have to place bets totalling £100 at odds of at least 2.0, and the bonus must be bet through three times.

expekt.com will give a 100% first deposit bonus up to £25. You have to email them with your customer number and deposit amount to get the bonus. The deposit AND bonus must be turned over at least three times at odds of at least 1.50.

intertops.com give a £10 free bet for a £10 deposit, but - get this - the free bet must be rolled over at least 16 (sixteen) times before it can be withdrawn.

Interwetten is another site with a multiple wager clause. They will give a £30 bonus for a £60 deposit, but you have to wager the total deposited, including bonus at least five times at odds of at least 2.0 before a payout can be requested.

Lasseters also have a multiple wager clause. £30 bonus for a £120 deposit, but you have to wager the full deposit AND bonus three times before a withdrawal is permitted.

Unibet give a £10 bonus for a £10 deposit, but require that you turn over the bonus amount six times before a withdrawal is possible.
Update (Tuesday, 23 September): I can't find the bonus details on their site any more.

WinUnited give a £25 bonus for a £50 deposit, but the deposit and bonus must be turned over five times before withdrawal.

BetFred, CentreBet, MyBet, Stan James, Sunderlands and Boylesports do not have a secure registration form.

Good candidates:
Betway is a no hidden clauses £25 matched free bet site.
Update: Betway have a 1.75% fee on Credit/Debit card deposits.
Eurobet gives a 20% bonus of the first deposit up to a maximum of £20 (so £100 deposit required). You need to quote AFFWIN during the registration process. What is unclear and will need to be investigated is whether the bonus will be paid even though I'm already a member of the partner company Coral.
Update: Email response from Eurobet "We would like to inform you that even if eurobet and coral are sisters sites the promotions they offer are not linked between them."
Ladbrokes will give a £10 free bet for a £10 wager. Information cannot be found directly on the site, but via affiliation links. I will check with their customer support if it is valid.
Update: Email response from Ladbrokes "I can confirm that free bets are credited upon the settlement of your qualifying bet."

BGBet Free Bet

I got my free bet from BGBet and identified the draw between Portsmouth and Manchester United as being the closest bet/lay match at 3.5/3.55. A £25 bet with a lay of £17.86 (£45.54 liability) means that I will make a £16.96 profit no matter what happens in the Monday night live game ... although I'm a little concerned that the bet may not be honoured. I withdrew my £55 before I placed the free bet so my account is £0.00 at the moment. Watch this space - I will update this post with the match result and whether the bet was honoured on Monday night.
Update: Portsmouth 0 : 1 Manchester United means that the free bet lost any way, and the money was made with the exchange. £17.86 - £0.89 is a profit of £16.97, which makes the overall profit £45.24.

Incidentally, setting up an account with BGBet means that you won't be able to get free bets with the following companies: Corbettsports, CasinoRed, Scotbet or Chas Kendall. In fact, if you do set up an account while your BGBet free bet is still outstanding or yet to be settled, you will find (according to the Ts and Cs) that the bet is voided.

I quite like the look of BetFred as the next site to join. £100 in free bets to be had - £50 initially, and another £50 after 5 more bets of at least £10. However, on closer inspection, it appears that their registration form is unsecured, so I won't be joining them.

Sky+

The second free £10 Sky Bet became available and I bet on Wednesday's game between Denmark and Spain - Spain to win at 2.2 (6/5). I laid against Spain on Betfair to the tune of £5.38 (£6.89 liability). This essentially means a £5.11 profit no matter what happens. I won't add to the overall profit until I can say what the actual result is (which won't be for another 48 hours).

Still with £63 left in the Betfair pot, I signed up with BGBet, another site offering a £25 free bet. I identified the closest bet/lay ratio being an away win on the Bosnia-Herzegovina v Bulgaria match. A 2.2 to 2.2/2.22 ratio means just a £0.92 loss for the qualifying bet. Again the match won't be played until Wednesday. I get my free bet within 24 hours of the match finishing.

Update on Thursday 21st August 00:11:
Denmark 0 : 3 Spain (seems Alonso is happier in a Spain shirt than a Liverpool one), so I lost £6.89 on Betfair but won £12.00 on Sky Bet, a £5.11 profit as predicted.
Bosnia 1 : 2 Bulgaria, so I lost £30.92 on Betfair but won £30 on BGBet, a £0.92 loss as predicted.

I am now £28.27 up with a £25 free bet and two £10 free bets pending.

Sky

I got an email from ipoints detailing a free bet offer from Sky Bet. Bet £10, get £40 in free bets. Four lots of £10 bets each, the first one available immediately, the other three being enabled over the next three weeks. I was low in funds on Betfair, so a £10 bet would allow for a small lay. I bet on Everton to beat Blackburn Rovers at odds of 2.0 and laid £9.76 (£10.73 liability) as my qualifier. This is a £0.73 loser no matter what happens.

I got my free bet immediately, and bet on Tottenham Hotspur to travel to Middlesbrough and win. The free bet of £10 carried odds of 2.375 which was better than the exchange of 2.34. The required lay was £6.00 (£8.05 liability) which meant I would be £5.70 up no matter what happened.

Everton lost 2 : 3 and Tottenham lost 2 : 1 which meant that both lays were successful and my Betfair account improved. Overall, I was £24.08 up with three further free £10 bets to come.

Bet freer

I'm still down, but not as bad as it was - £42.58. Time to cash in on those SportingBet and Jaxx free bets.

Jaxx first. I bet £25 on Legia Warsaw to draw with FC Moscow in UEFA Cup qualification at odds of 3.2 and countered with a lay of £15.49 (£40.28 liability). Overall profit would be £14.72 no matter what the result.

On SportingBet I chose the match between FC Haka and Brondby and bet £50 on Brondby to win at odds of 2.0. Now, as this was a refunded bet, I could treat it as a free bet stake returned so I laid £48.65 (£53.03 liability). If Brondby won, I would be £46.97 in profit, otherwise, I would be £46.21 (£48.65 less 5%) in profit.

FC Haka got one hell of a beating 0 : 4 by Brondby and I was £46.97 up. These two bets made all the difference to the overall deficit and I was now £19.11 IN PROFIT!

Bluesq, Bury and Burnley

Now for a tale of fortune. About time that lady luck smiled upon me. I joined Bluesq with a £25 deposit and bet it on the Bury v Burnley game. I bet on Burnley to win at odds of 2.0 and countered with a 2.12 Betfair lay of £24.15 (£27.05 liability) - a £2.05 loss. Bluesq gave their £25 free bet immediately, so I thought - why not bet on the Bury v Burnley match again. So I set up the same £25 bet on Bluesq and laid £12.08 (liability £13.53) at 2.12 on Betfair. The bet was not immediately matched, but I wasn't overly concerned. Then, at kick-off, all bets were suspended. This was a game that didn't provide in running betting and my bet would never be matched. Unless Burnley won the game, I would be out of pocket with Bluesq.

Five minutes before half time, Paterson gave Burnley the lead. I was OK as long as Bury didn't grab an equaliser. I watched the match on Betfair's live scores service. 90 minutes showed on the clock still 0 : 1. Then the score changed - 0 : 2 - Paterson again - my money was safe. That's how it ended and the upshot of this mistake was that I was up £22.95 (£50 - £27.05). The overall deficit was down to £42.58.

Bet free

Just so we don't lose sight of the ultimate target, we need to be in positive territory for the experiment to be a success, and at the moment, we're £75.17 in the wrong direction. Another day brought an opportunity to redress the balance slightly, as the 888sport and Canbet free bets became available.

I chose to bet that Dundee United would beat Hamilton at odds of 2.1 on 888sport and matched this with a Betfair lay of £12.91 (£15.23 liability) giving a profit of £12.27 no matter what happened.

Canbet proved a little more problematic. The available football events to use their free wager on were limited to long term competitions such as the eventual winners of the Premiership, F.A. Cup and Champions League, so I reluctantly turned my attention to horse racing. Even here, the free bet was only available on the next race, so meant betting on a volatile market - which, for risk free betting, I found to be extremely difficult.

I found I could split my free bet, so - being a horse racing novice - I decided to split into two £15 bets. My first bet was on Bartica at odds of 5.5 in the second race at Windsor. When I crossed to Betfair to set up the lay, the odds started lengthening, and my lay was never matched. Bartica started the race at odds of 8 and may be still running as far as I know.

My second bet was on the third race at Windsor and I tried to identify a horse with more stable (no pun intended) odds. I chose Rum Jungle at 3.3 and set up a 3.45 lay of £10.15 (£24.86 liability) on Betfair. Again the odds started drifting, and - at the start of the race - the bet had not been matched, but I flagged the lay as keep, and abandoned all hope of getting any money from this free bet.

Rum Jungle didn't win, but, for a time, it must have been in the running, because my bet WAS matched and I won £9.64 (£10.15 - 5%). This brought the overall deficit down to £65.53.

The next round

Undaunted, I continued setting up the free bets. The next candidate was 888sport. A wager of £25 will result in a £25 free bet (although as of Friday 15th August, that offer seems to have disappeared). I chose to bet on the Community Shield between Manchester United and Portsmouth. A draw offered odds of 3.4 and I offset this with a lay of £23.94 (£62.24 liability) at 3.6, a loss of £2.25 no matter what the result of the game. As it happened, Darren Fletcher sat on the ball when it was easier to score, Tevez was rugby tackled in the penalty area but the referee stared at it but didn't see it and the game finished 0 : 0. A draw - not affected by the resulting penalty shootout which Manchester United won 3 : 1. The overall pot showed a loss of £75.10.

I then turned my attention to Canbet who were offering a variety of free bet options, the best (in my opinion) being a £30 free bet for a £20 stake. I bet my £20 on the Irish Premier League game between Patricks Athletic and Drogheda. I bet that there would be nothing to separate the two sides and it would finish in a draw at odds of 3.2. I managed to get lay odds of 3.1 which meant that my loss was limited to £0.07. "Paul Keegan struck his first goal of the season to hand Drogheda United a precious win over title challengers St Patrick's Athletic." The overall loss was now £75.17.

Another day, another gamble

Three companies down (SportingBet, bet365 and Jaxx), two pending free bets and a deficit of £12.61.

The next betting site identified was extrabet. Joined via Quidco to get £25 cashback. Here's the free bet offer: Open an account ... and we'll automatically match your first bet stake with a Free Bet of up to £25 on the same selection. A great, no-hassle way of doing the free bet in my opinion. I bet £25 (effectively £50) on there being more than 2.5 goals in the Celtic v St. Mirren game at odds of 1.67. I countered with a Betfair lay of £35.03. If there were less than 2.5 goals, I would lose £25 with extrabet, but win £33.28 (£35.03 - 5%) with Betfair. If there were more than 2.5 goals, I would lose £25.22 with the lay and win £33.50 with the bet. Either way, this was an £8.28 profit.

But now I really messed up.

The next betting site identified was betinternet.com (£10 Quidco cashback). I read the terms and conditions incorrectly and saw what I wanted to see rather than what was written. I bet £25 on Celtic to beat St. Mirren by 1 : 0 at odds of 7.0 - this would have returned £175 (£150 + £25 stake) if it won. The terms of the free bet were Simply place your first single bet of £10 (or the equivalent in your preferred currency) or more, at odds of evens (2.00) or above, on any of the sports markets covered by betinternet.com, and first time new account customers will receive a 50% cashmatch bonus upto the value of £25. I think it was the word cashmatch that threw me. I interpreted this as they would match your bet with a 50% matching stake, effectively betting £37.50 on the Celtic 1 : 0 win. I essentially assumed that this site handled free bets in the same way as extrabet.com. With that thought in my head, I set up the counter-bet on Betfair.

I laid £33.11 against a Celtic 1 : 0 win at 7.6, which was a liability of £218.52, but the bet would only win me £150 rather than the £225 I thought. So - if Celtic DID win 1 : 0, I would be £68.52 out of pocket on this bet.

In the 61st minute, with the game 0 : 0, St. Mirren's defender Will Haining was shown the red card for pulling back Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink. Barry Robson converted the penalty to make it 1 : 0, and I felt rather confident that a St. Mirren team playing with 10 men for the final 30 minutes of the game at Celtic Park would concede at least one more goal and save my bacon. The game ended 1 : 0.

I was £72.85 in deficit.

READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS!

Bad start - does it get better?

To recap, after one bet I have a pending £50 free bet, but am £18.85 down.

Then came the bet365 difficulties. This should have been straight forward, but I got confused by the terms and conditions of the free bet offer. To start with, I put too much in (£50). I then didn't read the free bet terms and conditions correctly. I saw place one qualifying bet of £5 or more and you will be entitled to a free bet ... £25. Essentially, I read what I wanted to read and thought 'oh goody - just £5 to get a £25 free bet'. So I bet my £5 and got a £5 free bet. The terms actually say place one qualifying bet of £5 or more and you will be entitled to a free bet to the same stake as your largest qualifying bet up to a maximum of £25. You get to use the free bet immediately, so I did.

For the record, I bet £5 on Sochaux to beat Grenoble at odds of 1.90 and then used my free bet of £5 to do the same. I countered this with a lay of £10.03 at the exchange at odds of 1.95. I've still got £45 in the account, so I read the terms once more and again misread them. bet365 give further free bets the more you use them. I didn't want to make the minimum stake mistake again, so I put three £15 bets on Sochaux again thinking that would get my next free bet of £15. a further 5 qualifying bets of £5 or more I then read. So I end up depositing a further £30 to get my £15 free bet. Messy. I countered all these with a lay of £75 to match the bets and £7.11 for the free bet.

Apparently, "new boys Grenoble produced a stunning late comeback to get their Ligue 1 campaign off to a winning start at Sochaux" (1 : 2) resulting in a net gain on this bet set of £7.53. I'm £11.32 down, but making life complicated.

Undaunted, I chose my next site from those on offer in Quidco. I chose Jaxx. £25 cashback from Quidco, £25 deposit and bet gives a £25 free bet. The smallprint - I paid a little more attention this time - bet odds of at least 1.6 and the bet will be matched up to a value of £25. For the qualifying bet, I chose to back Reading away to Nottingham Forest at odds of 2.5. The lay at Betfair was £25.51 at odds of 2.5. The game ended 0 : 0, which meant that I won £23.71 (£25.51 - 5%). You should expect to lose slightly on a qualifying bet and win a larger amount when using the free bet. I was down £1.29 on the bet, and overall down £12.61. The free bet should show in the account in no more than two working days.

The Experiment Begins

This is an experiment in risk free betting. Essentially, it's whether money can be made from on-line betting sites offering incentives to join such as free bets by betting against the selection on a betting exchange such as Betfair so that there is a guaranteed profit.

If you want to follow the experiment and perform your own risk free bets, please learn by my mistakes, of which there are bound to be many.

I already have a Betfair account. If you don't have an account, I recommend you set one up via a cashback site such as Quidco, who are currently offering £10 cashback for new Betfair customers.

I started by loading my Betfair account with £175 on 9th August.

My first attempt to set up a free bet was with SportingBet. They are offering a £50 risk-free first bet. Essentially, what this means is you bet £50 on a football match during August and September, and it loses, they will refund the £50. This is effectively the same as giving you a free bet except that you only get it if you lose.

I chose to bet the full £50 on a draw in the Le Havre v Nice game at odds of 3.0 (2/1). The Betfair lay odds for a draw in this game were 3.10 - I've found that it's important to identify odds in a game in the betting exchange that are as close as possible to the betting odds in the bookmaker site. Using the Risk-Free Bet Calculator I treated the bet as a free bet stake not returned and laid £32.79 with a liability of £68.85.

Le Havre beat Nice 1 : 0. I lost my £50 in SportingBet and won £31.15 (£32.79 - 5% commission) in Betfair - effectively £18.85 DOWN, but my £50 will be refunded and can then be treated as a free bet stake returned where the return should be higher than the £18.85 loss at the half way point.

Watch out for the result of the SportingBet free bet in a later post.