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Free bets rarely pay out their face value unless you know how to extract them. With a lay bet on an exchange you can lock in 70–85% of the free bet as guaranteed cash — regardless of the result.
A free bet is a token from a sportsbook that lets you place a wager without risking your own money. If it wins, you collect the profit but not the stake. If it loses, you lose nothing (the sportsbook absorbs the stake).
The catch: you can't withdraw a free bet directly. You can only turn it into real money by placing it on a selection and winning. But that means you're still subject to the randomness of the sport. The solution is to remove the randomness by covering the opposite outcome on a betting exchange.
In a normal matched bet you back and lay the same selection to cover both outcomes. But with an SNR free bet the back side has asymmetric payouts — you don't get the stake back if it wins — so the lay calculation changes.
For a Stake Not Returned (SNR) free bet:
For a Stake Returned (SR) free bet:
In both outcomes you net approximately £36 from a £50 free bet — a conversion rate of ~72%. Your own money is never at risk; only the exchange liability is needed temporarily.
SNR free bets scale with (backOdds − 1). The profit from the back side grows faster than the lay liability as odds increase. Odds in the 4.0–7.0 range tend to give the best conversion rates — not too high (wide spread), not too low (small profit).
The spread between back and lay odds is your main cost. Liquid markets (Premier League 1X2, major tennis) have tighter spreads. Avoid niche markets with 0.1+ ticks of spread.
Standard commission is 2–5%. Betfair's premium charge can reach 60% for long-term winners. Some exchanges charge 0% on net losers. Reducing commission from 5% to 2% can recover several percentage points of conversion.
Some bookmaker promotions say 'free bet' but return the stake on a win — that's an SR bet. The calculator handles both modes. Misclassifying SR as SNR leaves money on the table.
Without an exchange you can't guarantee a return regardless of outcome. You'd have to find two opposing bookmakers offering the same market — known as cross-book arbitrage — but free bet arbitrage is rare and bookmakers will often flag and void the bet.
SNR free bets typically convert at 65–80% of face value. SR free bets convert at 80–95%. Conversion rate is primarily driven by the back/lay spread and exchange commission.
Yes. The math is identical whether the free bet comes from a sign-up offer, a weekly reload, a bet-and-get, or a cash-back as a free bet. Only the amount and SR/SNR classification change.
Matched betting using publicly available odds and exchanges is legal in most jurisdictions. Bookmakers don't like it and may limit or close accounts that consistently take sign-up value, but the practice itself is not illegal.