Free Bet Profit Explained
In ‘Step 4 - Profiting From Free Bets’ we said that you will make between £9 to £15 from a £20 free bet, depending on the odds you choose. Here is a table from the Coral offer showing this.
| £20 Free Bet Back Odds |
Betfair Liability |
Your Profit (% conversion) |
|---|---|---|
| 2.0 | £11 | £9 (45%) |
| 3.0 | £30 | £12 (60%) |
| 4.0 | £50 | £13 (65%) |
| 5.0 | £65 | £14 (70%) |
| 6.0 | £90 | £15 (75%) |
As you can see from the above table, if we choose odds of 2.0, our £20 free bet converts to £9 cash, which is 45% conversion from free bet to cash. Whereas if we choose odds of 6.0, our £20 free bet converts to £15 cash, which is a 75% conversion from free bet to cash.
In this optional article, we explain the why higher odds means higher profit and run through an example.
Why Higher Odds = Higher Profit?
If our £20 free bet wins, we do not receive the £20 stake back as part of our winnings.
Therefore, by betting on a dead cert, we are limiting our winnings to a small amount given our £20 stake is not returned.
Whereas if we bet on team with high odds that could make us £100+, we can make a big profit as our £20 stake is quite small in comparison to our winnings. The only consideration with high odds, is it requires a higher liability in Betfair Exchange.
Gimme an example with low odds!
Sure, let’s say we use our Coral £20 free bet on England to beat Russia. The odds are 1.95:
Our winnings if England win are:
£20 x 1.95 = £39
minus our £20 free bet stake = £19
To guarantee a profit, we use matched betting by placing a lay bet on Betfair Exchange. With lay odds of 1.99:
We can enter these 3 numbers (£20, 1.95, 1.99) into the Calculator, remembering to use ‘Free Bet SNR’ in the dropdown:
This shows us by using odds of 1.95 our guarantee profit is £9.30 from our £20 free bet.
On the plus side we only need £9.69 in our Betfair account, being the liability.
Great that I make £9.30, but where actually is my profit?
It simply depends on whether your bookmaker or exchange bet win:
As you can see from the above table:
If England win, we win our Coral free bet for £19 winnings, but lose our Betfair £9.69 liability. This give us a net profit of £9.31.
If England do not win (draw or Russia win), we lose our Coral free bet (costs us nothing), but win our Betfair £9.79 lay bet. Deducting the 5% commission, this gives us a net profit of £9.30.
Gimme an example with high odds!
No problem, let’s say we use our Coral £20 free bet on Ukraine to beat Germany. The odds are 6.0:
Our winnings if Ukraine win are:
£20 x 6 = £120
less our £20 free bet stake = £100
To guarantee a profit, we use matched betting by placing a lay bet on Betfair Exchange. With lay odds of 6.4:
We can enter these 3 numbers (£20, 6, 6.4) into the Calculator, remembering to use ‘Free Bet SNR’ in the dropdown.
This shows us by using odds of 6.0 our guarantee profit is now £14.95 from our £20 free bet.
Just be wary that we need £85.05 in our Betfair account, being the liability.
Even better that I make £14.95, but where actually is my profit?
Exactly the same as the previous example, it simply depends on whether your bookmaker or exchange bet win:
As you can see from the above table:
If Ukraine win, we win our Coral free bet for £100 winnings, but lose our Betfair £85.05 liability. This give us a net profit of £14.95.
If Ukraine do not win (draw or Germany win), we lose our Coral free bet (costs us nothing), but win our Betfair £15.75 lay bet. Deducting the 5% commission, this gives us net profit of £14.96.