Free Bet Profit Explained

In 'Step 4 - Profiting From Free Bets' we said that you will make between £9 to £15 from a £20 free bet, depending on the odds you choose. Here is a table from the Coral offer showing this.

£20 Free Bet

Back Odds Betfair

Liability Your Profit

(% conversion) 2.0 £11 £9 (45%) 3.0 £30 £12 (60%) 4.0 £50 £13 (65%) 5.0 £65 £14 (70%) 6.0 £90 £15 (75%)

As you can see from the above table, if we choose odds of 2.0, our £20 free bet converts to £9 cash, which is 45% conversion from free bet to cash. Whereas if we choose odds of 6.0, our £20 free bet converts to £15 cash, which is a 75% conversion from free bet to cash.

In this optional article, we explain the why higher odds means higher profit and run through an example.

Why Higher Odds = Higher Profit?

If our £20 free bet wins, we do not receive the £20 stake back as part of our winnings.

Therefore, by betting on a dead cert, we are limiting our winnings to a small amount given our £20 stake is not returned.

Whereas if we bet on team with high odds that could make us £100+, we can make a big profit as our £20 stake is quite small in comparison to our winnings. The only consideration with high odds, is it requires a higher liability in Betfair Exchange.

Gimme an example with low odds!

Sure, let's say we use our Coral £20 free bet on England to beat Russia. The odds are 1.95:

Our winnings if England win are:

£20 x 1.95 = £39

minus our £20 free bet stake = £19

To guarantee a profit, we use matched betting by placing a lay bet on Betfair Exchange. With lay odds of 1.99:

We can enter these 3 numbers (£20, 1.28, 1.35) into the Calculator, remembering to use 'Free Bet SNR' in the dropdown:

This shows us by using odds of 1.95 our guarantee profit is £9.30 from our £20 free bet.

On the plus side we only need £9.69 in our Betfair account, being the liability.

Great that I make £9.30, but where actually is my profit?

It simply depends on whether your bookmaker or exchange bet win:

As you can see from the above table:

If England win, we win our Coral free bet for £19 winnings, but lose our Betfair £9.69 liability. This give us a net profit of £9.31.

If England do not win (draw or Russia win), we lose our Coral free bet (costs us nothing), but win our Betfair £9.79 lay bet. Deducting the 5% commission, this gives us a net profit of £9.30.

Gimme an example with high odds!

No problem, let's say we use our Coral £20 free bet on Ukraine to beat Germany. The odds are 6.0:

Our winnings if Ukraine win are:

£20 x 6 = £120

less our £20 free bet stake = £100

To guarantee a profit, we use matched betting by placing a lay bet on Betfair Exchange. With lay odds of 6.4:

We can enter these 3 numbers (£20, 6, 6.4) into the Calculator, remembering to use 'Free Bet SNR' in the dropdown.

This shows us by using odds of 6.0 our guarantee profit is now £14.95 from our £20 free bet.

Just be wary that we need £85.05 in our Betfair account, being the liability.

Even better that I make £14.95, but where actually is my profit?

Exactly the same as the previous example, it simply depends on whether your bookmaker or exchange bet win:

As you can see from the above table:

If Ukraine win, we win our Coral free bet for £100 winnings, but lose our Betfair £85.05 liability. This give us a net profit of £14.95.

If Ukraine do not win (draw or Germany win), we lose our Coral free bet (costs us nothing), but win our Betfair £15.75 lay bet. Deducting the 5% commission, this gives us net profit of £14.96.