2up Betting Guide
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What is a 2up Offer?
A 2up offer is a popular betting promotion, found on platforms like Bet365 and Skybet, that add an exciting twist to football betting.
The concept is simple, you place a bet on a team to win a match and if they go 2 goals up at any stage of the game, the bookmaker will automatically pay you out for the win, as if the team has already won.
This could be a score of 2-0, 3-1, 5-3 or anything else 2 or more goals up, and the bookmaker will pay out your bet as a winner immediately, irrespective of the final result of the match... meaning you get your money even if they lose!
This feature of early payout is what makes 2up offers particularly appealing, especially for those looking to make guaranteed profits through matched betting, which you will learn how to do below!
How Do You Profit From a 2up Offer using Matched Betting?
In matched betting, profiting from a 2up offer involves two Bets.
1) A 'Back' Bet where you bet on a team to win with a bookmaker like Bet365 or Skybet.
2) A 'Lay' Bet where you bet against that team on a betting exchange to counter the Back Bet.
Back Bet
If your team goes two goals up during the game, the bookmaker pays out your bet as if the team has already won, regardless of the final result, this could happen in any minute.
For example, you could win your back bet early if your team goes 2-0 up in the 60th minute, as the bookmaker pays your bet out as a win.
Lay Bet
Even if your team goes up by two goals, such as leading 2-0 in the 60th minute, your lay bet remains active until the game ends, just as you expect any bet would.
How You Profit
Imagine the other team makes a comeback and the match finishes a 2-2 draw. In this scenario, you win with the bookmaker, who paid out early in the 60th minute when your team was '2 goals up'.
You also win on the exchange, with your lay bet, as your team drew 2-2 in the end, so they didn't actually win the match. This offer allows the unique opportunity to win both bets in a football match making it an extremely profitable method in matched betting.
How To Do a 2up Offer
1) Find a Close Match
Look for a football game where the back odds (betting for a win) and lay odds (betting against a win) are closely matched, ideally above 96% in comparison.
This ensures a lower risk, so you don't lose as much if there isn't a full turn around. You also profit more the closer the odds, and also the higher the odds.
You don't want to be doing a 2up bet on every game, so just stick to the ones with a 96% rating or higher, ideally also not over 100% as this arouses suspicion too.
This rating we keep referring to is just (Back Odds / Lay Odds) X 100
These games can be hard to find manually. But, if you want to receive a notification every time there is a good 2up opportunity you can Join Our Discord Group and turn on 2up notifications.
2) Use a 2up Betting Calculator
Input the Back Odds, Lay Odds and Back Stake into our 2up Betting Calculator. You can use the calculator below for now, but you should use the 2up calculator page when doing 2up's, this page also has a calculator tutorial.
The 2up calculator tells you what Stake you need have on your Lay Bet to minimise risk, as well as telling you how much you can Profit. Also, you can log your bet to Your Profit Tracker with one click, saving all of the details!
Pre-Match Info
Lay Stake Required
FTA
No FTA
Bookmaker has paid out early
Lock in a Profit
Back Stake Required
Guaranteed Profit
Log Your Bet
3) Place Your Bets
Now that you know the details, place your Back Bet with the bookmaker and your Lay Bet on the Exchange, making sure they are at the odds that you used on the calculator. If you are still uncomfortable with Back Bets and Lay Bets you should read Our Backing and Laying Guide.
3) Log Your Bet
After you have placed both bets, come back to the calculator and click 'Log Bet' for it to be automatically saved to your Profit Tracker with all of the details taken from the calculator.
After the game you can then go to the Profit Tracker, find this specific 2up Bet, and check off if it was a Win or a Loss. Your profits should then be automatically calculated and added up.
5) Sit Back or Lock in a Profit
No need to watch the game, but if you want to there's a strategy to lock in profit if your team goes two goals up before the game is over. This is what the switch is for on the calculator, and you can learn more about Locking in Profits further down on this Guide.
Matched Betting 2up Offer Example
Imagine you placed a back bet of £50 on Chelsea to win against Arsenal with Bet365. The odds for Chelsea to win are 3.0.
Simultaneously, you placed a lay bet against Chelsea on the betting exchange Smarkets, at odds of 3.02.
If you type these numbers into the calculator above (or click the button below) you can see that the Stake you should have on the Lay Bet is £49.67.
Your Qualifying Loss is £0.33, and your Potential Profit is £149.67, this means that you will either lose £0.33 or gain £149.67, depending on if there is a Full Turn Around.
During the match, Chelsea take a 3-1 lead in the first half. Because they are '2 goals up' Bet365 pay out your bet early, assuming a win. So you have already gained £100 from Bet365 before the game has even finished.
But, since you simultaneously placed a Lay Bet AGAINST Chelsea on Smarkets at odds of 3.02 and a £49.67 Lay Stake, you will have to pay out £100.33 to Smarkets if Chelsea go on to win the game. Meaning you gain the £100 from Bet365 but pay out £100.33 so overall your Loss would be £0.33... if Chelsea win the game.
However, the game ends a 3-3 draw as Havertz scores a header in the last minute.
Since Chelsea didn't win in the end (they drew), you also win your Lay Bet with Smarkets. So on Smarkets, instead of having to pay out £100.33 you actually gain the £49.67 Lay Stake as your Profit.
Despite the fact that Chelsea didn't win, we still make £100 from Bet365 as they decided to pay out early when Chelsea went 3-1 up, and we get to keep this money as if we won the bet.
Add the £49.67 Profit from Smarkets to the £100 Profit on Bet365 and you get our Total Profit of £149.67.
Different 2up Bet Strategies
When doing 2up Bets, once the bookmaker pays out early, you actually have 2 Options for how to complete the bet.
Option 1) Let it Ride
After your team goes two goals up, and the bookmaker pays out your bet as a win, you can choose to leave your lay bet as it is. This approach is riskier but can lead to higher profits if the team doesn't win the match.
This is to essentially do nothing and leave the bet as it is, meaning you either get your Qualifying Loss or your Profit if the team ends up not winning. These are the 2 outcomes displayed on the 2up Calculator.
But when the bookmaker pays out, you do actually have an opportunity to Cash in, and Guarantee a Profit, this is Option 2.
Option 2) Lock in a Profit
If you think that the team two goals up will maintain their lead, or you simply want to Lock in a Profit, you can place another bet to guarantee a smaller profit.
On the 2up Betting Calculator click the Switch that says 'The Bookmaker has paid out early', and then simply enter the Back Odds for the team to win and the Calculator will tell you what Back Stake to place and how much Profit you can Lock in.
The image above shows what it would look like if we try to Lock in a Profit using the example from before, where we had a 2up Bet on Chelsea Vs Arsenal and Chelsea went 3-1 up.
We have entered 1.08, as these were the Back Odds for Chelsea to Win When the score was 3-1, and the Calculator tells us to place an additional £138.89 Back Bet on Chelsea at Odds of 1.08.
This would Guarantee us a £10.78 Profit no matter what happens in the game. We now wouldn't be able to gain £149.67 if Arsenal came back, but we also wouldn't lose £0.33 if Chelsea won the game, we would just make £10.78 regardless of the outcome.
Will The Bookmaker Ban You For Doing 2up Bets?
Bookmakers do monitor betting patterns and may flag accounts with an unusual amount of 2up early payouts.
They may eventually come to the conclusion that you are exploiting them, and that they're losing money by having you as a customer.
But, you can still make a lot of money from 2ups, as you can avoid suspicion if you do it carefully.
We recommend you limit your 2ups to a maximum of 5 Per day and don't do stakes over £100. Also, you should never place a back bet longer than 3 days before a game, as this arouses suspicion.
There are techniques that you can use to ensure you definitely go under the radar, such as placing regular bets, to convince the gambling sites you are an honest gambler.
You should obviously lay these bets to reduce any possible risk. We call these 'Mug Bets' as you place them to make the bookmaker think your just a mug gambler.
Also, if you do get 'gubbed' or banned you can always go into multi-accounting, where you use another set of accounts, with another identity. We help our premium members with this process in our discord group.
What Other Variations of 2ups are There?
2ups have been on Bet365 for a long time, so it must be a successful promotion for them. Since they make a lot of money from it, you would expect them to keep running the promotion for much longer.
Skybet started doing them sometime after, and now even more bookmakers such as Sporting Index, Star Sports and William Hill are getting in on the action.
There are also other varitations of 2ups, using other sports, it is not just football.
However, it is less common to find profitable opportunities with these other variations.
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Tennis: A player two sets up
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NFL: A 17-point lead
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Basketball: A 12-point lead
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Rugby Union: A 10-point advantage
These can be a bit more complicated, especially while trying not to arouse suspicion, we do recommend you hold off on trying these until you are a bit more experienced with Matched Betting and with 2ups.
Do you Need Money to Start 2up Offers?
People also often wonder how much Bankroll they need when starting matched betting, or starting 2ups.
We recommend you have around £300 Bankroll to start, and you can begin with smaller stakes, as an early payout win is rare and you will likely need to do quite a few before you land one.
But, if you have not signed up to any bookies yet, you can easily build up a Bankroll of £500+ just from Sign Up Offers. This means you won't have to put much of your own investment into your accounts, you can just use the profits from these offers to fund your 2ups.
If you have already signed up to all UK Bookies, or you have exhausted all of the Sign Up Offers, you can build up a good bankroll through using Reload Offers, Weekly Bet Club Offers and making the most of Price Boosts and other easier methods before you start doing 2up bets.
Do You Pay Taxes on Matched Betting 2up Profits
This is why matched betting is so great. It is absolutely tax free, as, despite the fact that it isn't actually gambling (since we guarantee a profit), it's actually categorised as gambling winnings, which are tax free.
The UK government will never see 1 penny of your matched betting profits.
From Sign-up Offers to 2ups and all of the other great ways to make money from bookmaker promotions, absolutely none of it is taxable, making matched betting one of the best side hustles around right now.
You do not need to declare any winnings to HMRC since they stopped taxing gambling gains in 2002.
We can keep you updated if they ever do change this, but it is highly unlikely as it would be an unreasonable tax law, where it would be incredibly hard to differentiate between matched betting profits and real gambling profits.