Matched betting spreadsheet and tracker

Matched betting produces a peculiar optical illusion. Money moves from a bank account to a bookmaker, from the bookmaker to an exchange and back again. A winning screen may show £120 while the other side has lost £103.69. Without a ledger, both optimism and panic can make plausible cases.

The cure is a short record made at the time. You need to know the result across both sides, any reward still due, fees paid and cash tied up in unsettled bets. The total in one bookmaker account is not the answer. Neither is the withdrawal that arrived on Tuesday. Withdrawals move money; they do not create profit.

This guide includes a ready-made workbook, but the method matters more than the file. A notebook can work if every figure reconciles. The advantage of a spreadsheet is that it is less likely to grow bored halfway through adding thirty small qualifying losses.

Why track your matched betting?

A tracker answers four useful questions. How much net profit has settled? Which positions are still open? How much cash is committed? Do the balances shown by your bank, bookmakers and exchanges agree with your own records?

Those questions prevent several common errors. A free bet can be mistaken for cash. Exchange liability can be forgotten because it returns after settlement. A monthly subscription can disappear from the success story. One unmatched or partly matched lay bet can hide inside a balance until the event starts.

Good records also make decisions easier. If one class of offer has earned £84 after all costs while another has earned £7 and required twice the time, the next move is fairly clear. The spreadsheet is not there to admire activity. It is there to identify which activity pays.

The five sheets

• Start here: a six-step introduction and the sign convention for wins and losses.
• Tracker: 500 rows for planned, placed, settled or void positions.
• Accounts: a reconciliation between expected and actual platform balances.
• Summary: settled profit, open positions, cash tied up, fees, monthly totals and results by offer type.
• Example: a completed illustration that ends at £14.14 net profit.

The workbook is deliberately editable. Add notes that help you, but leave the formula columns intact. If 500 rows are eventually not enough, that is either pleasing evidence of persistence or a hint that your archive policy needs work.

What to record in the Tracker sheet

Enter commission as the rate applying to the exchange account. Smarkets says its standard rate is 2% of net winnings for a market, rather than each individual bet, and charges nothing when that market makes a net loss.[2] Other exchanges, tiers and accounts can differ. Check the current terms and statement instead of assuming that one saved percentage follows you everywhere.

The workbook does not use the commission column to recalculate settled P/L. It records the rate for audit purposes. Enter the final exchange result after commission in Exchange / other P/L. This prevents a second commission deduction when the platform statement already includes it.

How to enter a position correctly

Set the row to Planned while checking prices. Change it to Placed only after both sides are accepted. The sheet then counts the bookmaker stake and exchange liability as Cash tied up. When both sides settle, enter their final signed results and choose Settled. A cancelled position belongs under Void.

Use positive figures for profit and negative figures for loss. If the bookmaker loses £10, enter `-10.00` under Bookmaker P/L. If the exchange wins £9.58 after commission, enter `9.58` under Exchange / other P/L.

Reward value needs care. Use it only for cash or another directly valued credit that is not already contained in the settled platform results. For a stake-not-returned token, never enter the face value of a free bet as profit. Record the bookmaker and exchange results produced when you use it. If those results already contain the conversion, adding £20 or £30 again would double it.

The same rule applies to cashback. If the bookmaker statement's P/L already reflects the returned cash, do not double count it in Reward value. The spreadsheet cannot know that two entries describe the same pound. It adds what you tell it.

A £14.14 settled example

The Example sheet combines three activities and one service cost:

• A qualifying bet loses -£0.42 across bookmaker and exchange.
• A free bet converts to £16.31 after both sides settle.
• An odds boost makes £3.24.
• The monthly service cost is -£4.99.

The arithmetic is `-£0.42 + £16.31 + £3.24 - £4.99 = £14.14`. The calculation was checked independently before being placed in the workbook. It is modest, which is useful. A tracker should be able to account for ordinary Tuesdays, not merely the month somebody screenshots for social media.

Use the Ultimate Calculator to find stakes before betting. Use the tracker after settlement to record what happened. A calculator predicts balanced outcomes from entered prices; the ledger records accepted bets, actual commission and the final result.

Bankroll management without confusing cash and profit

Your bankroll is the money available to fund bookmaker stakes and exchange liability. Bankroll is not profit. If £300 began in your bank and now sits across three betting accounts, you have moved capital. You have not earned £300.

Cash tied up is equally separate. A £20 bookmaker stake and £80 exchange liability may commit £100 until settlement even when the expected result is a small profit. The Tracker sheet totals committed capital for rows marked Planned or Placed. That figure helps you decide whether the next offer fits the money available.

Keep a reserve rather than allocating every penny. Odds can move, markets can settle at different times and withdrawals can take time. The workbook does not prescribe a magic percentage because bankroll size, offer size and settlement speed differ. It simply gives you the figures needed to decline an opportunity that would leave no room for error.

Judge progress using settled net profit over a useful period. The guide on how much matched betting can make explains why headline rewards and gross winnings are poor measures.

Reconcile bookmaker, exchange and bank balances

The Accounts sheet uses another plain formula: opening balance + deposits - withdrawals + adjustments. That produces the expected balance. Enter the actual account balance and the Difference column shows anything that needs investigation.

An adjustment is for a genuine item that did not pass through the listed deposit or withdrawal columns, not a device for silencing discrepancies. Add a note. A missing £10 may be an unsettled bet, a fee, a reward, a void or an entry made backwards.

The Gambling Commission says customers must be told they can withdraw their deposit balance while a bonus is pending or active, except where checks are needed for general regulatory obligations.[1] It also requires deposit and bonus balances to be displayed separately.[1] Preserve that distinction in your records. A bonus balance is not the same as withdrawable cash.

Should you use a separate bank account?

A separate bank account can make the flow easier to read and keep everyday spending away from a long list of betting transactions. It is not required for matched betting and it does not alter the operator's identity or payment rules. Use an account and payment methods held in your own name.

Separation is an administrative choice, not concealment. The next guide examines how gambling transactions can matter when a lender reviews a mortgage application.

A ten-minute weekly routine

1. Filter Tracker for Planned and Placed rows. Resolve anything whose event has finished.
2. Check that each settled row has both platform results and any fee.
3. Compare Accounts expected balances with actual balances.
4. Investigate every non-zero Difference. Add a dated note when resolved.
5. Review the Summary by month and offer type.
6. Save a dated backup copy somewhere private.

Do this before chasing the next offer. A missing lay bet deserves attention before a promotional email. Once the file agrees with the platform statements, the settled total is a number you can use.

Five bookkeeping mistakes to avoid

• Counting withdrawals as income. They transfer existing money from an operator to your bank.
• Recording free-bet face value. The stake may not be returned and only the converted settled result is profit.
• Forgetting the losing side. A bookmaker win and exchange loss belong in the same calculation.
• Ignoring subscriptions. Tools may save time, but their cost still reduces net profit.
• Settling too early. Mark the row Settled only after every leg and reward is final.

The workbook does not guarantee profit and cannot detect an unmatched bet, wrong market or ineligible offer by itself. Check the current terms, use accurate stakes and confirm both sides. If you are new to the method, start with our beginner explanation before using the template.