Definitions for the 30 most-asked matched-betting terms — used across our calculators, oddsmatcher, and blog. Each entry leads with the atomic answer, then a worked example with real numbers.
Last updated 9 May 2026 · 30 entries
Acca insurance is a bookmaker promotion that refunds your stake on a losing accumulator if exactly one leg lets you down.
Henry Bramwell
A back bet is a wager FOR a selection to happen — the standard form of bet at any bookmaker, and one half of every matched bet you'll ever place.
Sophie Hughes
Best Odds Guaranteed is a horse-racing promotion that pays out winning bets at the higher of the price you took or the SP (starting price).
Tom Whitfield
A bet builder is a single bet combining multiple selections from the same match — e.g., both teams to score, Man Utd to win, Rashford to score anytime.
Henry Bramwell
A bonus bet is bookmaker credit similar to a free bet but with wagering or rollover requirements attached — much harder to extract cleanly.
Tom Whitfield
A bore-draw refund is a football promotion that refunds losing bets on a match that ends 0–0 in normal time.
Henry Bramwell
An extra place offer pays out each-way bets on more places than the standard market — e.g., 5 places instead of 4 in a horse race.
Tom Whitfield
A free bet is a token issued by a bookmaker that you can stake on a market without using your own money — the engine of matched betting.
Sophie Hughes
A lay bet is a wager AGAINST a selection — at a betting exchange you win if the selection does NOT happen, which is what makes matched betting work.
Sophie Hughes
The lay stake is the amount you stake AGAINST a selection at the exchange — what you keep if the selection doesn't happen, before commission.
James Cooper
Liability is the amount the exchange holds back from your account when you place a lay bet — what you'd pay out if the laid selection wins.
James Cooper
A money-back special is a bookmaker promotion that refunds your stake if a specific scenario doesn't happen — e.g., money back if your horse finishes 2nd.
Henry Bramwell
A profit boost increases the winnings of a bet by a stated percentage — e.g., +50% on the boosted leg — usually as a token redeemable on a single bet.
Oliver Pike
A qualifying bet is the real-money bet you place to unlock a bookmaker's free-bet promotion — typically £5–£20 at the published terms.
Sophie Hughes
The qualifying loss is the small net loss from placing the qualifying bet — typically £0.20–£0.50 on a £10 stake.
Sophie Hughes
A reload offer is a promotion sent to existing bookmaker customers — money-back specials, profit boosts, acca insurance, and the like.
Henry Bramwell
A stake-not-returned free bet pays out only the winnings if it wins — the stake itself is kept by the bookmaker, which is the dominant UK free-bet structure.
Tom Whitfield
A stake-returned free bet pays winnings AND returns the stake — a much cleaner extraction than the more common stake-not-returned (SNR) variant.
Tom Whitfield
A two-up offer pays out a winning football bet as soon as your team goes 2 goals ahead, regardless of the final score.
Oliver Pike
A wagering requirement is the number of times a bonus must be staked before it can be withdrawn — common on casino bonuses and stricter bonus-bet promotions.
Charlotte Reeves
A welcome offer is the introductory promotion a bookmaker advertises to new customers, usually structured as bet £X, get £Y in free bets.
Tom Whitfield
Dutching is staking on every possible outcome of an event across different bookmakers so that whichever runner wins, you collect more than you put in.
Daniel Marsh
Greening up is placing a counter-bet at fresh exchange odds to flatten an open back-and-lay position into the same cash outcome whichever way the event ends.
Daniel Marsh
Implied probability is the probability of an outcome that's baked into a set of odds — calculated as 1 divided by the decimal odds.
Daniel Marsh
Sequential laying is laying off the legs of an accumulator one at a time as each match plays out, instead of laying the whole acca all at once.
Daniel Marsh
Underlaying is laying less than the standard hedge stake at the exchange — accepting variance toward the back side in exchange for a different shape of expected return.
Daniel Marsh
Connected bookmakers share gubbing intelligence behind the scenes — being restricted at one operator within a corporate group can affect treatment at the others.
Charlotte Reeves
'Gubbed' is matched-bettor slang for being restricted by a bookmaker — usually meaning promotional emails stop arriving and stakes get capped.
Charlotte Reeves
A stake restriction is a cap a bookmaker places on the maximum amount you can wager on certain markets — usually a precursor or component of being gubbed.
Charlotte Reeves
The free tutorial steps you through every term that matters in the welcome offers — qualifying bets, lay odds, exact stakes — at every UK bookmaker we cover.
