Each bettor who opened an online betting account at least once was offered a free bet. These might sound like free money on the table, but in many cases, you need to meet some requirements if you want to see the winnings in your bank account.
I created this article to share all I know about free bets and techniques that can help you withdraw them with a decent profit.
Are you in a hurry? OddsJam has the best free bet conversion calculator for US bettors. EU and UK bettors can take a look at my OddsMonkey Review.
How Do Free Bets Work?
A free bet is a bonus awarded by the betting site to bettors that allows the players to place a wager without risking their own money. Instead of putting your own money at risk, the betting sites offer a predetermined stake for free that can be used to place a single bet.
The majority of betting sites that offer free bets will only return the profits if your bet is a winner. The winnings do not include the original stake of the free bet offered by the betting site.
How do I convert free bets?
Getting a bonus offer can be a present but a nightmare as well. Before accepting a free bet, you should check the term and conditions.
If they don’t require insane roll-over requirements on your profits generated with these free bets, here is how to convert free bets:
1. Have a betting account at another betting site
2. Use a matched betting service, often called low-hold software
These sites scan bookmakers and display betting opportunities where the odds discrepancy between them is significant.
Overpriced odds like these open the opportunity to place a bet with your free bet and cover the other outcome at another betting site.
If you pick the correct odds and markets, you will convert the free bet into real money no matter which outcome wins.
3. Use a free bet conversion calculator
These free bet conversion tools or matched betting services will also offer a free bet calculator. The role of this calculator is to help you to pick the correct odds and stakes for each free bet.
Free bet converters – free bet calculators
I have used many matched betting tools or in other name free bet converters.
The best free bet conversion or free play calculators offer matched betting opportunities, low-holds on another name.
1. OddsJam
Based on my experience OddsJam has the best free bet converter and calculator tool for matched betting from the USA.
They are scanning over 36+ bookies from the US and displaying Low-holds (betting opportunities that can be used to complete free bets and other bonus offers).
Advantages of OddsJam free bet converter:
- Has the fastest real-time odds from each relevant betting site in the US
- Display the best betting opportunities to complete free bets
- Simple and effective free bet stake calculator (also free)
- Excellent software if you want to take the next step and make more money with other sports betting strategies
- Many videos and written tutorials for all kinds of techniques
Downsides of OddsJam free bet converter:
- Focuses on betting sites from the US and Canada
Need more info? Check my OddsJam Review.
2. OddsMonkey
They focus on matched betting in the UK and cover many betting sites available in many European countries.
OddsMonkey is an excellent free bet conversion tool. They also have many calculators that can help you convert other types of bonus offers into real money.
Check my OddsMonkey Review for more info.
3. Free bets conversion calculator Australia
I also have a dedicated article about matched betting in Australia. This article includes the information you need to know to convert free bets into withdrawable real money.
Difference between free bets and real money bets
The main difference between these two types of bets is that while a free bet is placed with funds from the bookie, a real-money bet can be either your own money or a bonus.
The second and most important difference between a free bet and real money bets is that in 99.9% of cases, when placing a free bet, you will get only the profits when you win.
While placing bets with real money will result in getting back your initial stake and the profits as well when you win a bet.
What’s the Point of Free Bets?
Each bonus offer is used to result in some type of player behavior that is considered good for the parties (at least for the bookmaker).
Free bets and almost every similar bonus offer have the role of attracting new users and keeping existing ones coming back and being active.
Basically, their role is not to make you rich or give you free money but to motivate you to deposit and place more and more bets. The majority of bettors (around 95%) will lose in the long run, even if they take advantage of these bonus offers.
Even free bets are developed in a way that average bettors will deposit sooner and later and will lose more than the initial value of the free bet.
How Do You Get Free Bets?
There are many kinds of free bets and ways to get them. Below you can find the most common ways you can get free bets:
1. Free bets when signing up
These sign-up bonuses are offered to attract new customers and motivate them to deposit. At the moment this type of welcome bonus is the most common and well-known.
2. Free bets when you deposit
Singing up to a betting site and winning/losing your initial deposit is only the first step. The majority of bettors will lose the whole starting capital in a day or two.
They don’t have to worry; almost each betting site will contact them with a new ’excellent opportunity’ of making a new deposit to get a new free bet.
3. Seasonal free bets
The majority of major sports events will draw the attention of sports fans. These are the best opportunities for bookies to offer a new promotion and free bet in the hope of getting the inactive customer back to play.
Seasonal free bets and other types of promotions don’t have the highest bonuses, but they are enough to motivate many customers to try their luck.
How much are free bets worth?
Most free bets will be between a maximum stake of 10 to 50 euros in Europe and significantly higher at US bookies. Many betting sites will offer free bets even up to $500.
But if you want to convert free bets into withdrawable money, they will be worth slightly less.
Some bettors simply want to take advantage of these bonus offers by trying their luck. In comparison, others want a strategy to convert free bets into normal funds and see them on a bank card.
With the matched betting technique, you can calculate the worth of a free bet and place a sequence of bets that will guarantee a profit without risking the bonus itself.
Even with matched betting, you will lose around 12-20% of the whole amount of the free bet. So, if you have a free bet of $50, the realistic expectation should be withdrawing around $40 – $44.
Are free bets worth your time?
Many bettors call themselves bonus hunters, and their goal is to find as many bonuses offers as possible and take advantage of them.
With matched betting, many people (including myself) made hundreds and even over a thousand dollars each month.
Looking for free bets and taking advantage of them is worth your time if you have access to many bookmakers.
Even if you can withdraw 3-5 of these free bets each month, it is considered a simple, effective, and almost risk-free side income.
Do you get real money from free bets?
It sounds good and all, but each bettor is interested in real money that can be withdrawn, not the free bet itself.
The betting sites offer the opportunity of placing a bet with their money, and if you win, you can keep the profits. These winning results from free bets, and they are withdrawable real money.
After completing a short KYC (know your customer) verification process that is required at almost each betting site, you can get your real money profits in the bank account.
You might also take a look on my following calculators, they can come in handy in the future:
FAQ
Bettors who decide to use free bet converters and calculators can make decent money from each free bet. These tools can display betting opportunities that will help you place a sequence of bets that will allow you to generate risk-free profits from free bets.
Taking advantage of free bets is worth it if you use betting techniques such as matched betting. This strategy allows you to convert free bets to withdrawable real money. Matched betting on free bets is worth it if you use this money to support upcoming free bets or other similar mathematical betting strategies.
The majority of bookmakers offer free bets with the same rules if a player can succeed in winning a bet by using a free bet. If you win a free bet, the payout will include only the profits. The initial stake (the free bet) was placed with the money of the bookmaker.
Free bets are placed with the money of the betting site. Cashing out a free bet is not possible, and almost any suspicious action that would result in a guaranteed win can cause the cancellation of this bonus.
