Betconnect is a newly launched betting platform which connects ‘pro gamblers’ and punters. Pro gamblers are users of Betconnect who have been restricted by bookies or who have had their bookies accounts closed. Basically, these users cannot place bets on bookmaker websites and use Betconnect as a way of getting those bets on.
Betconnect can be used in two ways. One is to follow the bets of these pro gamblers and use it effectively as a tipping service and the other is aimed at matched bettors. It is the latter that we will be concentrating on in this article.
+ Read below on how to receive a £50 Free Matched Bet at Betconnect!
How does Betconnect work?
When you register at Betconnect, you’ll be asked whether you are a ‘pro’ or a ‘punter’. The majority of users will be punters, so, unless you have been restricted by all bookies, this is the option to choose.
Once signed up as a punter, you can receive a ‘Bet Request’. There are two ways to receive a bet request, either by notification or by pressing the ‘betconnect’ button. The bet request comes from a ‘pro’ who wishes to place the bet at the requested odds but can’t because they are restricted. You now have the option to effectively act as the bookmaker and place the requested bet.
Betconnect works in a similar way to traditional betting exchanges such as Betfair, Smarkets and Matchbook in that if you accept the bet request, your account will be debited by the liability amount of the bet.
Below is an example of a bet request you may receive as a punter on Betconnect.
The example above shows that the ‘pro’ wants to bet £40 on Arsenal to beat Newcastle and would like odds of 4/11. Betconnect displays live odds from bookmakers which have these odds or greater available.
Once you receive a bet request, you have 15 minutes to match it or reject it. If you wish to match the bet, you can enter the stake you wish to match and either click on ‘Follow’ or ‘Lay’.
The follow and lay options are mainly for users who are using Betconnect as a tipping service.
Follow – You can place the requested bet at a bookmaker for an amount higher than the requested stake. Therefore, you are covering the requested stake and placing a bet of your own if you have faith in it.
Lay – If you don’t have faith in the bet, you can choose to lay it. You don’t need to place a bet with the bookmaker if you choose this option.
However, if you are using Betconnect for matched betting purposes, it really doesn’t matter which option you choose as they both have the same action. Effectively, when you click either follow or lay, you are acting as the bookmaker for the ‘pros’ bet and the liability of the bet is deducted from your Betconnect balance. You can then go to the bookmaker and place the requested bet.
Using Betconnect for matched betting
As matched bettors, we really shouldn’t be interested in following or laying ‘pro gamblers’ and thankfully, there is a way to use Betconnect for matched betting that has big benefits.
Betconnect allows us to act as the bookmaker and effectively lay bets at the same odds as the bookmaker are offering us to back the bet. This means that we can back a bet with the bookmaker and lay a bet on Betconnect at the same odds with no commission charges. Therefore, we incur ZERO qualifying loss on our bets.
Because we incur no qualifying loss on our bets, we can participate in offers such as Bet365’s Early Payout Offer, Extra Places, Horse Racing Refunds and many more, risk-free.
Here are some examples of using Betconnect for bookmaker promotions.
Bet365 Early Payout Offer / 2 up
Let’s say that we receive a bet request to place £50 on Tottenham to beat Manchester City at odds of 2/1 (3.0).
We accept the bet request and £100 is debited from our Betconnect account as this is the liability of the bet should Tottenham win. Remember, we are acting as the bookmaker here.
We then place a £50 bet on Tottenham to win at the same odds on Bet365.
Outcome
Tottenham win – We lose £100 on Betconnect and make £100 on Bet365. We have broken even
Tottenham don’t win (draw or lose) – We win £50 on Betconnect and lose £50 on Bet365. Again, we break even.
As you can see, there is no outcome where we will lose money. However, as we have placed the back bet with Bet365, we have qualified for the Early Payout Offer and should Tottenham go two goals ahead during the match, we’re able to place an additional back bet on them to lock in a profit.
Money Back if 2nd
We receive a bet request to place £50 on Red Rum to win the Grand National at odds of 4/1 (5.0). Coral are offering Money Back if 2nd on this race.
We accept the bet and £200 is debited from our Betconnect account which is the liability of the bet should the horse win.
We now place a £50 bet with Coral on Red Rum to win.
Outcome
Red Rum wins – We lose £200 with Betconnect and make £200 profit with Coral. We break even.
Red Rum finishes 3rd or later – We win £50 with Betconnect and lose £50 with Coral. Again, we break even.
Red Rum finishes 2nd – We break even as above but we also receive a £50 refund!
This shows us that we’re able to be in with the chance of a refund for zero qualifying loss.
Free Bets
We can also use Betconnect to extract more value from our free bets by getting a perfect match along with zero commission. This takes a little bit of working out to get the stake on Betconnect right but is relatively simple once you know how.
Let’s say that we have a £20 free bet to use with Skybet.
We receive a bet request for Fulham to beat Man City at odds of 9/1 (10.0)
We need to use a matched betting calculator to determine how much of the requested bet we will match.
As shown above, we have entered both the back odds and lay odds as 10.0 and set the exchange commission to 0%.
It shows us that our lay stake should be £18 with a liability of £162 and so we should match £18 of the requested bet.
Outcome
Fulham Win – We will lose £162 on Betconnect and profit £180 on Skybet. This gives us an overall profit of £18.
Fulham don’t win – We will win £18 on Betconnect and lose nothing on Skybet as we placed it using our free bet. Again, we will make an overall profit of £18.
We could generally expect to make around £15-£16 profit from a free bet using standard matched betting methods if we found a good match. By using Betconnect, we are able to make roughly 20% more profit from our free bets!
Best Odds Guaranteed
Using Betconnect for Best Odds Guaranteed is another effective way to potentially make a profit without any risk.
Example:
We receive a £30 bet request for ‘Hop Along’ to win the 3.30 at Lingfield at odds of 4/1 (5.0)
We match the bet request and place the same £30 bet at William Hill who offer Best Odds Guaranteed on this race.
Outcome
Hop Along wins – We lose £120 with Betconnect and win £120 with William Hill.
Hop Along doesn’t win – We win £30 with Betconnect and lose £30 with William Hill.
However, if Hop Along starts the race at odds greater than 5.0, let’s say 7.0, we will be paid out at those odds should it win. Let’s take a look at the outcome with the Best Odds Guaranteed price of 7.0.
Hop Along wins – We lose £120 with Betconnect but make £180 profit with William Hill. We’ve made an overall profit of £60!
Hope Along doesn’t win – We break even again.
Best Odds Guaranteed is not usually a promotion you bet specifically to profit from and is usually considered a bonus when dutching or betting on extra places etc. However, as there are no qualifying losses incurred when using Betconnect, you can get on as many races as possible for a chance of making a profit should the odds drift on your horse and it wins.
Filtering Bet Requests
One disadvantage in the process is that we can’t choose our exact bets as they are requested from other users. However, we can filter the type of bet requests we receive.
When you register with Betconnect, you have the option to select the type of bet requests you will receive. You should select the sports relating to the bookmakers’ offers for which you plan to use Betconnect for. For example, if you only want to use Betconnect to get on 2 up matches, only select football. If you want to use it for Best Odds Guaranteed or Bet365’s 4/1 offer, select horse racing and so on.
£50 Free for New Customers
New customers at Betconnect can receive a £50 free bet credit when they sign up and deposit £10 or more. Simply opt-in to receive your free £50 prior to deposit and it will be credited to your account.
Your £50 free matched bet can be used on your first three bets as a punter. If you win your bet, you get to keep any winnings as cash and if you lose, it’s covered by the free bet credit up to £50.
Your free credit can only be used on your first three bets so don’t decline all three as any remaining free bet is removed after this.
Conclusion
Launching in September 2018, Betconnect is still relatively young. However, the service has the potential to be extremely popular with matched bettors considering the potential profits which can be made by participating in bookmaker offers with zero qualifying loss.
Betconnect is extremely well designed and the process of requesting, receiving and matching bets is simple and user-friendly. You can sign up to Betconnect using the button below. If you do sign up, you’ll notice that your first three bet requests will be for relatively low amounts. This is intentional to help new members get used to the interface and how everything works. You’ll be able to match larger amounts from your fourth bet onwards up to the amount you set your maximum liability to upon registration.
