Best Odds Guaranteed in Matched Betting

In this article we explain what Best Odds Guaranteed (or a ‘BOG’) is and how a 'BOG' can make us extra cash unexpectedly whilst matched betting.

What is Best Odds Guaranteed, or a ‘BOG’?

Best Odds Guaranteed is a special promotion run by many bookmakers on horse racing.

Odds on horses are notorious for changing up and down before the start of a race. The Best Odds Guaranteed promotion ensures that if the horse you have chosen to bet on starts the race on higher odds than what you originally bet on, then you will get paid out at the higher stating odds if the horse goes on to win.

Basically if you bet on a horse to win at 5.0 odds, then it drifted out and started the race on odds of 9.50 but then went onto win, you would get paid out by the bookmaker at the higher odds of 9.50 –the best odds. For a £10 bet instead of winning £40, with Best Odds Guaranteed you would now win £85.

How can Best Odds Guaranteed benefit us in Matched Betting?

Whether we are doing signup offers on horses, horse racing reload offers, horse racing refunds or even just mug betting on horses – if our horse wins a race and started at a higher price than what we backed it for, we can get a ‘BOG’ and make ourselves an unexpected ourselves a return.

An example of Best Odds Guaranteed in Matched Betting

Let’s say Sky Bet are doing one of their typical horse racing refund offers by offering us our money back as a free bet if our horse comes in 2nd, 3rd or 4th.

We find a great odds match on a horse and do the following Qualifying Bet on the race:

• £10 back bet at Sky Bet on ‘Horsey Horsey’ to win at odds of 4.0
• £10 lay bet at Smarkets against ‘Horsey Horsey’ to win at odds of 4.0

As we found a perfect match between the odds and because we are taking advantage of our Platinum Membership 0% commission at Smarkets, we have no qualifying loss on this matched bet.

To get our £10 free bet, from which we can then extract £7.50+ as a return, we are hoping Horsey Horsey will come in 2nd, 3rd or 4th in the race.

Just before the race starts we notice Horsey Horsey’s odds have drifted all the way out to 10.0, suggesting she’s no longer a top contender.

This is horse racing though – so anything can happen! And it does...

Horsey Horsey goes onto the tear the field apart and win the race easily by a good 3 lengths!

What does this mean for us though?

We don’t get any free bet because she didn’t come in 2nd, 3rd or 4th.

However, she did win, and because her odds drifted so far up at the start of the race, we instead get given Best Odds Guaranteed.

Originally, from back odds of 4.0, we would have got £30 in winnings at Sky Bet (which directly covered our £30 in liability at the exchange).

Now though, Sky Bet are giving us winnings based on Best Odds Guaranteed.

As the best odds were 10.0, instead of £30 in winnings, we now get given £90 in winnings!

This means, after our £30 liability at the exchange, we have made £60 as a return, completely unexpectedly!

How can you check if you’ve won a Best Odds Guaranteed?

In most cases you will see if you have received a ‘BOG’ in the settled bets section of your bookmaker accounts.

Normally they cross out the old odds and show the new odds with the phrase ‘best odds’ or similar.

Here’s an example of a bet that got a ‘BOG’ from 9.0 to 21.0!

This ‘BOG’ made over £150 return through matched betting.

How can you work out how much return you've made from Best Odds Guaranteed?

It's usually quite straight forward how to work out how much you've made from a 'BOG'. All you have to do is just subtract your liability at the exchange from your winnings at the bookmaker.

Remember for Qualifying Bets your winnings are the amount the bookmaker returns to you minus your original stake amount. For Free Bets your winnings are usually equal to your returns as most free bets are stake not returned.

How often do Best Odds Guaranteed happen in Matched Betting?

The answer to this question depends on how many horse racing reload offers you are matched betting on. If you’re doing as many daily horse racing reload offers as you can, you will probably hit a ‘BOG’ quite often. If you are just doing reload offers, or the odd offer here and there you will only hit a ‘BOG’ every now and again.

How much do Best Odds Guaranteed make you in Matched Betting?

More often than not when you hit a ‘BOG’ it will make you a few extra quid – anything up to £10. Every now and again though you will hit a substantial ‘BOG’ and make a return.

On our matched betting forum, members have got a return in the ranges of £50 to £300 from BOGs.

One member though, in 2017, made over £1000 from a ‘BOG’, when the horse, Becky the Thatcher, drifted from odds of 11.0 to over 34.0!

Is it worth just focusing on getting Best Odds Guaranteed in Matched Betting?

We recommend seeing Best Odds Guaranteed as a nice surprise return bonus you could get whilst you are completing other matched betting horse racing offers, reloads and/or mug bets.

‘BOGs’ would only be worth focusing on if you were finding perfect odds matches with negligible qualifying losses between the bookmakers and exchanges on a regular basis. Finding and placing such bets consistently though would likely get you gubbed very quickly from most bookmakers though.

Also read about matched betting calculator app and oddsmatcher profit accumulator

Which bookmakers offer the Best Odds Guaranteed promotion?

Bookmakers can change their promotional offers on a regular basis, and that includes their ‘BOG’ offers as well. We provide a brief list here of which bookmakers offer Best Odds Guaranteed, but recommend Platinum and Diamond Members to refer to the forum thread here for the most up to date list and recommendations.

The list below is organised by the time you can place bets from which will make them automatically eligible for Best Odds Guaranteed promotions.

Anytime before the race:

Bet365, Boylesports, Coral, Ladbrokes, The Pools

From midnight on the day of the race:

888Sport, Grosvenor, Leo Vegas

From 7am on the day of the race:

Virgin Bet

From 8am on the day of the race:

Betfair Sportsbook, Betfred, Bwin (mobile only), Paddy Power, SportingBet, Totesport, Unibet

From 9am on the day of the race:

Betway, BetVictor, BetVision, Fun88, NetBet, Sky Bet, Sport Nation, Sport Pesa

From 10am on the day of the race:

Mansion Bet, MarkJarvisBet, William Hill

From 11am on the day of the race:

Jentings

From midday on the day of the race:

Bet600, Genting, QuinnBet

Want to know more about Matched Betting?

Why not ask our members yourself?

Our Facebook Group, which currently has over 45,000 members is a great place to get answers and ask for help, especially if you are completely new to Outplayed matched betting.

Interested in Getting Started Matched Betting?

You can start learning for free with our free trial

Alternatively, upgrade to our Platinum Membership here