Turn a free bet into cash you keep.

Matched betting is a way to convert a bookmaker's free bet or boosted-odds promotion into ordinary cash — by placing the promo bet and covering the opposite outcome somewhere else, so that roughly the same amount comes back whoever wins. The profit isn't a gamble on the result; it's the value of the free stake, extracted.

Where the money actually comes from

Bookmakers give away free bets to acquire customers. A free bet is real value, but it comes with a catch: you can't withdraw it, you can only stake it, and if it loses you get nothing. On its own, a free bet is a coin flip you didn't pay for.

Matched betting removes the coin flip. You place the free bet on one outcome at the bookmaker, and at the same time you buy the opposite outcome somewhere with a fair, liquid price — historically a betting exchange, and increasingly a prediction market like Polymarket. Now the two positions cover each other:

• If the bookmaker bet wins, you collect the winnings (from a stake that cost you nothing) and lose the cover bet.
• If the bookmaker bet loses, the free bet expires worthless — but your cover bet pays out.

Because you paid nothing for the bookmaker's stake, both branches land in profit. You've turned a "use it or lose it" voucher into a known amount of cash.

The math, on a real free bet

Say a bookmaker gives you a €50 free bet. You stake it on an outcome priced at decimal odds of 4.0 (a 25% implied chance). If it wins, it returns €150 in winnings — the €50 free stake is not returned, because it wasn't your money. So the free bet is worth €150 to you if the outcome happens, and €0 if it doesn't.

To lock that in, you cover the opposite outcome on a prediction market. You size the cover so that the payout is the same either way. With a fair opposing price, you'll end up keeping roughly €35–€42 of the €50 — about 70–85% of face value — no matter which side wins. The exact figure depends on how closely the two prices agree; the tighter the match, the more you keep.

The skill in matched betting isn't picking winners. It's sizing the cover so both outcomes pay the same, and doing it before the prices drift apart.

Why a prediction market covers the bet cleanly

Traditionally you'd lay the bet on a betting exchange, which charges a commission on your winnings and needs its own account and float. A prediction market does the same job more directly: an outcome trades as a share priced between 0 and 1, you simply buy the opposite outcome, and it settles on-chain in USDC when the event resolves.

That matters for matched betting in three ways: the price is transparent and continuous, there's no commission skimmed from winnings, and settlement is automatic. The trade-off is that you're covering on a market that resolves on its own wording — so the one thing you must check is that the prediction market and the bookmaker are describing exactly the same outcome.

How amparo does it for you

Manually, matched betting means reading a promo's terms, finding a market that covers it, calculating the cover stake, and placing both legs before the price moves. amparo compresses that:

• You tell it the free-bet promotion — stake, odds, outcome.
• It finds the Polymarket market that matches the bookmaker's outcome, across an aggregated board that also includes Myriad, Azuro and Limitless.
• It sizes the hedge so both branches pay the same, and shows you the locked result — the euros you keep whichever way it goes — before you commit.
• You approve, and the cover bet is signed in your browser, on your own keys. amparo never holds the money or the position.

The free-bet calculator is available on the free tier, so you can see what any promo is worth before deciding. Placing the hedge automatically is part of a paid membership.

What to check before you place a matched bet

• Same outcome, both sides. The bookmaker's market and the cover market must resolve on identical terms — same event, same definition, same settlement.
• Read the promo terms. Minimum odds, expiry, whether the stake is returned, and any wagering (rollover) requirement.
• Size the cover, then place fast. The lock holds only if both legs go on near the prices you calculated with.
• Keep the record. Every leg, in one place — useful for knowing your real position, and for tax reporting where it applies.