Don’t bet until you have read the small print

Last month I signed up with another online bookie to continue my matched betting adventure. They offered to match 50% off my first deposit so I signed up, deposited my £150 and waited for the bonus to be credited.

My account was credited with another £75 in a few hours and I set about placing my first matched bets (check out this post if you don’t know what I mean by matched betting). I had another read of the T&Cs to check there were no minimum odds requirements and it was only then that I realised there was a requirement to stake the initial deposit and bonus 5 times before any withdrawal could be made.

Having deposited £150 and received a bonus of £75, that meant I would have to wager £1125 before I could get any money out. Fortunately there was no minimum odds requirement so I could bet on outcomes with extremely low odds to minimise the funding required at Betfair to match each bet.

It took 34 bets and over 3 weeks of work to meet this wagering requirement before I could leave with a £55.92 profit. Whilst this sounds like a good profit the amount of time required was far too high as each good match probably takes about 30 minutes to find.

I have however learned a valuable lesson, I must pay more attention to the terms and conditions when I sign up for these offers in future. Plus I can now consider myself far more experienced after this many bets, although I probably still have a lot more to learn.