It is frequently said that you will never meet a poor bookie.
Which is true, of course, the reason being that betting is an addictive habit and even initially successful punters will usually come back for more.
Which is all quite silly when one considers that a bookie's price is invariably set with a "house edge" built in. What this means in crude terms is that if the "real" chances of an outcome happening is, say, evens, the price you'll get will be in the region of 5/6 (1.83) or, if you are lucky, 10/11 (1.91).
Of course this doesn't mean to say that you will never win at those prices. If I was to flip a coin and offer you 5/6 on the outcome being Tails you would still have an evens chance of being successful. But if I was to toss the same coin a hundred times at those same odds the chances are that you'd be out of pocket. This is because I will have offered you less than what is the true value of the bet each time you had placed it.
So how can it be possible to beat the bookie over a sustained period?
Well, you could know the result in advance. Or you might have insider information. Or possibly you may even just be lucky. But based upon the example given, the more frequently you return to place your bet the more certain you will be to fail over the long term.
However there is indeed one way to make an assured profit from the bookmaker, and that is by taking advantage of the free bet.
Most leading UK and European online sportsbooks, being keen to win your business, will actually offer you a financial incentive to sign up with them rather than with their competitors.
This is how it works. When you first open an account with them the sportsbook will require you to make a deposit and to place a wager. Typically it might be in the region of £25. Once the wager is settled you will then receive a free bet, usually to the same value. The return on the free bet will not ordinarily include the stake.
Thus, for one bet only, the "house edge" is instantly reversed. On the balance of probabilities you'll be in pocket once you have used the free bet according to the terms and conditions of the offer.
But if you aren't a person to leave anything to chance the trick is simply to lay both the qualifying bet and the free bet at a betting exchange such as Betfair, usually at a small loss but nonetheless guaranteeing you a profit once both wagers have been settled.
For instance a £25 qualifying bet laid at Betfair may result in a guaranteed return of, say, £23. You then receive your £25 free bet and once again lay it at Betfair, this time perhaps ensuring a return of £17 (bearing in mind the stake money is not included in your payout). Thus you will have locked in a total gross profit of £40, making an overall mark-up of £15 which then is yours to keep. It really is as easy as that.
When you repeat this exercise with the 40 or 50 books that offer similar incentives you will have made a tidy sum of money.
The best and easiest way to locate these free bets is to use one of the many online free bet services that list them on one handy page. In some cases free bets will be given which aren't awarded if you open an account directly with the bookie, due to a special affiliate arrangement with the service. Click on the links available there, open and fund accounts with all the books that are listed, familiarise yourself with the concept of laying bets at the exchanges if you don't already know how to use them and then simply collect up to several hundred pounds in easy, guaranteed income.
A real sports investment if ever there was one.
