Getting Ready For Cheltenham

Josh Hughes
Matched Betting Expert

The Cheltenham Festival is almost upon us!

This is the BIGGEST event of the year for Matched Betting.

We've created this post to bring together guides, tips and important links to prepare you for what should be a very profitable 4 days!

Festival Timetable

The Cheltenham Festival runs from Tuesday 15th to Friday 18th March.

Click on the toggles below to reveal each day's races.

13:30 The Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle

14:10 The Sporting Life Arkle Challenge Trophy Steeple Chase

14:50 The Ultima Handicap Steeple Chase

15:30 The Unibet Champion Hurdle Challenge Trophy

16:10 The Close Brothers Mares' Hurdle

16:50 The Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle

17:30 The National Hunt Challenge Cup

13:30 The Ballymore Novices' Hurdle

14:10 The Brown Advisory Novices' Chase

14:50 The Coral Cup Handicap Hurdle

15:30 Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase

16:10 The Glenfarclas Chase

16:50 The Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Challenge Cup

17:30 The Weatherbys Champion Bumper

13:30 The Turners Novices' Chase

14:10 The Pertemps Network Final Handicap Hurdle

14:50 The Ryanair Chase

15:30 The Paddy Power Stayers' Hurdle

16:10 The Plate Handicap Chase

16:50 The Parnell Properties Mares' Novices' Hurdle

17:30 Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup

13:30 The JCB Triumph Hurdle

14:10 The McCoy Contractors County Handicap Hurdle

14:50 The Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle

15:30 The Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup Chase

16:10 The St. James's Place Festival Challenge Cup Open Hunters' Chase

16:50 The Mrs Paddy Power Mares' Chase

17:30 Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle

As you can see, racing starts at 13:30 each day and races are then spaced out every 40 minutes until 17:30.

There is typically a 'Feature Race' each day which will usually have the best offers focused upon it.

Where possible, we would recommend waiting until the day of the races to place your bets.

The best odds matches are often available close to the race start time, but the odds become very volatile close to the off. Bear this in mind if trying to place any bets in the final 10-15 minutes before a race. The odds will change regularly!

Have Your Bankroll Ready

You know the saying: 'it takes money to make money'.

Matched Betting is no different. We need money available to complete the offers and make profit.

You should try to have as much money as possible available for the start of Cheltenham so that you can maximise the number of offers you complete.

This means completing all your ongoing reload/welcome offers with enough time to withdraw the money back to your bank. Try to make any withdrawals by Friday (Saturday at the latest), which should mean the money is available in your bank by Monday or Tuesday.

For the main bookies, like Paddy Power, Sky Bet, William Hill, Unibet and Bet365, you may want to leave money in those accounts as there is a good chance you'll need it for the festival.

You should also have a large chunk of your bankroll in the betting exchanges so that you can lay off all your bets.

Have All Bookie Accounts Open

Are there any welcome offers that you've been putting off?  Have you completed all of the offers in our welcome offers list?

If not, take this opportunity to do so!

This will allow you to take advantage of a wider range of offers available during Cheltenham.

Of course, avoid any offers with wagering requirements or multiple steps but any simpler ones should be completed.

Do Some Reading!

Even if you've never bet on horse racing before, it's not too late to prepare and make some money at Cheltenham!

Take this opportunity to spend a little time reading up on horse racing offers, you won't regret it.

There's nothing to be worried about. In simple terms, betting on horse racing is very similar to betting on any other sport. If you bet on a horse at a bookie, you lay that same horse at an exchange, just like you would if you were backing and laying Man Utd in a football match.

The main things to avoid as a beginner are placing any bets in the last 10 minutes before a race, and to avoid any each way bets (such as for extra places) until you fully understand them.

Horse Racing Guide

We've created a simple horse racing guide which explains how to bet on horse racing, and the different types of offers that you could profit from. We also cover some key terms that it's very important that you know.

So, if you're new to Matched Betting on horse racing, be sure to check out our guide: Horse Racing Offers Explained.

Combining Liabilities 

A challenge you might face is not having enough money in your exchange to complete all the offers available.

Fortunately, combining liabilities is an amazing way to place multiple lay bets without needing loads of money in your exchange.

It will be absolutely ESSENTIAL this Cheltenham if you have a limited bankroll.

If you've never heard of it, then please check out our guide: Combining Liabilities.

Extra Places

Extra places is an advanced horse racing offer that runs daily.

It can be very profitable, but due to its advanced nature, we only recommend it to experienced matched bettors.

For more information on extra places, check out our guide: How To Make Money From Extra Place Offers.

Where To Find Offers

Team Profit

Our Reload Offers page will be updated each morning during Cheltenham to include a selection of the day's best offers.

These offers are picked for being quick and easy, with a high chance of making a profit.

You'll also often find offers shared by the 30,000+ members of our Facebook Group.

Outplayed

The offers listed on our reload offers page are just a snapshot of the total offers available.

To keep up to date with all the offers during Cheltenham, I'd strongly recommend that you use Outplayed.

They have a daily offers calendar which shows you how to complete all of the offers each and every day! It provides a real-time feed of all the reload offers (not just horse racing offers) and it's invaluable for Matched Bettors!

Outplayed also provides a variety of amazing tools, like an Oddsmatcher, perfect for finding your horse racing trigger bets!

Grab your 7 day Outplayed trial here! 

Our Quick Tips

Check Your Emails + Texts

Team Profit and Outplayed will only feature offers that are available to most members.

But, sometimes bookies like to send out offers which are only available to certain customers, which we call 'invite offers'.

There will be significantly more invite offers around during Cheltenham.

This makes it very important that you keep an eye on your emails and texts throughout the festival, to see if the bookies send you any juicy offers!

Make A Plan

With so many offers at one time, it would be easy for you to feel stressed and overwhelmed.

You can avoid this by taking time the night before or in the morning to jot down the offers you intend to do.

This is where tools like Outplayed's Offers Calendar come in so handy. You can very easily see all of the offers that are available (and sort them by profitability) and quickly create a plan of action of exactly which offers you'll complete.

Make Sure Any KYC Is Complete

It can be incredibly frustrating when you know a bookie has decent offers, but you're stuck waiting for them to verify your ID documents.

You do not want to waste any opportunities at Cheltenham because of pending document requests.

Make sure you take this time now to submit any documents that bookies have requested, so that all of your accounts are open and ready to use at the festival.

Enjoy It And Don't Compare Yourself To Others

It's easy to get stressed out or overwhelmed by everything that's going on during Cheltenham.

It's also easy to get frustrated if you see other members making more profit that you.

But please try not to. Relax and remember that Matched Betting should be an enjoyable way to make a few extra quid from home.

Don't get stressed out, don't worry if you can't do every offer, and don't compare yourself to others.

Just do the offers you are comfortable with, in the time that you have available, and enjoy however much profit you make.

Ask For Help If You Need It

As a member of Team Profit, you have access to our team of experts, plus the support of over 30,000 fellow Matched Bettors.

Please, please, please ask for help if you need it!

We are here to answer your questions and help you make as much profit as possible!

Which brings me onto my next topic...

Where To Get Help

There are 2 great ways to get help with Team Profit during Cheltenham.

Facebook Group

Join our Facebook Group, home to over 35,000 Matched Bettors.

Daily Q&A post

Benefit from the combined knowledge of our expert support team and members!

Email 

Send your questions to: [email protected]

We aim to respond to all emails with detailed answers within 24 hours.

And Finally....

We just want to wish you a wonderful Cheltenham Festival!

Get involved, enjoy it, and make a few quid along the way!