Price Boost Guide
What is a Price Boost?
A Price boost is an extremely common promotion done by almost all licensed UK Bookmakers, and it involves simply boosting the odds for an event to happen.
Bookmakers may call them Price Boosts, Enhanced Odds, Odds Boosts, and some other names but they're all the same thing.
They do this to encourage people to bet more and try to bring more people to their specific site, so they often advertise when they are doing a price boost to make more people aware.
But, with matched betting we can use their enhanced odds and cover all possible outcomes, meaning we will guarantee a profit no matter what happens.
How Do You Profit From a Price Boost with Matched Betting?
You can profit from a Price Boost if the Back Odds on the Bookmaker are higher than the Lay Odds on the Exchange. This is assuming that it is an event you can lay.
A Metaphor to explain this could be that you can buy a Watch in one store for £100 and sell that Watch in another store for £150.
This is because the first store was temporarily doing a Sale where they reduced the price of this watch to £100, in order to attract customers, but you can take advantage of it.
A bookmaker, like the watch store, will only offer this price boost for a brief period of time so you will need to be quick when you find one.
How a Price Boost Works
If the odds on the bookmaker are higher than the odds on the exchange, due to a price boost, that means that the bookmaker is giving us Extra Value.
An example could be the odds for Erling Haaland to score a Hat-Trick being boosted to 12/1 on Talksport Bet.
This would mean the Back Odds for Haaland to score a Hat-Trick are 13.0 in decimal form.
But, imagine the Lay Odds for Haaland to score a Hat-Trick are 10.0 on an Exchange, like Smarkets.
This is only possible as the back odds have been pushed so high by Talksport, as they try to incentivise people to bet, but we use this to make profit since we can simply "back" and "lay" Haaland scoring a hatrick and net the difference.
There are 3 main methods for which we can make profit from this bet: Underlay, Standard Lay, and Overlay.
In the long run it doesn't matter which method you use as they give the same value. You can learn more about different price boost strategies below.
How To Do a Price Boost Offer
1) Find a Good Price Boost
Look for a Price Boost where the Bookmaker's Odds are higher than the Lay Odds for the same event. Every time this is the case we can make profit and the bigger the difference means more profit.
Price Boosts usually have Max Stakes set by bookmakers so people don't take advantage of them too much but they are still very profitable even with the max stakes, which are usually very high anyway.
Finding Price Boosts manually isn't hard but finding the best ones, with high max stakes, is hard and definitely is boring. Luckily Our Discord Group has a channel where we share the best price boosts so you can join and get notifications every time there is an opportunity.
2) Use a Standard Betting Calculator
Input the odds into Our Standard Betting Calculator. We have put another Standard Betting Calculator below, but we also have a separate page dedicated to the calculator, with a tutorial on how to use it.
Enter the odds into the calculator in decimal form, and then enter your back stake and the commission that you pay on the exchange. Next, you should choose between doing an Underlay, Standard Lay or Overlay.
Free Bet
Event Info
Lay Stake Required
Lay Wins
Back Wins
Log Your Bet
You can learn more about Underlaying, Standard Laying, and Overlaying further down, but we have quickly listed out the idea behind each of the methods below.
Underlay: you lay a lower amount, meaning you make £0 if the event doesn't happen, but you profit more if it does.
Standard: you lay the normal amount, so no matter what happens you make the same profit.
Overlay: you lay a higher amount, therefore your profit is £0 if the event happens, but if it doesn't you stand to make more.
All of these methods are risk free as you will never lose money, and they all provide the same value so it doesn't matter which you choose, but we recommend Standard Lay for beginners.
Our Calculator tells you what Stake to Lay, Your Liability and also how much you stand to Profit!
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 unfamiliar with lay betting, check out Our Guide to using a Betting Exchange.
4) Log Your Bet
Come back to the calculator and Click 'Log Bet' for the details to be automatically saved to Your Profit Tracker. After the game, go to Your Profit Tracker to see how much profit you made.
5) Sit Back and Enjoy!
No need to watch the event, especially if you did a standard lay, as for a price boost offer, there is no necessary involvement after placing both bets.
Matched Betting Price Boost Offer Example
Imagine you placed a £50 Back Bet on Haaland to Score a Hat-Trick on Talksport Bet at enhanced odds of 12/1 or 13.0. But, the Lay odds for Haaland to Score a Hat-Trick on Smarkets are 10.0.
If you type these numbers into the calculator (or click the button below) and select 'Standard' you will see that you should lay a stake of £65 against Haaland to Score a Hat-Trick, and guarantee a £15 Profit, regardless of whether or not he gets a Hat-Trick.
If you also click Underlay and Overlay you will see your other options which still provide the same value. You can see a breakdown of this below.
1) Underlay: You could lay a stake of £50, and if he gets a Hat-Trick you would gain £150 Profit. But if he doesn't get a Hat-Trick you would profit £0. So a risk free shot at £150!
2) Overlay: You could lay a stake of £66.67 and if he gets a Hat-Trick you would gain £0 profit. But if he doesn't get a Hat-Trick (which is more likely) you would gain £16.67 profit.
Lets say you decided to go with a Standard Lay and so no matter what happens you gain £15 Profit.
The game ends and Haaland doesn't score a Hat-Trick, this means you lose the £50 you staked on Talksport Bet, so you are down £50 on the back bet.
But, you also had a lay bet on him getting a Hat-Trick with a £65 lay stake, therefore you gain £65 on Smarkets.
Overall, across the 2 platforms you have made £15 Profit!
Different Price Boost Strategies
When using matched betting to profit from bookmaker price boosts, there are 3 different ways you can go about doing it. You can do Underlay, Standard Lay or Overlay.
What is an Underlay Bet?
When you choose to Underlay a Bet this means that you are setting your Lay Stake Equal to your Back Stake.
Assuming no lay commission, this would mean that if the back bet wins you make a larger profit, but if it loses you make £0.
This is what you would do if you were confident that the event was going to happen, so you are essentially betting on it. And, as the name suggests, you are simply lowering the Stake that you are Laying.
As long as the back odds are higher than the lay odds you will never lose money with an underlay bet, your worst outcome is always £0 profit.
Why would you do an Underlay Bet?
One reason why you would do an underlay bet is because you won't need to use the betting calculator as the lay stake is simply the same as your back stake. So it saves you time and it's easier.
Another reason is because you might have a feeling that the particular event is going to happen, so you want to try and make more profit by doing an underlay. This is essentially betting on the event.
You may also do an Underlay Bet in order to avoid a rollover cycle, which you might learn about in some of the Sign-up Offers in Our Sign-up Offer List Page.
What is a Standard Lay Bet?
If you do a Standard Lay Bet you are choosing the perfect Lay Stake, such that no matter what happens with the event you are guaranteed to gain the same profit.
You will likely need to use a Betting Calculator to figure out the Lay Stake but this is very easy, and you have probably done it already. Then, all you have to do is place the bets, for which you should already know your profits.
Why would you do a Standard Lay Bet?
The main reason why people do Standard Lay Bets is because they essentially involve less gambling, as you will always make a profit. With the other methods, you could keep getting it wrong and therefore miss out on profit.
Another big factor is because you don't need to worry about or watch the game/event, as you can sit back and know exactly what profit you stand to make.
What is an Overlay Bet?
An Overlay bet is where you choose a higher lay stake, as you are essentially hoping that the event doesn't happen. This is because if the event doesn't happen you make a larger profit, but if it does happen you will NOT make any profit.
You will need to use a Betting Calculator to figure out what stake to lay on the exchange, and it will obviously be higher, so you will need more liquidity in your exchange account if you wish to do this strategy often.
Why would you do an Overlay Bet?
The main reason is simply because you think that the event is less likely to happen, meaning you are essentially betting on the event to not happen.
Conclusion
All three of the strategies are often used in matched betting, with Underlay and Standard Lay being the most commonly used. If you stick to one method, In the long run, you will always make the same profit, as they all provide the same value.
Standard Lay is much better in the short run though, as with the other two methods you could likely make no profit at all, since you can simply get unlucky.
Will The Bookmaker Ban You For using Price Boosts?
Bookmakers do monitor betting patterns and may flag accounts that consistently use every single price boost that they offer.
Over a long period of time they may eventually come to the conclusion that you are exploiting them, or they might not.
The bookmaker deciding if you are a genuine bettor or not is simply up to luck. But if you do every single price boost and promotion, without doing normal bets, then they will eventually realise that you are matched betting.
There are also techniques that you can use that will ensure you definitely go under the radar, such as placing a few normal bets here and there, to convince the gambling sites you are an honest gambler. You can obviously lay these bets at an exchange and minimise any loss.
Mixing Price Boosts with 2up's and other betting methods can diversify your betting patterns and make it less obvious that you're a calculated bettor.
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.
Which Bookmakers are Best for Price Boosts
Whether they call them price boosts, odds enhancements or anything else, there is a long list of bookies that do this kind of offer, where they increase the odds for an event in order to encourage more bets and customers.
However, as with most promotions, it is the larger bookmakers that can afford to do the best offers, therefore they typically offer the most profitable boosts, and they do them more often. You can see a list of the larger bookmakers below.
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Bet365
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Paddypower
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William Hill
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Skybet
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Coral
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Betfred
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Ladbrokes
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Unibet
These bookmakers will often present you with multiple price boost opportunities every day!
Are All Price Boosts Profitable?
The first requirement for a price boost to be profitable is that it is actually possible to lay.
Some price boosts are on events that you won't be able to find on any exchange, as its a unique event. Bookmakers do this so that they're are harder to lay and therefore harder to exploit.
An example of this would be James Madison to score from outside the box, which you can see below.
There is no option to lay this on Smarkets because this simply isn't a market people normally bet on.
But, with unusual boosts like this, it is often worth checking Matchbook's enhanced specials section.
Matchbook try to mirror the events of popular price boosts so that people can place lay bets on even the most obscure events.
While the above Bet for Leeds United, Southampton & Coventry City all to win is on the Matchbook enhanced specials section where you find the obscure bets, this is actually a multiple price boost and we can still sometimes lay this outcome on a normal exchange.
Multiples or Multi's are where they boost the odds for multiple events and group it all into one bet. We can still sometimes lay these boosts through Smarkets, as they allow you to lay multiples if there is enough liquidity.
Also, if the events are all happening at different times then you can do a Sequential Lay Bet, using Our Sequential Lay Calculator. You can guarantee profits if the backs odds are higher than the implied Lay Odds.
This is more advanced but if you feel you are ready to try it out you should read through Our Sequential Lay Guide.
Do you Need Money to do Price Boosts?
People also often wonder how much Bankroll they need when starting matched betting, but it's different for each method.
When doing Price Boosts, you don't need much bankroll as you can start small and build it up using the Standard Lay method to guarantee profit from every bet.
The only issue is that you may need a lot of money in your Exchange account if you are doing the more profitable boosts, as the lay bets for these price boosts will have high liabilities. This is because the more profitable boosts have higher odds.
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 money into your accounts, since it should just be profit from completing these offers.
This is a great way to begin matched betting, because you should feel confident while doing Price Boosts, as you are doing it with money you have already made from the bookmakers.
But, if you have already signed up to all UK Bookmakers, or you have exhausted all of the Sign Up Offers, you can also build up a decent bankroll using Reload Offers, Weekly Bet Club Offers and other simple offers before you start doing Price Boosts.
Do You Pay Taxes on Matched Betting Price Boost 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 Price Boosts 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.