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The worldwide gambling industry is huge, and growing all the time. In the year ending March 2023, gambling firms in Great Britain achieved a record-breaking annual revenue of <a href="https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/statistics-and-research/publication/industry-statistics-february-2024-correction#feedbackstatsresearch">£15.1 billion</a>.

Of this, £3.2 billion came from losses on <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/how-to-play-slots">online slots games</a>.

These profits are achieved because casinos give themselves an edge over their customers by using online slots and games that take in more money from losing wagers than they pay out in winnings.

All slots and table games have a Return To Player (RTP), which is the percentage of all money wagered on them that's paid out in winnings, on average, over millions of spins.

Online slots typically have an RTP of around 95%, although this varies a fair amount.

For every £100 wagered on a 95% RTP slot, you'll get back £95 on average. This average £5 loss per £100 wagered goes to the casino.

With the advantage clearly with the casinos, to the tune of billions of pounds every year, are there any ways to come out on top and profit from online slots?

The good news is that there are a couple of ways. Of these, by far the most reliable is to take the edge back over the casino by only doing casino offers that have long-term value, which are known as positive <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-expected-value">expected value</a> (+EV) offers.

You can learn how to make profits into the thousands of pounds from these casino offers <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/why-you-need-to-do-casino-offers">here</a>.

The other way to end up in profit from playing slots is very simple -&nbsp;get lucky and win a jackpot! Of course, the chances of landing a jackpot are extremely small, and it's very important to gamble responsibly and well within your means or, better still, stick to only doing +EV casino offers.&nbsp;

In this article we'll take a look at some of the biggest online casino wins in the UK, and how progressive jackpot slots work.

So let's hang up the lucky horseshoe, grab our four-leaf clover, cross our fingers, generally abuse every good luck cliche going, and see how a handful of very lucky gamblers managed to skyrocket their wealth into the millions with a single spin of an online slot.

Now, where did I put my lucky pants?

Before moving on to the lucky winners, it's worth looking at the type of online slot they all used to win their 7-figure plus payouts - progressive jackpot slots.

All online slots have a maximum payout, which is either a jackpot or a payline with the highest multiplier. For slots that aren't progressive jackpot slots, this is normally a fixed amount, worked out by multiplying your stake by the maximum multiplier of the slot (for example a 3000x multiplier would pay out 3000 times your stake, giving £6,000 from a £2 spin).

Bloodsuckers, which is a low variance slot, has a maximum multiplier of a relatively modest 1014.6 times your stake (a 1014.6x multiplier). This would return £2029.20 from a £2 spin.

At the other end of the spectrum is the extremely high variance Tombstone RIP slot, with an incredible maximum multiplier of 300,000x.

Although you're incredibly unlikely to hit this multiplier, if you did you'd be treated to a £300,000 payout from just a £1 stake. Here's a screenshot from a maximum win on a&nbsp;€1.10 total stake on the slot:

Progressive jackpot slots work a little differently to regular slots, by taking a portion of your stake and adding this to a jackpot fund. The screenshot below shows Mega Moolah, which is an example of a progressive jackpot slot.

Not taking into account the jackpots, Mega Moolah has a very low RTP of 88.12%. On top of this, there's an additional jackpot contribution of 5.30% of your stake, meaning that for every £100 staked, £5.30 is added to the jackpot fund.

This fund is shared between the four jackpots - Mini (red), Minor (orange), Major (yellow), and Mega (white). In the screenshot, the value of the Mega Jackpot at the top left is £3,620,256.83 at the time. Funded by the 5.3% jackpot contributions, this jackpot builds up until a lucky player eventually wins it.

Online progressive jackpot payouts can be triggered in several ways:

Mega Moolah has a randomly triggered bonus round that can happen after any spin, independent of the payline you've landed on. If you hit the bonus round, you're presented with the following screen:

The bonus round features a prize wheel with red, orange, yellow, and white zones for the four different possible jackpots. To win the Mega Jackpot, the wheel needs to stop with the pointer over the white zone with the image of the paw, as shown below:

Here's a screenshot of Mega Moolah's demo or free play mode, showing what would happen if you won the Mega jackpot:

Online progressive jackpot slots tend to be networked slots - a range of slots across multiple casinos, played by thousands of players all contributing to a single jackpot fund. This is how the enormous jackpots are achieved.

The screenshot below shows different Mega Moohah slots at a particular casino, all of which share the same jackpot fund:

When a player of any of these slots across all of the casinos that host them wins one of the jackpots, the jackpot amount drops to a minimum amount. The Mega Moolah Mega jackpot resets to £1,000,000 after being won, for example.

This minimum amount is known as the seed amount, and it's guaranteed and provided by the casino or slot provider. After being re-seeded at this minimum amount, the jackpot starts to grow again, funded by players' jackpot contributions as before.

Another popular provider of networked progressive jackpots is Jackpot King. With these slots, the jackpot is triggered by hitting a specific winning payline - a line of Jackpot King symbols.

This can be triggered randomly on any spin and at any stake size. You can see what this looks like on the Luck O' The Irish Fortune Play slot below:

After entering the bonus round, the player then needs to activate the Wheel King to have a chance of winning the jackpot.

To hit the biggest jackpot, known as Jackpot King, the Wheel King needs to land on the 'Jackpot King' symbol. You can see what this looks like in the screenshot below, which shows a reconstruction of an actual £4.6 million UK jackpot win:

If you're lucky enough to ultimately hit the Jackpot King, you'll be greeted by a screen informing you that you've just become several million pounds richer than you were a few seconds ago.

It's worth pointing out that, even if you've made it through to one of these jackpot bonus rounds, you're still very unlikely to come away with a huge profit.

To temper your expectations a little, here's a screenshot of one of my own Jackpot King bonus rounds, which I hit whilst wagering for an <a href="https://outplayed.com">Outplayed</a> casino offer. Although I suppose winning £1 from a 10p spin isn't terrible, it did mean I needed to abandon all thoughts of buying that bright yellow Lamborghini that had come to mind when I entered the Jackpot King bonus round!

When selecting the big winners for this list, care was taken to make sure that there was a reliable source for the win.

There's a lot of conflicting information about big casino winners on the internet, with some overseas players being incorrectly listed as UK players, and some wins that are mentioned in a couple of places but aren't easily verified. As such, this won't necessarily be a definitive list of the biggest UK winners to date.&nbsp;

All of the wins came from hitting a jackpot on a progressive jackpot slot, as these are by far the biggest payouts available from slots, at least without using ridiculously high stakes on regular slots.&nbsp;

Speaking of ridiculously high stakes, it was decided to exclude any wins from online casino streamers showing their wins on video-sharing sites for a couple of reasons.

First, it's well-known that many of these streamers (probably most of them) are playing with money given to them by the casino. This allows the streamers to wager vast amounts on slots, often for many hours a day, whilst not risking their own money. It also means that when they inevitably hit some huge wins, these winnings aren't theirs to keep, although they will often take a cut of the winnings.

These 'fake balance' online streamers are basically just an advert for the casinos, luring impressionable people into gambling with them.&nbsp;

The second reason is that even if the streamers are using their own money, they will often be using unrealistic and irresponsible stake sizes (some overseas streamers use $600 or even $10,000 stakes for each spin in some cases!) This obviously isn't something to be encouraged, and using such high stakes wouldn't be sustainable even for millionaires, if they were using their own money.&nbsp;

Before the maximum <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-2-maximum-stake-for-under-25s-playing-online-slots">stake limits </a>of £5 for those aged 25+ and £2 for gamblers aged 18-24 were introduced in September 2024, UK streamers could also have used these very high stakes.

Even streamers using £5 spins will be wagering millions of pounds on slots and gambling for hours a day to achieve the big wins that are such good adverts for the casinos. However, doing £5 spins for hours on end will result in enormous long-term losses, due to the casino's edge, and it can also lead to serious gambling problems.&nbsp;

Online streamers make their money from affiliate schemes with the casino (basically, a share of the losses of people who sign up to casinos through their affiliate link), advertising revenue, Patreon payments from their followers, and a cut of their winnings from their live-streamed gambling. Without these sources of income, they wouldn't be able to maintain their gambling and would have losses of millions of pounds.&nbsp;

For these reasons, all of the big wins listed here came from recreational gamblers who just happened to get lucky, rather than professional streamers.&nbsp;

8. Michael Clark - £5,400,000 - January 2023

Michael Clark, from Newcastle, had an incredible start to 2023 when he achieved the biggest-ever payout in Betfred's 57-year history, winning £5.4 million from a £1.40 spin on King Kong Cashpots Jackpot King.

He said that when he won the jackpot, he wasn't paying too much attention because he thought he'd won £5,000, but then checked his phone and realised there were "way too many numbers for £5,000" and that it looked "more like a mobile number".

Former mental health worker Michael, who decided to take a break from his work after his win, said he planned to spend some of his winnings on a more expensive engagement ring for his fiancee Sherelle, a no-expense-spared wedding at St. James' Park, a honeymoon in the Caribbean and season tickets for Newcastle United. He also said he was going to get a new stairlift installed for his grandmother.

"This proves nice guys can win. Michael is the most worthy of winners. It is brilliant news for this smashing couple," said Betfred founder and owner Fred Done, who opened his first betting shop in Ordsall, Salford, in 1967.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aahJd3gLQZg&amp;ab_channel=Betfred">Michael Clark's Betfred interview&nbsp;</a>

<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11622503/Father-three-wins-biggest-payout-Betfreds-history-scoops-5-4million-1-40-spin.html">Daily Mail article</a>&nbsp;

7. Anonymous - £5,400,000 - October 2013

A man from Aberdeenshire, who chose to remain anonymous, won an impressive £5,400,000 from a 20p wager on Hall of Gods at BetVictor. The father of one said that the first person he told was his wife who, understandably, was as surprised as him.

He said he would take some time out to decide what to do with his newfound wealth, but intended to donate some to charity, since he believed it was right to give something back to help others who don’t have the same luck in life.

At the time, it was BetVictor's biggest-ever payout, and it came just six months after another huge jackpot win of £4.5 million on the Mega Fortune slot.

Below, you can see a sequence of screenshots showing a simulation of a Mega Jackpot win on Hall of Gods by a lucky Estonian lady on Wednesday 8th January 2020.

6. Anonymous - £5,543,986.99 - 24th May 2019

There's not much information about this 2019 winner, other than that they were playing with British pounds, so probably from the UK, and they were playing on the Mega Moolah.

<a href="https://www.megamoolah.com/news/mega-moolah-58-million-jackpot-won-9-december-2012-57">The win posted on the Mega Moolah website.</a>

5. John Orchard - £5,883,044 - 9th December 2012

John Orchard, a Jobcentre worker from Long Sutton in Lincolnshire, walked away with a payout of nearly £5.9 million when playing the Dark Knight slot and hitting the Mega Moolah Mega Jackpot. He'd only been a member of Butlers Bingo for a few days when he got lucky with a 30p spin. At the time, it was the biggest UK win, easily beating the previous record of £1.2 million, won by Soraya Lowell, from Scotland.

60-year-old John celebrated his winnings by taking his family to Center Parcs for the weekend, trading in his Renault Clio for a £40,000 Jaguar XF, and retired five years early from the Jobcentre. He planned to use some of his winnings to visit his great-granddaughter in Canada with his wife, and to be able to upgrade their 25th wedding anniversary celebrations the following year.

Here's a screenshot of the Dark Knight slot, which is no longer linked to the Mega Moolah jackpot network.

<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2247493/Jobcentre-worker-60-scoops-biggest-online-bingo-win-landing-5-9MILLION-jackpot.html">Daily Mail article about John Orchard's win</a>

4. Anonymous - £6,200,000 - December 2016

Another anonymous player scooped an impressive £6.2 million from a £1.25 wager on Mega Fortune at BGO Casino in December 2016. He contacted customer support as he thought the game had malfunctioned, but they confirmed the good news that he'd actually won the Mega Jackpot.

3. Neil From Aberdeen - £6,373,373 - 17/11/17

In a supreme case of beginner's luck, Neil from Aberdeen was at home in the kitchen, using his laptop whilst his wife and kids watched TV. He happened to see an advert for Casumo, an online casino. Thinking the site "looked like fun", he signed up, deposited £30, and started playing some games.

Biggest UK Online Casino Wins

Hedge betting, or hedging as it’s often known, has been around for a very long time - around 350 years! It’s even become part of the way we speak - ‘hedging your bets’ can be used in almost any situation now, with its connection to real betting half forgotten by many.

But, as with a lot of <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/sports-betting-terminology-101">sports betting terminology</a>, many of us will have heard of hedge betting without ever really understanding how it works.

In this article, we’ll lay out exactly what hedge betting is, how it works, and how you can take advantage of it - as well as other alternatives to ensure a profit from sports betting.

By the time you reach the end, you’ll be a hedging expert!

At its most basic, hedge betting is the practice of betting on more than one outcome on an event, either to mitigate losses or to guarantee profits.

Hedge betting usually relies on odds changing over time, which makes it possible to place a bet on two or more outcomes of an event, and to come out in profit regardless.

Depending on the odds, it can be possible to place a bet on two (or more) opposing outcomes, with the result that you ensure a profit no matter the outcome - a bit like <a href="https://outplayed.com/what-is-matched-betting">Matched Betting</a>.

And even if the <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/how-to-read-betting-odds">odds</a> don’t allow you to guarantee a profit, they might reduce your potential loss to an acceptable level, if you suspect your bet is unlikely to go on to win.

It does take some expert knowledge and a level of skill to put yourself in a position to successfully hedge a bet - this technique is most commonly used by professional gamblers, who understand the markets extremely well.

Furthermore, it won’t always be possible to guarantee a profit on a certain event, so you shouldn’t make the assumption that you’ll find an opportunity to hedge a bet later on.

To illustrate the principle, we’ll take <a href="https://outplayed.com/football-betting-guide">football</a> as an example - specifically, the Premier League.

The odds that Chelsea win the Premier League near the start of the season might be 25/1 (26 in decimal odds), so if you were to bet £100 early on, you’d stand to make a return of £2600 if they did indeed go on to win.

If Chelsea ended up having a great season and made it to the final, you’d be feeling pretty excited - but also distinctly anxious about their chances. What if they let you down at the last hurdle?

They might face Manchester City in the final as the underdogs, with Manchester City at odds of 1/2 (1.5 in decimal odds) to come out the winners.

To hedge your bet, you could place a bet of £1000 on Manchester City.

If Chelsea went on to win, you’d still make a profit of £1500 (£2600 minus your original stake on Chelsea and your £1000 stake on Manchester City), and if Man City won, you’d still have a profit of £400 (£1500 minus your £1000 stake and your £100 stake on Chelsea).

Hedging isn’t restricted to team sports; bettors will also sometimes place hedge bets on <a href="https://outplayed.com/horse-racing-betting">horse racing</a>. For example, imagine you’d placed a pre-race bet of £20 on a relative long shot at 20/1 (decimal odds of 21). By the middle of the race, your pick is neck and neck with the favourite to win, with the rest of the pack a good way behind. By placing an in-race hedge bet of £100 on the favourite at odds of 1/1 (decimal odds of 2), you could guarantee a profit so long as one of those two horses did indeed win - which would be looking extremely likely at that point.

If your original long shot came in as the winner, you’d have made a total of £300 in profit (£420 minus your original stake and your hedge stake), or if the favourite was victorious, you’d have £80 of profit (£200 minus your stakes). Of course, unless you put money on all the remaining horses, you couldn’t completely guarantee a profit - and in most cases you’d be unlikely to come out in profit by hedging all the other competitors - but you would be able to put yourself in a position where you’d be extremely likely to come out in profit either way.

As a general rule, hedging a bet is worthwhile if it improves your position - and this is usually only going to be the case if your original bet has been placed in advance of an event, allowing time for the odds to change. You’d certainly be unwise to place large numbers of bets in advance in the hope that circumstances result in a hedging opportunity, though - it’s often just as likely that the odds will work against you, and that the most you’ll be able to do is to mitigate your losses.

That said, it’s worth keeping an eye out for hedging opportunities. Sometimes, a competitor that seems like a long shot can rapidly become a favourite for a particular event - so if you’d placed a bet when the odds on them were higher, you might well have a chance to bet on their opponents as well, and to come out with a profit either way.

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Hedge Betting

Hedging is also a tactic used in finance. It’s not quite so straightforward a strategy as in sports betting, but it works on the same principle: that of offsetting the risk of potential losses by placing money on an opposing position.

In finance, it works as a form of insurance (and, indeed, can literally be in the form of insurance), so that if one investment in a portfolio performs worse than expected, another opposing investment will balance that out.

Hedge funds, which many of us will have heard of without fully understanding, began with the specific intention of hedging specific investments by shorting other similar assets (i.e. investing in such a way as to profit if the market value of that asset fell). Nowadays, however, they use a variety of investment strategies (although these are still likely to include hedging).

Other Ways To Guarantee Profit From Sports Betting?

Hedge betting can be a very profitable strategy, but it’s not especially beginner-friendly, and it can be very intimidating to bettors who aren’t particularly familiar with the sports betting world.

A much more beginner-friendly way to lock in profits when sports betting is through <a href="https://outplayed.com/what-is-matched-betting">Matched Betting</a>. This is a technique that involves placing bets both for and against a certain outcome to earn free bets, which allow you to make a profit regardless of the result (so long as you follow the instructions correctly).

Most offers run along the lines of ‘Bet £10 and get a £10 free bet’. By matching the first bet, you break even - and you’re then able to make a profit on the free bet.

To find out more about how Matched Betting works, check out our <a href="https://outplayed.com/what-is-matched-betting">complete guide for beginners</a> - or if you’re keen to get stuck in, <a href="https://outplayed.com/user/register#1">sign up for our free trial</a> to start making your first profits today.

Hedge betting can be an incredibly useful strategy in the right situations, allowing experienced sports bettors to lock in a guaranteed profit if the odds allow. It’s not a strategy that can be relied upon in all circumstances, however, and it’s best employed by bettors with extensive knowledge and experience, as mistakes could be very costly.

For an alternative that’s risk-free, so long as you do it correctly, Matched Betting is a much safer option, especially for novice bettors. If you’re keen to get started, <a href="https://outplayed.com/user/register#1">Outplayed’s free trial</a> is the perfect tool to allow you to get stuck into your new <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/side-hustle-ideas">side hustle</a> right away.

Stephanie Sorrell

What Is Hedge Betting?

Unit betting isn’t something you’ll hear about in everyday betting circles.&nbsp; However, it’s become a popular approach and strategy amongst punters who like <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/sports-betting-guide">sports bets</a>.<a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/sports-betting-guide"> </a>&nbsp;Unlike emotional gambling or <a href="https://outplayed.com/what-is-arbing-or-arbitrage">Arbitrage betting</a>,<a href="https://outplayed.com/what-is-arbing-or-arbitrage"> </a>Unit betting provides structure to your bets to help you manage your bankroll which placing systematic bets.&nbsp; This makes it suitable for both novice and experienced bettors.&nbsp;

During the article, we’ll look at what Unit betting is, how it works and the impact it can have on bankroll management.&nbsp; In addition, you’ll learn about mistakes to avoid.

Unit betting is a betting strategy that requires bettors to use a predetermined percentage of their total bankroll. The chosen percentage is then used for each bet placed. There is no hard rule when it comes to how much a ‘unit’ is worth.&nbsp; Each bettor will have different amounts of funds available so 1% of one person’s bankroll could differ to 1% of another person’s bankroll.

Using a Unit betting system can help mitigate losses and makes it easier to track the performance of your bets.

It also provides a consistent approach, so you know you’re always betting within your decided budget. The Unit betting system also removes emotional betting.&nbsp;

For example, some punters doing <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/types-of-horse-bets">horse racing bets</a><a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/types-of-horse-bets"> </a>might up the stakes because you like the name of a horse.

&nbsp;In general, a Unit usually ranges between 1% and 5% of your total betting funds. For example, if you had a £1,000 bankroll and your strategy was to bet 1%, all your bets would have stakes of £10 each.&nbsp; Alternatively, you could opt for a 5% strategy and your bets would be £50 each.

To put this into perspective, let’s use a hypothetical scenario of using a preset unit of 1% with a bankroll of £2,500.

Whilst losing isn’t ideal, it’s not the end of the world as your bankroll still looks healthy.&nbsp;

Unit betting creates a good basis for structured gambling.

The disciplined approach helps you to stay focused on the job in hand and stops you from making expensive decisions that could impact your bankroll.

Okay, so now you get the basic principle of Unit betting and might have already decided what unit percentage you’re going to use.

Hold your horses, there’s more than one approach to Unit betting. &nbsp; Let’s take a look at the most common approaches to Unit betting:

This is the safest type of Unit bet and is recommended for those new to Unit betting or betting in general.&nbsp; With this approach, there’s no variance in your bets.&nbsp; You would only use one unit on every single bet.

If you have a bankroll of £1,000 and have chosen a unit of 1%, all of your bets will be at stakes of £10 each.&nbsp; Whether that’s Liverpool to beat Chelsea in the Premier League or England to beat Australia in the cricket, each bet stake will be £10.

The fixed unit strategy makes it easier to monitor your weekly or monthly results and track your bankroll. It’s also easier to soak up losses should you go on a losing run.&nbsp;&nbsp;

On the flip side, if you are on a good run, the fixed unit strategy means you might not be making as much as you could.&nbsp;&nbsp;

However, it’s always about using the betting strategy that suits your appetite to risk.

This approach is usually followed by experienced bettors that carry out a lot of market research and know their <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/sports-betting-guide">sports betting</a><a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/sports-betting-guide"> </a>very well.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The research undertaken can often provide a bettor with knowledge to make informed and confident decisions.&nbsp; This can lead to them using multiple units on a bet rather than just one unit.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Alternatively, the research can provide insights that some bets don’t warrant too much confidence so the bet can be reduced to one unit or even less.

Those who use the variable Unit betting system have the potential to increase their bankroll quite substantially and it doesn’t need the majority of your bets to win.&nbsp;&nbsp;

For example, Let’s say you place 10 bets in one week and only 3 of them win.&nbsp; Sounds bad right? This is where the variable Unit bet approach can turn things around.&nbsp; If the winners were three unit bets and the losers were one unit bets, you still make a profit as your total winning units are 9 compared to losing units of 7.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Of course, you won’t always win and these bets could of gone the other way, leaving you down by 2 units.

As you’ve probably guessed, this type of strategy involves placing bets that are linked to the percentage of your current bankroll.&nbsp; This means your unit stake size will adjust in line with your betting balance.

As an example, let’s say you start with an original bankroll of £1,000 and you opt for a unit of 1%.&nbsp; This would mean the first Unit bet you place will cost £10.&nbsp; If that bet then wins, your bankroll increases to £1010. Using the percentage unit bet system, your next bet will then be 1% of your new bankroll so with a bankroll of £1,010, your back stake would be £10.10.&nbsp;

So, an advantage of using the percentage unit system is that as your bankroll increases, so do your back stakes and in theory the size of any winners increases.&nbsp; However, as with any winners, there are losers too.&nbsp; This can decrease your bankroll and take a little time to recover from as your unit stake also decreases.

After you have established the bankroll you want to use, you need to pick a per-unit amount.&nbsp; There’s not really a science behind this and it can vary between bettors.&nbsp; The majority tend to set their unit stakes between 1% (inexperienced bettors) and 2% (established bettors) of their total bankroll.

Anybody new to the Unit Betting game should definitely start low while they establish how it works. When we say low, it’s recommended that you don’t go above 1%.&nbsp;

The key to picking the right unit percentage is to make an honest assessment of your betting knowledge to combine it with your risk tolerance.&nbsp; Both of these elements should help to fit into managing your bankroll.

Here’s some other factors you might consider when choosing your unit size:

Risk Level:

Frequency of Bets:

The main thing you need to ask yourself when you are deciding your unit bet percentage is ‘How much can I afford to lose’. There are no guarantees with betting so it’s better to always be prepared for every scenario.

Unit betting can be applied to pretty much all types of betting. Here’s a small sample of what Unit bets can be used on:

This is by far the most popular market for Unit betting.&nbsp; <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/sports-betting-guide">Sports betting</a><a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/sports-betting-guide"> </a>covers betting on football, tennis, golf, and rugby amongst others.

We have kept horse racing separate from sports betting because the options for <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/types-of-horse-bets">horse bets</a><a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/types-of-horse-bets"> </a>are a lot more vast.&nbsp; There are so many <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/types-of-bets">types of bets</a><a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/types-of-bets"> </a>from <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-a-single-bet">Single bets</a> and<a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-a-single-bet"> </a><a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/how-does-an-each-way-bet-work">Each Way bets</a> to<a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/how-does-an-each-way-bet-work"> </a>bet multiples like the <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-a-trixie-bet">Trixie bet</a>.<a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-a-trixie-bet"> </a>When betting on horse racing, you might adapt a Unit betting approach like this:

When playing games such as roulette or <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/how-to-play-blackjack">blackjack</a><a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/how-to-play-blackjack"> </a>Unit betting helps bettors to remain disciplined. If you have a bankroll of £1,000 you could consider unit bets of 1% (£10).&nbsp; You also have the flexibility to adjust your unit betting strategy.&nbsp; For example, if you win, consider increasing the unit to 2% but it’s recommended you don’t exceed 3 units.

Remain Disciplined

Find Value Bets

Track Performance

Use Research and Industry Advice

Advantages &amp; Disadvantages Of Unit Bets

Any type of betting comes with potential mistakes to avoid, and Unit betting is no different.&nbsp; Let’s take a look at some of the more common mistakes made with Unit bets:

Do All Bettors Use Unit Bets?

The simple answer is no.&nbsp; Unit betting is one of many betting strategies used by bettors.&nbsp; However, you do find that a lot of the serious and experienced bettors use the Unit betting system.

Is Unit Betting More Beneficial?

When sports betting<a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/sports-betting-guide"> https://outplayed.com/blog/sports-betting-guide</a> it’s very easy to lose track of what’s won and lost.&nbsp; Unit betting can make it easier to track this. It also let’s you see how well your bets are performing on a unit basis.

Is Unit Betting Legal?

Betting laws vary from one country to another but in the UK, Unit betting is perfectly legal.

How Many Units Should I Bet With?

There isn’t a right or wrong number of units to bet with.&nbsp; It really does depend on the size of your bankroll and your attitude to risk.

Unit betting can be a great betting strategy or a powerful addition to your overall betting strategy.&nbsp; It provides a disciplined approach to betting that let’s you manage your risks.&nbsp; Whilst it does require commitment and attention to detail, it’s an approach that can keep you in the game for a long time.

The benefits of Unit betting easily outweigh the difficulties it presents and offers the potential for an enjoyable and sustainable betting journey.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Paul Trevor

The Ultimate Guide to Unit Betting Systems for Beginners

There comes a point in every beginner’s <a href="https://outplayed.com/what-is-matched-betting">Matched Betting</a> career when they reach the end of the available sign up offers and think, ‘what now?’ They’ve made a good amount of profit so far, and they want to keep going - but it seems like it’ll be next to impossible to continue to make decent profits without the easy, generous sign up offers they’ve got used to.

Fortunately, it’s not only possible but relatively easy to continue to make sizeable, regular (and <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/is-matched-betting-tax-free">tax-free</a>!) profits through Matched Betting even after you’ve completed all the sign up offers. In this article, we’ll talk you through everything you need to know about moving on to ‘reload’ offers - the offers bookies make to existing customers - and before you know it you’ll be making hundreds a month in profit with ease.

Matched Betting works by taking advantage of the offers and bonuses offered by bookmakers, designed to lure in new customers. By betting both for and against the outcome of an event, you’re able to turn a free bet into guaranteed profit.

If you’re not already familiar with the principles of Matched Betting and you want to know more, check out our <a href="https://outplayed.com/what-is-matched-betting">complete guide for beginners</a>, or <a href="https://outplayed.com/user/register#1">sign up for our free trial</a> to get started.

If, on the other hand, you already understand the basics, keep reading to find out all about reload offers and how to take advantage of them.

Reload offers are what we call the offers bookies make to existing customers. They aren’t usually as profitable as the initial sign up offers - but on the other hand, they also aren’t only available once. Most bookies have at least a couple of offers running each week, depending on the events going on at the time.

Reload offers come in all sorts of forms, from the very basic kinds you’ll already be familiar with (e.g. bet £5 and get a £5 free bet), to much more complex reloads that will take more effort to get your head around. But it’s usually possible to extract a guaranteed profit from the majority of offers you encounter - and as you become more accustomed to each type of offer, you’ll find you become much quicker at completing them.

There are a few different varieties of common reload offers, some more straightforward than others, but it’s worth your while taking the time to learn how to complete each of them, as it’ll significantly boost your profits in the long run.

You’ll be familiar with this kind of offer from your sign ups - simply bet a certain amount to get a free bet. These may be restricted to certain sports or events, but they’re an easy way to make a quick profit.

Reload bet &amp; get offers are often for smaller amounts than sign ups - e.g. bet £5 to get a £5 free bet - but they don’t take long to complete, so you can do plenty of them and come out with a solid profit.

<a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-a-bet-builder">Bet builder offers</a> are often just a slightly more complicated version of a bet &amp; get. You’ve probably come across them while going through sign up offers, so hopefully you won’t be too intimidated by them.

A bet builder involves betting on multiple selections within the same event, so for example that Team A wins their match, that both teams will score, and that there will be over 2.5 goals in the match. Creating a lay market for a bet builder can be tricky, but it can be done! Our<a href="https://outplayed.com/calculators/bet-builder-helper"> bet builder helper</a> is a handy tool that lets you know which selections match up to certain lay markets, making it pretty straightforward to take advantage of bet builder offers when you come across them.

It’s rare to get a very close match between your back and lay odds for bet builders, but they’re usually still profitable and therefore well worth doing. Your free bet may have to be a bet builder, but it might also be another type of free bet, depending on the offer in question.

<a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-an-accumulator-bet" target="_blank" title="">Accas</a>

New matched bettors are often quite intimidated by acca offers as well - which is more than understandable, as they’re another type of offer that’s tricky to lay.

It’s possible to use Smarkets to create a custom acca lay bets, though, meaning that for a straightforward acca bet &amp; get it isn’t too tricky to make a profit - simply use the Oddsmatcher to find several close matches and create your betslip from those selections.

You’ll also see ‘acca insurance’ offers on a lot of bookies, which give you a free bet or refund if just one leg of an acca lets you down. The <a href="https://outplayed.com/products/acca-catcher">acca catcher</a>, available to all Outplayed Platinum, Diamond and Pro members, tracks down suitable combinations to let you take advantage of these offers and lock in guaranteed profit.

Refund IF offers allow you to claim a refund, usually in the form of a free bet but occasionally in cash, if your bet is unsuccessful (or sometimes as a bonus if your bet wins).

By using the <a href="https://outplayed.com/calculators/bonus-lockin-calculator">bonus lock-in calculator</a>, we can lock-in a profit from these offers - and once you’re comfortable with them, you’ll find they’re one of the easiest reload offers to complete.

<a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/horse-racing-refunds" target="_blank" title="">Racing Refund</a>

This works similarly to the refund IF offers, except you receive a refund, either as a free bet or cash, if your horse doesn’t win but comes in a specified place, e.g. second or third.

By laying both the win and the place markets, you can lock in a guaranteed profit no matter what happens, so long as the odds are close enough. Our <a href="https://outplayed.com/calculators/racing-refund-calculator">racing refund calculator</a> works out your lay stakes for each to ensure that you end up with a profit whatever the outcome.

<a href="https://outplayed.com/price-boosts">Price boosts</a> are one of the very easiest ways to make money from reloads. Bookies regularly offer enhanced odds to encourage bettors to place their money on particular markets, and often this makes those odds high enough to make an instant profit simply by laying the bet.

You can track down price boosts manually, or check the Outplayed forum, but our <a href="https://outplayed.com/products/price-boost-pro">Price Boost Tracker</a>, available with an Outplayed Pro membership, will locate profitable boosts on your behalf.

You’ll also come across offers to make a bet and get free spins as a reward.

These won’t usually guarantee you a profit (as you’ll make a small qualifying loss on your qualifying bet, and you can’t be certain of winning anything from your free spins), but on average you can expect to profit from them, depending on the average <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-does-rtp-mean-in-gambling">RTP</a> of the slots game in question. The reloads section of the Outplayed site will let you know whether a free spins offer is likely to be worth doing or not.

Once you’ve got to grips with all of the above kinds of reload offer, there are even more possibilities to explore. The following kinds of offer don’t allow you to lock in a guaranteed profit with each bet, but they do give you the opportunity to make significant regular profits in the long run. If you’re still quite new to Matched Betting, though, we’d recommend sticking to the kinds of offer listed above for now.

There’s normally a standard number of paid places in horse racing, which depends on the number of runners. However, bookies will often increase the number of places available on certain races - and this gives us an opportunity to make a profit.

If we place an <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/how-does-an-each-way-bet-work">each way bet</a> (i.e. a bet on a horse both to win and to place in the race) and lay both the win and the original number of places, we can potentially win both our back and lay bets if the horse lands in the extra place. Of course, in any particular race the chances of this happening aren’t high, but if we place a fairly large number of bets in this way, with only a small qualifying loss if we’re unsuccessful, we’re very likely to end up in profit overall.

To find out more, check out our complete guide to <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/extra-place-offers">Extra Place offers</a>, which talks you through everything you need to know to start profiting from extra places.

<a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/want-more-profits-from-matched-betting-2ups-are-key">2UP offers</a> work on a similar principle to Extra Places, and rely on the fact that a lot of bookies have a ‘2UP and win’ offer, where your bet will be paid out before the end of the match if your team are ahead by 2 goals at any time.

This means that we have a chance to win both our back and lay bets if our team goes ahead by two goals and their opponents manage to catch up, with a full time result of either a draw or a win for the other team. Again, for any match this is a pretty unlikely outcome - but your qualifying loss is small enough, and the potential profit large enough, that in the long run you should end up making significant profits by taking advantage of these offers.

While you can make good long term profits from sports Matched Betting alone, a lot of people find that branching out into casino offers really takes their profits to the next level.

It’s important to make clear that casino offers aren’t usually risk free, so you need to be aware that you’ll be very likely to see upswings and downswings, and you’ll need to have a large enough bankroll to weather any downswings comfortably.

That said, in the long run casino offers can unlock enormous value, and we definitely recommend trying your hand at them. Most casino offers will require you to wager a certain amount in order to receive free spins - and on average, the profit you make from your free spins should outweigh any losses from your initial wagering for any offers we recommend completing (full guides are accessible for all Outplayed Diamond and Pro members).

If you’re keen to find out more about casino offers, take a look at our <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/ultimate-guide-to-casinos">ultimate guide to casinos</a>, which tells you everything you need to know about casino offers and how to get the most out of them.

As you gain more experience, you can also consider expanding your activity into <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-value-betting">value betting</a>. Again, this isn’t risk-free, so we wouldn’t recommend it to newer matched bettors, but these strategies offer the potential to make very significant profits in the long run.

<a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-a-lucky-15-bet">Lucky 15 bets</a> are a combination of several bets in one across four different horses, and the right selections can offer excellent profits. Our <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/lucky-finder">Lucky Finder</a> (available to Outplayed Pro members) is a tool that tracks down combinations of horses for Lucky 15 bets where the chances of at least some of your horses winning or placing are higher than the odds would imply. This means that you’re statistically very likely to end up making a profit over the long run when using this tool.

<a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/profit-using-outplayed-steam-chaser-tool" target="_blank" title="">Steam Chaser</a>

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