Popular Sports to Bet on in Ireland

Sports betting has become a very popular activity in Ireland over the years. Statista reports that in 2024, nearly 8% of people in Ireland – about 503,100 – placed bets online. By 2029, this number is predicted to rise to 10%. With the numerous options available, sports fans can now place bets on their favorite sports on the best betting sites in Ireland.

These betting sites are regulated and supervised by the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI), so Irish punters can make wagers on these platforms and rest assured they are safe and fair. However, while Ireland is home to various sports, a select few are held in high regard among Irish bettors. In this guide, I’ll highlight some of the most popular sports to bet on in Ireland.

Top 5 Most Popular Sports to Bet on In Ireland

Although Ireland offers various sports, some options have gained significant popularity among Irish bettors. Some of these are:

1. Football

Like in most countries, football is the most popular sport among bettors in Ireland. It’s a favourite for many punters and tipsters due to its straightforward rules and great odds. Football offers bettors a wide range of betting options, from predicting which team will win the match to the player who will score the first goal and even the total number of goals scored.

As such, football is a staple on the best betting sites in Ireland. With various local and international events to stake on, Irish bettors have all the football betting options they need. Notable mentions include the English Premier League and the League of Ireland, which comprises various Irish football clubs.

2. Horse Racing

When it comes to the most popular sport to bet on, horse racing is a close second to football. This sport has a long history in Ireland, with records dating back hundreds of years. Therefore, horse racing is regarded as a significant part of Irish culture.

Irish bettors place wagers on popular horse racing events like the Irish Derby and the Galway Races. Another highly anticipated event among horse racing bettors is the Dublin Racing Festival, which will take place in February 2025. As always, it’s best to gamble responsibly. The betting sites in Ireland offer responsible gambling tools like Time Outs and Deposit/Spend Limits. Don’t hesitate to use these tools if you need them when wagering.

3. Rugby

Even though it’s not as popular as football or horse racing, rugby is another top sport to bet on in Ireland. This country stands out for being one of the first to accept this sport, with the earliest club being organised in 1854 by Dublin University.

Rugby fans have an impressive lineup of betting options. Irish bettors can look forward to international competitions like the upcoming 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup and the European Rugby Champions Cup.

Punters can place various bets on rugby games, including match bets, handicaps, over/under, winning margins, and more. If you want to bet on a wide range of rugby events with competitive odds, make sure to choose sites that provide an extensive selection.

4. Gaelic Football

Gaelic football, also known as GAA, is a traditional Irish sport. It’s popular because it combines fotoball and rugby, offering Irish bettors a unique sports experience. As such, most Irish betting sites cover Gaelic football events.

One notable mention is the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship. In this event, teams from Ireland’s thirty-two counties compete to win the championship. This sport offers bettors a wide range of betting options. Besides betting on the championship winner, you can also stake on the scores of single matches.

5. Boxing

Boxing is another popular sport punters bet on in Ireland. The Boxing Union of Ireland and the Irish Atletic Boxing Association regulate the sport, so a wide range of boxing events are available for sports fans. Popular competitions are the Dublin Boxing Championships and the National Elite Championships.

Therefore, there are various boxing betting events for Irish bettors. Although the most common boxing betting option is on the winner of a fight, you can also wager on the method of victory, such as disqualifications and knockouts.

Conclusion

When it comes to sports betting, Irish bettors have a wide range of options. Whether it’s globally-recognized sports like football or traditional games like Gaelic football, Ireland has something for every bettor. However, although wagering on sports in Ireland can be exciting, it’s best not to get carried away. Always gamble responsibly and know when to take breaks from betting.

Free Money Offers and Matched Betting Sign Ups (September 2024)

Looking for some simple ways to make some extra money online?

In this article we highlight some of the best free money offers available alongside some decent matched betting opportunities.

Watch this video on YouTube

Free Money Offers

Webull Offer

Webull are currently running a really good free share offer until the 25th of September.

Instructions

You will need to open a new account which you will need ID, proof of address and your NI number for

Once your account is open and verified you will need to deposit ANY AMOUNT into your WeBull account (You can withdraw this later)

Leave the funds in your account for 180 days

Your 3 FREE shares will be available to redeem. Click Menu > My Rewards

Tap on the free shares to reveal which company you have received shares in.

You can then sell your shares and withdraw all your funds back to your bank account

First Direct £221.75 Cashback Offer

Get up to £221.75 in cashback by switching to First Direct.

Instructions

Get £10 by using Top Cashback:

Sign up to Topcashback using this referral link – £10 cashback link.
Click through to First Direct from cashback to get additional £36.75.

How to get the £175 bonus:

Open the account in-app (or online for joint accounts).
Switch in an account from a different bank including 2+ direct debits or standing orders within 45 days.
Also pay in £1,000+ and make 5+ debit card payments within 45 days.
The £175 is paid by the 20th of the following month after you meet the switch bonus criteria.

Terms and conditions:

You can’t have ever had ANY account with First Direct (such as a current account, credit card or mortgage).
You can’t have opened a current account with sister bank HSBC since January 2018.

Matched Betting Signups

Highbet are offering £25 in free bets after depositing and betting £10.

Instructions

Bet £10 on initial bet and cover with a lay bet at a betting exchange
Receive £25 in free bets
Use the £25 free bets as advantage play or cover bets with lay to lock in guaranteed profit

Matchbook Offer

Instructions

Click here for the £50 sign up promotion
Bet £50 on across four markets different markets.
Receive £50 in free bets
Use the £25 free bets as advantage play or cover bets with lay to lock in guaranteed profit

If you are new to matched betting we suggest reading our article on the best matched betting website around in 2024.

Click Here To Read The Article

Making A Million From Sports Betting November 2023 Results

November marked month 80 in the “Making A Million Challenge”, with this year so far being one of the more uninspiring ones.

In November I decided to try and right the ship by focusing on my own betting. Seeing where I could make improvements and analyzing where mistakes were being made.

Let’s take a look at the results!

Value Betting And Trading

It was a much better month for value betting in November with a profit of £1656 being made after 329 bets.

Nice to get a solid month from value betting where I have been putting in a decent amount of work to find new edges and this month it started to pay off.

Most of the bets were on football with a few bets in other sports mixed in. Overall the goal is always the same, try to beat the closing odds.

This can be betting on exchanges, on limited accounts, with the few soft outs I have left and on the occasion in shops.

Click Here For My Recommended Value Betting Software With A Two Week Free Trial.

FTS Systems

FTS was the only service outside my own betting that I followed this month.

Due the fact that I have a separate bankroll allocated for it. Where as with other services such as Bets and Beers and Football Trading Club I use the same bankroll with my own betting systems.

In November I used 9 systems with a total of 72 bets

An overall profit of £1038 was made.

Horse Racing System

For a few months I had been testing out a horse racing system, backing horses and seeing over the long term if it beat the Betfair starting price.

Just looking at results for the first few hundred bets it didn’t look very promising. After 400 bets the system was up just under 8 points.

However tracking the odds placed vs the BSP.

Average Odds Placed = 5.7

Average Betfair SP = 5.2

It showed a clear edge and I started to back it with real money from the 20th of November. Which fortunately for me came at the time of a nice upswing.

Overall a profit of £678 was made.

Everything Else

In November there were two other strategies that I followed. These were very low volume so I will group them all together.

Casino Offers
MMA Betting

-£518 was made from this section.

November 2023 Total

Value Betting/Trading – £1656

FTS – £1038

Horse Racing System – £678

Other – -£518

Total Made In October

£2854

Overall Profit Since The Challenge Began

£183,865

Thoughts Going Forward

Feels really good to get a winning month in the books after two losing months and one breakeven month before that. One factor that I am happy about is that during this period I never made any stupid bets, didn’t increase stakes, no broken keyboards or smashed laptops.

I am human it pisses me off when I have losing days and long losing periods but this is ultimately the sports betting game. In the back of my head I knew I was doing the right things and eventually it hard to turn around.

If you still have your bankroll you can still play the game, if you bust your roll in a hissy fit then its game over.

Will continue to run things as they are then look at bringing in other services again in January. Feel confident that my new found edge in the horse racing will win long term and bring in a good amount of volume week to week.

Hope your betting went well, will return in December, fingers crossed with another strong month!

Best 5 Youtube Sports Betting Channels 2024

Youtube can be a great source of educational videos, if your looking to improve your sports betting then there is plenty to get stuck in to.

In today’s article we are going to look at five of the of the best sports betting Youtube channels. Which can really help you improve your sports betting and increase your profits.

Top 5 Youtube Sports Betting Channels

Watch this video on YouTube

Trademate Sports

First up is Trademate Sports one of the early pioneers of sports betting content on Youtube. Trademate’s channel features a variety of videos covering all aspects of sports betting.

My favourite sports betting videos on the Trademate channel and the ones I think that offer the most value, are their interviews with pro sports bettors. Over the years Trademate have interviewed several sports bettors that have made millions in the world of sports betting. Some from Europe and others from the USA.

Whilst they won’t give single little detail of the their operation and give away every little edge. Their is still a lot of value to be found in these interviews.

Covering such subjects as:

Their approaches to betting
Staking approach
Finding new edges
Getting bets down after being limited
Scaling their sports betting operations.

These interviews give an excellent insight into the way a high level sports bettor think and what it takes to achieve success.

One of the founders of Trademate is Jonas Gjelstad. Jonas is a pro sports bettor who managed to turn £10,000 into a £1,000,000 inside a year.

Watch this video on YouTube

Unfortunately Trademate isn’t as active as it once was, however it still worth a look through.

Below are some of my favourite interviews with high level sports bettors that i would recommend.

Pro USA sports bettors podcast

Pro UK based sports bettor podcast

Paulo Rebelo

Next up is a channel that might not be familiar to many of you. Most likely because this is a channel that is made by the very successful Portuguese bettor Paule Rebelo, as such the channel is in Portuguese.

The good news is however that many of the videos are subtitled in English. Which makes them very watchable and a great source of education.

Paulo Rebelo is a football bettor/trader who focuses on using the platform Betfair to make his money. His videos are very well put together, entertaining and always offer some value.

If you are looking to learn more about trading football on Betfair. Then this is a channel that is well worth your time. Rebelo covers several different football betting strategies. Alongside his own betting philosophies and covers how to approach trading on football correctly.

You can visit Paulo Rebelo’s Youtube channel here

Bet Angel

Coming up third on the list is Bet Angel which is run by Peter Webb. Much like Rebelo, Webb is a trader/bettor that focuses on using the exchanges.

Whilst Rebelo sticks to trading/betting on football. Peter Webb produces videos covering several different sports.

Football
Horse Racing
Tennis

Webb’s channel features multiple different strategies, trading philosophy and educational videos. Whichever sport or strategy that you are looking at. It’s very likely that the Bet Angel channel will have something that can help you improve.

You can view the BetAngel channel by clicking here

Smart Betting Club

The Smart Betting Club podcast and Youtube channel have taken over from where Trademate left off. Interviewing many of the worlds top sports bettors.

Their focus is mainly on sports betting tipsters and they have several videos on the channel detailing how to find good tipsters. Along with many of the key factors you should when deciding to follow a tipster.

Historical Results And Proofing
Are Odds Attainable
Liquid Markets

If you are looking at using tipsters as part of your betting portfolio. Then taking a look through the Smart Betting Club’s Youtube channel is certainly a good option.

Caan Berry

Last on the list is one of the most active sports betting Youtuber’s and that is Caan Berry.

Caan has one of the longest running sports betting channels on Youtube. His videos always tend to be of a high quality with very good production values.

Videos on the channel tend to be a mixture of entertainment and education. Featuring sports betting strategies such as matched betting, value betting and Betfair trading.

Caan’s main trading focus is on horse racing and their are multiple videos on him live trading and giving advice on strategies in this area.

Visit Caan Berry’s channel here.

Conclusion

There we have 5 of the very best sports betting Youtube channel around.

Here at Smart Sports Trader we also have a Youtube channel covering all aspects of sports betting and football trading. Below is one of the most recent videos which details how to make over £100 a day from sports betting.

Watch this video on YouTube

Making A Million From Sports Betting And Trading – October 2022 Results

October was a pretty frustrating month in betting terms.

Seemed to be cursed by the MMA betting gods at the moment. Had two freak injuries go against TJ Dillashaw dislocating his shoulders seconds into the fight. Then the week after Calvin Kattar blew out his knee after one round.

This capped off a month where betting wise it just didn’t go to plan.

Let’s dig into the results from Month 67 of the challenge!

Value Betting/Pre Match Trading

Value betting went much better then I imagined it. Checking these results at the end of the month and a strong profit was made.

Overall there were 296 value bets and trades made.

A total profit of £2008

The world cup is coming up in this month, which may mean a decline in value bets. Will depend on how active bookmakers are with their boosts during the tournament. Sure there will still be plenty of opportunities.

Not Familiar With Matched Betting Or Value Betting ?

Read Our Guides Below

Matched Betting Guide

Value Betting Guide

Advantage Play – Casino Offers

Not much worth noting down for October. I don’t have the inclination to grind smaller value offers anymore and not getting many higher value reload offers. There were only 2 casino offers that I completed in October.

A profit of £160 was made

Click Here To Read Our Guide To Making Money From Casino Offers

Smart Sports Betting Community/MMA Results

Not a pretty month on the MMA betting front.

As mentioned in the introduction it does feel like things are going against us at the moment with freak injuries costing us two bets. Overall I don’t think there is too much to worry about, this is betting. Sometimes you have to accept you can’t always be the hammer and being the nail is inevitable at some point.

A loss of -£1180 was made from 12 bets.

Horse Racing Tipsters

Still only following one horse racing tipster at the moment. That horse racing tipster is Kieran Ward’s Value Tips (free SBC tipster.)

Along with Kieran Ward I also bet my own selections based on market movement in the morning markets.

As you can see from the graph it was a pretty flat month overall.

A loss of -£31 was made from horse racing bets.

FTS Systems

FTS is a subscription service that offers a wide range of data to help you develop profitable betting strategies. It is a run by professional bettor Ian Erksine.

Currently I am running 4 season long strategies (I added a new strategy this month).

One strategy focuses on laying the draw, the second strategy is goals based backing under 2.5 and 3.5 goals. The third strategy is again a lay strategy on the match odds markets based around form. Strategy number 4 looks at backing higher odds and is again based around form.

A loss of –£699 was made in October. (Which oddly is exactly the same amount I made last month but in profit from FTS)

Getting butchered on the under 2.5/3.5 goals strategy is what did the damage this month. The lay the draw strategy amazingly didn’t lose at all. This is laying at odds no greater then 3.5 either so it was on a pretty impressive run.

Despite the losses, these are season long strategies so won’t be making any rash changes based on results this month.

In-Play Betting (Football and UFC) And Misc Bets

Didn’t do a lot of in-play betting on football this month due to work commitments and spending times with the kids at the weekend. The World Cup this month though this month will likely offer the opportunity to do more in-play trading.

Overall a loss of -£568 was made this month

Results For October

(Graph should say daily Profit/Loss)

Value Betting – £2008

Casino Offers – £160

MMA – –£1180

Horse Racing Tipsters – –£31

FTS Income – -£699

In-Play Betting/Trading And Misc – -£568

Total Made In October

-£310

Overall Profit Since The Challenge Began

£161,942

Thoughts Going Forward

Not going to cry over a small losing month. This year betting wise has been the best one from recent memory.

Happy with all the strategies that are being used. I may look int to getting a few more soft bookmaker accounts up and running in near future. Solely using the betting exchanges at the moment but even though setting up new accounts can be a hassle.

At the end of the day its money left on the table.

Thanks for reading, hope you had a decent month!

Making A Million From Sports Betting And Trading – July 2022 Results

After a fairly disappointing June, did things rebound in Month 64 of the “Making A Million Challenge!”

July overall was another quiet month betting wise but things picked up at the end of the month with lower league English football returning.

Another highlight of the month was seeing the England women’s team win the Euros. The women’s game gets quite a bit of flak but I really enjoyed it. You see way less play acting and general shit housing, it was refreshing to see players get hit with a hard tackle and then just get up.

Generally they just seemed like they wanted to get on with playing football.Rather then use every little physical altercation as an opportunity to get teh opposition carded.

It highlighted really how pathetic a lot of male footballers are in the modern game. How rolling around pretending to be hurt just became an accepted part of the men’s game. I will never understand the decision to let it become an accepted part of the men’s game.

Seeing grown men, who are role models for millions of children act this way again just seems really pathetic.

Anyway enough rambling, let’s dig into the results.

Making A Million

Value Betting/Trading

Still a fairly quiet month for value betting.

The women’s Euros did throw up some selections, as did the UEFA qualifiers. Had a quite a few bets in the MLS and some of the summer leagues also.

August will see things ramp back up however with the return of major European leagues.

Value Bets July

In total there were 135 bets made.

A total profit of £811 was made.

Not Familiar With Matched Betting Or Value Betting ?
Read Our Guides Below
Matched Betting Guide
Value Betting Guide

Advantage Play – Casino Offers

Very small amount of casino offers done this month. There is much more that I could be doing here. In honesty it’s just a lack of interest on my part to grind casino offers at the moment.

I did 3 reload offers this month.

Losing £80 in total.

Click Here To Read Our Guide To Making Money From Casino Offers

Smart Sports Betting Community/MMA Results

It was an improved month on the MMA betting front.

Felt like the things had been going against us the last couple of months. The misfortune which was Tom Aspinall breaking his leg 15 seconds into his main event fight against Curtis Blaydes. Gave us some profit in what I expected to be a competitive fight.

So the MMA betting gods seem to shining some favour our way again, Praise Odin!!

A profit of £575 was made from 15 bets.

MMA Bets

Horse Racing Tipsters

Pretty sure last month was the worst month on record for horse racing bets.

It was pretty much a month of consistent losers and gave back much of the profit made since Beth Bet folded.

The current racing tipster portfolio consists of 3 tipsters.

Hansbury Racing
No Photo Needed (free Smart Betting Club Tipster)
Kieran Ward’s Value Tips (free SBC tipster.)

Hansbury Racing was the big loser this month . It really struggled to hit much this month and has been giving back most of the profit it previously made.

Horse Racing Bets

Overall a loss of -£1025 was made from horse racing.

Golf

My venture into the world of golf betting might be coming to an end soon. It’s been 11 months since I started golf betting and after last months results the overall graph is standing at -£25.

There has been some missed bets and using the exchanges only means that there isn’t the advantage of extra places. However I am starting to feel like my time might be better spent elsewhere.

In July a total of -£257 was lost betting on golf.

FTS Systems

This month I got the chance to delve into the data that FTS Ultimate provides.

It’s been really interesting getting a chance to look at the historical odds data and models that you get with FTS. I have had theories about strategies that might work long term, in the past.

“Yes I knew I was fucking right!” or “Ah balls I really thought that would work!”

Actually getting to confirm whether that is true or not with actual data is really rewarding.

Pretty excited to see how this goes in the long run. The fact that it looks possible to have winning strategies in high liquidity markets. Where I don’t have to worry about bookmaker limitations is very appealing.

From FTS Ultimate I have developed 6 systems that I am pretty sure will win long term.

For this season I will stake pretty conservatively at £50 a point.

Going forward there will be a lot more selections but this month there were 8 bets.

A loss of -£137 was made.

Misc

Misc includes profits or losses made from anything that is noted down on the previous headings. This is usually from following from bets from free tipsters. That I don’t individually record.

A loss of -£135 was made

Results For July

Value Betting – £811

Casino Offers – -£80

Golf – –£257

MMA – £575

Horse Racing Tipsters – –£1025

Misc – -£135

July Overall

Total Made In May

-£111

Overall Profit Since The Challenge Began

£155,827

Bookmaker KYC Checks – What You Need To Know

How to pass bookmaker KYC and source of wealth checks.

In this article we are going to take a look at what you need to pass bookmaker know your customer and source of wealth checks.

Why do they happen?
What documents do you need?
How can I pass customer KYC checks?

If you have already started matched betting or happen to be making a decent amount of money from your sports betting.

Then it is likely you will have come across the know your customer checks.

You may also have been unlucky enough to also be asked for a source of wealth check.

Watch this video on YouTube

In a recent video Caan Berry pointed out the increasing nature of these checks and also how they are unfairly used.

Whilst bookmakers are supposed to use these types of measures to identify problem gamblers and stop money laundering.

Often they are used to hamper and annoy bettors that have figured out a way to profit from the bookmakers.

They are being used as a way to deter profitable punters from playing at that site.
Rather then identifying problem gamblers or people that are money laundering.

Bookmaker KYC Checks – Why Do They Happen

Know your customer checks are in place to make sure the person opening and using the account.

Is actually the person they say they are.

These are regulations that a bookmaker needs to adhere to in order to operate.

In order to verify who you are. Bookmakers will often ask for some personal information when you sign up.

You will normally need to provide your –
Full Name
Date of Birth
Address and postcode
Mobile Number

To further back up this information you will also normally be asked to provide one form of ID.

A passport or driving licence is the most commonly used form of ID.

Along with some form of proof of address such as a bank statement, electric or water bill dated within the last 3 – 6 months.

Whenever you open a bookmaker account you should make sure you have these documents in order to make a withdrawal.

Most of the bigger bookmakers have an area on the site where you can upload your documents. Some will request that you email the documents to their risk team.

Normally this is a pretty simple process and your account will be verified within a couple of days.

Some bookmakers can also verify you electronically using the electoral register. In this case the bookmakers will not ask for additional documentation.

Source Of Wealth Checks

The second type of check that bookmakers can carry out is the source of wealth check.

This is a little more intrusive and sometimes bookmakers will ask for information regarding your job title and how much money you earn on a early basis.

Usually this is done when you are depositing and withdrawing large amounts of money.

For example if you are depositing and withdrawing tens of thousands of pounds on a weekly basis, then you can expect a source of wealth check.

In order to pass a source of wealth check you will need to provide some proof of earnings.

For example wages slips or bank statements which show a consistent income.

Bookmakers abusing source of wealth checks.

Something to be aware of however is that some bookmakers misuse source of funds/wealth checks.

This isn’t the case for all bookmakers but it does happen.

Recently I had a bookmaker ask me for unredacted bank statements and proof of earnings when I wanted to withdraw less then £50 from my account.

On this account I had bet only a few hundred pounds over its entire lifetime.

So it hardly qualified for a source of wealth check and the request was very unreasonable.

Money laundering and identifying problem gamblers are the reason behind this legislation.

However as you can see from the emails above. Bookmakers sometimes use this type of check to identify and deter winning bettors.

So whilst you should not expect a source of wealth check unless you are depositing and withdrawing large amounts of money.

Be aware that some bookmakers will still try to delay withdrawals by asking for more information then they should.

Problem Withdrawing From Bookmaker?

If you feel a bookmaker is abusing these checks.

For example withholding a withdrawal of £30 and asking for source of wealth checks, asking for selfies holding your id and notarised documents etc.

Your best option is to contact the UK gambling commission and make a complaint.

You can also copy them into your emails when you correspond with which ever bookmaker you are having issues with. This then notifies the bookmaker itself that you are involving the UK gambling commission.

Another option is to use the website Resolver and initiate a complaint.

Resolver will contact the bookmaker itself and try to resolve the issue. Then send your complaint on to the Independent Betting Adjusdication Service (IBAS) if the issue is still unable to be resolved.

Conclusion

For the most part KYC checks are a very easy procedure. In over 10 years of betting I have only had one issue with a source of wealth checks.

Whilst the checks can be an annoyance and seem intrusive.

There is a still a decent amount of opportunity to make money from the sports betting markets which make it worth while.

One of the simplest and most effective ways to make money is from matched betting.

If you want to learn how to do this for free our recommendation is Profit Rush.

Making A Million From Sports Betting And Trading – March 2021 Results

This year started strong with January and February showing decent profits.

The sporting schedule is jam packed at the moment, with Euro 2021 this summer its going to be an interesting year.

During March we had Cheltenham festival which in previous years had been very profitable.

March brought me to exactly four years of running this challenge.

Although still far away from the £1,000,000 target it does show that having a few solid strategies does pay off in the long run.

Let’s take a look at results from March.

Value Betting, Matched Betting And Arbitrage

This month saw the Cheltenham festival which a few years ago was like Christmas for matched bettors. There were offers all over the place. Online and in shops, there were people that would make thousands of pounds in profit from Cheltenham when I first started.

Well I got crushed this year.

There were some decent offers available with Speadex in particular running a nice offer.

However I chose to value bet everything. Rather then cover the other side on the exchanges, in the hope that I would trigger a free bet.

A slight recovery was made at the end of the month.

But overall March was a pretty flat month for this set of strategies.

In March there were 407 bets.
A total profit of £157 was made.

Learn About Matched Betting And Value Betting Below

Matched Betting Guide

Value Betting Guide

Advantage Play – Casino Offers

The second month in a row were volume was pretty low.

A few recurring offers were not running such the “Double Your Winnings” offer that Bet365 normally run.

Only got a few cashback and reload offers.

So overall things were pretty quiet on the casino offers front.

Again this month I didn’t branch out and actively look for new sign ups, however it does seem like there has been a reduction in decent offers the last two months.

Hopefully things pick up in April.

There were 61 offers completed in March
A total profit of £371 was made

Sports Betting Results

It was my own sports betting results which saved this month from being a pretty poor.

I continue to run well betting on MMA and was profitable with some in-play betting on football this month.

During March I made a total of 20 bet.
A total profit of £983 was made.

The Basketball Geek Results

March will be the last month of following the Basketball Geek.

Whilst it has been profitable following his selections.

He seems to be focused almost exclusively now on very small leagues.

Betting on women’s Russian basketball, Senegal basketball and Polish second division is going to burn accounts pretty quickly.

This month I did try following only the larger league selections and matches that were available on Betfair.

But as you can see volume was pretty low.

There were 18 selections in total.
A profit of £56 was made

Read Our Review Of The Basketball Geek Below

Basketball Geek Review

Free Tipster Experiment

March saw the continuation of the free tipster experiment.

The idea is to take the best free tips available from a number of different sources and see if its profitable long term.
Staking is very simple, I look to win around £50 for each selection.

It was an up and down month for the free tipster experiment but overall it ended in profit.

There were 212 selections.
A total profit of £296 was made.

Below is a list is a list of the tipsters used.

Nigel Seeley – Twitter, Trademate Podcast.

George Gamble – Twitter, Trademate Podcast.

Mark O,Haire – Twitter, Matchbook Podcast.

Demtrio Giotti – Smart Betting Club Free Tipster.

Lucky Pucks – Smart Betting Club Free Tipster.

Bassie Bets – Smart Betting Club Free Tipster, Betmarkets.

Neil Macdonald – Twitter, Betmarkets.

Lehotka Botond –Twitter, Betmarkets.

Miguel S – Betmarkets.

Sergio P – Betmarkets.

Trading

March was a decent month on the trading front.

Managed to build up a decent position on Francis Ngannou pre fight in his fight against Stipe Miocic. The idea was then to reduce my liability after round 1. Then completely exit the trade after round 2 were he was likely to start slowing down.

Ngannou put on a spectacular performance and ended up finishing the job in the second round via knock out.

Overall a total of £432 was made from trading.

Thoughts Going Forward

This year has got off to a great start, if things continue this way it looks like I could get over £30k in total profit made within a year.

Which would be a nice mile stone to get over.

Although things can change very rapidly in betting and a few poor months could make that look pretty unrealistic, time will tell.

There will be a new addition to the portfolio next month.

Which will be Neil Macdonald’s football picks.

Been tracking these since the 17th of February and also using Neil’s picks from Betmarkets for a while.

He tips in major European football leagues which have big liquidity.

So unlike the Basketball Geek odds don’t get hammered in minutes and I can use the sharps/exchanges to get my bets on fairly easily.

His long term record is excellent.

So I do think that going forward this will be a profitable addition.

Click Here To Read More About Neil Macdonald’s Service.

Results For March

Value Betting, Arbitrage, Matched Betting –

£157

Advantage Play – Casino Offers

£371

Trading

£432

Sports Betting

£983

The Basketball Geek

£156

Free Tipster Experiment

£296

Total Made In March
£2295
Overall Profit Since The Challenge Began
£111,460
Remaining Target
£888,540

Services Used

In this section is a list of the services that I have used this month. To be transparent I do have affiliate deals with these services.
Which means should you subscribe to them through a link on this site I will receive a commission.
This does not come at any additional cost to you. In fact with some of these services I have negotiated discounted prices for readers of smartsportstrader.com.

Recommended For Matched Betting/ Value Betting/ Arbitrage

Oddsmonkey Matched Betting And Arbitrage Software (Click Here For A Free Trial)

Subscription Cost – £12.50 a month (Annual Subscription)

If you comment “Smart Sports Trader” in the chat when you sign up for a Trademate Sports trial. You will get an extended two week trial and also a 10% discount off your first month.

Trademate Sports Value Betting Software – Click Here For A Two Week Trial

Subscription Cost – £110 a month (Monthly)

Recommended For Exploiting Casino Offers

(Readers of smartsportstrader.com can get the first month half price using the link below)

Bonus Accumulator (Click Here)

Subscription Cost – £12.50 a month (Annual Subscription)

Making A Million From Sports Betting And Trading – January 2021 Results

It’s been a good start to 2021 on the betting front.

Nearly everything made a profit and I continue to run well on casino offers.

Not much else to add really, with lockdown things are pretty boring but having betting stuff to do on a daily basis keeps things ticking over.

Let’s take a look at the results from the first month of 2021.

Value Betting, Matched Betting And Arbitrage

Last month was a losing month for this set of strategies and value betting especially struggled again early on.

I do very little matched betting now apart from Bet365 offers and a small amount of arbitrage.

Which is much less now as the account I was mainly using for arbitrage has put a loss limit of £200 a month on my account.

This bookmaker normally gives very small arbs which I had been happy to take. However now I can only stake £200 for example on a 1.33/1.32 arb. Which is pretty annoying especially if it loses and I have to leave the account alone for a month.

My hope is that this does not becoming the norm for sports betting in the UK.

So its pretty much 90% value betting at the moment which opens you up to variance.

The upswing at the end was due to winning a 2up bet on Kilmarnock (This is when Bet365 pay out if a team leads 2-0, if the team blows the lead which Kilmarnock did you get paid out on both your win bet and lay bet.)

This is a matched betting strategy, click here to learn more about matched betting.

In January a total of 303 bets were made in.

A total profit of £538 was made.

Learn About Value Betting And Arbitrage Below

Arbitrage Betting Guide

Value Betting Guide

Advantage Play – Casino Offers

The casino Gods were kind again this month despite a drop in volume.

I do feel like I am running pretty well at the moment with casino stuff and imagine that a correction will happen in the near future.

However when the good times come you have to enjoy them.

There were no major wins this month, just a few similar to the one below which all added up at the end of the month.

During January I did 101 casino offers.

A total profit of £1007 was made.

Sports Betting Results

January was a really good month for my own personal sports bets, which focus mostly on the MMA markets.

Again I felt like I got some good luck this month.

Split decisions went my way and a few prop bets with big odds came in.

In total there were 22 bets in January.

A profit of £858 was made.

The Basketball Geek Results

I like the Basketball Geek but it is becoming harder and harder to get close to the quoted odds.

The Basketball Geek sends selections at 8.00, I am normally betting them within 10 minutes at most but it does not seem quick enough at the moment.

Going to continue with this tipster because results have been excellent and perhaps start looking to leave prices up on the exchanges or see later in the day if prices bounce back.

This month I bet 60 selections.

A loss of £112 was made.

Read Our Review Of The Basketball Geek Below

Basketball Geek Review

Free Tipster Experiment

The free Tipster Experiment continued in January and results were good.

It’s a simple concept, I have looked to find some of the best free tips available and I stake to win around £50 each time (Not always exactly £50).

Always taking at least the recommended odds.

The tipsters that I am following tip selections that can be bet on using Asian Connect or with the betting exchanges.

Not choosing any tipsters that are using solely soft bookmakers as I want to be able to get on bets without the worry of restrictions.

The hope is that if its shows to be profitable, I will be able to scale it up.

Most of the profit came from a strong last weekend of the month.

Nigel Seeley from the Trademate podcast had a cracking end to the month and Demetrio Giotti from SBC was another tipster that did really well.

I am also taking bets from a few football tipsters on Betmarkets that tip in the bigger leagues. Who also finished the month strong.

Be interesting to see if this will be a profitable long term strategy. Would like to get to at least a thousand bets before I break things down into average odds, roi etc.

I often miss bets and its not the most refined strategy yet but next month I will write up a list of all the tipsters I am using.

In total there were 128 bets in January.

A profit of £716 was made.

Trading

Didn’t do a whole lot of trading in January.

Home schooling is taking up a lot of time during the week and at the weekend I am normally pretty busy value betting.

Made some profit trading Mcgregor vs Poirer in the days leading up to the event as it was pretty much one way traffic on Mcgregor up until fight day.

Overall it was a pretty uneventful month on the sports trading front.

In January I made a profit of £202 from trading.

Thoughts Going Forward

Overall it was a really good start to 2021, with the monthly profit being above average.

My long term plan is and has been for the last several years to use sports betting and trading as a way to reach financial independence.

Fingers crossed that regulation doesn’t get in the way and this goal continues to look achievable.

In terms of strategies and services used I don’t intend to change much.

Like I wrote earlier I will carry on with the free tipster experiment and assess things after a few more hundred bets.

All the other strategies are proven to be profitable so its just about getting as much turnover in these area’s as possible.

I have a long term investment in Betmarkets which isn’t doing very well at the moment.

My £1000 initial investment is down around £200.

However I have seen with my own value betting drawdown periods and the people behind Betmarkets have made it clear Betmarkets is a long term investment. That should be looked at in a similar way as an index fund would.

So its not something to tinker with every month and dip in and out of.

Happy to leave it for now and then revaluate things in a few more months.

Results For January

Value Betting, Arbitrage, Matched Betting –

£538

Advantage Play – Casino Offers

£1007

Trading

£202

Sports Betting

£858

The Basketball Geek

-£112

Free Tipster Experiment

£716

Total Made In January

£3209

Overall Profit Since The Challenge Began

£106,340

Remaining Target

£893,660

Services Used

In this section is a list of the services that I have used this month. To be transparent I do have affiliate deals with these services. Which means should you subscribe to them through a link on this site I will receive a commission. This does not come at any additional cost to you. In fact with some of these services I have negotiated discounted prices for readers of smartsportstrader.com.

Recommended For Matched Betting/ Value Betting/ Arbitrage

Oddsmonkey Matched Betting And Arbitrage Software (Click Here For A Free Trial)

Subscription Cost – £12.50 a month (Annual Subscription)

If you comment “Smart Sports Trader” in the chat when you sign up for a Trademate Sports trial. You will get an extended two week trial and also a 10% discount off your first month.

Trademate Sports Value Betting Software – Click Here For A Two Week Trial)

Subscription Cost – £110 a month (Monthly)

Recommended For Exploiting Casino Offers

(Readers of smartsportstrader.com can get the first month half price using the link below)

Bonus Accumulator (Click Here)

Subscription Cost – £12.50 a month (Annual Subscription)

Making A Million From Sports Betting And Trading – May Results

Sports are gradually returning and things are looking up from a sports betting/trading perspective.

Again my main focus this month was on casino offers but the return of German football has been a welcome one!

Looking ahead June promises the return of the Premier League along with other football.

This brings more value betting opportunities and also matched betting opportunities which in turn should mean there is more profit to be made.

But for now let’s take a look at results from May in the ongoing making a million from the sports betting markets challenge.

Advantage Play – Casino Offers

Let’s start with where most of the profit came from in May.

In May I did 235 offers.

A total profit £1372 was made.

Another solid month of profit from casino offers and I got the chance to check out a new service Bonus Accumulator, which I was impressed with. They highlighted pretty much all the offers that I been previously manually working out and seem on top of finding as much value as possible from casino offers.

So going forward that will be the service that I use to exploit casino offers.

If you are still not taking advantage of casino offers and interested in leaning more.

I have linked a video and article below which should be helpful.

Article – Make Money From Casino Bonuses

Video – How I Profit From Casino Offers

Service Used

Bonus Accumulator (Click Here For The Review)

Subscription Cost – £12.50 a month (Annual Subscription)

Matched Betting – Sports Offers, Arbitrage, Value Betting

There were a few matched betting offers around and I managed to pick up some value bets.

Although it didn’t seem like the market was able to adjust to there being no crowd. So relying on the market price to indicate value might not have been the best idea.

You could see this as starting prices in football didn’t seem to mean much and there were massive adjustments made in-play after 10 mins in the match odds market.

During May I made 59 bets.

A loss of -£127 was made.

Services Used

Oddsmonkey (Click Here For The Review)

Subscription Cost – £12.50 a month (Annual Subscription)

Bookie Bashing

Sports Betting Results

In May I made a total of 24 bets.

A loss of £45 was made.

During May I had a look through my long term betting results as for the last year I have been a losing sports bettor.

I also delved deeper into my long term stats dating back to 2017.

From the graph I can see that I am performing well betting MMA and also in-play MMA/Football over the long term (This is shown as No Sport on Bettin.gs.)

Although the sample of bets isn’t huge it looks like my pre match football bets (red line on the graph) are not really making any money.

It makes sense going forward to increase my bet size on Mixed Martial Arts and leave betting pre-match on football alone. I am very confident in my edge betting MMA markets but obviously football markets are a lot sharper.

Hopefully this change should see a decent profit made over the coming year.

Services

Previously I had been using Trade On Sport and FTS Racing. I won’t be using these services until sport resumes in normal form. Both are good services and I am confident long term they will be profitable but during this period I want to be cautious.

My main focus is going to be on area’s that I am confident I have a large edge in ( Casino offers, mma betting, pre-match trading.)

Results

Matched Betting – Sports Offers

£-127

Advantage Play – Casino Offers

£1372

Trading Results

-£46

Sports Betting

-£45

Total Made In May

£1156

Overall Profit Since The Challenge Began

£83,537

Remaining Target

£916,463

Thoughts Going Forward

Got to admit I have been pretty disappointed with results this year after doing really well last year, I hoped that momentum would continue.

However at the end of the day it is only betting and with everything that’s happened I should really be grateful for everything that I have already. For a lot of people that live on this world there is no opportunity to make money from the sports betting world.

In fact there is very little opportunity for them at all.

Puts things into perspective, anyway moving on to June.

The return of the Premier League is sure to bring more matched betting offers to the table and should be some good pre-match trading opportunities.

Thanks for reading, hope you have a profitable June.