The Difference Between Value Betting and Matched Betting

Quick answer: Matched Betting involves betting on both (or all) outcomes of an event, and using sportsbook rewards to lock in a profit, no matter what happens. Value Betting involves finding and betting on selections whose odds are higher than the true probability of a win would imply, generating profits in the long term.

At some point in your Matched Betting journey, you’ll probably come across the term ‘Value Betting’ and wonder what exactly it means, and how it’s different from Matched Betting.

While they’re both techniques people use to make money through sports betting, there are some pretty significant differences between them. Value Betting is generally considered a more advanced strategy, involving more risk than Matched Betting - but also the potential for greater reward.

In this article, we’ll take you through the following:

• The essential differences between Matched Betting and Value Betting

• How to use each technique to make money through sports betting

• The advantages and disadvantages of Matched Betting and Value Betting

• Outplayed’s dedicated tools to help you make money through both Matched Betting and Value Betting

• How to get started

Comparing Value Betting And Matched Betting

In many ways, Matched Betting and Value Betting are very similar. Both rely on sports betting (a large and growing market) as part of a strategy to make consistent profits - in neither case are you just placing a bet because you’ve got a good feeling about a horse, or because you’re a lifelong supporter of Wigan Athletic.

Data Insight

Remote betting generated £2.6 billion in gross gambling yield in Great Britain during April 2024–March 2025, with football alone accounting for £1.3 billion.

- Gambling Commission

There are, however, some very significant differences between the two techniques.

Matched Betting

Matched Betting is the strategy of betting both for and against the same outcome. So for example, you might bet that Manchester United win a match, and also that they don’t win a match.

These two types of bet are called a ‘back bet’ and a ‘lay bet’ respectively. Your back bet is your bet that something will happen (i.e. Manchester United winning) and your lay bet is a bet that something won’t happen (that Manchester United won’t win). Your lay bet is placed with a betting exchange, which allows you to bet against other punters, rather than with a bookie.

Between the two bets, you cover all outcomes.

The trick to turning this technique into profit lies in taking advantage of bookie promotions.

Bookies give out free bets like candy in order to attract new customers, and Matched Betting allows you to transform those free bets into predictable profits.

Data Insight

The UK Gambling Commission found that 73% of gamblers who received gambling incentives in the previous 12 months had received them for online betting, showing how central free bets and promotional offers are to the modern sportsbook market.

- Gambling Commission

For example, you might see an offer where you have to place a £10 bet (known as a qualifying bet) to receive a £10 free bet.

If you match both bets, you can roughly break even on the first bet, and then use your free bet to make a profit.

Value Betting

Value Betting, meanwhile, involves tracking down bets at odds that are higher than they should be. Your profits aren’t guaranteed but, over time, if you consistently bet at inflated odds, you are highly likely to end up in profit.

If a bet is offered at higher odds than its real likelihood of winning would suggest, it’s considered to hold positive expected value (+EV).

The difficulty with Value Betting is working out what the true likelihood is of a certain outcome, so that you can compare this with the odds on offer from a bookie and track down bets with +EV.

Professional gamblers will perform exhaustive research and compile huge quantities of information and statistics in order to make these calculations, which is what allows them to make a living from gambling.

Expert Insight

'Many people assume Value Betting is about predicting more winners than everyone else, but that's rarely the case. Long-term profitability comes from consistently taking prices that are better than the true probability, even when many of those individual bets still lose.'

For those of us who aren’t pros, though, there are tools available to help us locate +EV bets and to profit from them. Outplayed’s Pro and Elite membership levels include a range of Value Betting tools, which take all the work out of Value Betting - more on this later on!

How To Use Matched Bets And Value Bets

Although both Matched Betting and Value Betting involve making money online through sports betting, the processes are quite different.

For each technique, the exact method will vary depending on the offer you’re completing (for Matched Betting) or the type of bet you’re placing (for Value Betting). However, the approximate series of steps for each is as follows:

Matched Betting

1. First of all, you’ll need to find an offer to complete. If you’re an Outplayed member, you have access to a vast library of guides to bookie offers, making this first step a doddle. Otherwise, you can manually search bookies’ websites for offers, which are especially likely to be available around major sporting events.

2. Place your qualifying bet. Depending on the terms of the offer, you’ll usually have to place a bet with the bookie to qualify for your reward. Having done so, you need to lay it with a betting exchange - i.e. place a bet on the opposite outcome. This ensures that no matter what happens, you come out with only a small loss, usually of a few pence.

Outplayed members can use our Oddsmatcher to help here, which identifies the best matches available resulting in the smallest possible qualifying loss.

3. Receive and use your reward. Most commonly, you’ll receive a free bet once you’ve placed your qualifying bet, or once it’s settled. You follow the same process of finding a good match, ideally using Outplayed’s oddsmatching software: place your free bet, and then lay it on a betting exchange.

4. Profit! Once your bets have settled, you’ll end up with a profit. The exact amount is the profit from your free bet (usually around 80% of the free bet’s value) minus your qualifying loss.

Value Betting

1. Identify a selection with positive expected value. This is definitely the hardest bit about Value Betting! If you’re an Outplayed Pro member, though, you can use our powerful tools to track down bets with positive EV. Otherwise, you’ll need to come up with a system to identify the real likelihood of selections winning and compare it to the odds available from bookies to track down bets with potential profit in them.

2. Place your bet. This part’s dead easy - all you have to do is place a bet with the bookie as usual. You can use Outplayed Pro’s tools to help you decide how much to stake, to maximise your potential profits while minimising risk.

3. Check the results. Once the bet’s settled, make sure to check whether it won and make a note of your profit or loss. It’s important to keep track of your bets when Value Betting, so that you know how much money you’ve made and how successful your selections have been. Happily, Outplayed’s profit tracker allows you to save each bet and tallies your profits, so you can see exactly how much money your Value Betting has made you.

Matched Betting vs Value Betting Processes Summary

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Matched Betting And Value Betting

Matched Betting

Advantages:

• When done correctly, Matched Betting involves zero risk

• Your profits are fixed and predictable

• No research or sports knowledge needed - all you have to do is follow Outplayed’s guides

• Your profits are tax-free

Disadvantages:

• Limited number of offers available

• Risk of gubbing if you exclusively bet through offers

• Profits will always be relatively modest

• Especially with more advanced offers, it can be a complex process to accurately back and lay your selections

Value Betting

Advantages:

• No limit to the number of bets you can place

• It’s possible to make potentially thousands of pounds a month

• Your bookie accounts may remain healthier for longer if you aren’t tied to offers

• Your profits are tax-free

• The process of placing a value bet is incredibly quick and easy, with no lay betting required

Disadvantages:

• Value Betting involves risk - profits are not guaranteed

• Extensive sports knowledge and research is required (unless you take advantage of helpful tools such as Outplayed’s that do the work for you!)

• Bookies will gub frequent winners who always seem to find the best value odds, so there is still a risk of losing bookie accounts even without extensive use of offers

Expert Insight

'One of the biggest mistakes people make is judging Value Betting by the outcome of a handful of bets. A strategy with genuine positive expected value can still lose repeatedly in the short term, whereas Matched Betting is designed to remove that uncertainty. Understanding that difference in variance is often what determines whether someone succeeds with either approach.'

Value Betting And Matched Betting At Outplayed

While it’s certainly possible to make money from Matched Betting or Value Betting on your own, it’s orders of magnitude easier with Outplayed membership. We’ve got a range of tools to help you get the most out of your betting, whichever technique you decide to use.

By using our tools, and following our guides, Outplayed allows you to:

• Keep up to date on available offers

• Identify the best matches and the best value bets

• Complete offers and bets easily, without making mistakes

• Track your profits

• Gain experience and expertise while minimising risk

Outplayed Platinum membership gains you access to the following Matched Betting tools and guides:

• Full training. Detailed instructions and guides, clearly laid out, so that you can learn how to take advantage of pretty much any type of offer from a bookie.

• Over 40 sign up offers plus daily reload offers. A wide range of offers, all with full step-by-step guides to keep you in profit month after month after month.

• Essential Matched Betting tools and software. A platinum membership gets you access to all the main tools you need for successful Matched Betting: standard and advanced Matched Betting calculators, Profit Tracker, Offer Progress Tracking Tools, Accumulator Odds-finding Software (Acca Catcher) and Horse Racing Oddsmatching Software (Match Catcher and Extra Place Catcher).

For experienced matched bettors looking to move on to Value Betting, Outplayed’s Pro and Elite membership levels are the perfect assistant. As well as everything included in the lower membership levels, you gain access to the following Value Betting tools:

• Extra Place Master. Use this tool’s No Lay mode to identify the best value each-way bets on horse racing every single day.

• Lucky Finder. This software automatically builds you Lucky 15 bets with positive EV, offering you the opportunity to make incredible profits in the long run.

• Golf Master. Available with the Elite membership package, this tool identifies high value each-way golf bets, with the potential to make hundreds of pounds a month all year round.

• Steam Chaser. Available with the Elite membership package, this is an incredibly powerful tool designed to take advantage of delays in bookie odds software, which give you the opportunity to bet on overvalued selections.

Outplayed Membership Tiers Compared

How To Get Started?

If you’re new to both Matched Betting and Value Betting and you’re not sure where to begin, your best bet is to take out the Outplayed 7-day free trial. It guides you through the basics of Matched Betting and helps you complete your first offers, allowing you to make your first profits completely free of charge.

If you’re already familiar with Matched Betting, though, or if you’re an experienced sports bettor, you can always go straight for Outplayed Pro membership, unlocking a potential £1000+ in extra profits every single month!

FAQs

1. What is Matched Betting?

Matched Betting is the practice of betting both for and against a single outcome, usually to unlock a free bet or other reward, which can then be used to produce a profit no matter the outcome of the event.

2. What is Value Betting?

Value Betting is a betting strategy that aims to produce long term profit by consistently betting at higher odds than the true likelihood of a win would imply. 

3. Are Matched Betting and Value Betting legal in the UK?

Absolutely! In each case, you're simply placing bets on a legitimate sports betting market, which is perfectly legal - you're just being strategic about it. Sportsbooks don't always appreciate matched bettors or value bettors, though, which is why they may restrict bettors if they get suspicious about their activity.

4. Is Matched Betting or Value Betting better for beginners?

If you're a newcomer to sports betting, we'd recommend starting with Matched Betting to gain experience and grow your bankroll. 

5. Is Outplayed a Matched Betting or a Value Betting platform?

Both! Our Platinum tier membership gets you access to all our essential Matched Betting tools, and our Pro and Elite tiers allow you to maximise your profits with our essential and advanced Value Betting tools and software.