Getting Ready For Cheltenham

The Cheltenham Festival 2021 is almost upon us and to help get you all as ready as you can be for the event, we bring together the guides, the tips and the plans for the busiest 4 days of the matched betting year!

Most importantly, try and enjoy the festival and don't get too stressed. 

There is a lot going on but because everyone will have different experience levels and bankrolls, FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) can kick in.  Focus on the offers that you're comfortable with, do as many as your matched betting bank balance can handle then sit back and enjoy the racing!

Initial Preparation

Festival Timetable

The Cheltenham Festival runs from Tuesday 16th March to Friday 19th March 2021.

As you can see, racing starts at 13:20 each day and are then spaced out every 30 minutes until 16:50.

Each day there is a 'Feature Race' which will usually have the best offers focused upon it.

For the first race you have all morning to place your bets but of course, with only a 30 minute gap between each of the subsequent races, you'll need to be a little faster with your bets.

NOTE; Horse racing odds move faster as the race start time approaches so try and avoid the final 10 minutes as the stress levels can go through the roof! 

TIP; To avoid any last minute stress, and if your exchange balance can handle it, feel free to place bets on later races but be aware that you will likely not get the closest matches. 

 Money

It's important to have as much money available to you on the first day of the festival as possible (Tuesday 16th March).

This means completing all ongoing reload/welcome offers with enough time for withdrawals to process back to your bank. To be safe try and initiate all them by Friday and this should mean your bank account is full by Monday or Tuesday.

For higher profile bookies who historically give us good offers such as Paddypower, Skybet, William Hill, Unibet, Bet365 etc, you may want to consider leaving money in those accounts eliminating the wait for bank withdrawals.

You should leave a larger chunk of your bankroll in your exchanges as this is where you are going to need it most.

 Accounts Open

Are there some welcome offers you've been putting off?  Have you completed our welcome offers list?  If not, you may want to take this opportunity to do so in order that you can take advantage of a vaster range of offers available for the festival.

Of course, avoid any offers with wagering requirements or multiple steps but any more simpler ones should be completed with a fresh new account ready to roll.

 Homework

If you have never bet on a horse before, maybe now would be a good time to learn so you can at least take advantage of some of the profit available to you during the festival.

In VERY simple terms, betting on horses is the same as betting on any other sport. Sure, they have their nuances but just like football, if you're backing Redrum at the bookie, you lay Redrum at the exchange.

The nuances I mention above are listed below with attached guides to explain them but as a general rule as long as you are not trying to place your bets the night before a race or in the last 5 minutes before race start you will be fine.

Rule 4

Rule 4 is when, after you have already placed your bets, a horse in that race pulls out and the bookmakers reduce the odds on all remaining horses to reflect their increased chances of winning the race.  Usually you will not notice until after the race that a reduction was applied and usually it applies to both bookie and exchange side of your bets so you needn't do anything about it.

You can read our full guide on Rule 4 here 

 Best Odds Guaranteed (BOG)

Depending on what time you place your bets, you may qualify for Best Odds Guaranteed (BOG).  This is when, after placing your bets, the horse you bet on started the race at higher odds than what you placed at AND went on to win the race.  A lot of bookies will pay you increased winnings as a result. Again, you won't see this until after the race and it is always a nice extra bonus if this happens so keep an eye out!

You can read the full guide here

Combining Liabilities

Did you know that if you bet on 3 diferent horses in the same race the exchange would not need to hold 3 lots of liabilities?  Because only 1 horse can win, it only needs to hold the liability of the highest odds horse.

'How does this help me Dave?'

Well, imagine you have 3 different bookie offers on the same race and you have a small sized bankroll.  Instead of 3 bets on the same horse, try speading your selections out, betting on other horses that have a slightly worse trigger bet loss to allow your exchange balance to stretch to 3 offers instead of the 1.  If you had bet on the same horse 3 times then the exchange would have needed 3 times the money in your account to cover them.

Understanding Combined Liability is an extremely useful tool to have in your arsenal for Cheltenham and you can find the full written guide, with video here

Where will I find offers, guides and support at Team Profit?

There will be a tangible buzz around the Facebook group during the festival so make sure you know where you can find guides, offers and support.

Facebook Group

Dedicated Daily reload posts listing all the day's offers

Dedicated Price Boost post with all profitable boosts as and when they are released

Daily 'Wheres my free bet' posts (You may be surprised how often you need this one)

Daily Guides

The usual support net that 30k+ members and TP staff provide

Website

The Daily Reload Dashboard - All offers, in one place with step-by-step instructions and profit tracker

All the Horse Racing reload guides if you need to brush up your knowledge

Live chat

Live chat will be available, as usual, throughout the festival although do please bear with us as it can get VERY busy for us there once the races have begun!

And Finally....

We just want to wish you all a wonderful festival. Get involved, enjoy the atmosphere and hopefully you can make a £ or two along the way!