To be honest, it’s not our sport. We’re both from Scotland originally so we didn’t grow up with it and, as a result, we don’t know all that much about it.

We know a decent amount about soccer but, even then, we would hardly say we are experts.

But….we know enough.

Enough to have nearly 20 combined years of profitable betting between us.

Enough to have helped Bonusbank members take millions of dollars from the bookies over the last three years.

Don’t Follow Sports? No Problem

That is the beauty of matched betting. You can make consistent profits, year after year, without any knowledge of the sport you are betting on.

There is no need to spend hours analysing stats or form. No need to stay up to date with the latest injury news or weather forecasts.

All we need is for the bookies to keep using promotions as a way to attract new customers.

As long as those promos exist, it will be possible to extract value – and profit – from them.

And that is one area where we do claim to be experts.

The Bonusbank website contains all of the knowledge that we have accumulated since discovering matched betting in 2008.

It also contains tools that we wish we’d had when we started out. Tools that make it easier than ever to profit from the bookies.

So if you know nothing about NRL (or any other sport for that matter) but you still like the idea of having a side hustle that provides a regular income, you can’t go wrong with matched betting.

Our Only Prediction For NRL 2020

There is one thing we can confidently predict about the new NRL season; there will be loads of promos!

NRL and AFL are the most popular sports in Australia for betting on, and every bookie wants to get their hands on punters cash.

To do that they try to lure them in with promos, especially at the start of the season. As a result, March and April are generally the best months of the year for matched betting.

If you want to get a share of the available profits, sign up for a premium bonusbank account today!

Of all of the available early payout offers, none come close to 2up in regards to the number of available games, or the size of the potential payout.

Most early payout offers have a restriction on either the stake that you can bet or the size of the payout.

For example, you may get an early payout on your first $250 of stake, no matter what the odds are. Or, you might get an early payout of up to $500 winnings, no matter what the stake was.

The number of applicable games for the promos will also be limited. If it is an NRL promo you will only have eight games per week to bet on. With AFL you will have nine.

When it comes to 2up, however, there are almost no restrictions.

The potential payout is completely unlimited. You will receive the early payout whether your stake is $10 or $10,000.

The number of applicable games is also huge. Bet365 recently expanded the leagues and cups that count for 2up from eight to nineteen!

On an average weekend, during the European soccer season, there will be 80+ applicable games!

All of that choice is great, but it does beg the question “How can i know which games  are most likely to trigger the promo?“.

The 2up Software

Calculating the probability of a team leading by two but not winning isn’t easy to do. You won’t find a market on Betfair, or at any bookie, which tells you the odds of it happening.

However, there are some markets that can point us in the right direction.

One thing that we know for sure is that the promo cannot trigger if there are less than 4 goals in the game.

Another thing we know is that both teams need to score. A one-sided game with all of the goals scored by one team is no good.

For that reason, the two columns on the right of our 2up software show the probability of there being 4+ goals in a game and the probability of both teams to score.

The other two columns deal with the ‘qualifying loss’. This is the amount that you stand to lose if the promo does not trigger.

The first column displays the qualifying loss as a percentage of your stake. We want this figure to be as low as possible.

However, the acceptable QL will vary depending on the size of your potential payout, so that is what we look at in the second column.

When taken in unison, the information displayed by the software allows you to quickly identify the games which will have the highest expected value for this offer.

You can then choose to either, hope that the double payout triggers, or use our EP calculator to lock-in a profit if your team goes 2up.

Try it Now

February can be a quiet month for matched betting in Australia. We are in the lull between the end of the Big Bash League and the start of the new NRL season – but there is no shortage of soccer.

All of the European leagues are in full effect, A-League is going strong, and the Champions and Europa Leagues are back in a couple of weeks.

There has never been a better time take advantage of the 2up offer.

If you would like to give it a go, you can get 25% off your first month of a Premium Monthly subscription if you sign up before the end of February using the code 2UP.

With so much content available for free – with no time limit, or need to enter payment details – we have decided that, starting from February 1st, we are no longer going to offer free trials of our Premium membership.

If you have been thinking about signing up and have a trial code from one of our affiliates, now is the time to use it.

If you don’t already have a code you can enter CC5 to get a 5-day premium trial before it’s too late…

Wow, where did that year go? Time seems to be going a lot faster these days.  Seems like yesterday we launched the first matched betting service in Australia.

It’s been nearly 3 years and since then a lot has changed. However, there is one thing that hasn’t changed…. …we continue to make a guaranteed profit for our members!

For nearly 3 years, we have guaranteed a profit every single month. We’ve tracked every single play since day one, you can see the results here. 

In 2019, our Today’s Plays returned a total of $9,723.74. Not bad, considering that it only takes a few minutes each day to place the bets. The profit per hour on following the plays is huge!

Not only that, we’ve continued to add more features and value to our website to ensure our members get the highest returns.  Check out these improvements:

Matched Betting App

2019 saw the launch of our new app, bonusbank basics. It has everything you need to start profiting from bookmakers bonuses and promotions.

It’s FREE to download and has comprehensive tutorials and a simple calculator to start your matched betting journey. 

Available on both Android and IOS. 

Our range of video tutorials also expanded greatly in 2019.

We now have videos which show how to take advantage of all of the major matched betting opportunities.

You can view the videos here on the site, or on our YouTube channel. 

Keep up to date by subscribing here.  

At the end of the year we launched our new 2Up software which helps members identify the best matches for Bet365’s soccer early payout offer.

This offer can provide huge profits, and is available throughout the year, so the software is very useful to advanced members who are looking to maximise their profits.

Coming in 2020?

We don’t want to give away too much but, it is safe to say that 2020 will see even more upgrades and additions to the site.

One thing that we can tell you about is our Premium app. That it is in the final stages of development and will be available very soon.

We also have another big upgrade which will be released in the next couple of weeks.

Overall, it is an exciting – and busy – time at Bonusbank, and we will be continuing to make it even easier for our members to profit over the next 12 months.

To make sure that we have the most up-to-date information about matched betting in Australia, we send out a survey to all of our members 60 days after they sign up. The short survey asks about their experiences in receiving bonus bets from each bookie. It also asks how much money they have made.

Here are the results…

In their first two months of matched betting, more than 50% of our members make over $2500!

Almost 20% make an incredible $5000+, and 4 out of 5 new members make at least $1000 in their first 60 days. That is a pretty incredible return for a side-hustle.

But what about long-term?

The first 60-days is when most members are taking advantage of bookmaker sign-up bonuses. These are the low-hanging fruit of matched betting. They are easy to do and offer huge profits.

After a couple of months these will dry up though, and it’s time to move onto the existing customer promos. The stats from our daily play’s show that it is quite possible to make $1000+ every month from these promos, but that doesn’t tell the whole story.

Our plays don’t include horse racing promos. These are a little more advanced but, once you get the hang of them you can easily make another $1000+ per month.

We don’t have any survey data from our longer-term members, but we do have some anecdotal evidence in the form of our testimonials. Here are some snippets:

“5 months on my profits have grown to more than $11,000″ – MT985

“I’ve made tens of thousands this year“ – HoracioDanton

“I have been matched betting for around nine months and have made over $15,500 profit” – Keef

“helped me save an extra $20,000 in the last 6 months” – pwinne

“$15,000 in just 6 short months” – Ads

How Much Money Can You Make Matched Betting in Australia?

To go back to our original question, it seems like profit can vary, but almost everyone will make thousands of dollars. In some cases, tens of thousands. That’s not bad for a side hustle that only requires a few hours per week.

If you want to find out how much you can make, sign up for a free account today and get started. With a little bit of work you could be ticking that $5000+ box in just 60 days time!

The app also contains an easy to use version of our simple back & lay calculator. This is the essential matched betting calculator which works out how much you need to bet to maximise your profits from bookmaker welcome bonuses.

The calculator is so easy to use that Premium members who regularly use mobile will probably want to download the app as well.

The app also contains a link to our ATM Lite software which gives Free members access to two bookmakers on the ATM so that they can easily find the best matches for their first matched bets.

You can download the Adroid version of the app here, or get the iOS version here.

Please check it out and let us know your feedback.

It’s the final day of the NRL season today and, although we’ll be sad to see it go, we are happy to have some great promos to take advantage of.

Here are a few completely risk free ways that you could make money on the big game:

Ladbrokes are offering $2 odds on Roosters -7.5.

TopSport have the same odds on Raiders +7.5/8. This means that half the stake is placed on Raiders +7.5, and the other half goes on +8. The max stake at TopSport is $200.

If we put $200 on both of those bets we would be guaranteed to break even in every scenario except one. That is if Roosters were to win by exactly 8 points.

In that situation we would win the Ladbrokes bet, but only lose on half of the TopSport bet. The other half would be returned to us as a ‘push’. Leaving us with $100 profit, absolutely risk-free.

To make this play risk free we could lay $9.96 on Tedesco and $11.32 on Mitchell. This would give us $20 profit at Betfair if neither of them score first, cancelling out the Ladbrokes stake.

If one of them does score first we would lose $103.24 at Betfair, but win $140 at Ladbrokes. That would be $36.76 of risk-free profit.

Want Some More?

These are just a few of the ways that we can profit from bookmaker promotions with little or no risk. If you would like to learn more, you can use the code GRANDFINAL to get a 5-day free trial of our Premium service.

Whoever you are cheering for tonight, it’s always more fun when you know you can’t lose!

It’s that time of year again.

There is just one more week until the new EPL season starts. The rest of the major European soccer leagues won’t be far behind.

This is great news for matched betting. With so many games and markets to choose from we will be able to get higher returns on our bonus bets, and also find more arbitrage opportunities.

The new season also brings one other money making opportunity…the Bonusbank Fantasy Football Premiership.

This is the third season we will be running the league. The two previous seasons have seen Wests Champions live up to their name and take the crown. They will be going for an unprecedented treble this year.

Once again, there is a cash prize up for grabs. A total prize fund of $300 will be broken up like this:

1st Place – $210 + 1 year free bonusbank membership
2nd Place – $60 + 6 months free bonusbank membership
3rd Place – $30 + 3 months free bonusbank membership

If you think you’ve got what it takes to beat Wests Champions and walk away with the prize money you can join the league by signing up to the official fantasy football site and entering the league code 3bj20y

Anyone is welcome to enter. However, to be eligible for the cash prize you have to be a bonusbank Premium member for at least 4 months during the season. Anyone who doesn’t meet that criteria will only be eligible to win free membership.

The first game starts at 5am aest on August 10th. Get your team in before then for your shot at Premiership glory!

Good Luck!

In order to achieve F.I.R.E. many people will start a side hustle. This is something that is also encouraged by popular Australian financial expert The Barefoot Investor.

A side hustle is basically any type of money-making activity that you can undertake in addition to your full-time job.

For many people this could just be an additional part-time job, such as shifts at a bar on the weekend. Others may set up their own business doing anything from dog walking to interior design.

Some people will also look for ways that they can make money online. This is where matched betting comes in.

Impact of Matched Betting on F.I.R.E.

After the podcast was released in early May we had a lot of new members sign up to bonusbank. Much more than we would have in a normal month.

This seemed like a good opportunity to do some data gathering. So, a couple of weeks ago, i created a survey specifically for people who had signed up after listening to the podcast. There were 62 responses in total.

Here is what we learned:

• 82% of respondents had never heard of matched betting before listening to the podcast. Only one person had ever tried it before.

  This just goes to show that matched betting is still pretty underground in Australia. There is a long way to go before we reach the saturation levels that you can see in the U.K.. That means that there will be lots of money-making opportunities for years to come.

• 66% of respondents had made at least $1000 profit since signing up, with 21% making over $2500 and 5% making an amazing $5000+
  Given that this survey took place just two months after the podcast was released, those are some impressive numbers. Some of the respondents had only been matched betting for a month.

• Shares (72%) and cost cutting (69%) were the most popular other methods that respondents are using to achieve F.I.R.E.
  Other activities included , property investment (32%), credit card point (29%) and travel (6%) hacking, and side hustles like tutoring, P2P lending, and creating and selling products on Redbubble.

  However, my favourite answer to this question was “I work a shitload of overtime and live in a toolshed to cut costs”.

• 13% of respondents had been able to bring forward their retirement date since joining bonusbank.
  Considering this is just based on 1-2 months membership, that is pretty incredible. Even if it is just one extra month that they don’t have to set an alarm clock and go to the office, that is a great achievement.

Additional Feedback

Some of the respondents were also good enough to provide a bit more detail of their experience with matched betting and with F.I.R.E.

Here are a few snippets…

Get involved

If you are interested in learning more about F.I.R.E we highly recommend checking out the Aussie Firebug blog. You can also follow on Facebook to get updates whenever new content is added.

For more info on matched betting just sign up for a free account which will give you access to our basic tutorials, plus all of the tools you need to bank your first bonus.

Australian bookmakers are more than happy to accept customers from New Zealand, and in most cases they are treated in exactly the same way as Aussie customers.

That means that people in NZ will receive welcome bonuses, be able to access early payout offers, and be eligible for refunds on promos across a range of sports.

In other words, it is possible to make money matched betting in New Zealand!

Differences Matched Betting in New Zealand

There really aren’t many. Most bookmakers treat Kiwi customers in exactly the same way as Aussies. And all of the tutorials and tools at bonusbank work exactly the same for everyone.

The only differences you will find relate to currency, and bookies that have NZ versions of their sites.

Because bookies don’t treat Kiwis any differently, they only offer accounts in AUD. This also applies to Betfair.

This means that, unless you have an AUD account, you will lose a small amount of your profits due to currency conversion fees.

Only two bookies have separate NZ sites – Tab and Bet365.

Both of these sites are almost identical to their Australian counterparts, but occasionally there is a difference in the promos that they have available. Sometimes the NZ promos are better, sometimes they are worse. So it is worth keeping an eye on.

Bonusbank in New Zealand

As previously mentioned, all of the features supplied by bonusbank work the same no matter whether you are matched betting in New Zealand or Australia.

We also have a specific thread in our forum where members from New Zealand can share their experiences with each bookie in order to help each other (this is something we have for every Australian state too).

So, if you are in New Zealand and would like to get started with matched betting, sign up for a free account today!

It is exactly two years since we published our first matched betting plays to a small group of bonusbank beta testers.

These plays are suggested bets which show our members the best way to approach any bookmakers promos. Usually by using the matched betting strategy known as Dutching.

This approach plays multiple different bookmaker promotions against each. By doing so we minimise risk and increase the possibility that we will earn bonus bets or cash back.

Needless to say, it works pretty well…

In just two years, the plays have returned a huge profit of over $28,000!

This is actually a pretty conservative estimate. When calculating the profit we assume that users will get a 70% return from each bonus bet. In reality, by using our ATM software it is pretty easy to get 75%+ from most bookies, and from some 80%+ is regularly achievable.

Although we have consistently made a profit every month, you can see that some months tend to be better than others. This is because sport is seasonal.

When popular Aussie sports like AFL and NRL are in season profits jump significantly. In the off-season, when we focus more on American or European sports, profits are a little lower.

With five more months of AFL and NRL to go this season, it is a great time to sign up and start following the plays. You can also use our HorsePower software to profit from racing promos, and ATM Alerts to find arbitrage opportunities

With the right approach, bookie promos can provide you with a great supplemental income. Sign up today to get started.

There are a few different ways to approach multis depending on how risk-averse you are, and how much time you want to spend placing your bets.

The first option is the No Lay approach. This is the easiest option as it only requires one bet. It should also be the most profitable over the long-term due to the fact that there are no lay bets, and therefore no Betfair commission. However, in the short-term you might have to deal with long and expensive losing streaks. It’s not for the fainthearted, or those with a small bankroll.

Option number two is to Sequentially Lay each leg. This is the opposite of No Lay. It has very little risk, but it requires some work, and a lot of the value will be eaten up by Betfair commission.

Some people like to combine both of these options to find some middle-ground. This can be done by no-laying , or under-laying, the first couple of legs of a multi and the using our multi promo calculator to lock-in some profit on the later legs.

There is another option though which requires very little effort, and has a high expected value (EV) without the high risk of the No Lay approach…

Lay at the Start

This method involves backing the multi, and then laying each selection as though it were an individual bet. By doing this we can increase the number of possible scenarios in which we can make a profit, while also limiting our downside.

The hardest part of using the Lay at the Start approach is working out whether or not a particular multi is worth doing (i.e. whether it has a +EV), but that is no longer an issue thanks to our new Lay at the Start Multi-Matcher.

Using data from our ATM OddsMatcher software, the Multi-Matcher can automatically identify the highest EV multi for any given bookie and sport. It then calculates the lay stakes that you should use at Betfair.

The Multi-Matcher also shows you what your profit or loss would be for each of the different possible permutations of the multi.

Due to compounding of the odds, you will always make a profit from this approach if all of the teams in your multi win. However, you will make even more money if all of the teams lose! This is because you would have 4 winning bets at Betfair, but only one losing one at the bookie. 

The worst result when using this approach is if exactly one team loses but, even then, we do not lose our full stake.

In Summary

The Lay at the Start approach to multis is ideal for those who are not completely risk-averse, but don’t want the huge swings of the No Lay approach. 

By using the new Lay at the Start Multi-Matcher you can easily take advantage of this approach. It will find you the best multi, work out your lay stakes, and calculate all of the potential outcomes.

It is just one more tool that helps bonusbank members maximise their matched betting profits.