notes to self
TheGuardian.com/money/2010/jul/24/free-bets-bookies
Coming back to this in 2018 I still haven't tried matched betting. At a glance on search engines, the market seems to be more clear-cut than when I first blogged, with free bets links common, arbitrage calculators occasionally available free, and anything more sophisticated paid-for at £1 for the first month and then £15-20-ish a month.
"Any Google search will bring up matched betting sites, such as laymybet.co.uk and freebets4all.com. They will pinpoint virtually every single free bet offer available. They also give you a list of the best qualifying bets related to the various bookmaker promotions. You are told how much to bet, which bookmaker to place the transaction with, how much to "lay" with Betfair, and what your overall profit will be. They will also let you know if your partner can access the free bets, too."
"While there are different promotions available, I tended to avoid ones larger than free £50 bets– because the larger the bet, the more strings attached, such as convertibility.
For example, some online sports books may offer the matched betting to onlyThus the bookies are using this to entice new players or winback of lapsed players, and keep the money in the house by increasing the probability of losing the money in an online poker game, or in the casino, or better yet, having to turn over the money X fold on other wagers…all significantly increasing the probability you lose the free money."
- new players, and only to discover there is a turn over of 3X or greater before they can withdraw. In other cases, sports books that also promote online casinos or poker, may add terms to the matched bet whereby the
- free bet winnings can only be converted over to other games before withdrawing.
"It’s also a good idea to check the terms and conditions, because sometimes you might find hidden strings there. Keep track of all your bets, as well as all the usernames and passwords you create in a spreadsheet or a notebook."One guide site puts the offers this way.
- Place bet and then receive a free bet
- Place a bet and then if your bet loses, you receive another bet
- Cash bonuses which require rolling over a certain number of times "roll over"
Free odds comparison calculators are on
freebets4all.com/free-bets/UnitedKingdom
Save the student
Matched Betting Blog
The paid for sites are reviewed on
https://www.matchedbettingsites.com - from a left menu found on "toggle menu"
https://comparethematchedbetting.co.uk/
Going back a few years, the sites mentioned now charge I guess.
laymybet.co.uk - closed
betexpertuk.co.uk/what-is-matched-betting/ has 46 offers and
betexpertuk.co.uk/existing-bookmaker-account-offers/ - someone has taken over the old domain and transferred it to Bookieninja, a basic wordpress site and list of special offer adds
matchedbetting.co.uk/free-bets/- I can't quite see what this is about
https://www.bet-bonuscode.co.uk/matchbook-bonus-code/
or just try search engines
Mojeek.co.uk/search?q="free+bet"Sites to know about and probably avoid
Bing.com/search?q="free+bet"&cc=gb
Google.co.uk/search?q="free+bet"
http://www.top100bookmakers.com/rating.php - matchedbook bad on any but the biggest market;
- Stan James bad
- Coral bad
- Totesports bad.
Reasons people dislike the sites can be reduced with this checklist
Arbitrage can be profitable, even at UK facing bookies but you have to be selective over what you bet on.One thing you notice from the blog post is that some people try to carry-on making money from arbitrage even after the special offers run-out. Maybe they're ones who get spotted.
You will quickly get gubbed (account closed) if you do any of the following:
A) Arb large bets on anything except soccer / tennis (e.g. NFL,NBA,NHL)
B) Bet over £200 / £250 on back bets at a single UK bookie per event
C) Take massive arbs (7%+) that are obvious mistakes or lines that are completely out of line D) Contact Customer Support for any reason and have a person actually look at your bets (To say cancel a bet if you do it wrong)
E) Bet on Non-UK 3rd division teams etc. (£200 on Argentinian 4th division team to win 1-0 is suicide)
I have actually salvaged a couple of limited account (due to MatchBetting and breaking rule (E) above when I was inexperienced) and got them completely unrestricted again through sensible arbing. Other accounts like BetFred/PaddyPower/Bet365 will in all liklehood Gub you no matter what you do as they just hate anyone who consistently finds value in their odds. In the case of those bookies make hay while the sun shines IMHO.
There is less matching, if any, for bingo and roulette for reasons that are probably obvious to people who know about this stuff; it is sports and events that provide the matched bets on https://www.freebets4all.com/AutoMatcher and that leads to another point- the sites that allow bets the other way
Sites to know about
https://www.freebets4all.com/AutoMatcher has a column called "exchange" which quotes
- betfair most
- matchbook several times a day
- smarkets several times a day (the dark banner that's hard to read)
- betdaq once on the day I looked (a purple banner)
http://www.oddsmonkey.com/STARTHERE/Tutorial1%E2%80%93MatchedBettingIntro.aspx
This one has a step-by-step guide. The first is jargon. I am on to the second about Betfair, the largest supplier of bets the other way ("lay bets" in the jargon, apparently) which isn't the cheapest but will probably have to be used. You'll notice that I post afffilate links to Betfair; if you can find some way to sign-up through a free introductory offer, that might be better. You can join the schemes - Topcashback & Quidco - through the links to each site below below.
As someone who has written about this matched betting thing but not done it, I suppose I am a likely customer for the sites which charge fifteen pounds a month to take you through the process step by step. Their names are Oddsmonkey (premium), Profit Squirrel, and Profit Accumulator. A search for those names together will get some reviews and http://www.matchedbettingsites.com/ seems to do the comparisons very neatly.
Where were we? Free-to-use sites for the more organised and adventurous.
Laymybet.co.uk/
Freebets4all.com/cashback/
The site has a nifty way of finding the exact bet and match on eg betfair and one of a dropdown list.
The cashback sites have offers on casinos: Betfair: TCB; Betdaq: Immutual; Smarkets; none.
Topcashback plus is a special deal for people who expect to earn more than £100 a year on its site
(£5 membership + hassle of cancelling - extra 5% on earnings and quicker payouts / customer service)
I don't know why my notes also list cashback site links to sports bookmakers below - why separate?
Looking at the betting markets, most of the events seem to be a month or more away - like who will be president of the USA. I suppose that's an extra reason to bet on sports. There is a
Sportinglife.com/calendar sports betting calander links to
Oddschecker.com/
Both give an idea of what people are gambling on although I am still not sure. It says things like "wimbledon" and "Iceland v France" so I suppose a google would help.
As someone who has posted this stuff online but not got-around to doing it for a year or two, I suppose I might sign-up to one of the sites that's cheap for a week and then charges £15 a month. I think they are callled
Imutual.co.uk/bookmakers
Topcashback.co.uk/bookmakers/
888 Sport
888games.com
Betbrain Betdaq Betfair sports Football Pools
Ladbrokes MyBet
Paddy Power Sportsbook SeanieMac Suspended Smarkets Victor Chandler (VC Bet)
10Bet Sports Cashback ExclusiveExploding onto the online sports bookmaking scene in 2003, 10Bet has quickly established itself as one of the premiere international bookmakers in the
£10.10 Cashback
188BET Cashback Exclusive
Bet on sports at 188BET. View in-play markets, play bingo, blackjack, poker and slots on your iPhone, Android or tablet and earn cashback rewards. Up to £25.25 Cashback
Bet365 Cashback Exclusive
Visit Bet365 for online gambling and sports betting. Play games and bingo, poker and roulette, watch live horse racing and sport and earn cashback.Look out for discount codes
and deals Continue
Faster PayingBetfair Cashback Exclusive
Play bingo, casino games and slots at Betfair, as well as bet in-play, on your mobile or tablet on sports. Get free bets and earn cashback rewards. Up to £70.70 Cashback
Coral Sportsbook Cashback
Bet on sport with Coral Sportsbook. Bet on football and horse racing, golf, boxing and tennis. View live scores, bet in-play and get cashback rewards.Look out for discount codes
and deals Continue
Ladbrokes Cashback
You will be on to a winner with these great Ladbrokes cashback and voucher code deals. Ladbrokes offer bingo and casino games such as roulette and... Up to £35.35 Cashback
SuperCasino Cashback
Play live roulette, live blackjack, poker, slots and more online, on your mobile or by phone at SuperCasino. Play for top jackpots and earn cashback. £20.20 Cashback
Victor Chandler Cashback
Visit Victor Chandler for online betting. Bet on football, cricket, rugby and horse racing, as well as casino games such as poker, and earn cashback.Look out for discount codes
and deals Continue
Virgin Games Cashback
Virgin Games service Ltd was founded in 2004, and operates the following sites: Virgin Casino, Virgin Bingo and Virgin Poker... 5.05% Cashback
William Hill Sports Betting Cashback Exclusive
Get the best live odds and free bets, whether betting on horse racing, football or golf, with William Hill Sports Betting. Bet and earn cashback. £15.15 Cashback
Quidco.com - search for their ".../sportsbook" url & heading. Joining through this link can earn you £1 .
Betfair Sportsbook
£10 cashback Exclusive
http://www.coinrebates.com/stores - nothing shows for gambling and their offers of a few pence for surveys all end "no surveys available" after getting a bit of free information
Smarkets.com/politics/uk/ - UK - more fancy than the mainstream - 2%
I- click for no money T- no Q-
Matchbook of Alderney charges 1% for loosing or winning. US sport and some UK?
I- T- Q-
Betdaq.com/ - Alderny and Dublin - now merged with Ladbrooks and charge 5% of winnings
I- T- Q-
Betfair.com/ - UK - now merged with Paddy Power and charge 5% of winnings
I- T- Q-
Searching for the names together leads to this guide
Software called Geekstoy is free for Betdaq and Matchbook, but using it uses-up your free trial for Betfair which appears to be where most of the bet matches are found, to judge from the freebets4all site.
Looking back a few months later I discover
https://veg-buildlog.blogspot.com/2012/10/bitcoin-notes-in-progress.html
There are some notes in progress about bitcoin, that works for these matched betting sites and special offers
Gambling
Rare to find a sign-up bonus, so there is no point except that one or two gambling sites let you take a part of their winnings if you find their bankroll.
I'm not sure why I noted this list a few months ago
https://www.bitcoingg.com/bitcoin-gambling/sports-betting/ (go through a link on the right to get UK compatible ones?)
http://www.top100bookmakers.com/currencies/btc.php
- https://www.bodog.eu/promotions link to each site's promotions page
https://www.bitcoinsportsbooks.com/sports-betting-sites/ only mentions 3 btc ones
- claims a 5btc exclusive bonus on their cloudbet signup link
- reviews 5dimes n/a to UK
https://www.cryptocompare.com/spend/#/gambling - estimates commission rates
Just some early discoveries written-down
Fairlay.com/ - US - free
Predictious.com/ - Dublin - Bitcoin "prediction" - 108 sport events - fees - OK review -
Jetwin.ps/us/deposit-bonus/ - $35 signup bonus or €18 for a deposit
Getbets.eu now has minimum $300 withdrawal even by bitcoin. Previously in Simonblogspark
sports.Betcoin.ag
Cloudbet - players from my juristiction are forbidden - 5BT loyalty bonus if I can find a way
Betmoose - same
Anonibet - same
5dimes.eu - same
April 13th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Or if you’re really concerned about saving ink/toner, just stop printing.
April 20th, 2009 at 9:01 am
April 26th, 2009 at 3:49 am
Sanserif fonts like Arial are grand for headlines, not so good for the body of the text. Sure you’ll save some money, but you’ll wear out the reader. Those little tails, the serifs, on fonts like Garamond help lead the eye along.
If you’ve just printing tons of crap and you don’t think it matters if anyone reads it, then hey, use Helvetica. But if you are writing something important or worthwhile, OR, if other people are compelled to read it, then don’t make them suffer to save yourself a couple of cents.
For the body of text, Arial sucks.
April 26th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
If you want to use a serif font, you’ll notice from the chart that Times New Roman (a serif font) handily beats out Arial in efficiency.
Arial sees such widespread use primarily because it’s the default in programs like MS’s Word and Internet Explorer. But Century Gothic is far more efficient in terms of ink usage.
I myself prefer Garamond as well. It’s just a friendlier font that invites the reader’s eye to peruse the page. But when efficiency counts, like for drafts and things, I think I’ll probably switch to Century Gothic. Buying all those ink cartridges really bites you in the wallet!
June 7th, 2009 at 1:50 am
They’ve taken a very plain font and punched tiny holes in all the glyphs in such a manner that it doesn’t detract from readability.
November 21st, 2009 at 3:25 am
Also for your information, those little tails, stressed lines, sagging umlauts and dots at the ends of the letterforms, all mean that you’re printing in the German.
November 22nd, 2009 at 6:56 pm
March 26th, 2010 at 4:25 pm
Thanks, Gary
March 31st, 2010 at 3:07 pm
I too would like to see the comparisons at the same font size. Changing the font size would change the amount of ink used Until the font sizes are the same this test does not prove Century Gothic is cheaper than Arial because the fonts sizes are different.
The reason for changing the fonts to 10 point vs 11 point was for filling the page. The test should be done so all words fit on one page with the exact same words for each font. This would be an accurate test to prove which font saves money.
By using Arial at 10 point I might save more money than with Century Gothic, but this test doesn’t give me those numbers.
With my preliminary testing I found using the same point size for Arial and Century Gothic and having lengthy text. I would use more paper with Century Gothic. The exact same text at the same point size fitting on a page with Arial would flow onto a second page with Century Gothic.
March 31st, 2010 at 7:36 pm
Do you ever use EcoFont? I am curious as to how this compares.
March 31st, 2010 at 9:41 pm
I don’t myself, but if you check on our table, you’ll see that even EcoFont came in second to Century Gothic.
April 1st, 2010 at 3:47 pm
Consolas 10.5, Century Gothic 10, Calibri 11, Times Roman 11, Arial 11, and Ecofont 10. Consolas 10.5 is the default plain text email font at our college. Our default html font is Calibri 11 which according to test results in the article is about 9% more wasteful than Century Gothic 10. I think the point size differences are understandable since some fonts run small or large. Subjectively I liked Time Roman 11 for the combination of clarity and ink efficiency (in the top three along with Century Gothic and Ecofont). I am surprised it is that good in ink efficiency. I’m looking into it and considering changing to this as the default font for our college to give the best bang for the buck with the least ink.
April 5th, 2010 at 7:17 pm
"The test should be done so all words fit on one page with the exact same words for each font"
That is exactly what they did by changing the font. I agree that it is not entirely scientific though. What they should have probably done is figured out a way to "shrink to fit" everything on one page and done the test that way.
Its tough but I’m sure there is a way to make an exact comparison. Basically you want the same word count per page regardless of the font size. They were closer than just using the same font size across all fonts in this experiment but it seems to be a bit more of an "eye-ball" measurement than some kind of math calculation.
This is a great start though. I brought this up in our stuff meeting this morning and everyone got really excited about it.
April 6th, 2010 at 9:40 pm
Why change the fonts if you can optimize the amount of ink used to print all fonts, graphics, and images?
April 7th, 2010 at 9:39 am
April 7th, 2010 at 2:56 pm
Print using GARAMOND. Try it out and you will experience savings on ink and paper.
April 7th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
On a one-page document that won’t matter, but in a book, that can mean many additional octaves (pages of eight, which is the standard for books), which is more expensive.
Has anyone priced that?
April 7th, 2010 at 6:59 pm
I’m no math major and I hope I’ve calculated this correctly but:
Based on the studies’ assumption of 25 pages/week home use and 250/week for business when using any of the fonts the Canon is roughly 260% more expensive than the Brother:
For Century Gothic:
Canon – $0.0356/page
Brother – $0.0137/page
Even using Franklin Gothic the Brother is only $0.022/page. If the target is to save money buy a printer with cheaper ink, then use the most efficient font for your document needs. For the life of me cannot understand why printer ink costs $5,200 / gal. (Canon – 11ml = $15) other than we have been conditioned to pay it. Color is over $8,400 / gal.!
If you want to be green forget the ink, focus on the paper.
Sometimes I think the printer companies picture us with a big sucker sign slapped to our backs. Maybe they\’re right.
April 7th, 2010 at 7:39 pm
April 7th, 2010 at 7:40 pm
April 8th, 2010 at 2:54 am
April 8th, 2010 at 4:10 am
April 8th, 2010 at 11:03 am
2) Size matters but some fonts use more ink. Valhalla says "…but doesn’t seem any thicker in the lines", correct, and also says "Takes up more space than Century Gothic", but that is in the horizontal not in the vertical.
Please, check Courier New.
April 8th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
[Futura is a lot like Century Gothic, but slightly condensed]
April 8th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
April 8th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
April 8th, 2010 at 3:52 pm
What if I print 1000 pages per month, is that $320 per year?
April 8th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
I am currently working on a 140 page document, which is in Arial font. When I switched to Century Gothic, the number of pages increase to 150.
That’s a 7% increase in the number of pages, which is not negligible.
April 8th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
1.
The request to test additional fonts has been heard, loud and clear! Our original testing was done about a year ago, and since then the Ecofont has been redesigned, and I now know that people are in love with various
2.
To those discussing the fact that different font sizes can have an impact on readability and the length of a document– of course you are correct. I think the thing to keep in mind is that we conducted a controlled test, which has to make certain assumptions and must keep certain aspects of the test constant to get meaningful results. Our results should only be used as one piece of input into your decision about what font to choose for your particular document. Just as there are hundreds (thousands?) of fonts to choose from, there is no single answer to the question “what font should I use in this document?”
3.
To the person commenting on the fact that the choice of PRINTER is more important than font to save money while printing, you certainly have a good point. That’s one of the reasons we created http://printer.com, so that we can expose the true cost of ownership of a printer, taking into account usage and the cost of ink over several years. I personally have found that buying a “cheap” printer is not so cheap in the long run. These “cheaper” printers tend to have much smaller ink cartridges, therefore you have to change cartridges more often. Even if the smaller cartridges are marginally cheaper than bigger ones, over a several year period you can find yourself spending WAAAAY more for ink than if you had purchased a more expensive printer (with larger cartridges) to begin with.
Bob Crum
Printer.com
April 9th, 2010 at 12:12 pm
Ecofont software will be available end of June.
Kind regards, The Ecofont Team
April 10th, 2010 at 1:19 am
April 11th, 2010 at 5:27 am
April 11th, 2010 at 4:55 pm
April 12th, 2010 at 2:11 pm
Arial and other serf fonts are on the other hand better for screen reading.
April 13th, 2010 at 11:22 am
Of course the space occupied is something defined by the font itself, and also by the font size. But if we compare different fonts, i think a better hypothesis should be the same font height (due to readability) and not the number of page occupied.
April 13th, 2010 at 1:59 pm
April 16th, 2010 at 1:05 am
April 16th, 2010 at 9:29 pm
April 19th, 2010 at 12:54 am
April 24th, 2010 at 7:33 pm
I wanted to let all of you know that we at Printer.com have discussed an additional round of testing, Phase 2, and we believe that we will do this. We are looking at all of your suggestions of what fonts we should test. In addition, we want to wait for the new Ecofont, which apparently won’t be available until the end of June. So…stay tuned.
Also, the test we did last year is not available in any form that we could make available for download. We didn’t anticipate that need, and didn’t prepare for it. However, we are looking at a brief we could create for this Phase 2 testing. Again…stay tuned.
Bob Crum
Printer.com
April 27th, 2010 at 1:32 pm
So those studies should be extended to analyse also the font change in relation to the paper usage.
With kind greetings
Tobias
P.S.: Sorry if my english might be a little bit difficult to read or wrong sometimes for native speakers. I’m from germany.
April 29th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
May 3rd, 2010 at 9:01 am
May 3rd, 2010 at 2:40 pm
Print less – The less you print the more you save.
Write less – edit your documents. Most texts are too wordy.
May 5th, 2010 at 10:13 pm
https://www.ecofont.com/en/products/green/printing/saving-printing-costs-and-eco-friendly/why-ecofont-saves-more-ink-than-century-gothic.html
May 6th, 2010 at 2:18 am
To Preston:
Yes, of course, printing with compatible or remanufactured cartridges is certainly a way to save money over the use of OEM cartridges. Some people even elect to refill their own cartridges with ink and toner, thus saving even more. It is up to individuals to determine if this is something they would like to try.
To Yordan:
Our original testing was done in early 2009, and this blog entry was posted on April 13, 2009. At that point in time, the only Ecofont was the “original” one, which is explained in the last paragraph of the link you provided. Since that time, the Ecofont people “…decided to develop Ecofont into software that shoots holes in EVERY font.” The entry you reference was posted by the Ecofont people recently, after the story about the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay broke, so I don’t think it’s a matter of “checking sources” better, but rather taking into account the timeline of what has happened. The new Ecofont software will be availble in June, and we are contemplating how it could be included in our “Phase 2″ testing that we are considering.
May 6th, 2010 at 3:55 pm
May 6th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
May 6th, 2010 at 5:21 pm
May 6th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
I’m not sure it was clearly stated in the comments above. Let’s take the example of 140 pages of Arial being 150 pages in Century Gothic. If I read it right, 140 pages of Century Gothic at 3.45% coverage is cheaper than 140 pages of Arial at 5%. But I had to print an extra 10 pages. That is 10/140 more pages/ink. The percentage to use for cost savings, if I’m doing this right, is 3.45 + 3.45 * 10 / 140, or 3.45 + .25 or 3.7%. That makes it more like $49.68 for the year.
Thus I don’t think you can ignore this in order to get accurate meaningful results.
thanks,
chris
May 19th, 2010 at 8:07 pm
the simplest solution is to use toner / ink saving software like Inksaver.com or PretonSaver.
it will save up to 70% of your toner and ink usage, i use Pretonsaver.
I don’t know about ink saver, but pretonsaver has a free trial.
May 20th, 2010 at 2:23 am
I would, specifically, like to know how Arial 10 is vs. Century Gothic 10… Not 11 vs 10 like in the chart.
June 16th, 2010 at 9:02 am
June 22nd, 2010 at 5:14 am
March 2nd, 2011 at 2:18 pm
It works with your current fonts, so no need to change your docs or house style. You can also print Century Gothic in Ecofont style for the ultimate saving.
It doesn’t matter if you have a HP, Ricoh, Xerox, Canon, Lexmark, Oki, Lexmark, Samsung, Sharp or any other printer/copier. You can save more than 25% toner on all devices.
August 5th, 2011 at 9:13 am
November 13th, 2011 at 2:13 am
February 19th, 2012 at 10:52 pm
April 26th, 2012 at 11:11 am
May 24th, 2012 at 8:21 pm
June 29th, 2012 at 4:11 am
To learn more, check out my post.
http://ebeeler.blogspot.com/2012/06/comparing-apples-oranges-and-fonts-how.html
June 29th, 2012 at 7:15 pm
http://ebeeler.blogspot.com/2012/06/comparing-apples-oranges-and-fonts-how.html
August 8th, 2012 at 1:02 pm
September 18th, 2012 at 2:51 pm
It there a way to know the results or has there been a study done on this?
Thanks