AP McCoy Retirement

In nine days, Tony McCoy will, once more, stride through the gates of Cheltenham, the Cotswolds theatre of realised and broken dreams, as he has done since 1996. Poignant memories, warm and chill, will flood his mind before a fervent crowd attempts to lift him to a valedictory festival winner, or more, over the four days to add to his tally of 30.

Though filled with burning expectation and energised by his healthy prospects in the three principal events, this time he is aware his own emotions will be starkly different.

“I’ll be going into Cheltenham thinking I’ll never be going in here again as a jockey, and that’s not something I look forward to,” concedes the Northern Irishman who announced his impending retirement three weeks ago. “I’ve never been to Cheltenham and not been a jockey. It will be very strange, knowing that the next time I go there it will be as a spectator.”

Knowing that after partnering the John Kiely-trained Carlingford Lough (“got a very good chance in what is a very open Gold Cup. Favourite Silviniaco Conti has achieved the most. He’s the one we’ve all got to beat”), Jessica Harrington’s Champion Hurdle runner Jezki (his best hope of the four days) and Mr Mole (in the Queen Mother Champion Chase), that will be it.

A Beginners Guide To Matched Betting

Matched betting Overview

Matched betting is a system that can be used to guarantee a profit from the free bets offered to a new customer by bookmakers. A number of bookmakers offer new customers free bets in the hope that a customer will sign up and gamble their own money with the incentive of a free bet. Matched betting allows individuals to make a guaranteed profit from this free bet. The concept of matched betting has been around for a number of years and is 100% legal – it is based on simple mathematics.

Getting Started with Matched Betting

The majority of bookmakers require that you deposit and place a bet with your own money, plus use any free bet, before you can request a withdrawal from your account. Betting your own money is not risk free but matched betting eliminates this risk by placing a lay bet on the selection that you decided to back with your own money. You will firstly need to select a bookmaker to claim your free bet from, there are over £500′s worth in our free bet section.

To be able to lay the bet you will need to have a betting exchange account that allows customers to place lay bets. The largest and most popular betting exchange is Betfair, register now if you don’t have an account to claim a £20 free bet. Betfair allows customers to back and lay selections against other customers, charging a small commission (typically 5%) on winning bets to facilitate the process. To be able to lay bets you will also need to deposit cash into Betfair to cover the potential liability of the lay bet.

The Qualifying Bet

To explain the concept of matched betting we will take the scenario that a bookmaker is offering you a £20.00 free bet once you have deposited £20.00 and placed a real money qualifying bet with this £20.00.

• Find a selection where the price offered by the bookmaker is as close as possible to the lay price available on a betting exchange such as Betfair. For example you find a football match where you can back Team A at 2.00 at the bookmaker and lay them at 2.02 on Betfair.

• Place the £20.00 back bet at the bookmaker at odds of 2.00.

• Use an online back/lay calculator to establish the lay amount needed on Betfair. There are a number of online calculators but one of the best and easiest to use is Tricky Bet the following image is the ‘Back/Lay Bet’screen from Tricky Bet and shows that for the back and lay of a £20.00 qualifying bet at odds of 2.00 and 2.02 respectively, with 5% Betfair commission, you should lay a total stake of £20.30 at Betfair. No matter the result of the match you will lose only £0.71.

Using the Free Bet

After the successful back and lay your qualifying bet at the bookmaker and Betfair you have now qualified for the £20.00 free bet from the bookmaker and matched betting allows you to make a guaranteed profit on this free bet. You now have to repeat the process of backing and laying a selection but with a few minor changes – these changes are because most bookmakers do not return the stake of a free bet with any winnings.

• Find a suitable selection – to extract the maximum amount of profit from the free bet you ideally want to back and lay a selection at odds of 7.00 or above. Remember you need the funds in Betfair to cover the lay. For example you find a horse that you can back at 7.00 at the bookmaker and lay at 7.00 on Betfair.

• Place the £20.00 back bet at the bookmaker at odds of 7.00 ensuring that you use the free bet and not your own money.

• Using Trickybet, establish the lay amount needed on Betfair. The following image is the ‘Back/Lay Bet’screen from Trickybet and shows that for the back and lay of a £20.00 free bet at odds of 7.00 and 7.00 respectively, with 5% Betfair commission, you should lay a total stake of £17.27 at Betfair. It is important to ensure that the ‘Free Bet SNR (Stake Not Returned)’icon is highlighted in the top left when doing the calculation for backing and laying your free bet so Trickybet takes into account that the bookmaker will not return the stake of any free bet. Doing this, wins or lose you are guaranteed a profit of either £16.38 or £16.41 from the £20.00 free bet – a return of roughly 80% of its value.

The only risk attached to matched betting is making an error when backing and laying either the qualifying bet or the free bet. It is very important that you understand the basic calculations required before you undertake matched betting for real. Once you have a good grasp of the principles of matched betting and with time and patience, matched betting is an easy way to make a guaranteed profit from free bets.

Who is Manchester United’s ‘Mystery Striker’ ?

Louis Van Gaal has got tongues a-wagging, and Manc hearts a-fluttering when he said that Manchester United were pursuing an unnamed striker to provide competition on Wayne Rooney.

“It’s not the striker that the media has written about”, the Dutchman told a gaggle of reporters. “You have to wait and see. The transfer period is open until August 31. You have to wait”.

Who could this mystery man be? We’re taking a look at the leading candidates…

Harry Kane

After a disgustingly good breakout season, England’s great white hope could be hoovered up by LVG.

United traditionally love filling their squad with the hottest young English talent, and the Spurs star certainly fits that bill. Whether they can part with enough cash to tempt Daniel Levy into selling remains another story.

Edinson Cavani

According to Cavani’s agent Walter Guglielmone (great name btw), the handsome Uruguayan has “received interest from big clubs who are looking for a centre forward”. United qualify for both points, and could be the ones to make a big-money move for the PSG star, who is said to clash with Zlatan Ibrahimović in Paris.

Christian Benteke

Sure, sure, the big Belgian is shortly about to have his medical ahead of a move to Liverpool, but just imagine the Scouse seethe if United nip in with a better offer.

Paying £32.5m for what is essentially a wind up to Scousers ‘is’ quite a lot of money, mind…

Robert Lewandowski

Back in the halcyon days of the spring when Chelsea were boring their way to another Premier League title, there was a lot of noise about Robert Lewandowski moving to Manchester.

Those rumours have popped up again, but it’s tough to see the big Pole wanting to leave Pep Guardiola in Munich. Or, for that matter, Pep letting him go.

Thomas Muller

In the past few days, a slew of press reports have linked the roaming, devious German with a move to Old Trafford. According to the Guardian, the 25-year old is another Bayern star that could join LVG in Manchester, while there were reports of a falling out with Pep last spring. Like Muller (and most humans), this one could have legs.

Saido Berahino

It’s not got the earth-shattering allure of a Cavani or Lewandowski, sure, but the unsettled Baggie could be the perfect addition to the United firing line if LVG can instil a little discipline. Young, talented, (relatively) cheap and capable of playing across a front three – what’s not to like?

Cristiano Ronaldo

Ah, you lot can dream can’t you?

Emile Heskey

Look, LVG did say “it’s someone who hasn’t been written about in the papers”. And unless we’re mistaken, we’re yet to see the big lad linked with United. Until this morning, that is.

Betting with Twice The Reward

Bet365 are offering a whopping £200 when you sign up.