Bookies and betting exchanges will take commission too. This kind of betting is not particularly lucrative. Better systems involve looking for unusually high o

Bookies and betting exchanges will take commission too. This kind of betting is not particularly lucrative. Better systems involve looking for unusually high odds by comparing across exchanges/bookies, backing/laying, waiting for them to swing back into favour, and backing/laying to lock in a profit regardless of the outcome. You can back/lay to minimise your losses if the odds don't swing as much as you thought. Other systems involve backing all possible outcomes (Team X wins, Team X loses, and draw - for example) across multiple bookies such that you guarantee a profit. A good way to start and dip your toes in the water is matched betting. Place bets at bookies and LAY the same outcome at an exchange - do it right and the net loss will be a few pennies/cents. Use this technique to syphon money out of bookies offering free bets for new accounts. How much you make is limited, but I made a few thousand doing this at university. edit: Matched betting isn't useful only for free bets mind. You can use this techinque to take advantage of some promotions too. One story that comes to mind is a friend who matched bet on horses. The offer was that if you bet £X for Y horse to come in 1st and the horse actually came in 2nd - you get a £X free bet up to a limit of £350. He did four or five times that day. Two times his horse came second. The other times, since the bet was matched, he only made a small loss (less than £5).