The first question that crosses most new matched bettors minds once they realise how much easy money they can make from matched betting is “How can I do matched betting with multiple accounts?”.
The reason for this is that if you are not displaying the behaviour of a typical mug punter and consistently losing money on poor value bets day in day out, it is a matter of time before the bookmakers ban your account, or severely limit the amount you can wager, which renders the account completely useless anyway.
The bookmakers will also ‘promo ban’ you, meaning you no longer get to take advantage of all the profitable free bet offers and promotions they regularly use to entice the habitual losers back to lose more of their hard-earned money.
A lot of matched bettors just accept being ‘gubbed’ as part of the game, and are grateful to be able to get as much profit from each account as possible before the inevitable happens.
However, more and more shrewd matched bettors are taking a stand against the predatory bookmakers, and making serious amounts of profit in the process by creating multiple sets of accounts, or ‘Gnoming’ as it’s often called in matched betting circles.
Unlike nearly every other multi-accounting or Gnoming guide you will read online; this is not going to be some generic piece based on opinion that loosely covers the topic. I have read almost everything that is out there and some of these articles have some serious parts wrong, and are missing a lot of important information.
I know this because to research this article, I have spoken at length with a number of experienced matched bettors who are operating multiple accounts, and have done for years. One of these matched bettors had 17 different sets of accounts on the go at once, and their insights really opened my eyes to the potential of multi-accounting.
They have told me all their tips and tricks, so if you are looking to start Gnoming yourself, or are just interested in how matched betting with multiple accounts works, then you will find everything you need to know in this article.
Disclaimer: Some people think that matched betting with multiple accounts, or ‘Gnoming’, is a grey area when it comes to legality. I am not a legal expert, so if you are worried and are thinking of matched betting with multiple accounts, then you should seek legal and/or tax advice first. This article is for entertainment and educational purposes only.
With that out the way, let’s get started…
Contents
Is matched betting using multiple accounts legal?
From a legal standpoint, there is nothing to suggest it is illegal. As long as you have permission from the person who’s details you are using, there should be no problem.
The bookmaker’s terms and conditions will strictly prohibit using multiple accounts, but bookmaker’s terms and conditions are not the law.
As I said in the disclaimer above, I am no legal expert, so it’s up to you to decide, or seek legal advice if it worries you.
The bookmakers don’t want you to make multiple accounts because they don’t like people who win, and ban them. The bookmaker’s business model is to only allow consistent losers and problem gamblers to remain as customer on their platforms, as these are the people that make them money.
Matched bettors cost bookmakers money, and bookmakers are not in the business of losing money. The good news is, that it is really quite simple and straight forward to extract thousands of pounds of profit every month from the bookmakers by matched betting with multiple accounts.
Is using multiple accounts ethically wrong?
The bookmaker and casino industry are completely unscrupulous and predatory in the way that they operate, they take advantage of vulnerable people and are happy to extract every last penny from them to ensure they are turning a profit.
Also bear in mind that every single online bookmaker or casino will absolutely shut down, or severely limit your account, if you are making consistent profits.
This isn’t like it’s a fair balance of winners and losers, they only allow you to use their products if you are a proven long-term loser, and they will do everything in their power to keep you coming back to exploit you and get your hands on every last penny you have.
I don’t think there are many people (outside of the bookmaking industry) who think that matched betting is somehow unethical. In my opinion, the more people matched betting and taking some profit back from the bookmakers, the better.
Does matched betting with multiple accounts work?
Yes, if you follow the instructions and make sure to cover your tracks so the bookmakers don’t detect that you are operating multiple accounts.
There are a lot of articles about ‘Gnoming’ online that claim that the bookmakers can track everything you are doing, and can even track your MAC address on the device you are using.
This is mostly nonsense except in very specific cases, which I will cover in detail later in this article.
Just know that matched betting with multiple accounts absolutely works, and there are people making many thousands of pounds of profit every month by doing it, and you can too.
How much money can you make matched betting with multiple accounts?
Anyone who has been matched betting for more than a few years knows that the days of being able to make thousands of pounds per month with just one set of accounts are unfortunately gone.
However, for the last few years you have been, and are still able to, make over £1,000 profit per month from one set of bookie accounts. To achieve this, you would probably need to spend around 1 hour or more per day, again depending on how efficient you are, and if you are using a service that researches and shows you how to complete all the new offers every day.
Check out my full review of Profit Accumulator and how it helped me make over £37,000 in a single year from matched betting.
As a rule of thumb though, if you have your set up running efficiently, I am told that you should be able to extract £1,000 per month from each set of accounts pretty comfortably, and should expect to spend around 1 hour per day, per account to achieve this.
So, if you want to make around £3,000 per month for example, then a good rule of thumb would be to have 3 sets of accounts and expect to spend around 3 hours a day on average completing offers.
How to find people who will let you use their details to open bookmaker accounts?
Family members and close friends are going to be your best bet. From what I’ve been told the toughest part is explaining why you need the information as people are always going to be apprehensive about handing over this information.
The advice from the multi-accounting experts is to be completely transparent and honest, fully explain what you do, and why you need more bookmaker accounts to continue matched betting.
The obvious way to increase your success rate is to offer a cash incentive for allowing you to use their details. The multi-accounters I spoke to for this seemed to agree that they pay between £100 and £200 for a new set of accounts.
They said that in the past they had offered profit splits but it became a logistical pain so offering an upfront one-off payment was the easiest way to do it.
Paying £100 – £200 for a set of accounts means that you can pretty much recoup that investment within the space of just a few sign up offers, so it makes good financial sense.
Using different bank accounts with different addresses
Another thing to remember when using multiple accounts for matched betting is that you can only use one person’s details per home address.
So, if you were thinking of using both your parents for two sets of accounts for example, this would not work if they are both living at the same address. Same goes with a parent and a sibling living in the same address too.
What information do you need from each person to successfully setup and run multiple accounts?
All you need to get from your friend or family member to successfully setup and run a new set of bookmaker accounts are:
- A photo of either the photo page of their passport, or the photo side of their driving license. Be sure that the photo contains all corners and edges and does not cut them off.
- A photo or copy of a utility bill with the person’s name and address that is no more than 3 months old. A gas or electric bill will do. Again, make sure all edges and corners are in the photo and not cut off.
You are going to need both of these in order to pass KYC (Know Your Customer) checks when you sign up for a new bookmaker account.
The other information you will need in order to set up bookmaker accounts with are:
- Date of birth (from the passport or driving license).
- Home address and postcode (from utility bill).
- A new email address (gmail is best).
- A pay as you go mobile sim card. Can get these for free, but at worst they cost £1 each.
Use an old mobile phone to put the new sim card in and take note of the number. When signing up with some bookmakers you will need to use the mobile number to receive an SMS to verify the account.
Best bank accounts to use for matched betting multiple accounts
When it comes to what bank to use to open account for multi-accounting, there’s only one main thing you want to look out for.
The main thing you want to make sure of is that the debit card that comes with the account is a Visa debit card, and not a Mastercard.
The reason for this is that there are some bookmakers who will not accept Mastercard debit cards, so if you want to be able to take advantage of every single offer, then a Visa debit card is the way to go.
Any will do, but Visa debit cards are the best and accepted at all bookmakers. Mastercard debit cards are not accepted by some online bookmakers.
Setting up and operating multiple matched betting accounts
Top tip: You may not be able to be too picky with who you get to agree to allow you to use their details, but I have been told that the best people to use are people who are on the electoral roll and have lived at the same address for a few years.
The reason for this is that the bookmakers for the most part will be able to automatically verify their identity if they have been at the same address for a while, and are on the electoral roll, as that is the database most bookmaker KYC systems reference.
If your ‘Gnome’ does not fall in to either of these categories, just don’t be surprised to have bookmakers asking for you to email copies of the ID and bill just to confirm the identity when you sign up, or go to make your first withdrawal.
Do you need to use multiple exchange accounts to lay your matched bets?
No, you can place all your lay bets on the same exchange account which makes that part easy as everything is in one account.
This is also handy for tracking all your open lay bets in one place, and if you are for example laying a number of different horses all in the same race, you only need to have the liability to cover the single largest lay bet if you are doing it all in the same exchange account.
How do bookies know if you are using multiple betting accounts?
This is the main question that most people who want to matched bet with multiple accounts ask. Unfortunately, most of the information online is false and written by people who have no idea what they are talking about.
Let’s go through the main ways bookmakers can catch you out using multiple betting accounts, and ways that you may think they can, but actually can’t…
1. IP address
Your IP address, or ‘internet protocol’ address, is a unique address that your internet connection has. Depending on your internet provider, you will have either static or dynamic IP addresses. I will explain this in more detail later on in the article, as this is important for easily changing your IP address when switching accounts.
All you need to know is that bookmakers could have systems in place to track accounts using the same IP addresses.
So, if you use the same IP address to log in to 2 different bookmaker accounts, will this mean your accounts will get banned?
The consensus amongst the multi-accounters I spoke to is probably not, but they do make sure to change their IP addresses between accounts just to be on the safe side.
The reason for it probably not affecting you is that a lot of people use VPNs these days. The more popular VPNs only have a limited pool of IP addresses, so it’s inevitable that multiple customers on the VPN provider will use them on multiple betting accounts.
Also shared WiFi spots in coffee shops, libraries, student areas etc. These are paces where lots of people will be doing matched betting and all logging in to their accounts on the same IP address.
This makes it tricky for bookmakers to reliably use IP addresses as an indicator of using multiple accounts. However, be on the safe side and just try your best to change your IP address every time you switch from one set of accounts to another.
2. MAC Address/ID
The MAC address, or MAC ID, is short for ‘Media Access Control’. This address basically identifies a specific device in a network.
Every laptop and computer’s network adapter has a unique MAC address that differentiates that device from any other.
So, can bookmakers identify your device from your MAC address, therefore connect multiple accounts to you? The answer is yes, BUT, only if you make one school boy error…
There are articles online that will claim that bookmakers can magically obtain your device’s MAC address via your browser just because you have visited their website and logged in to your account; this is completely false and anyone saying this doesn’t know what they are talking about.
The only way that any bookmaker, or anyone else for that matter, can find out what your computer or laptop’s MAC address is, is by you installing their software, or software that they have access to, on your computer.
This is why you should never, under any circumstances, download any bookmaker software to your computer. Whether it’s casino, poker, or anything else, just don’t do it.
There is one more important piece of software that you must make sure if not on your computer if you are going to be matched betting with multiple accounts…
3. IESnare
IESnare is a piece of software that bookies use to spy on you. If you have ever downloaded any online bookmaker, casino or poker room software on your computer in the past, there is a chance that IESnare is already on our computer.
If you do have IESnare on your computer, you need to remove it before multi-accounting as this is a sure fire way for the bookmakers to catch you out.
There are plenty of articles out there explaining how to find and remove IESnare from your computer, so I suggest you read one to make sure that you get rid of it before you start matched betting with multiple accounts.
4. Cookies in browser
Every time you visit a website, your internet browser stores something called ‘cookies’. These are small pieces of information that store things like preferences, username/password info and other specific information that the site may want to know about you as the browser.
Cookies are for the most part harmless, but when it comes to online bookmakers, they could catch you out if you are using multiple accounts.
The good news is that there is an easy way around it. If you want to use the same browser every time, then you just have to go in to the options/settings of the browser, and completely clear all the cache and cookies each and every time you change over to a new set of accounts.
The easier, and faster way to do this, is to create multiple profiles in Google Chrome. This means that each time you log in to a new set of accounts, you just double click on the Chrome Profile icon on your desktop that you have named for that certain person, and use that browser profile to complete all the offers.
By doing this you can also save the login details for each bookie which speeds things up, and you don’t have to waste time clearing cache and cookies all the time either.
Anything else to worry about?
Outside of the above, online bookmakers really don’t have any other way to know if you are using multiple accounts.
Don’t believe scare stories you read online about how the online bookmakers are somehow advanced in detecting people who are using multiple accounts, every single one of the multi-accounting matched bettors I spoke to while researching this article said that the online bookmakers multi-accounting deterrents are non-existent and laughable.
Do I need separate devices to run multiple matched betting accounts?
No, if you are using multiple accounts, then a single laptop or computer will be fine. Again, anyone who tells you that you need separate devices because bookmakers can track your computer’s MAC address through your browser are talking rubbish.
Do bookies allow VPNs?
Yes, most bookmakers will allow you to use a VPN. Due to the popularity of VPNs in the mainstream, bookmakers know that a lot more people use VPNs for security purposes online these days.
However, if possible, I would always recommend that you don’t use a VPN when first signing up for a bookmaker account. There have been reports of bookmakers requesting the KYC information more often if signing up for accounts using a VPN. Obviously, this isn’t a problem, but it just adds an additional step that you’d rather not have to do.
If, however, you are on a static IP, or are matched betting from abroad, then you can still use your VPN when signing up for new accounts.
Changing your IP address when using different bookmaker accounts
A lot of people seem to get confused about the changing of the IP when using different accounts, so I’m going to clear it up for you.
You only have to change your IP address when you are moving from one bookmaker account that belongs to one person, to the same bookmaker account that belongs to another person.
So, if you are clever, you will log on to your matched betting offer researching website every morning and look through the offers list to decide which offers you are going to complete.
Then you will go through the full list of offers for 1 person’s accounts. Once you have completed the full list of offers, you will simply change your IP address, then either open another Google Chrome profile (explained later in article), or fully clear all cache and cookies in your current browser, and then repeat the set of offers again for the additional account.
No matter how many sets of multiple accounts you are running, you just rinse and repeat this same process every time, and there should be no way you can be caught out.
Do you need a VPN for matched betting?
No, you could just change the IP of your main internet router every time you want to complete offers on a different set of accounts. However, to do this you will need to make sure that your home internet has dynamic IP addresses, as opposed to static.
Find out more about the best VPN for matched betting.
This can be easily checked by checking your current IP address while logged on to your home WIFI, you can do this heading to google and typing in “what is my ip?”. This will show you your IP address, it will be a series of numbers separated by dots.
Once you have done this, write the IP address down, and head to the internet router in your home, and either press the reset button on the back of the router, or just turn the power on and off at the wall. Wait around 2 minutes for the router to reset and connect, then complete the previous process of searching for your IP address in Google.
Now, if your IP address is now different from before, it means you have a dynamic IP address, and every time you reset your router, it should give you a new IP address. I say should, because sometimes you will end up with the same IP address again, and have to reset the router again.
If the router did not return a new IP address, then you probably have a static IP address, this means that you will have the same IP address all the time. Again, try resetting the router a couple of times just to make sure this is the case, as on the odd occasion you will end up with the same IP address again even with a dynamic IP address.
As far as I’m aware, if you have Virgin fiber broadband then you are likely to have a static IP address. If you use internet providers that use the Open Reach network, like BT, Talk Talk etc. then you are likely going to have a dynamic IP address. You should still test this to be sure though.
If you are stuck with a static IP address from your home broadband, and you don’t want to use a VPN for whatever reason, then you can easily just buy a PAYG (Pay as you go) dongle from any of the major mobile phone network companies like EE, Vodafone, O2 etc.
It will cost you around £10 to get more than enough data on one of these dongles for a month worth of multi accounting, and you can very quickly and easily get a brand-new IP address every time you reset the dongle.
What is the best VPN for matched betting?
We recommend PureVPN.
Click here if you need a VPN for matched betting and want a massive discount.
That’s about all you need to know when it comes to matched betting with multiple accounts. In saying that, I’m sure there are many things that I have forgot to ask the expert multi-accounters, so if you do have any questions, please leave them in the comments below.
I will pass them on to the experts and get back to you with answers as soon I can.