Introduction
“2up” is a promotion run by Bet 365 and Paddy Power, this offer is very popular among matched bettors due to the large profits that are possible from the offer. The 2up offer isnt difficult to learn but it is more advanced than the basic bet X and get Y offers.
2up offers are positive in expected value or EV for short, this means that you aren’t going to make a profit every single time you do them, however, the maths is heavily on your side meaning that over the course of a short period of time, such as a week or a month, you will make significant profits from running the offer.
How Does The Bet365 2up Offer Work
The 2up offer works by backing a football team on either Bet 365 or Paddy Power and then, just as normal, laying that very same team on the betting exchange for a small qualifying loss.
Initial back bet & lay bet from a 2up offer resulting in a £0.52p qualifying loss
All that is required, after placing your back and lay bet on the same football team is to wait until the game starts and hope to see that the team you have backed with the bookie goes 2 goals up in their football match.
If this is the case, and the team that you backed does indeed go 2 goals ahead, Bet 365 or Paddy Power (whichever bookie you placed the back bet with) will then payout that back bet early as a winner, as if that team has officially won the match!
This is great, but remember, the team hasn’t yet won the match, the match is still in play meaning that your lay bet is still active on the betting exchange.
This situation presents a great opportunity for us to lock in a profit.
To lock in a profit, all that is required is to trade out of your lay bet on the betting exchange once the bookmaker pays out your back bet early as a result of 2up early payout offer.
The profit from this offer is derived from the payout that you receive from the bookmaker as a result of the 2up offer, minus the smaller loss that you take from cashing out of your lay bet on the betting exchange.
2up Profit Breakdown
Trading Out And Locking in Your Profit
If and when the team that you backed with the bookmaker goes 2 goals ahead check and then make sure to double check your bookmaker account to ensure that you have been paid out your back bet as a winner.
Once confirming, it’s time to lock in your profit by trading out on the betting exchange.
There are 2 different ways to trade out of your lay bet on the exchange once your back bet has been paid out as a winner:
Method 1:
Note: You should only trade out this way if you only have the one lay bet on that particular match.
For example, if you have multiple lay bets on the same match from various other matched betting offers, it is VERY important that you use the 2nd trade out method which is discussed further in the article.
Method 1 is the easiest way to lock in your profit.
To trade out using method 1 you should click on the trade out button on your lay bet on the betting exchange and then press the confirm button (shown in the below image).
Once you confirm your trade out this will inform the betting exchange to place a back bet on the exchange on the same outcome that you have on your lay bet.
This back bet that the exchange places cancels out some of the liability from your initial lay bet and closes out your position on the betting exchange for a loss.
This loss, as a result of chasing out of your lay bet on the exchange, means that you will lose a certain amount of money on the betting exchange, however, the loss taken from chasing out is much smaller than the profit that you will receive from the early 2up payout from the bookmaker Bet365.
The image above shows the profit breakdown after the “2up” payout and trading out of the lay bet.
In the above example, you can see that we have made a £45 profit from the bookmaker due to them paying us out early as a result of our team going 2 goals ahead.
You can also see that we have taken a loss of £29.69 on the betting exchange as a result of trading out of our lay bet.
The difference between the profit that we made from the bookmaker and the loss that we took on the exchange is £15.31, this number is our overall profit!
Method 2:
Note: You should use the second method of trading out when you have more than 1 matched bet on the same event that you are using for 2up (e.g. 3 lay bets on the same market from various of your other matched betting offers).
In method 2 we will trade out in a slightly different way, this will avoid the exchange cashing out each of our lay bets on the same game.
This method is very similar to the trade out method discussed earlier.
To trade out using method 2, load up the early payout calculator on OddsMonkey using the link below.
Enter all the relevant information into the early payout calculator, this includes the initial back stake that you used on the bookmaker’s website, the back bet odds, the lay bet odds and the exchange commission rate that you are on.
Next, select the yes button in the “has the bookmaker paid out early” section.
Once you select the “yes” option in the “has the bookmaker paid out early” section, 2 new boxes will appear on the early payout calculator.
You should click into the first box, exchange back odds, and enter the current back bet odds on the exchange on the same team that you backed and layed for 2up.
You should enter the current exchange back odds after the team that you backed goes 2 goals ahead and the bookmaker has paid out your winnings early.
Once the current back odds on the exchange are input into the early payout calculator, you will notice that the 2nd box “exchange back stake” has been populated.
To trade out, you should place a back bet on the exchange, using the stake specified by the early payout calculator, doing this will cash you out of your lay bet on the exchange manually.
Note: Dont worry if the stake specified by the early payout calculator is greater than the balance that you have on the exchange.
The amount needed within your balance is the negative number displayed in red on the profit breakdown, as this is the overall loss you will take from cashing out and closing your position on the exchange.
Remember, back bet odds are in the green boxes on Smarkets, and they are in the blue boxes on Betfair.
That’s it, all done! We will now make significantly more profit from the bookmaker paying out early as a result of 2up early payout offer than we will lose from trading out of our lay bet and reducing our liability. Overall, we are in a profitable position!
Go For Glory Method
There is a third and final option that you can opt to take when doing 2up offers with Bet365 or Paddy Power.
This method isn’t the way I would personally recommend that you use as its a high variance strategy, meaning that it won’t pay out very frequently, however, using the go for glory 2up strategy can be VERY profitable when it hits.
The go for glory method works simply by placing your initial back and lay bets as normal taking a small qualifying loss.
The big difference with this method is that regardless of what happens in the game, even if the team that you back with Bet365 go 2 goals up, you leave the lay bet active and running on the exchange and you don’t cash out.
The huge payout from this method will come if the team that you backed on the bookmaker’s website goes 2up and the bookmaker pays you out as a winner.
Subsequently, the opposing team then pull the game back level again.
If at this point, the team you initially backed on the bookmaker’s website does not happen to go on and win the match (therefore, they lose or draw) you will win both your lay bet on the betting exchange as the team didn’t you layed didn’t win the match, and of course, you win with your bookmaker’s back bet as a result of the 2up early payout, after the team you initially backed went 2 goals up at an early point in the match.
So, you win on both your back and lay bets which pays out HUGE, especially if you have a big bankroll and use large stakes!
As you can imagine, this is highly improbable and therefore does not happen very often, however, this is still very much a profitable strategy, you will just be waiting much longer to lock in a profit.
Profit breakdown of the go for glory method
Bet365 2 Up Match Selection
Selecting the correct matches for 2up is very important!
As I mentioned earlier, this is a positive EV form of matched betting, this means that we won’t profit on every single occasion, however, your profits will substantially outweigh the losses you incur over the course of each month.
For this reason, it is important to keep qualifying losses to a minimum, so when you do lose and the offer doesn’t hit your accumulative qualifying losses will remain minimal.
I recommend selecting teams that arent super heavy favourites in their matches, look for odds of around 2.5 – 3.5, these work the best!
Below, is the criteria that I would use when selecting games to use on the Bet365 2up offer:
- Match Rating a Minimum of 98%
We want to use matches with at least a 98% rating on the OddsMatcher, this helps minimise our qualifying losses (the closer to 100% to smaller the QL).
- Set the minimum odds to at least 1.8
The higher the odds that you chose on your selection the more unlikely it is that the 2up payout will have of occurring, but the more profit you will make should it do so, vice versa with lower odds.
Note: Odds of 2.5 – 3.5 tends to be the sweet spot for these offers in my experience.
Need help filtering the OddsMatcher for 2up?
Final Thoughts on The 2up Offer
2up is very often regarded as the most lucrative matched betting offer available, and for good reason.
The Bet365 2up offer is very much scalable and the more you put into it the more you will make, simply put, its a gold mine!
It’s important to reiterate, this offer does come with variance, it isn’t always profitable in the short term, so you have to be willing to take some smaller losses along the way as small losing streaks are possible.
Overall, however, the offer is highly profitable, just remember its important to stay consistent and remain patient if you hit a few losing 2up’s, trust the maths when it comes to the expected value long term and you will make some big profits from running the Bet365 2up offer!
