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Bet Matcher

Everything runs and stays in this browser — no accounts, no uploads, no tracking.

🔰 New to this? Start on the How to Bet tab — it explains every term below in plain English and walks through the whole process step by step.

Bet type

A normal bet using your own money, placed to unlock the bookmaker's offer. Your stake is returned if it wins.

Bookmaker (back) bet

How much you're betting at the bookmaker.
The price shown at the bookmaker, e.g. 5.0.

Exchange (lay) bet

The pink "Lay" price for the SAME outcome on Betfair/Smarkets.
Fee the exchange takes on winnings — check your account, usually 2-5%.

Lay amount

100% = fully hedged (this app's normal recommendation, guaranteed equal result either way). Under 100% keeps some upside if your back bet wins, at the cost of a bigger loss if it doesn't. Over 100% does the opposite — bigger gain if it loses, loss if it wins.
Required lay stake—
Liability (have this available on the exchange)—
Profit if bookmaker bet wins—
Profit if exchange (lay) bet wins—
Guaranteed profit (worst case)—
Qualifying-bet profit is normally slightly NEGATIVE (a few pounds) — that's the cost of unlocking the free bet, not an error. Free-bet profit is normally 70-80% of the free bet's face value.

Progress toward goal

Total profit so far£0.00
0%
Goal: — edit anytime.

Add a completed offer

By bookmaker

No offers logged yet — add your first one above.

Terms you'll see, in plain English

Decimal odds
The number (like 5.0) tells you your TOTAL return per £1 staked if you win — including your stake back. £10 at odds of 5.0 returns £50 total (£40 profit + your £10 back). This is the only odds format you need — UK sites let you switch to "Decimal" in settings if it's showing fractions like "4/1" instead.
Back
A normal bet — you're betting something WILL happen. This is the only kind of bet a bookmaker (Bet365, Ladbrokes, etc.) lets you place.
Lay
The opposite — you're betting something WON'T happen. Only exchanges (Betfair, Smarkets) let you do this. This is what cancels out your bookmaker bet.
Liability
When you lay a bet, this is the amount you'd have to pay out if you lose it. It needs to already be sitting in your exchange account balance before the site will let you place the bet.
Qualifying bet
The real-money bet you place at the bookmaker to unlock their free bet offer. Normal stake-returned bet.
Free bet (SNR)
"Stake Not Returned" — the free bet token the bookmaker gives you. If it wins, you get the winnings but NOT the stake itself back (since you didn't really stake anything).
Matched
On an exchange, your bet only counts once someone else takes the opposite side. Most bets matched instantly; occasionally you wait a few seconds.
Stage 1 — Set up your exchange account (one-off)
Go to Betfair
Open the Links tab in this app and click Betfair. Click Sign Up (top right) and create an account — you'll need an email, phone number, and to pass a quick ID check (normal for all UK betting/exchange sites, required by law).
Deposit some starting money
You need real money sitting in your exchange account to cover "liability" (see glossary above) before you can lay anything. £50-100 is plenty to start — this isn't spent, it's just sitting there as cover and comes back to you.
Switch odds to Decimal
In account settings, make sure odds display is set to Decimal (not Fractional) — every number in this app's calculator assumes decimal odds.
Stage 2 — Finding your way around the exchange

Here's the Betfair Exchange homepage, with the key areas marked:

Betfair Exchange homepage, annotated
1
2
3
4
1
Search bar — type the team/event/horse you backed at the bookmaker, exactly.
2
Sport categories down the left — browse here if you're not sure what to search.
3
Blue boxes = Back odds, pink boxes = Lay odds — one pair of columns per outcome. You want the pink (Lay) column.
4
Log In — sign in here before you can place anything.
Stage 3 — Placing one matched bet, step by step
Pick a bookmaker offer
Go to the Links tab, open a bookmaker, sign up, and find their new-customer offer (usually shown right after signup, e.g. "Bet £10 Get £30 in Free Bets"). Note the exact terms — minimum odds required, how many days to use the free bet.
Pick something to bet on
Pick an event with odds around 2.0-10.0 that also has good liquidity (lots of money matched) on the exchange — big football matches, horse racing, and tennis are easiest to find odds for on both sides.
Use the Calculator tab first
Before placing anything, go to this app's Calculator tab, select "Qualifying bet", and enter the bookmaker's back odds and the exchange's lay odds (check the exchange's price for the same outcome first, without betting). It tells you exactly what lay stake to use and what your (small) cost will be.
Place the back bet at the bookmaker
Log into the bookmaker, find the same event/outcome, enter your stake, confirm the bet.
Immediately place the lay bet on the exchange
Go to Betfair, find the same event, click the pink Lay price next to the same outcome. Enter the lay stake the calculator gave you. Check the Liability shown matches roughly what the calculator said. Click Place Bets.
Wait for the result — you don't need to do anything else
Whichever way it goes, you're covered — that's the whole point. Check the app's calculator "Guaranteed profit" line to remind yourself what to expect (usually a small loss of a few pounds — that's normal and correct).
Free bet lands — repeat, but select "Free bet" in the calculator
Once the bookmaker credits your free bet, repeat steps 2-5 using the free bet as your back stake, but switch this app's calculator to Free bet mode first — the maths is different since the stake isn't returned.
Log it in the Offer Tracker tab
Add the bookmaker, date, stake, and profit in this app's Offer Tracker tab so your running total updates.
Withdraw
Both your exchange balance and any bookmaker winnings withdraw back to your card/bank like a normal online payment — usually a few days to clear.