Be A Loser

First and foremost when Matched Betting you want to lose at the bookmakers and win at the exchange.

Exchanges like Betfair simply act as the middleman between betters.  They take a percentage cut of winnings so it doesn't matter to them who wins or loses. 

Bookmakers on the other hand do care very much who wins because they are risking a lot of their own money in taking all the punters bets.

Bookmakers want normal punters - people who bet small stakes on a couple of horse races usually on a Saturday and  generally lose. 

If you start to have lots of bets or bet big and win big then you're going to be at the top of their "suspicious list".

If you upset them bookies will first  drastically restrict how much you can bet - sometimes to only pennies.  If you continue to be a "bad-boy" they'll close your account altogether.  The only answer you'll ever get back from then as to why will be "its a trading decision".

So when doing Matched Betting or Sporting Arbitrage your aim is to lose at the bookies and win on the exchange.

Too Many Big Bets

You'll raise suspicion if you keep placing big bets. Bookies have a limit on the amount they'll accept on a horse or a football team etc.- this is how they balance their books and make a profit. If you keep hitting that limit or near to it or even exceeding it then you'll end up at the top of their monthly report.

If you exceed the limit you'll probably get a pop-up on the screen saying your bet has been referred to their traders - and that's not good.

Too Much Time OnLine

Analysis of data from Alexa web tracking suggests that the average time spent on bookmakers sites is about 10 minutes.  See the figures for Ladbrokes, Paddypower, Willhill, Coral and Betfair below.

 

Bookmakers will start to get suspicious if you're regularly spending several hours every day searching for arbs. They do track users.

Several bets on One Event

As odds change there may be Arbitrage opportunities on several horses in a race. If you've already done one Arb in a race do not go back and do another in the same race - no matter how tempting it is - no matter how much profit you'd make. Do it once and leave it alone. There'll be many many more opportunities in the future.

IEsnare

The main purpose of the IESNARE system is to block criminal activity where fraudsters use multiple stolen identities / credit cards to sign up for multiple accounts on the same gambling sites. On the face of it this sounds like a good thing. An increasing number of bookmakers are using iesnare - its software that is secretly installed on your computer and secretly monitors who you are and what you do. There are rumours that bookmakers could share this information about you. If that bothers you.