Stake Not Returned

Free Bet – Stake Not Returned

Ok so we have placed our Qualifying bet and made a little loss in the process, but now comes the part we have been looking for. You now get the chance to place your Free Bet.

You’ve checked the terms and conditions and determined that the Free Bet is Stake Not Returned. That’s ok, we can still make this work.

Tip 1. As a general rule of thumb, if the Free Bet is credited as a Free Token or Voucher, or is placed into a “Free Bet Balance” it will most likely be Stake Not Returned

Tip 2. These bets usually include a rollover condition in the T&C’s, but that is ok as this type of bet generally loses at the bookmaker end, making the rollover condition irrelevant.

This bet is slightly different as we do not get the original Free Bet stake returned to us if our bet wins. This affects our calculations slighlty, but that’s ok as the Match Betting Spreadsheet does them for us anyway. Great A quick example of the bet is shown below.

Example

We place a bet at the odds 7.0 on Team A to win the match.

We bet the Free £10 stake that the bookmaker has given us, but remember that as this is a stake not returned bet, we need to subtract the original Free Bet stake.

This means that if our bet wins we earn:

(7.0 x Stake) – Stake = (7.0 x £10) – £10 = £60

We are placing this bet above but we want to match it, so that either way we walk away with as much of the Free Stake as we can.

So what are the Rules for this type of bet – Stake Not Returned?

Free Bet Rules (Stake Not Returned)

Look for Longer Odds, at least 7.0, in order to maximise our return
Ensure the odds you find meet the minimum requirement in the Term’s & Conditions (if there are any), this isn’t usually an issue as we are using longer odds anyway.
Find the closest matching odds between back and lay bets
Always place the Back Bet first, then the Lay

Now we believe we’ve found our odds the next step is completing the Match Betting Spreadsheet so……

Step 1. Fill in the “Bet Stake” box with the amount we are going to bet

In the example above this would be £10

Step 2. As this is a Stake Not Returned Bet, we also enter our original £10 Free Stake in the “Stake Forfeit” box.

Step 3. Enter the odds that we have found at our bookmaker and at Betfair.

Back odds (bookmaker) into the “Back Odds” box.
Lay odds (Betfair/Excahnge) into the “Lay Odds” box.I will use 7.1 Back and 7.15 lay in this example.

Step 4. We’re Finished!

If the odds look ok and the spreadsheet is telling us that we will only lose a small amount on this bet (no greater than £2 as it is only a £10 free bet (even that is quite big), then we can go ahead and place our bets.

Alternatively go back and find better odds for less of a loss on the free stake.

Remember, we want to keep as much of the free stake as we can. This will be our profit.