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A matched betting calculator tells you how much to stake on the covering bet so that every outcome ends with the same result. You enter the bookmaker, stake and odds of your first bet, the odds of the covering bet at a second bookmaker, and what kind of offer it is (Freebet, Refund, Bonus, Rollover). The calculator works out the counter stake and shows your profit or loss for each outcome. This guide goes through MB-Tracker's matched betting calculator field by field, with a worked example for each offer type.
New to matched betting? Start with the beginner's guide to matched betting, then come back here when you are about to place your first bet.
How a matched betting calculator works#
Every example here is Back-Back Back-Back: you back one outcome at Bookmaker 1 and the opposite outcome at Bookmaker 2, so one of your two bets always wins. Two-way markets such as a tennis match or over/under 2.5 goals work best, because two bets cover everything.
For a normal (qualifying) bet, the calculator picks the counter stake that makes both outcomes pay the same:
Each offer field adds or removes something from one side of that balance, and the calculator moves the counter stake until both sides are equal again. That is why one calculator can handle a qualifying bet, a Freebet, a Refund and a Bonus with Rollover, even all at once.
The four fields you always need#
Bookmaker 1 is where the offer is: the bookmaker that gave you the Freebet, or where you place the qualifying bet. Bookmaker 2 is where you place the covering bet. Picking the bookmakers matters, because the calculator applies what you have saved for each one: tax or commission on winnings and your Freebet rating for it. You can set a default for both in your profile.
Stake is what you bet at Bookmaker 1. For a Freebet, it is the Freebet amount.
Odds 1 and Odds 2 are the prices of your two bets. You can type them in any notation: decimal (2.5 or 2,5), American (+150 or -150), fractional (3/2) or price (0.4). The calculator converts them for you.
Here is a qualifying bet: €25 on a tennis player at x1.90 at Bookmaker 1, and the opponent at x2.05 at Bookmaker 2.
| Outcome | Bookmaker 1 | Bookmaker 2 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Player 1 wins | +€22.50 | −€23.17 | −€0.67 |
| Player 2 wins | −€25.00 | +€24.33 | −€0.67 |
You lose €0.67 whoever wins. That is the qualifying loss, the price of unlocking the offer, and it comes from the bookmakers' margin on the two prices. Calculator Try this example in the calculator.
Reading the results#
Under the inputs, the Back-Back box shows three things.
The stakes table lists what to bet at each bookmaker. The counter stake for Bookmaker 2 is copied when you click it, so you can paste it straight into the bet slip.
The profits table has one column per outcome, with each bookmaker's result and a Total row at the bottom. Green is a profit, red a loss. If both totals are the same, the bet is matched correctly.
The Rating badge says how much of your stake comes back, whoever wins: €100 staked at x1.90 / x2.05 returns €97.32 either way, a rating of 97.32%. The closer to 100%, the cheaper the qualifying bet; above 100% (red, with a flame) both outcomes are profitable and you have found a surebet. With a Freebet, a second Freebet Rating badge shows how much of the Freebet you keep. It turns green when it beats the rating you have set for that bookmaker, so you know the offer is worth taking now rather than waiting for better odds.
The two outcome columns are labelled 1 and X2 by default. Click either label to rename it, for example to the two player names. The names go with the bet when you track it.
If Bookmaker 2 is a betting exchange, a second box for Back-Lay appears next to Back-Back. Back-Lay Back-Lay works essentially the same way: the calculator balances both outcomes, it just uses a lay bet against your selection instead of a bet on the other outcome. This guide sticks to Back-Back, which needs nothing but two bookmaker accounts.
Is Freebet?#
The next fields describe the promotion. Leave them empty for a plain bet.
Switch on Freebet Is Freebet? when the bet at Bookmaker 1 is a Freebet. A Freebet win pays only the profit, not the stake, so the calculator covers instead. A €10 Freebet at x5.00, covered at x1.22:
That locks in +€7.21 whichever bet wins, a Freebet Rating of 72.13%. The full walk-through, and why higher odds keep more of the Freebet, is in how to use a Freebet (stake not returned). Calculator Open this Freebet example in the calculator.
Bonus#
Bonus is money you didn't deposit that is paid out in full, stake included, if the bet wins, and costs you nothing if it loses. On MB-Tracker, stake-returned Freebets go here too. Enter the Bonus amount here; if your whole bet is a Bonus, you can leave Stake empty. A €10 Bonus at x5.00, covered at x1.22, needs a counter stake of €40.98 and gives +€9.02 both ways, clearly more than the same amount as a Freebet. Calculator Try this example in the calculator.
Refund#
Refund Refund is for "money back if your bet loses" offers. Enter the amount you get back, and switch on the small Freebet bolt in front of the field if the refund comes as a Freebet. A Freebet refund is counted at your Freebet rating for Bookmaker 1 (70% unless you change it), because you still have to convert it.
Example: you bet €10 at x3.00 and get a €10 Freebet back if it loses. Valued at 70%, that Freebet is worth €7.00. The calculator lowers the counter stake at x1.50 from €20.00 to €15.33, so you put less on the side where the refund would arrive anyway:
| Outcome | Bookmaker 1 | Bookmaker 2 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your bet wins | +€20.00 | −€15.33 | +€4.67 |
| Your bet loses | −€10.00 + Freebet | +€7.67 | −€2.33 + €10 Freebet |
The second row is +€4.67 too, once the €10 Freebet is converted at 70%. If you convert it for more, you end up with more. Calculator Try this example in the calculator.
Bonus on win#
Bonus on win Bonus on win is extra money you get when the bet at Bookmaker 1 wins, for example "bet €10 at odds of x2.00 or more and get €5 extra if it wins". As with Refund, the bolt switch marks it as a Freebet. Because the bonus only lands when your first bet wins, the calculator raises the counter stake to share it with the other outcome. €10 at x2.50 with a €5 cash bonus on win, covered at x1.65: counter stake €18.18 instead of €15.15, and +€1.82 whichever bet wins, instead of a €0.15 loss. Calculator Try this example in the calculator.
Rollover#
Some Bonuses come with a Rollover: they have to be wagered a number of times before you can withdraw them. Three fields handle this:
- Remaining Rollover: how much you still have to wager, including the bet you are about to place.
- Future Rating: the rating you expect on your later Rollover bets. 95% means you expect to lose about 5% of every amount you wager.
- Advanced Rollover (the gauge button): only switch it on if you will bet your entire balance again in another Rollover bet if this one wins. The calculator then takes into account that the winnings go towards the remaining Rollover.
Why this matters: if your Bonus bet loses, the Bonus is gone and so is the Rollover. If it wins, you still have to wager the rest, and that will cost something. So the calculator subtracts the expected cost of the remaining Rollover from the winning side before it balances the stakes.
Example: you have a €20 Bonus that has to be wagered five times, so €100 Remaining Rollover, and you expect a Future Rating of 95%. You bet the whole Bonus at x4.00 (enter it in the Bonus field and leave Stake empty) and cover at x1.32 with your own money. If the Bonus bet wins, €80.00 is in your account, but €80 is still to wager, which should cost about . If it loses, the Bonus is gone, it cost you nothing, and so is the Rollover. The calculator stakes €57.58 on the cover:
| Outcome | Bookmaker 1 | Bookmaker 2 | Rest of the Rollover | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bonus bet wins | +€80.00 | −€57.58 | −€4.00 | +€18.42 |
| Bonus bet loses | €0.00 | +€18.42 | €0.00 | +€18.42 |
Without the Rollover fields, the calculator would stake €60.61 and show +€19.39 both ways, but once the rest of the Rollover is done you would end up with only about €15.39 if the Bonus bet wins. Calculator Try this example in the calculator.
The Rating badge turns green when the bet's rating is at least the Future Rating you entered, so you can see at a glance whether this bet is cheaper than your average Rollover bet.
Counter Stake and rounding#
Normally you leave Counter Stake empty and let the calculator fill it in. Type a value to override it, for example a round number that looks less like matched betting. The profits table shows straight away what the change costs. In the qualifying example above, €23.00 instead of €23.17 gives:
| Outcome | Total |
|---|---|
| Player 1 wins | −€0.50 |
| Player 2 wins | −€0.85 |
Rounding moves a few cents from one outcome to the other. That is usually fine; just know which side it lands on. Calculator Try this example in the calculator.
Underlay and Overlay#
The Underlay Underlay and Overlay Overlay buttons next to Counter Stake, and the slider above Bookmaker 2's stake, go further than rounding. They shift the whole result to one side: at one end of the slider you break even if your first bet wins and take the full loss if it loses, at the other end the other way round. That is useful when you want to keep money at one bookmaker, or when one outcome would give you a follow-up offer. It doesn't make the bet cheaper overall, and with a Freebet or Bonus it means one outcome pays a lot less.
Tax and commission are applied for you#
If a bookmaker takes a cut of your winnings or stake, the calculator applies it to the odds before it works out the counter stake. What is taxed, such as stakes, Freebets, Bonuses or accumulators, comes from that bookmaker's settings, so the results table already shows what you actually get. You can see and change those settings in the bookmaker settings.
Betting in Germany? The betting tax there is 5.3% by law, but bookmakers pass it on differently, from 5.3% to nothing at all, and some tax Freebets too. German betting tax explained walks through how it works and how the calculator handles it.
Tools around the calculator#
- Odds search: the Odds search magnifying glass next to Odds 1 finds the best pair of odds at your bookmakers for exactly the bet you have set up. See finding matches fast with the Odds Search.
- Campaign calculators: Campaign calculator special promotions, such as percentage boosts or cashback by odds, appear next to the offer fields. Clicking one fills in and locks the fields it controls.
- Partially Matched? If you could only place part of the counter stake, this button works out a follow-up bet for the rest, at new odds and possibly at another bookmaker.
- Payout Rules: the scroll button compares how your two bookmakers settle the bet, for example when a tennis player retires. See is matched betting really risk-free? for why that matters.
- Share: the copy button on the Back-Back box copies a link with every field filled in. The calculator's address works the same way, so a refresh never loses your calculation.
- Track Bets: when both bets are placed, this button logs them in the MB-Tracker tracker, with stakes, odds and bookmakers filled in.
- Tutorial: the graduation cap starts a guided tour of every field. Each field also has a question-mark icon with a short reminder.
For three or more outcomes, such as home, draw and away in football, use the N-Way calculator N-way calculator, or stay in this calculator and cover two outcomes with one double chance bet (draw or away). For offers that require an accumulator, there is the Combi calculator combi calculator.
A checklist before you place the bets#
- Pick both bookmakers first, so their tax is applied.
- Enter the stake and the odds exactly as they are on the bookmakers' sites, right before you bet.
- Set the offer fields that apply: Freebet, Bonus, Refund, Bonus on win, Rollover.
- Check that both totals are the same (or that you meant them to differ).
- Place the bet at Bookmaker 1 first, then the counter stake at Bookmaker 2. If the odds moved in between, enter the new odds and use the new counter stake.
- Press Track Bets.
Open the matched betting calculator and try it with your next offer. You can use it without an account; log in to save Freebet ratings and bookmaker defaults, and to use the odds search and campaign calculators.
Odds move and offer terms differ, so always read the terms and check the odds before you place a bet. Whether matched betting is allowed and how it is taxed depends on your country. You must be 18 or older. Only use money you can afford to lose, and take a break if betting stops feeling under your control.
