At the foot of this edited article you will find the link over to the full article ....
>>>>
From the Grand National to the Premier League, many people love having a flutter in the hope of making some money. But with the odds always stacked against punters, what if there was a way of reversing that tide?
Nottingham-based Profit Accumulator believes it has the answer to bashing the bookies using a strategy known as Matched Betting. Dan Robinson speaks to its 26-year-old founder, who used the technique to pay his way through university
Sam Stoffel has never placed a bet in his life. He's never even bought a lottery ticket or a scratchcard. "It's all about the guaranteed profits for me," he says. "I don't bet on the Grand National and don't even like sport.
"There's a difference between someone who bets for a laugh every now and then, and someone who feels they can beat the bookies – which you can't unless you use free bets."
And that's exactly what he does.
Instead of backing horses, sports teams and reality TV contestants in a high-risk environment, Sam prefers a technique he says will provide a cast-iron assurance of beating the bookies – as long as instructions are followed correctly.
The method is known as Matched Betting and the 26-year-old has now made a multi-million pound business, Profit Accumulator, by providing the tools and advice for people who take part in the practice, which is based on mathematical equation.
Taking advantage of free bets and incentives regularly offered by bookmakers, Matched Betting works by cancelling out the risk on the "back" stake by betting against yourself at the same odds with the free bet.
"For anyone who's after a hobby, unemployed or just wants to top up their income, it's a great way of getting some extra pocket money that's tax-free," says Sam, of Mapperley.
"We've made it accessible to the masses and we're now the most popular Matched Betting website in the UK because our training is amazing and have a very strong ability to guide people from knowing nothing about it to becoming experts in Matched Betting."
The seeds of Profit Accumulator were sown while Sam studied for an unrelated degree, cinema and photography, at the University of Leeds.
"Matched Betting had been around for a while but the problem with it is that it's quite complex unless you have someone explain it to you," he says.
"It took me a few weeks before I really understood it. Eventually I did and used Matched Betting to pay my way through university.
"I'd make about £1,500 a month tax-free by doing dozens a week."
Two years later, he set up Profit Accumulator because he believed the websites he used for the practice, which is completely legal, were over-complicated.
If he could remove those complications, then more people would take part and his company now offers a "handholding service".
While bookmakers' joining offers are heavily promoted, such as "bet £10, get a free £20 bet", there's only so many of those promotions before they have been exhausted.
There are still numerous retention offers for existing customers, such as "reload bonuses" to top up accounts and enhanced payouts for particular events, but they don't offer such straightforward benefits that stack the odds in the punter's favour – and can sometimes be more difficult to find.
That's where Profit Accumulator comes in. It has a team of four staff whose sole job is to find betting offers across the internet, while the website includes a calculator, odds comparison software and instructions on how to work these incentives so that a profit is "guaranteed".
Even though it's not the cheapest service available, Sam believes his website is more comprehensive, adding: "You can do it yourself but you can do it much easier, quicker and make more money as a result by doing it with us."
Having started with just Sam and business partner Max Vernon, who owns 15 per cent of the company, there are now 18 staff, including customer service personnel, content writers, a video producer, web developer and people who run a community forum used by members to share tips.
Turnover has also rapidly risen from £1.47m in the year to October 2015, to £4.3m in 2016. There are hopes it will reach £6m this year, despite rising competition from smaller websites.
Sam believes it is possible to earn thousands of pounds a year just by devoting about half an hour each day to Matched Betting, while it's possible to earn close to £2,000 a month if someone makes it virtually a full-time job.
He has earned a five-figure sum through matched betting in his lifetime and says there are Profit Accumulator members who have won more than £100,000.
"I certainly don't feel bad about bookies giving something back to the customers when they have an unfair edge over their players.
"If I'm helping people to take money away from bookmakers and put it into their own pockets, then great."
It is generally considered risk-free but Matched Betting advice websites like Profit Accumulator can't say that because human error, such as not following instructions or betting on the wrong event, can lead to losing money.
nottinghampost.com/nottingham-made-website-profit-accumulator-claims-to-remove-all-risk-from-betting/story-30297813-detail/story.html
As published as a short article over on my LinkedIn;
linkedin.com/pulse/nottingham-post-profit-accumulator-jon-court
`
