Pitfalls to avoid

[alanjohn]

I thought it may be a good idea to have a thread where we can help each other when we see a pitfall, this is one ......

Postponed football matches are only void on Betfair three days AFTER the original date in case it is played within that time scale, but some bookies void it as soon as it is postponed.
This means you are exposed on Betfair for the three days.
Of course if it is replayed within three days the bookie will open the market again, but you have to remember to place the bet once more with them.

[0james0]

Good idea for a thread, welcome to the forum!

If people add their pitfalls I'll clean up the thread so they are all at the top.

Another pitfall to watch for is different rules with tennis and matches that get abandoned, each bookie/ exchange has different rules. (ask Tatty Bear.....)

[Tatty Bear]

Don't you dare drag that back up. You'll give a little bear nightmares *sniff*

I still haven't got over that. If it wasn't for Spoilsports and my Canbet disaster, I've have cleared a grand in my first 5 weeks.

[alanjohn]

Just been told by Ladbrokes if the free bet is void you lose it
How is that fair?
Suggest betting on a football match where the weather forecast is good
Avoid the horses I think

[RIT]

Yeah watch out for 1st goalscorer bets. The bookmakers have different rules.

Some of them, if your player doesn`t play you lose whereas some of them e.g.William Hill would return your stakes.

If your player came on as a 2nd half sub and scored you would usually win but at William Hill if your player doesn`t start it would be void and stakes returned.

So that Bogof freebet I put on Rooney to score/1-0 I thought would be void when he didn`t start but as with Ladbrokes freebets are lost.

I think this thread is going to be a busy one.

[SharpeShooter]

Simple, Don't Panic !!

I've been doing this just 10 days and I made my first mistake. I found a juicy arb (Back 6.5 / lay 6.0) that locked in nearly £2 profit as a qualifying bet at bet365 so I opened an account and had both their site and betfair open at the same time. I placed my back bet and then went to lay it at the exchange with a risk of nearly £300. When I went back to bet365 they had refererred my bet and only accepted a stake of £45.45, meaning I was short of a match. Initially I panicked, emailed bet365 in disghust, why have a £50 free bet match if I can't bet all £50 of it etc but then when I calmed down I simply went back to betfair and placed a back bet at odds of 5.8 to offset the shortfall, common sense really. What could have been a disaster should result in a very small net loss instead of the £2 win I had envisaged but most qualifying bets resut in small losses.

Now I have a £45.45 free bet and will earn another 3 in time. I'm going to make as much money of them as I can, squeeze every penny

[AlexisOzK]

Simple, Don't Panic !!

I've been doing this just 10 days and I made my first mistake. I found a juicy arb (Back 6.5 / lay 6.0) that locked in nearly £2 profit as a qualifying bet at bet365 so I opened an account and had both their site and betfair open at the same time. I placed my back bet and then went to lay it at the exchange with a risk of nearly £300. When I went back to bet365 they had refererred my bet and only accepted a stake of £45.45, meaning I was short of a match. Initially I panicked, emailed bet365 in disghust, why have a £50 free bet match if I can't bet all £50 of it etc but then when I calmed down I simply went back to betfair and placed a back bet at odds of 5.8 to offset the shortfall, common sense really. What could have been a disaster should result in a very small net loss instead of the £2 win I had envisaged but most qualifying bets resut in small losses.

Now I have a £45.45 free bet and will earn another 3 in time. I'm going to make as much money of them as I can, squeeze every penny

I've had this very same problem and done the same as you did.

It's about not getting greedy. If things have gone wrong, take the loss and accept that things aren't going to work out as well. With the matched betting system in place you only stand to make minimal losses if things go wrong!

[bull]

I hate to rain on your parade guys but...........
imagine this scenario which almost happened to me.
You place 4 x £50 bets at the bookies with enough funds at betfair to cover the risk (£300 min) to get your £200 bonus as suggested to do.
You follow all the guidelines correctly and keep the betfair and bookies sites open when placing the bets then Whammo the betfair site goes down.
You will now have £200 of your own money riding on a bet that's not covered.
OK you could open an account with Betdaq and cover it, but if all your funds are in Betfair, you are completely stuffed (and not just for a pound or two loss).
I have not been able to get on the Betfair site for the last 24hrs.
Fortunately I didn't go for the £50 bets this time as I'm new to this and I always look carefuly before I leap but to say you are not gambling and there is no risk seems to me to be a mis-statement at best.

[0james0]

It is as close to risk free money as you can get.

Site errors like that can't be avoided, although I do always try and keep a few hundered in my betting account to cover things like that, just incase I need to make a last minute deposit to Betdaq.

Things like that are pretty rare, often if the site goes down you can still make phone bets

[umistboy]

Plus I've been on Betfair all weekend and not once has it gone down. Wanna check ur connection mate.