Xmas matched betting - StanJames

Amongst matched bettors StanJames has a pretty poor reputation. They're well-known for "gubbing" accounts quickly. What this basically means is that they're quick to identify people who are trying to "game the system" and cash in free bets. And when you get caught, they put crippling limits on your account, to make match-betting simply not worth the hassle.

A lot of matched-bettors spend a lot of time "looking after" their accounts. They place bogus bets, to make it look like they are a regular punter - throwing good money after bad (as most gamblers as wont to do!). And if you put a lot of effort into looking after your account, only for it to be closed/restricted anyway, you can understand why a few people don't like StanJames.

However, I'm not interested in playing the system. I don't care whether the bookies are onto me quickly or not - once I've signed up with a bookie and taken their free bets, I have no interest in using their account again! This is a quick grab-n-go raid on free bets.

So as far as I'm concerned, it Stan James are willing to give me £20 in free bets for placing £10 into an account, I'll take that all day! So I put my £10 on TempleRoss in the 14:40 at Cheltenham at 9/2 (5.5 in digital odds terms). And in Betfair, I stuck £10.09 against Templeross at 5.47

As it turned out, Templeross finished second from last! A disaster at the bookies, but a £10.09 win at the Betfair Exchange (£9.58 after commission). That means it cost me 42p to grab £20 in free bets!


It took two days for the free bets to arrive, but when they did, I went for:

StanJames: £20 (free bet) on a draw PSG vs Nice @ 17/4 (5.25)
Smarkets: £15.51 against the draw @ 5.5

Annoyingly, the game finished 2 - 2.
Which meant I "lost" nearly £70 out of my Smarkets account - but "won" £85 over at StanJames. Luckily, StanJames are pretty quick to pay out when you make a withdrawal request, so I took my winnings and put them back into my betting exchange.

So I lost £70 but won £85 for a £15 gain.
Less the 42p the qualifying bet cost to claim the free bet(s) and the total profit for this promotion was £14.58