What Is A Bet Builder?

An increasingly popular bet type we're seeing at bookmakers nowadays is a "create your own bet" style of feature. It allows you to select multiple different markets in a match and then gives you the odds for your custom bet. Think of it like an accumulator bet, but with all of your selections on the same match.

For example, you could pick three selections, and it'd look something like:

• Liverpool to win
• Over 2.5 Match Goals
• Over 10.5 Match Corners

For this bet to be a winner, you'll need all selections to be winners. If any one of the selections doesn't happen (e.g. there's only 1 goal scored in the match), then your bet will be a loser.

In this guide, you'll learn all about how to place a Bet Builder and, even better, how to lay off these bets at an exchange so you can make a guaranteed profit from the bookie offers posted on Outplayed.

Other Names For A Bet Builder

Each bookmaker has their own name for this DIY betting feature. Sky Bet call it "RequestABet", Betfred have "PickYourPunt", and you'll see many other names across bookmakers. It all amounts to the same thing, though: creating your own bet by selecting multiple markets in the same match.

Here's a table showing what various bookies call their Bet Builder style feature:

Offers On Bet Builders

Bookies love to offer promotions that require a Bet Builder for the qualifying bet, free bet, or both. In-play betting used to be all the rage, but now that's swiftly been replaced with Bet Builders.

The main types of offers that require this style of bet are:

• Bet & Get - Pretty self-explanatory. You place a bet to get a reward. Sometimes the reward is a Bet Builder free bet, sometimes it's a different type of free bet, sometimes the reward is casino free spins, and sometimes it'll be cash. The short of it is that you'll get given a freebie, which puts the value firmly in your favour.
• Price Boost - This is where a bookie will give you an enhanced price on your Bet Builder bet. It usually comes in the form of selecting a boost token in your betslip, for example, a 100% boost. This would take the original odds of 5.0 up to a whopping 9.0. With Matched Betting, you can use our calculator to guarantee a profit due to the new large bookie odds. All it takes is a quick lay bet against the Bet Builder. We'll talk more about how to lay these bets later.

How To Place A Bet Builder

Creating your Builder Builder at the bookmaker will nearly always start off the same way: navigating to a match page and then selecting the "Bet Builder" tab/button/toggle/section.

Here's a run-through of how to place a Bet Builder on 888sport:

1. Select the Bet Builder tab on an event page:

2. Click "START BUILDING NOW" to open up the Bet Builder tool to select the different parts of your bet:

3. Choose the selections for your bet. Here, I've gone for Roma to win the match and both teams to score.

4. You can see the odds you're getting for this bet and can then add it to your betslip:

5. Now it's time to enter your stake and place the bet!

How To Lay A Bet Builder

With Matched Betting, we're all about lowering the risk and making a guaranteed profit from bookie promotions. You do this by laying your bookmaker bet at an exchange so that one of the bets is guaranteed to win.

Exchanges don't have Bet Builder functionality for lay bets, so it's time to get smart with it.

With all these weird and wonderful combinations, these bets may at first look difficult to lay. However, if you're clever about it, you can sometimes combine your Bet Builder selections to make sure they have an existing corresponding lay market. This allows you to lock in a profit from free bets and only take small initial losses on qualifying bets. This is much better than gambling the whole back stake amount.

To find a layable Bet Builder, load up Outplayed's Bet Builder Helper tool by clicking here. Select your bookmaker and how many selections you need in your Bet Builder (for example, an offer may require you to have 4 selections, or 2 may be enough). The Bet Builder Helper will then show you a range of options that are allowed on that bookmaker. Alongside the selections that make up the Bet Builder, it will show you the lay market on the exchange that covers that bet:

Let's take the third row in the above screenshot, for example. It's telling you that an option for a Bet Builder with 3 selections at William Hill is to add Draw, Under 2.5 Match Goals and also Both Teams To Score - Yes to build your back bet. This is the equivalent of 1-1 Correct Score so that's what you lay to cover that Bet Builder. It turns a tricky bunch of selections into one simple lay market that covers it.

Still wondering why this works? Let's think about those selections a little more. 

1. Draw - This narrows things down to 0-0, 1-1, 2-2, 3-3 etc.
2. Under 2.5 Match Goals - This means 2 goals or less. So now we only have 0-0 or 1-1 left as possible winning results.
3. Both Teams To Score - Yes - Finally, this gets rid of 0-0 as a possible winner, and we're just left with 1-1.

Clicking on the lay market in the table will display a small pop-up showing what that market looks like on each of the exchanges:

You can then place your Bet Builder at the bookmaker, find the lay market at the exchange, and then use the Outplayed Matched Betting calculator to get your lay stake.

Laying Different Bet Builders With The Multi Lay Bets Calculator

Even more Bet Builder options are available with the use of Outplayed's Multi Lay Bets Calculator.

Once you've grasped the basics of placing the single lay Bet Builder Bets outlined above, it's well worth learning about the Multi Lay Bets Calculator. This calculator enables you to use Bet Builder Bets at the bookmakers that require you to place multiple lay bets in order for you to cover them.

An example is if your Bet Builder consisted of "Draw" and also "Under 2.5 Goals". There are two possible scores that could lead to this being a winning bet: 0-0 or 1-1.

This means we need to place two lays bets: one against the correct score to be 0-0 and one against the correct score to be 1-1. The Multi Lay Bets Calculator gives you the exact lay stake you need to place at the exchange for each bet.

Always remember that this calculator only works when your lay bets are on things that can't all happen. The above example is fine since the game can't finish both 0-0 and 1-1. If you were trying to lay Chelsea win and also Over 10.5 Corners, the Multi Lay Bets Calculator won't work since both of these things can happen, which would result in both lay bets losing.

Featured Bet Builders

Some bookies will have an assortment of pre-made Bet Builders, usually with even funkier combinations of selections and outcomes. Here are a few from Betfred's "PickYourPunt":

Unlike standard Bet Builders, you have no control over the selections with these featured bets. As you may have already suspected, this often makes them impossible to lay unless an exchange has created a special lay market specifically for it.

These bets are nearly always poor value and not worth betting on for offers.

Advantage Play

Occasionally, the terms of a bookie offer won't allow you to create a bet that can be laid off at the exchange. This could be due to minimum odds or because you need too many selections. If this is the case, then the offer needs to be treated as advantage play (where you don't lay your bet but you will still get a bonus from the bookmaker to make the offer good value in the long run).

There's an element of risk, but there's also long-term value!

Summary

So there you have it. Bet Builders explained in all their glory. 

From a bet that looks like an impossibility to lay at first, you'll now know how easy they can be to lay, just like any other bet.

This unlocks so much potential for money to be made from bookmaker offers.