So, you’ve got a free bet? Great! Let’s take a look at what they are and the best way we can profit from them.

The majority of bookmakers will now only offer stake not returned (SNR) free bets – this means that the initial stake value i.e £20.00 will not be returned in the winnings. For this reason it is vital we extract our free bets at higher odds. Here’s a two scenarios so you can see why this is in more detail.

Example 1: We place a £20.00 free bet on at odds of 4.00. If the bet was was to win, we would usually see a return of £80.00, however due to the free be stake not being returned we will only see £60.00.

Example 2: We place a £20.00 free bet on at odds of 10.00. If the bet was to win, we would usually see a return of £200, however due to the free bet stake not being returned we will only see £180.

Now, if we put these figures into the matched betting calculator and were to lay these bets we can clearly see the higher odds example will return significantly more than the lower odds example. Have a try, we have set the calculator to back odds 10, lay odds 10.5, lay commission 2%. Try entering smaller figures to see the difference.

Back Bet




Lay Bet


Adjust Lay

Required Lay £
Bookmaker Exchange Cashback Total
If Back Wins
If Lay Wins

This is why high odds are a vital key to getting the most profit out of your free bet! It must be mentioned that higher odds will lead to higher liabilities, so please ensure you have enough in your betting exchange to cover the outcome.

If our odds are high and the lay are are either very close, a perfect match or an arb we can underlay our selection to receive even more profit if our selection wins!

More information on this can be found on the Underlay/Overlay guide in the guides section.