I'm not seeing a huge amount of knowledge on this subreddit, so I'm going to list some of the reasons why I'm hoping for some decent price increases..
If you find anything juicy that I've missed feel free to leave a top level comment or even message me and I'll add it. Perhaps we should keep updating this post and sticky it as a goto DD for SCTSCRF?

1. Score have the most popular sports app in Canada and second most popular in the US behind ESPN, this puts them in a somewhat unique position to integrate sports betting in to a popular sports app (though note FUBO just announced purchasing Vigotry with their intention to integrate sports betting in to their sports streaming service, they closed up 34.32% today on the news and likely caused the dips in the share prices for SCR and DKNG, even PENN's share price seemed to waiver around midday);
   
2. Score already have sports betting live in Colorado, Indiana and New Jersey;
   
3. Score recently did a share offering and raised $25,649,390 which can be used for growth and expansion of sports betting in the US - check out their careers page and click on available opportunities;
   
4. Score have a multiyear partnership with the NBA and the MLB to be an authorized sports betting operator, including access to official betting data and league marks/logos for the betting app;
   
5. Score have a strategic multi-state market access partnership with PENN, PENN have access to 11 states, further PENN have a 4.7% stake in Score with the potential for this stake to increase as additional market access fees become payable (the second link, which is from PENN, says the term of the agreement with PENN is 20 years, even DKNG only has a deal for 10 years subject to a 10 year extension);
   
6. Score have a 10 year partnership with Twin River to operate an online casino in New Jersey, extendable by 5 years at TheScore's option and a further 5 years upon mutual agreement;
   
7. In Dec 2020 Score was named the most impressive emerging company in sports betting. They are also in Canada's fastest 500 growing companies, Canada's top growing companies 2019 and a 2020 TSX venture 50 company;
   
8. Let's look at some user numbers. As expected they were down a bit during 2020 due to covid, but that is about to change across the industry with sports opening up properly and sports betting being legalised in many US states and hopefully Canada to help raise tax funds for covid expenses (never will sports betting have been more socially acceptable, almost encouraged!). They achieved 3 million active monthly users (4.3 million in q1 2019, should see this or higher again once sports start up properly - 62% of those users were in the US, 27% in Canada and the remaining 11% in other international markets). Users had an average of 70 sessions per month (75 the year prior), so 3*70 = 210 million users per month. 292 million video views for esports in just Q4 alone, year-over-year growth of 243%! Their esports tiktok account has over 1 million followers while their sports tiktok account has almost 2.5 million (up over 500k in the last quarter). Over 1.5 million youtube subscribers for their esports channel. Their twitter account has ~600k followers, almost double what DKNG have! Their social sports content across Twitter, FB, Instagram and TikTok achieved an average monthly reach of about 103 million;
   
9. Score appointed sports business leader and four-time Olympian Angela Ruggiero to its board of directors - she's a hockey player, got a medal at each of the Olympics she went to including a gold;
   
10. Score already cover women's sports, doing this without having to follow the competitors or have it requested by women shows a genuine interest in supporting women's sports. Hopefully this will extend to allowing sports betting on women's sports;
    
11. Score esports has been named exclusive English language broadcast partner for League of Legends' Demacia Championship, a marquee annual event featuring 24 of China’s top esports teams. Live event coverage will run from December 20-27 and be streamed across theScore esports’ YouTube and Twitch channels. The Demacia Championship will be theScore esports’ first-ever live event broadcast, with production originating from their esports headquarters in Toronto.
    
12. In 2019 Score partnered with Ubisoft for unique video content series;
    
13. In 2014 Score was named one of the world's greatest apps (and in 2013 was named one of the 100 best Android apps of 2013);
    
14. Score has joined the National Council on Problem Gambling as a Platinum member - this bodes well for support of Score from politicians and people normally critical of sports betting who are mostly onside at the moment through the need of raising tax money for covid related costs.
    

Future catalysts I'm hoping for:

1. There's a live webcast to report q1 f2021 financial results Jan 13 at 5:30pm EST (details here). Hopefully good news so we 🚀 rather than ☄️ short-term, but I'm still bullish long-term regardless because sports have not really started up properly yet, nor has sports betting opened up in many places yet. With a bit of luck the income from the share offering will be included in the revenue for this quarter which might help;
   
2. If we ever get uplisted to NASDAQ/NYSE and get out of the penny stocks then I would be surprised if it doesn't get pumped in numerous places including WSB;
   
3. Legalisation of sports betting across more US states and Canada. The governor of NY has now expressed interest after previously being opposed to the idea, so too has Texas for example. Score do not yet have a partnership with a NY casino, but hopefully they will get on to that, they do have access to Texas through PENN;
   
4. Partnerships with NFL and NHL would be awesome to go along with the NBA and MLB partnerships;
   
5. Successfully competing with the big players like DKNG (and now FUBO too), hopefully with juicy earnings reports in to the future (if we do, look at the performance and current prices of DKNG and PENN, I'd be extremely happy if we ever made it to CAD$20/share, if we got to DKNG's current USD price we'll be in tendie heaven);
   
6. Huge uptake in sports betting with a rally of public support to help cover the public costs associated with Covid;
   
7. Maybe esports betting could become a huge thing? TheScore seem like they're in a good position to earn a decent market share there, possibly even be the ones to introduce it and bring it to market?
   

tl;dr: 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀 (hopefully at least 10x)
If you would prefer an ETF to have exposure to the betting market check out BETZ.
position: 42.8k shares

Hey Reading fans. I am an Australian that has been following Reading FC for a long time as my family are from there. It is very easy to follow the Premier League here but very hard for me to find Championship games. For aud$15 (£9 approx) a month I can stream all Prem League and Champions League games and replay on demand. And some mobile phone plans get it for free, so I don't even pay for it which is amazing for my football viewing.
I have been able to watch a few live Reading games from streams online (that I can't mention here) but most of the times they don't work and I have to follow bet365 live updates.
I am looking at the ifollow subscription for aud$34 (£20) a month and just wanted to see if people think it is worth it. I know for UK the price is probably normal but it is very expensive juat to watch 1 team in Australia.
Can you Chromecast to your TV? Is the service reliable?
I will probably just try 1 month to see but wanted some feedback from other fans. Is seems to be a season I don't want to miss, and hoping to connect with some other fans online as I don't have any others in Melbourne Australia.
URZ!

K-pop, K-drama, K-lit (or "K-literature" if you want to be decent), K-beauty... things that start with K are pretty popular these days[.]() But can any of them really compare with K League?
Contents:

• Why watch
• 2020 season recap
• The off-season
  • AFC Champions League
  • Club World Cup
  • Transfers
• Matchday 1
• How to follow

Why watch

Here comes the marketing spiel. If you follow K League, you'll get throw-ins like THIS, headers like THIS, and epic knee-slides like THIS. Are you not entertained?
The best practical reason for following it is that you can get live football at a time of day when there's not much other football on - afternoons in East Asia, mornings in UK and Europe, and evenings or nights in the Americas. It's also a summer league, so you'll never have to go without club football from ~June-August again.
The highly scientific and not-at-all-questionable IFFHS rankings also has K League as the best league in Asia by quite some bit, and the 20th best league in the world. If the 20th best league sounds like something you might be interested in, carry on reading. If not, also carry on reading.

2020 season recap

I started writing a separate 2020 season recap, but I didn't get past a gif of Jesse Pinkman shouting "He can't keep getting away with it!", where in this case "he" is Jeonbuk and "it" is winning the league. However, I've now some time to compose myself, so here goes my mini summary.
First some "best of" videos

• [Best backheel]()
• [Best volley]()
• Best hug https://www.instagram.com/p/CASZ4EmBbbV/?igshid=16dfhmn1ubvdv
• Best assault https://www.instagram.com/p/CASYdCGBX0y/?igshid=11omtuzrsli8a

The reason I wanted to scream like Jesse is that Jeonbuk just weren't that good - they regularly dropped points to teams in the lower half of the table, scraped wins, and played most of the season without a competent striker. This feeling that Jeonbuk were a bit pants was verified when Jeonbuk were knocked out of the Champions League at the group stage for the first time in ages. So why couldn't anyone take advantage of that?
The answer lies in Ulsan. Ulsan lost out on the 2019 league title on the tiebreaker of a single goal scored, and there was real determination to get it done in 2020. In 2020 Ulsan were great. They spent the majority of the season at the top of the table, were crowned champions of Asia in an unbeaten run, and only lost to two teams all year. Unfortunately, one of those teams was Jeonbuk, and they lost to them three times in the league. If Ulsan could have just drawn ONCE, they would have won their first league title since 2005. But they didn't. They came runner-up, trailing Jeonbuk by 3 points. To rub salt into the wound, they also lost to Jeonbuk in the FA Cup final the week after the league finished.
As for everyone else, in order of finishing:

• Pohang were good but not good enough. They did score the most goals out of everyone though.
• Sangju Sangmu got their highest finish ever, and could have got Champions League football for 2021 if it weren't for them technically disbanding at the end of 2020 and reforming anew as Gimcheon Sangmu.
• Daegu sneaked into a Champions League spot, in what will be their second appearance following their 2019 debut.
• Gwangju exceeded all expectations
• Gangwon didn't meet expectations, but they did the double over Jeonbuk which makes them absolute heroes in my book.
• Suwon Bluewings were terrible until they sacked their moron of a manager, and when the replacement was finally hired they looked quite good.
• FC Seoul went through one manager and two or three caretakers and looked rubbish under all of them.
• Seongnam almost threw it away in the final run of games but held on and deservedly stayed up for another year.
• Incheon were considered relegated by most halfway through the season - because they hadn't even won a single game by then - so the fact that they weren't come the end of the season is a miracle.
• Busan were kind of meh all season, and when relegation looked possible their manager simply gave up and resigned instead of sticking around to fight it out. They got relegated.

From K League 2 Jeju bounce back after just one year, possibly thanks to promotion specialist Nam Ki-il, and Suwon FC won promotion with literally the last kick of the season to ensure we'll see a Suwon Derby again in 2021.
Also since it was the "big thing" in 2020, I'll give a small mention to coronavirus. Due to an abundance of caution, crowds were absent for most of the season, but not a single positive case among K League 1 clubs occured, which is just incredible.

The off-season

AFC Champions League

After the domestic season was finished, there was the small matter of almost an entire Champions League campaign to play in Qatar. There were 4 teams representing K League.
FC Seoul arrived at the competition with yet another caretaker manager, this time it was a scout from their backroom staff because they couldn't find anyone else with the correct coaching license that the AFC requires. They continued their domestic form and went home early, finishing 3rd in their group.
Jeonbuk also finished 3rd in their group. In their defence they did have a lot of their usual starting XI missing, but the Jeonbuk of yesteryear would have still managed. They just weren't very good in 2020.
Suwon Bluewings were perhaps the darkest horse at the tournament, and despite turning up with an all-Korean squad and without their captain, showed a will to scrap for every single ball and a self-confidence that was quite terrifying. They played in what was my personal favourite game of the tournament, a win over the then-reigning J.League champions Yokohama FM which included a lob from the halfway line. Unfortunately they had to play the majority of their next game with 10 men. They still pushed it to penalties, but didn't get lucky. If you count a loss on penalties as a draw, they still left Qatar unbeaten.
Ulsan... well they won it. Well done them. Their manager headed into the competition knowing he wouldn't have a job afterwards regardless of outcome, but they still bossed it. They lifted the trophy undefeated for only the second time in the competition's history. The first team that did it was themselves, in 2012.

Club World Cup

During Ulsan's rebuild, they had to jet off to Qatar again to fight for the title of champions of the universe. Literally half of the players who played in the Champions League final in December did not make the return trip to Qatar, either due to injury or having left the club, and the manager and 5 players were making their debut for the club. Expectations were not high, and they met those expectations by losing to Tigres and Al-Duhail. However, the trip wasn't totally pointless, as they managed to score this ^offside [goal that some said was Puskas-worthy]().

Transfers

The transfer window followed the familiar pattern of the previous season's best talent leaving for richer (but not necessarily better) leagues abroad, and an influx of Eastern Europeans with exotic names.
One notable pair of transfers is Seongnam's signing of forwards Park Yong-ji and Sergiu Bus. Will they be any good? Who knows. But the prospect of Park and Bus playing up front is the reddit comedian's wet dream.
Considering they came within touching distance of the league 2 seasons in a row and were just crowned champions of Asia, Ulsan are undergoing a massive rebuild. The new coach has minimal club coaching experience, and hasn't managed for over three years, but is apparently getting rid of anyone over the age of 30. Among the departures, captain Shin Jin-ho went to their East Coast Derby rivals Pohang, but the biggest shock is their striker Junior, who just had the most prolific season in K League history, being let go on a free to China.
I won't go over the other couple of hundred transfers that happened, but here's a list of all the foreigners in K League this season so that you can see if you recognise any journeymen:

Club				AFC slot
Daegu	🇧🇷Cesinha	🇧🇷Edgar		🇯🇵Tsubasa
Gangwon	🇷🇸Siladi	🇯🇵Ishida		🇺🇿Ashurmatov
Gwangju	🇧🇷Felipe
Incheon	🇧🇷Negueba	🇲🇪Mugosa	🇨🇷Aguilar	🇦🇺Delbridge
Jeju				🇺🇿Kenzhaboev
Jeonbuk	🇧🇷Gustavo	🇬🇲Barrow	🇷🇺/🇩🇪Iljutcenko	🇯🇵Kunimoto
Pohang	🇨🇴Palacios			🇦🇺Grant
Seongnam	🇦🇹Windbichler	🇷🇸Mulic	🇷🇴Bus	🇺🇿Iskanderov
FC Seoul	🇷🇸Palocevic	🇪🇦Osmar		🇺🇿Alibaev
Suwon FC	🇧🇷Murilo	🇿🇦Veldwijk
Suwon Bluewings	🇮🇹Dumitru	🇷🇸Deric	🇨🇦Henry	🇦🇺Antonis
Ulsan	🇦🇹Hinterseer	🇳🇱Bulthuis		🇦🇺Davidson

Matchday 1

The season kicks off on Saturday, with reigning champions Jeonbuk hosting FC Seoul. The fixture is known as "the legendary match" (it's purely a Korean word play, it's not really that legendary), and FC Seoul haven't won this tie since 2017. FC Seoul have however had probably the most promising transfer window of anyone this winter, so putting an end to this record wouldn't be that shocking.
The times are admittedly not that convenient for UK viewers, but after the clocks change and the kick-off times shift to later in the day to avoid the daytime heat, you can still have a long lie-in and catch the whole match.
The K League 1 matchday 1 kick-off times are as follows:
Saturday 27th Feb

• 14:00 local time (05:00 GMT)
  • Jeonbuk vs FC Seoul
• 16:30 local time (07:30 GMT)
  • Daegu vs Suwon FC

Sunday 28th Feb

• 14:00 local time (05:00 GMT)
  • Pohang vs Incheon
• 16:30 local time (07:30 GMT)
  • Suwon Bluewings vs Gwangju

Monday 1st Mar

• 14:00 local time (05:00 GMT)
  • Ulsan vs Gangwon
• 16:30 local time (07:30 GMT)
  • Seongnam vs Jeju

How to follow

There is only one place ^{on reddit} to follow all the K League happenings - KLeague. Over the past year, we've grown by about 350 subscribers over 45% (wow!) and now have image flairs that work across old, new, and mobile reddit. It's your go-to place to ask "stupid" questions and seek terrible advice on who to "root for". If you check the subreddit wiki you'll find plenty of info on how to get into it and how to watch the action live or highlights.
There is no Supercup/Community Shield in Korea, but the first match of the season is arranged to be the previous season's League champions vs the FA Cup winners. This means it's Jeonbuk vs Suwon on Friday. The smart money will be on a Jeonbuk win, but the dollarydoos will be on Suwon. Given that nobody's played a league match since 1st December last year though, everything's a bit unpredictable.

The off-season

The main transfers that I can remember include

• Korean NT goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu returning to Japan after playing for Ulsan for just 6 months and taking a throw-in
• Korea's other main goalkeeper Cho Hyeon-woo transferring to Ulsan from Daegu
• Lee Chung-yong returning to the K League after a long spell in Europe, joining Ulsan
• MLS champion with Seattle Sounders Kim Kee-hee joining Ulsan. Ulsan really going for it here
• The transfer with the highest publicly-disclosed transfer fee was last season's highest-paid player Ricardo Lopes going to Shanghai SIPG in China for about £5 million
• Jeonbuk got their main transfer business done early, signing last year's MVP at Ulsan, Kim Bo-kyung

Ki Sung-yueng almost returned to the K League but talks broke down due to some weird contract clause that FC Seoul still had over him, leading Ki to write this very mature message on his instagram and head off to Spain:

Hurt me with a lie and I can hurt you with the truth...stop playing with me u ain't gonna like when I play back

There were of course many many more transfers in the winter window, but none that would interest most people reading this.
What everyone should be interested in is the K League mascot "class president election", a popular vote for the K League's favourite mascot. It was a two horse race between Daegu's adorable Rica the hedgehog, and the prince of darkness, Suwon Bluewing's Aguileon. Actually I'm not sure which one the prince of darkness is. To my dismay, Aguileon managed to take 1st place, leading Rica by over 1,000 votes. Although he only came 7th, I also want to give special mention to Jeju United's orange.
There were big changes in the lower leagues, as three divisions were merged into two, sorting out the confusing naming schemes, and removing barriers to promotion and relegation throughout the pyramid. The two new divisions are semi-pro, called K3 League and K4 League, sitting below the professional K League 2, and above the amateur K5 league. The long-standing target of having pro/rel with K League 2 "within 5 years" now actually looks possible.

How do I watch it?

Watching live
Watching K League outside of Korea used to be tricky and in Western markets the rights were typically hoovered up by sites like Bet365.
Interest abroad for K League rights are heightened now, so this year there are at least some countries that have been confirmed to broadcast K League, mainly in Asia and Eastern Europe. There are rumours of France, Germany, Italy, Australia, and USA (ESPN?) being interested in the rights, but nothing confirmed yet.
If you don't live in a country that has broadcasting rights, there is still a way to watch online from a proper source. If you can get yourself a Korean IP address, i.e. using a VPN, it's very easy to watch many of the matches in a (mostly?) legal way. If you're using a browser simply head to the Korean web portal Naver (https://sports.naver.com/kfootball/index.nhn), and when there's a match on, it will appear at the top of the webpage, usually with some indication that live video is available. Click on it and start watching. (Note that I haven't checked if it's this straightforward on desktop; I don't own a computer. There's a chance you might be asked to install a browser add-on or something - you can ask in the comments here or on kleague if you need help). An alternative if you're on mobile is to install the "Naver TV" app and find a match in the Live tab. You can also watch back full matches that were shown on Naver if you miss it live.
I won't share less-legal ways to watch here, but if you head over to kleague and look at recent posts you might find something won't find anything so don't even think about it buddy.
One thing to consider about live matches is the time difference - in the winter months, matches kick off around 5am or 7am GMT. In the summer months, kick off is ~10am or 11am GMT. However, for the first couple of weekends the kick-off times are spread throughout the day, so you should be able to catch a game wherever you are.
Watching highlights
If an inconvenient time difference is putting you off, you can still enjoy K League even if you don't watch live. Every single match gets a high quality ~10 minute highlight video produced that is region-free on YouTube. Just imagine you're watching MOTD but without the bad punditry. The official K League channel, should be hosting these videos again this year, but I should include the disclaimer that there's a possibility that the rights to show highlights might have been sold this year, in which case you'd have to find out who has those rights in your country. Highlights are usually uploaded 30 mins – 2 hours after the end of a match, although I did read that AI in their new media centre will be producing highlights within a few minutes of the match ending...

Choosing a team

If any of you want to pick a team to support, if you give some criteria in the comments I can help by suggesting a team, but I'll leave some info here based on what I think could be some common ways to pick a team.
If looking good is your primary concern, here's an imgur album of all home and away K League kits. This album has the kits from both K League 1 & K League 2, so of you're only interested in the top flight you'll have to ignore a few. If looking good is really important to you, there's one particular corner of the internet that has already given their seal of approval to Daegu FC.
This short hype video also serves to show all club crests if you want to base a decision on that.

Delayed by coronavirus by 10 weeks, Asia's oldest professional league is finally here
Contents:

• Why should you care?
• The impact of coronavirus
• How do I get into it?
• Matchday 1
• The off-season
• Watching live
• Watching highlights
• Choosing a team

Why should you care?

The most obvious reason is that it's being played at all and will probably be the highest-quality football on offer in the world right now.
Longer-term, when the football calendar returns to normal, following the K League means you'll never have to go without club football from ~June-August again, as the K League plays from ~February–November. When everyone in the DD is lamenting how empty their lives are now that the EPL has finished, you can just enjoy watching the K League in full swing every weekend.
I could wax lyrical about how amazing the K League is, but really those will be the best reasons for most people. Aside from that, it does generally provide very good entertainment. Last season we saw:

• the title race come down to the last game of the season, and was decided on a tiebreaker by a single goal scored
• related to the above, Ulsan failing to secure the title by losing to their biggest rivals Pohang Steelers when they only needed a draw
• the previous season's runners-up being relegated
• K League stalwarts Jeju United being relegated for the first time ever
• Gangwon staging a 5-goal comeback in the final 25 mins of a game against Pohang in which they were 4-0 down

The impact of coronavirus

The K League season was postponed in late February, 5 days before it was meant to kick off. Training was allowed to continue, although friendlies against other teams were banned. South Korea's response to the virus has widely been considered "very good", and so talks took place in April about resuming the season soon after friendlies were allowed again.
Clubs initially ruled out opening behind closed doors due to their reliance on gate receipts for their finances, but I guess they changed their minds on that, as there will be no crowd at the beginning with no date set for opening the doors. However, given that South Korea held a general election with their highest ever voter turnout a few weeks ago, with no apparent subsequent impact on coronavirus numbers, I'm hopeful there will be a crowd in the near future. New cases in South Korea have been about 10 per day for the past few weeks, and a majority of those have been arrivals from abroad. Social distancing is set to be relaxed from Wednesday, moving into a new phase of "everyday life quarantine", with public facilities and schools ready to reopen.
The K League 1 season is normally 38 games, but will be reduced to 27 games for this year - each of the 12 teams will play each other twice, and then after round 22 the table will "split" for the final 5 games. A league champion will only be crowned if at least 22 games are played.
If any player or coach tests positive, their team will not play for at least 2 weeks. No staff or players connected with K League clubs were reported as testing positive during the outbreak, and last week all players, coaches, and support staff in K League 1 & K League 2 were tested prior to the start of the season, all testing negative.
One interesting side-effect of the delay is that the K League will be the first to implement the new 2020-2021 IFAB rules, which bring a bit more common sense into penalising a goalkeeper for coming off their line for a penalty, and only penalise an accidental handball from the attacker if it happens immediately before a goal.

How do I get into it?

You could just start watching, but you might want to know a bit more about what you're watching. There are only a handful of English-language websites that cover the K League. Probably the most comprehensive overview can be found on this webpage, which basically serves as an index for a lot more content, but you can pick and choose what you want to read. If you want something a bit more digestable, I've been making OC on reddit over the past year, and if you read some of it, you'd be as well-informed as most who watch it:
Guide to 2019 K League - perhaps a bit wordy, but could be worth a skim - not much changes in the space of a year anyway.
Korean derbies - soccer really loves a derby. Here I tried to cover the main ones within the top flight with a bit of history, some stories, and significant matches.
Season in review: 2019 K League - my recap of the season past. It was actually pretty exciting, with the title race going to the final day and decided on a single goal scored.
I've also made this map so that you can get an idea of where each club is geographically. Stadium pictures are included.

Matchday 1

There is no Supercup/Community Shield in Korea, but the first match of the season is arranged to be the previous season's League champions vs the FA Cup winners. This means it's Jeonbuk vs Suwon on Friday. The smart money will be on a Jeonbuk win, but the dollarydoos will be on Suwon. Given that nobody's played a league match since 1st December last year though, everything's a bit unpredictable.
The K League 1 matchday 1 kick-off times are as follows:
Friday 8th May 19:00 local time (10:00 GMT) Jeonbuk vs Suwon
Saturday 9th May 14:00 local time (05:00 GMT) Ulsan vs Sangju Sangmu
16:30 local time (07:30 GMT) Incheon vs Daegu
19:00 local time (10:00 GMT) Gwangju vs Seongnam
Sunday 10th May 14:00 local time (05:00 GMT) Pohang vs Busan
16:30 local time (07:30 GMT) Gangwon vs FC Seoul

The off-season

The main transfers that I can remember include

• Korean NT goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu returning to Japan after playing for Ulsan for just 6 months and taking a throw-in
• Korea's other main goalkeeper Cho Hyeon-woo transferring to Ulsan from Daegu
• Lee Chung-yong returning to the K League after a long spell in Europe, joining Ulsan
• MLS champion with Seattle Sounders Kim Kee-hee joining Ulsan. Ulsan really going for it here
• The transfer with the highest publicly-disclosed transfer fee was last season's highest-paid player Ricardo Lopes going to Shanghai SIPG in China for about £5 million
• Jeonbuk got their main transfer business done early, signing last year's MVP at Ulsan, Kim Bo-kyung

Ki Sung-yueng almost returned to the K League but talks broke down due to some weird contract clause that FC Seoul still had over him, leading Ki to write this very mature message on his instagram and head off to Spain:

Hurt me with a lie and I can hurt you with the truth...stop playing with me u ain't gonna like when I play back

There were of course many many more transfers in the winter window, but none that would interest most people reading this.
What everyone should be interested in is the K League mascot "class president election", a popular vote for the K League's favourite mascot. It was a two horse race between Daegu's adorable Rica the hedgehog, and the prince of darkness, Suwon Bluewing's Aguileon. Actually I'm not sure which one the prince of darkness is. To my dismay, Aguileon managed to take 1st place, leading Rica by over 1,000 votes. Although he only came 7th, I also want to give special mention to Jeju United's orange.
There were big changes in the lower leagues, as three divisions were merged into two, sorting out the confusing naming schemes, and removing barriers to promotion and relegation throughout the pyramid. The two new divisions are semi-pro, called K3 League and K4 League, sitting below the professional K League 2, and above the amateur K5 league. The long-standing target of having pro/rel with K League 2 "within 5 years" now actually looks possible.

How do I watch it?

Watching live
Watching K League outside of Korea used to be tricky and in Western markets the rights were typically hoovered up by sites like Bet365.
Interest abroad for K League rights are heightened now, so this year there are at least some countries that have been confirmed to broadcast K League, mainly in Asia and Eastern Europe. There are rumours of France, Germany, Italy, Australia, and USA (ESPN?) being interested in the rights, but nothing confirmed yet.
If you don't live in a country that has broadcasting rights, there is still a way to watch online from a proper source. If you can get yourself a Korean IP address, i.e. using a VPN, it's very easy to watch many of the matches in a (mostly?) legal way. If you're using a browser simply head to the Korean web portal Naver (https://sports.naver.com/kfootball/index.nhn), and when there's a match on, it will appear at the top of the webpage, usually with some indication that live video is available. Click on it and start watching. (Note that I haven't checked if it's this straightforward on desktop; I don't own a computer. There's a chance you might be asked to install a browser add-on or something - you can ask in the comments here or on kleague if you need help). An alternative if you're on mobile is to install the "Naver TV" app and find a match in the Live tab. You can also watch back full matches that were shown on Naver if you miss it live.
I won't share less-legal ways to watch here, but if you head over to kleague and look at recent posts you might find something won't find anything so don't even think about it buddy.
One thing to consider about live matches is the time difference - in the winter months, matches kick off around 5am or 7am GMT. In the summer months, kick off is ~10am or 11am GMT. However, for the first couple of weekends the kick-off times are spread throughout the day, so you should be able to catch a game wherever you are.
Watching highlights
If an inconvenient time difference is putting you off, you can still enjoy K League even if you don't watch live. Every single match gets a high quality ~10 minute highlight video produced that is region-free on YouTube. Just imagine you're watching MOTD but without the bad punditry. The official K League channel, should be hosting these videos again this year, but I should include the disclaimer that there's a possibility that the rights to show highlights might have been sold this year, in which case you'd have to find out who has those rights in your country. Highlights are usually uploaded 30 mins – 2 hours after the end of a match, although I did read that AI in their new media centre will be producing highlights within a few minutes of the match ending...

Choosing a team

If any of you want to pick a team to support, if you give some criteria in the comments I can help by suggesting a team, but I'll leave some info here based on what I think could be some common ways to pick a team.
If looking good is your primary concern, here's an imgur album of all home and away K League kits. This album has the kits from both K League 1 & K League 2, so of you're only interested in the top flight you'll have to ignore a few. If looking good is really important to you, there's one particular corner of the internet that has already given their seal of approval to Daegu FC.
If you want to support your countrymen, here's a list of all foreigners playing in K League 1. There's no 🇺🇸Americans this year (Mix Diskerud was on loan at Ulsan last year, but he's returned to Man City), but Johnsen who plays for Ulsan was born and grew up in the US. 🇵🇹Portuguese Jose Morais is manager of Jeonbuk, formerly assistant manager to Mourinho.

Club				AFC slot
Busan	🇧🇷Vintecinco	🇧🇷Rômulo	🇧🇷Reis	🇺🇿Tursunov
Daegu	🇧🇷Césinha	🇧🇷Edgar	🇲🇪Dejan	🇯🇵Tsubasa
Gangwon				🇯🇵Nakazato
Gwangju	🇧🇷Felipe	🇧🇷Willyan	🇨🇷Ureña	🇺🇿Ashurmatov
Incheon	🇧🇦Bunoza	🇲🇪Mugosa	🇳🇬Kehinde	🇦🇺Mahazi
Jeonbuk	🇧🇷Murilo	🇿🇦Veldwijk		🇯🇵Kunimoto
Pohang	🇨🇴Palacios	🇷🇺Iljutcenko	🇷🇸Palocevic	🇦🇺O'Neill
Seongnam	🇭🇷Jovanovic	🇭🇷Kis		🇺🇿Iskanderov
FC Seoul	🇧🇷Adriano	🇪🇦Osmar	🇷🇸Pesic	🇺🇿Alibaev
Suwon	🇦🇺Antonis	🇧🇦Krpic	🇨🇦Henry	🇦🇺Taggart
Ulsan	🇧🇷Junior	🇳🇱Bulthuis	🇳🇴Johnsen	🇦🇺Davidson

There's a lack of 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿English representation this year, but if you're looking for some familarity, there's a handful of South Koreans who have played in the English pyramid:

• Arsenal LEGEND Park Chu-young (now with FC Seoul)
• Middlesbrough LEGEND Lee Dong-gook (now with Jeonbuk) who is now 41
• Bolton Wanderers and Crystal Palace legend Lee Chung-yong (now with Ulsan)
• Cardiff and Wigan Athletic legend Kim Bo-kyung (now with Jeonbuk)
• QPR legend Yoon Suk-young (now with Busan)

Other Koreans who had a stint in the 'top 5 leagues' include Park Joo-ho (Ulsan), Hong Jeong-ho, Kim Jin-su (both with Jeonbuk now), Yun Jun-tae (now with FC Seoul), and Kim Kyung-joong (now with Gangwon).
This short hype video also serves to show all club crests if you want to base a decision on that.

I am currently using bovada and it is garbage. Any help is appreciated.

Delayed by coronavirus by 10 weeks, Asia's oldest professional league is finally here
Contents:

• The impact of coronavirus
• How do I get into it?
• Matchday 1
• The off-season
• Watching live
• Watching highlights
• Choosing a team

The impact of coronavirus

The K League season was postponed in late February, 5 days before it was meant to kick off. Training was allowed to continue, although friendlies against other teams were banned. South Korea's response to the virus has widely been considered "very good", and so talks took place in April about resuming the season soon after friendlies were allowed again.
Clubs initially ruled out opening behind closed doors due to their reliance on gate receipts for their finances, but I guess they changed their minds on that, as there will be no crowd at the beginning with no date set for opening the doors. However, given that South Korea held a general election with their highest ever voter turnout a few weeks ago, with no apparent subsequent impact on coronavirus numbers, I'm hopeful there will be a crowd in the near future. New cases in South Korea have been about 10 per day for the past few weeks, and a majority of those have been arrivals from abroad. Social distancing is set to be relaxed from Wednesday, moving into a new phase of "everyday life quarantine", with public facilities and schools ready to reopen.
The K League 1 season is normally 38 games, but will be reduced to 27 games for this year - each of the 12 teams will play each other twice, and then after round 22 the table will "split" for the final 5 games. A league champion will only be crowned if at least 22 games are played.
If any player or coach tests positive, their team will not play for at least 2 weeks. No staff or players connected with K League clubs were reported as testing positive during the outbreak, and last week all players, coaches, and support staff in K League 1 & K League 2 were tested prior to the start of the season, all testing negative.
One interesting side-effect of the delay is that the K League will be the first to implement the new 2020-2021 IFAB rules, which bring a bit more common sense into penalising a goalkeeper for coming off their line for a penalty, and only penalise an accidental handball from the attacker if it happens immediately before a goal.

How do I get into it?

You could just start watching, but you might want to know a bit more about what you're watching. There are only a handful of English-language websites that cover the K League. Probably the most comprehensive overview can be found on this webpage, which basically serves as an index for a lot more content, but you can pick and choose what you want to read. If you want something a bit more digestable, I've been making OC on reddit over the past year, and if you read some of it, you'd be as well-informed as most who watch it:
Guide to 2019 K League - perhaps a bit wordy, but could be worth a skim - not much changes in the space of a year anyway.
Korean derbies - reddit really loves a derby. Here I tried to cover the main ones within the top flight with a bit of history, some stories, and significant matches.
Season in review: 2019 K League - my recap of the season past. It was actually pretty exciting, with the title race going to the final day and decided on a single goal scored.
I've also made this map so that you can get an idea of where each club is geographically. Stadium pictures are included.

Matchday 1

There is no Supercup/Community Shield in Korea, but the first match of the season is arranged to be the previous season's League champions vs the FA Cup winners. This means it's Jeonbuk vs Suwon on Friday. The smart money will be on a Jeonbuk win, but the dollarydoos will be on Suwon. Given that nobody's played a league match since 1st December last year though, everything's a bit unpredictable.
The K League 1 matchday 1 kick-off times are as follows:
Friday 8th May 19:00 local time (10:00 GMT) Jeonbuk vs Suwon
Saturday 9th May 14:00 local time (05:00 GMT) Ulsan vs Sangju Sangmu
16:30 local time (07:30 GMT) Incheon vs Daegu
19:00 local time (10:00 GMT) Gwangju vs Seongnam
Sunday 10th May 14:00 local time (05:00 GMT) Pohang vs Busan
16:30 local time (07:30 GMT) Gangwon vs FC Seoul

The off-season

The main transfers that I can remember include

• Korean NT goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu returning to Japan after playing for Ulsan for just 6 months and taking a throw-in
• Korea's other main goalkeeper Cho Hyeon-woo transferring to Ulsan from Daegu
• Lee Chung-yong returning to the K League after a long spell in Europe, joining Ulsan
• MLS champion with Seattle Sounders Kim Kee-hee joining Ulsan. Ulsan really going for it here
• The transfer with the highest publicly-disclosed transfer fee was last season's highest-paid player Ricardo Lopes going to Shanghai SIPG in China for about £5 million
• Jeonbuk got their main transfer business done early, signing last year's MVP at Ulsan, Kim Bo-kyung

Ki Sung-yueng almost returned to the K League but talks broke down due to some weird contract clause that FC Seoul still had over him, leading Ki to write this very mature message on his instagram and head off to Spain:

Hurt me with a lie and I can hurt you with the truth...stop playing with me u ain't gonna like when I play back

There were of course many many more transfers in the winter window, but many were not that interesting.
What everyone should be interested in is the K League mascot "class president election", a popular vote for the K League's favourite mascot. It was a two horse race between Daegu's adorable Rica the hedgehog, and the prince of darkness, Suwon Bluewing's Aguileon. Actually I'm not sure which one the prince of darkness is. To my dismay, Aguileon managed to take 1st place, leading Rica by over 1,000 votes. Although he only came 7th, I also want to give special mention to Jeju United's orange.
There were big changes in the lower leagues, as three divisions were merged into two, sorting out the confusing naming schemes, and removing barriers to promotion and relegation throughout the pyramid. The two new divisions are semi-pro, called K3 League and K4 League, sitting below the professional K League 2, and above the amateur K5 league. The long-standing target of having pro/rel with K League 2 "within 5 years" now actually looks possible.

How do I watch it?

Watching live
Watching K League outside of Korea used to be tricky and in Western markets the rights were typically hoovered up by sites like Bet365.
Interest abroad for K League rights are heightened now, so this year there are at least some countries that have been confirmed to broadcast K League, mainly in Asia and Eastern Europe. There are rumours of France, Germany, Italy, Australia, and USA (ESPN?) being interested in the rights, but nothing confirmed yet.
If you don't live in a country that has broadcasting rights, there is still a way to watch online from a proper source. If you can get yourself a Korean IP address, i.e. using a VPN, it's very easy to watch many of the matches in a (mostly?) legal way. If you're using a browser simply head to the Korean web portal Naver (https://sports.naver.com/kfootball/index.nhn), and when there's a match on, it will appear at the top of the webpage, usually with some indication that live video is available. Click on it and start watching. (Note that I haven't checked if it's this straightforward on desktop; I don't own a computer. There's a chance you might be asked to install a browser add-on or something - you can ask in the comments here or on the sub if you need help). An alternative if you're on mobile is to install the "Naver TV" app and find a match in the Live tab. You can also watch back full matches that were shown on Naver if you miss it live.
In less-legal ways to watch, if you look at old posts on the sub you might find something.
One thing to consider about live matches is the time difference - in the winter months, matches kick off around 5am or 7am GMT. In the summer months, kick off is ~10am or 11am GMT. However, for the first couple of weekends the kick-off times are spread throughout the day, so you should be able to catch a game wherever you are.
Watching highlights
If an inconvenient time difference is putting you off, you can still enjoy K League even if you don't watch live. Every single match gets a high quality ~10 minute highlight video produced that is region-free on YouTube. Just imagine you're watching MOTD but without the bad punditry. The official K League channel, should be hosting these videos again this year, but I should include the disclaimer that there's a possibility that the rights to show highlights might have been sold this year, in which case you'd have to find out who has those rights in your country. Highlights are usually uploaded 30 mins – 2 hours after the end of a match, although I did read that AI in their new media centre will be producing highlights within a few minutes of the match ending...

Choosing a team

If any of you want to pick a team to support, if you give some criteria in the comments I can help by suggesting a team, but I'll leave some info here based on what I think could be some common ways to pick a team.
If looking good is your primary concern, here's an imgur album of all home and away K League kits. This album has the kits from both K League 1 & K League 2, so of you're only interested in the top flight you'll have to ignore a few. If looking good is really important to you, there's one particular corner of the internet that has already given their seal of approval to Daegu FC.
If you want to support your countrymen, here's a list of all foreigners playing in K League 1. There's no 🇺🇸Americans this year (Mix Diskerud was on loan at Ulsan last year, but he's returned to Man City), but Johnsen who plays for Ulsan was born and grew up in the US. 🇵🇹Portuguese Jose Morais is manager of Jeonbuk, formerly assistant manager to Mourinho.

Club				AFC slot
Busan	🇧🇷Vintecinco	🇧🇷Rômulo	🇧🇷Reis	🇺🇿Tursunov
Daegu	🇧🇷Césinha	🇧🇷Edgar	🇲🇪Dejan	🇯🇵Tsubasa
Gangwon				🇯🇵Nakazato
Gwangju	🇧🇷Felipe	🇧🇷Willyan	🇨🇷Ureña	🇺🇿Ashurmatov
Incheon	🇧🇦Bunoza	🇲🇪Mugosa	🇳🇬Kehinde	🇦🇺Mahazi
Jeonbuk	🇧🇷Murilo	🇿🇦Veldwijk		🇯🇵Kunimoto
Pohang	🇨🇴Palacios	🇷🇺Iljutcenko	🇷🇸Palocevic	🇦🇺O'Neill
Seongnam	🇭🇷Jovanovic	🇭🇷Kis		🇺🇿Iskanderov
FC Seoul	🇧🇷Adriano	🇪🇦Osmar	🇷🇸Pesic	🇺🇿Alibaev
Suwon	🇦🇺Antonis	🇧🇦Krpic	🇨🇦Henry	🇦🇺Taggart
Ulsan	🇧🇷Junior	🇳🇱Bulthuis	🇳🇴Johnsen	🇦🇺Davidson

There's a lack of 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿English representation this year, but if you're looking for some familarity, there's a handful of South Koreans who have played in the English pyramid:

• Arsenal LEGEND Park Chu-young (now with FC Seoul)
• Middlesbrough LEGEND Lee Dong-gook (now with Jeonbuk) who is now 41
• Bolton Wanderers and Crystal Palace legend Lee Chung-yong (now with Ulsan)
• Cardiff and Wigan Athletic legend Kim Bo-kyung (now with Jeonbuk)
• QPR legend Yoon Suk-young (now with Busan)

Other Koreans who had a stint in the 'top 5 leagues' include Park Joo-ho (Ulsan), Hong Jeong-ho, Kim Jin-su (both with Jeonbuk now), Yun Jun-tae (now with FC Seoul), and Kim Kyung-joong (now with Gangwon).
This short hype video also serves to show all club crests if you want to base a decision on that.

With Cheltenham Festival coming up, I thought I’d put together a comprehensive guide and overview for what is THE most profitable time for matched bettors.
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So whether you have been doing matched betting for a while or you’re completely new to the concept, with a bit of luck this post should be interesting/useful.
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Just a quick disclaimer. Throughout this guide I will be referencing Heads&Heads, however, this is not a promotional piece. The advice below can be used and applied to whichever service you happen to be with. There will be an offer at the bottom of this guide. Ignore it if you are not interested, I won’t be offended – the important thing is we all smash Cheltenham while it is still so profitable.
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Firstly, why exactly is this such a profitable time for Matched Bettors? Well, simply put, the Cheltenham Festival is one of the world’s biggest horse racing events. As such, all the bookmakers will be falling over themselves to ensure punters place their bets with them rather than their competitors.
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Why Cheltenham is a Big Deal
Cheltenham Festival is one of the busiest times of the year for bookmakers with projections of around £500 million to be placed in bets over the 4 days of racing. There are a total of 28 races to bet on giving an average of around £17,850,000 bet on each race. Punters at the Festival and around the country betting online jump on early ante-post markets and last minute bets. The rise of mobile betting in recently years has given bookmakers a new way to connect with customers and now it’s easier than ever to place a bet wherever you are.
With so much money involved in betting on races at Cheltenham, bookies fight for customers in the run-up and during the festival. One way bookies entice customers to bet with them over a competitor is to run special promotions for the races. These can be in the form of free bet offers, money back specials, extra places, best odds guaranteed and more. Punters looking for the best value in their bets should take advantage of these enhanced offers while they are around as they can result in increased returns and minimised losses. All of this plays into the hands of matched bettors like us, who can take advantage of the value without incurring risk.
If you are holding back on completing welcome offers before Cheltenham, then you should know that several bookmakers run enhanced offers throughout Cheltenham. Some of the more popular ones being Betfair, SkyBet, Ladbrokes, Coral and Betfred.
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6 Steps For Tackling Cheltenham
With all the offers and potential profit flying around it can become a little overwhelming. The best place to start is by simply practicing the basics - and that is our first of six steps for getting ready to tackle Cheltenham.
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Note: I will update this post with the key offers closer to the time.
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1. Practice Makes Perfect
When it comes to matched betting you can never get enough practice! You may think you understand every reload strategy there is. However, when the offers come as quickly as they do during Cheltenham, practice can be the difference between getting into breaking the £1,000 profit mark and missing out.
So, make sure that you have familiarised yourself with and practiced the popular horse racing offers before Cheltenham. These include 2nd to SP Fav, 2nd place refund, 4/1 winner, fallers insurance. Simply doing a Saturday’s worth of horse racing reload offers will tick a lot of these boxes.
If you would like to understand the concept a little more, we recommend going to the Training Section of Heads&Heads and looking at the guides under the sub-heading, ‘Offer Strategies’.
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2. Be Organised
This can be best summed up as - make sure that your money is where it needs to be before the end of the weekend prior to Cheltenham (7th & 8th March).
Additionally, try to have completed the majority of the welcome offers for the major bookmakers. The key bookmaker to have ready is Bet365 – their Horse racing offer during the festival is massively profitable.
Set up a separate PayPal for faster withdrawals.
If you've not got a massive exchange balance, then on this rare occasion we recommend boosting its size using your own funds. Of course, because you’re matched betting the only risk is the tiny qualifying loss per offer, which you should be used to by now. The last thing you want is to be missing out on offers and not making the most of the available profit.
Try to get some bets on the night before if the odds matches are strong. Know which offers are available on which races and know what offers you want to go for on each race.
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3. Go Easy Early
Do easy low stake reloads (Free bet on a loss, 2nd place, 2nd to SP favourite, etc) the night before if possible or early morning. The Exchanges will have a lot of liquidity, even hours before the races – meaning that you will not need to worry about unmatched bets when laying.
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4. Odds Boosts & VIP
Look out for the boosts and make a note to check the Heads&Heads forums facebook group hourly for any updates on potential boosts. These will come thick and fast, but if you are quick, you can create some pretty incredible profit margins.
Additionally, make sure you check your email over the 4 days. There will be plenty of bookmakers handing out ‘tailored’ offers to their VIP members. VIP has a loose definition in the eyes of the bookmaker, so you’re likely to get a lot more of these than you think and they are often very lucrative.
If you want Heads&Heads to check a VIP offer before you attempt it, just post on the forum or message us on Live Chat.
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5. Enjoy It
Sounds cliché but don’t let it stress you out. Making money is great but taking the week off work and then running yourself into the ground all week isn't worth it. Matched betting is a side earner – something to enjoy and be done in your spare time to earn you some extra cash. It should not feel like a job.
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6. A Small Exchange Balance Is No Excuse!
Is it worth taking part with a really small bank like £500'ish?
Even if you just did the offers that guaranteed a profit, you’d still make around £250 and this would not require a massive exchange balance. So yes, it is absolutely still worth it.
What If I Am Gubbed by Most Bookmakers?
This is a very common question and not an unreasonable one either. After all it is incredibly frustrating to have your account with a bookie gubbed. This is even worse when a huge event like Cheltenham is coming up.
Honestly, it will restrict your ability to make money, but it is still possible to make a profit from Cheltenham.
Extra place strategies are worth looking at. This is made possible because Extra place betting doesn’t rely on you using free offers. So, if the bookie has only restricted your use of free offers then this is your best option. Furthermore, if you are restricted from getting reload offers by a bookmaker, you should still be able to take advantage of odds boosts. So, keep an eye out for these on the Heads&Heads Forum.
Anything I Should Be Looking Out For?
One issue to be aware of is that of the smaller bookmakers offering very generous odds. If an offer looks too good to be true then you should be careful. This was particularly true a couple of years ago, when a lot of smaller bookies offered really good odds and then refused to pay out people’s winnings.
This problem is unlikely to occur again (happened in 2017), with bookmakers under the spotlight by legislators like never before. In addition, if you have an account with the bookmaker prior to Cheltenham starting, then you’ll be slightly more trusted by the bookie and thus they will honour your pay-out.
Should You Book Time Off Work?
Are you planning to take time off work during Cheltenham? This could be a great idea. As well as watching the races on TV, you can stay up to date with all of the offers during the day. However, we want to stress that taking time off work is by no means 'required' to make money during this week.
That said, speed will be key for so many of the opportunities during the festival. You may only have a small amount of time to place your bet or lose the opportunity. Being at home will, of course, make this a lot easier.
However, not everyone can take all 4 days off. So which days should you prioritise?
Simple answer really. The first day – Tuesday (10th March).
The reason for this is that the first day sees more offers available than any other single day. The bookies tend to start off strong and tail off towards the end.
Cheltenham Schedule
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Day 1 (Tuesday 10th March 2020)
13:30 -The Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle
14:10 - The Racing Post Arkle Challenge Trophy Chase
14:50 -The Ultima Handicap Steeple Chase
15:30 - The Unibet Champion Hurdle Challenge Trophy
16:10 - The Mares’ Hurdle
16:50 - The Close Brothers Novices’ Handicap Chase
17:30 - The National Hunt Challenge Cup
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Day 2 (Wednesday 11th March 2020)
13:30 - The Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle
14:10 - The RSA Insurance Novices’ Chase
14:50 - The Coral Cup
15:30 - The Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase
16:10 - The Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase
16:50 - The Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle
17:30 - The Weatherbys Champion Bumper
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Day 3 (Thursday 12th March 2020)
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13:30 - The Marsh Novices’ Chase
14:10 - The Pertemps Network Final
14:50 - The Ryanair Chase
15:30 - The Stayers’ Hurdle
16:10 - The Brown Advisory & Merriebelle Stable Plate
16:50 - Dawn Run Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle
17:30 - The Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup
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Day 4 (Friday 13th March 2020)
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13:30 - The JCB Triumph Hurdle
14:10 - The Randox Health County Handicap Hurdle
14:50 - The Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle
15:30 - The Cheltenham Gold Cup
16:10 - The St. James’s Place Foxhunter Challenge Cup
16:50 - Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Handicap Chase
17:30 - Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle
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Our Predictions
Now, predictions may seem a bit useless as we are matched betting. However, knowing who the experts favour to win can help you pick a horse. So, for example, if an offer was triggered if your horse lost, you'd want to be sure you were avoiding those favoured to do well. So, use the below to help inform some of your decisions when completing Cheltenham reload offers.
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Epatante
Epatante has caught the eye of punters during the early betting for the Champion Hurdle and, at the time of writing, rates as one of the strongest race favourites of the week. We likely have not seen the best of this horse.
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Benie Des Dieux
Benie Des Dieux is quoted for a few Cheltenham races this spring but traders at major bookmakers are confident she will run in the Mares Hurdle. If she does, bookies expect her to win the race with a bit to spare.
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Envoi Allen
Envoi Allen is priced as the standout horse in the Ballymore Novices Hurdle and traders believe he will take all the beating. A loss here will rate as one of the biggest upsets of the week. He won each of his first seven starts.
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Defi Du Seuil
Defi Du Seuil can be found quoted in the Champion Chase antepost betting and the early money has been promising. He has won 13 of his first 18 and those stats aren’t to be taken lightly, certainly not by backers.
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Tiger Roll
Tiger Roll is a fans favourite but have we already seen the best of Tiger Roll? As it stands Tiger Roll is the antepost favourite to win the Cross Country Chase and is a short price at that.
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Every Cheltenham offer will be posted on the Reload section. It is also worth keeping up to date with the Cheltenham Forum thread – here the best offers of the day will be discussed.
If you are interested in giving matched betting a go or Heads&Heads a go I’ve posted a discount code below. As I mentioned at the start of the guide, you can either use it or not. The main thing for me will be people find one or two useful bits of info in this guide.
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Discount:
£2 for 60 days of Premium membership to Heads&Heads.
Discount code: BUILDUP
Click the link to have the code automatically applied:
https://headsandheads.co.uk/sign-up?discount=BUILDUP
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Timetable template for Cheltenham: https://headsandheads.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/Cheltenham+Timetable+-+template.xlsx
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The most important thing is to get involved!
Best of luck and happy profit hunting!

Hey guys, just a rant really...im on mobile so format wont be great. I dont know if this has happened to any of you, but it happens to me quite a lot and this season especially.
I usually do 4-6 game accas and we all know how it works. The games kick off and youre waiting for the goals to go in.
99 percent of the time the cash out is low numbers...but it is working...but when all your teams are winning and your waiting for one goal to be scored on a section in that acca...then cash out is always unavailable for me.
I live chatted with a member of the bet365 team and he looked into the bet then up came a automated response saying "oh sometimes cash out isnt available at all times, if your bet doesnt align up with cash out available values"
Well if 5 of my 6 selections are winning on 85 minutes and all im waiting for is one goal to be scored then surely that would align with a cash out available option...its not like 3 teams were losing or whatever.
I just think its all a scam if im honest...whether its got anything to do with algorithms and if you fall in to that bracket of potential winners then bet365 will conveniently make cash out option unavailable.
Im not going to be using betting apps anymore...I will just do it in shop and that way I cant complain that cash out isnt available and that I have lost a bit of money.
Sorry for the long text...I just wondered what you all thought and if its ever happened to you...as I said its CONVENIENTLY happened to me a number of times this season already.
Thanks

With Cheltenham Festival coming up, I thought I’d put together a comprehensive guide and overview for what is THE most profitable time for matched bettors.
​
So whether you have been doing matched betting for a while or you’re completely new to the concept, with a bit of luck this post should be interesting/useful.
​
Just a quick disclaimer. Throughout this guide I will be referencing Heads&Heads, however, this is not a promotional piece. The advice below can be used and applied to whichever service you happen to be with. There will be an offer at the bottom of this guide. Ignore it if you are not interested, I won’t be offended – the important thing is we all smash Cheltenham while it is still so profitable.
​
Firstly, why exactly is this such a profitable time for Matched Bettors? Well, simply put, the Cheltenham Festival is one of the world’s biggest horse racing events. As such, all the bookmakers will be falling over themselves to ensure punters place their bets with them rather than their competitors.
​
​
Why Cheltenham is a Big Deal
Cheltenham Festival is one of the busiest times of the year for bookmakers with projections of around £500 million to be placed in bets over the 4 days of racing. There are a total of 28 races to bet on giving an average of around £17,850,000 bet on each race. Punters at the Festival and around the country betting online jump on early ante-post markets and last minute bets. The rise of mobile betting in recently years has given bookmakers a new way to connect with customers and now it’s easier than ever to place a bet wherever you are.
With so much money involved in betting on races at Cheltenham, bookies fight for customers in the run-up and during the festival. One way bookies entice customers to bet with them over a competitor is to run special promotions for the races. These can be in the form of free bet offers, money back specials, extra places, best odds guaranteed and more. Punters looking for the best value in their bets should take advantage of these enhanced offers while they are around as they can result in increased returns and minimised losses. All of this plays into the hands of matched bettors like us, who can take advantage of the value without incurring risk.
If you are holding back on completing welcome offers before Cheltenham, then you should know that several bookmakers run enhanced offers throughout Cheltenham. Some of the more popular ones being Betfair, SkyBet, Ladbrokes, Coral and Betfred.
​
​
6 Steps For Tackling Cheltenham
With all the offers and potential profit flying around it can become a little overwhelming. The best place to start is by simply practicing the basics - and that is our first of six steps for getting ready to tackle Cheltenham.
Note: I will update this post with the key offers closer to the time.
​
​
1. Practice Makes Perfect
When it comes to matched betting you can never get enough practice! You may think you understand every reload strategy there is. However, when the offers come as quickly as they do during Cheltenham, practice can be the difference between getting into breaking the £1,000 profit mark and missing out.
So, make sure that you have familiarised yourself with and practiced the popular horse racing offers before Cheltenham. These include 2nd to SP Fav, 2nd place refund, 4/1 winner, fallers insurance. Simply doing a Saturday’s worth of horse racing reload offers will tick a lot of these boxes.
If you would like to understand the concept a little more, we recommend going to the Training Section of Heads&Heads and looking at the guides under the sub-heading, ‘Offer Strategies’.
​
2. Be Organised
This can be best summed up as - make sure that your money is where it needs to be before the end of the weekend prior to Cheltenham (7th & 8th March).
Additionally, try to have completed the majority of the welcome offers for the major bookmakers. The key bookmaker to have ready is Bet365 – their Horse racing offer during the festival is massively profitable.
Set up a separate PayPal for faster withdrawals.
If you've not got a massive exchange balance, then on this rare occasion we recommend boosting its size using your own funds. Of course, because you’re matched betting the only risk is the tiny qualifying loss per offer, which you should be used to by now. The last thing you want is to be missing out on offers and not making the most of the available profit.
Try to get some bets on the night before if the odds matches are strong. Know which offers are available on which races and know what offers you want to go for on each race.
​
3. Go Easy Early
Do easy low stake reloads (Free bet on a loss, 2nd place, 2nd to SP favourite, etc) the night before if possible or early morning. The Exchanges will have a lot of liquidity, even hours before the races – meaning that you will not need to worry about unmatched bets when laying.
​
4. Odds Boosts & VIP
Look out for the boosts and make a note to check the Heads&Heads forums facebook group hourly for any updates on potential boosts. These will come thick and fast, but if you are quick, you can create some pretty incredible profit margins.
Additionally, make sure you check your email over the 4 days. There will be plenty of bookmakers handing out ‘tailored’ offers to their VIP members. VIP has a loose definition in the eyes of the bookmaker, so you’re likely to get a lot more of these than you think and they are often very lucrative.
If you want Heads&Heads to check a VIP offer before you attempt it, just post on the forum or message us on Live Chat.
​
5. Enjoy It
Sounds cliché but don’t let it stress you out. Making money is great but taking the week off work and then running yourself into the ground all week isn't worth it. Matched betting is a side earner – something to enjoy and be done in your spare time to earn you some extra cash. It should not feel like a job.
​
6. A Small Exchange Balance Is No Excuse!
Is it worth taking part with a really small bank like £500'ish?
Even if you just did the offers that guaranteed a profit, you’d still make around £250 and this would not require a massive exchange balance. So yes, it is absolutely still worth it.
​
​
What If I Am Gubbed by Most Bookmakers?
This is a very common question and not an unreasonable one either. After all it is incredibly frustrating to have your account with a bookie gubbed. This is even worse when a huge event like Cheltenham is coming up.
Honestly, it will restrict your ability to make money, but it is still possible to make a profit from Cheltenham.
Extra place strategies are worth looking at (on Heads&Heads Training). This is made possible because Extra place betting doesn’t rely on you using free offers. So, if the bookie has only restricted your use of free offers then this is your best option. Furthermore, if you are restricted from getting reload offers by a bookmaker, you should still be able to take advantage of odds boosts. So, keep an eye out for these on the Heads&Heads Forum.
​
​
Anything I Should Be Looking Out For?
One issue to be aware of is that of the smaller bookmakers offering very generous odds. If an offer looks too good to be true then you should be careful. This was particularly true a couple of years ago, when a lot of smaller bookies offered really good odds and then refused to pay out people’s winnings.
This problem is unlikely to occur again (happened in 2017), with bookmakers under the spotlight by legislators like never before. In addition, if you have an account with the bookmaker prior to Cheltenham starting, then you’ll be slightly more trusted by the bookie and thus they will honour your pay-out.
​
​
Should You Book Time Off Work?
Are you planning to take time off work during Cheltenham? This could be a great idea. As well as watching the races on TV, you can stay up to date with all of the offers during the day. However, we want to stress that taking time off work is by no means 'required' to make money during this week.
That said, speed will be key for so many of the opportunities during the festival. You may only have a small amount of time to place your bet or lose the opportunity. Being at home will, of course, make this a lot easier.
However, not everyone can take all 4 days off. So which days should you prioritise?
Simple answer really. The first day – Tuesday (10th March).
The reason for this is that the first day sees more offers available than any other single day. The bookies tend to start off strong and tail off towards the end.
​
​
Cheltenham Schedule
​
Day 1 (Tuesday 10th March 2020)
13:30 -The Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle
14:10 - The Racing Post Arkle Challenge Trophy Chase
14:50 -The Ultima Handicap Steeple Chase
15:30 - The Unibet Champion Hurdle Challenge Trophy
16:10 - The Mares’ Hurdle
16:50 - The Close Brothers Novices’ Handicap Chase
17:30 - The National Hunt Challenge Cup
​
Day 2 (Wednesday 11th March 2020)
13:30 - The Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle
14:10 - The RSA Insurance Novices’ Chase
14:50 - The Coral Cup
15:30 - The Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase
16:10 - The Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase
16:50 - The Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle
17:30 - The Weatherbys Champion Bumper
​
Day 3 (Thursday 12th March 2020)
13:30 - The Marsh Novices’ Chase
14:10 - The Pertemps Network Final
14:50 - The Ryanair Chase
15:30 - The Stayers’ Hurdle
16:10 - The Brown Advisory & Merriebelle Stable Plate
16:50 - Dawn Run Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle
17:30 - The Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup
​
Day 4 (Friday 13th March 2020)
13:30 - The JCB Triumph Hurdle
14:10 - The Randox Health County Handicap Hurdle
14:50 - The Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle
15:30 - The Cheltenham Gold Cup
16:10 - The St. James’s Place Foxhunter Challenge Cup
16:50 - Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Handicap Chase
17:30 - Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle
​
​
Our Predictions
Now, predictions may seem a bit useless as we are matched betting. However, knowing who the experts favour to win can help you pick a horse. So, for example, if an offer was triggered if your horse lost, you'd want to be sure you were avoiding those favoured to do well. So, use the below to help inform some of your decisions when completing Cheltenham reload offers.
​
​
Epatante
Epatante has caught the eye of punters during the early betting for the Champion Hurdle and, at the time of writing, rates as one of the strongest race favourites of the week. We likely have not seen the best of this horse.
​
Benie Des Dieux
Benie Des Dieux is quoted for a few Cheltenham races this spring but traders at major bookmakers are confident she will run in the Mares Hurdle. If she does, bookies expect her to win the race with a bit to spare.
​
Envoi Allen
Envoi Allen is priced as the standout horse in the Ballymore Novices Hurdle and traders believe he will take all the beating. A loss here will rate as one of the biggest upsets of the week. He won each of his first seven starts.
​
Defi Du Seuil
Defi Du Seuil can be found quoted in the Champion Chase antepost betting and the early money has been promising. He has won 13 of his first 18 and those stats aren’t to be taken lightly, certainly not by backers.
​
Tiger Roll
Tiger Roll is a fans favourite but have we already seen the best of Tiger Roll? As it stands Tiger Roll is the antepost favourite to win the Cross Country Chase and is a short price at that.
Every Cheltenham offer will be posted on the Reload section (on Heads&Heads). It is also worth keeping up to date with the Cheltenham Forum thread (on Heads&Heads) – here the best offers of the day will be discussed.
If you are interested in giving matched betting a go or Heads&Heads a go I’ve posted a discount code below. As I mentioned at the start of the guide, you can either use it or not. The main thing for me will be people find one or two useful bits of info in this guide.
​
​
Discount:
£2 for 60 days of Premium membership to Heads&Heads.
Discount code: BUILDUP
Click the link to have the code automatically applied:
https://headsandheads.co.uk/sign-up?discount=BUILDUP
​
​
Timetable template for Cheltenham: https://headsandheads.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/Cheltenham+Timetable+-+template.xlsx
​
​
The most important thing is to get involved!
Best of luck and happy profit hunting!

With Cheltenham Festival coming up, I thought I’d put together a comprehensive guide and overview for what is THE most profitable time for matched bettors.
​
So whether you have been doing matched betting for a while or you’re completely new to the concept, with a bit of luck this post should be interesting/useful.
​
Just a quick disclaimer. Throughout this guide I will be referencing Heads&Heads, however, this is not a promotional piece. The advice below can be used and applied to whichever service you happen to be with. There will be an offer at the bottom of this guide. Ignore it if you are not interested, I won’t be offended – the important thing is we all smash Cheltenham while it is still so profitable.
​
Firstly, why exactly is this such a profitable time for Matched Bettors? Well, simply put, the Cheltenham Festival is one of the world’s biggest horse racing events. As such, all the bookmakers will be falling over themselves to ensure punters place their bets with them rather than their competitors.
​
​
Why Cheltenham is a Big Deal
Cheltenham Festival is one of the busiest times of the year for bookmakers with projections of around £500 million to be placed in bets over the 4 days of racing. There are a total of 28 races to bet on giving an average of around £17,850,000 bet on each race. Punters at the Festival and around the country betting online jump on early ante-post markets and last minute bets. The rise of mobile betting in recently years has given bookmakers a new way to connect with customers and now it’s easier than ever to place a bet wherever you are.
With so much money involved in betting on races at Cheltenham, bookies fight for customers in the run-up and during the festival. One way bookies entice customers to bet with them over a competitor is to run special promotions for the races. These can be in the form of free bet offers, money back specials, extra places, best odds guaranteed and more. Punters looking for the best value in their bets should take advantage of these enhanced offers while they are around as they can result in increased returns and minimised losses. All of this plays into the hands of matched bettors like us, who can take advantage of the value without incurring risk.
If you are holding back on completing welcome offers before Cheltenham, then you should know that several bookmakers run enhanced offers throughout Cheltenham. Some of the more popular ones being Betfair, SkyBet, Ladbrokes, Coral and Betfred.
​
​
6 Steps For Tackling Cheltenham
With all the offers and potential profit flying around it can become a little overwhelming. The best place to start is by simply practicing the basics - and that is our first of six steps for getting ready to tackle Cheltenham.
Note: I will update this post with the key offers closer to the time.
​
1. Practice Makes Perfect
When it comes to matched betting you can never get enough practice! You may think you understand every reload strategy there is. However, when the offers come as quickly as they do during Cheltenham, practice can be the difference between getting into breaking the £1,000 profit mark and missing out.
So, make sure that you have familiarised yourself with and practiced the popular horse racing offers before Cheltenham. These include 2nd to SP Fav, 2nd place refund, 4/1 winner, fallers insurance. Simply doing a Saturday’s worth of horse racing reload offers will tick a lot of these boxes.
If you would like to understand the concept a little more, we recommend going to the Training Section of Heads&Heads and looking at the guides under the sub-heading, ‘Offer Strategies’.
​
2. Be Organised
This can be best summed up as - make sure that your money is where it needs to be before the end of the weekend prior to Cheltenham (7th & 8th March).
Additionally, try to have completed the majority of the welcome offers for the major bookmakers. The key bookmaker to have ready is Bet365 – their Horse racing offer during the festival is massively profitable.
Set up a separate PayPal for faster withdrawals.
If you've not got a massive exchange balance, then on this rare occasion we recommend boosting its size using your own funds. Of course, because you’re matched betting the only risk is the tiny qualifying loss per offer, which you should be used to by now. The last thing you want is to be missing out on offers and not making the most of the available profit.
Try to get some bets on the night before if the odds matches are strong. Know which offers are available on which races and know what offers you want to go for on each race.
​
3. Go Easy Early
Do easy low stake reloads (Free bet on a loss, 2nd place, 2nd to SP favourite, etc) the night before if possible or early morning. The Exchanges will have a lot of liquidity, even hours before the races – meaning that you will not need to worry about unmatched bets when laying.
​
4. Odds Boosts & VIP
Look out for the boosts and make a note to check the Heads&Heads forums facebook group hourly for any updates on potential boosts. These will come thick and fast, but if you are quick, you can create some pretty incredible profit margins.
Additionally, make sure you check your email over the 4 days. There will be plenty of bookmakers handing out ‘tailored’ offers to their VIP members. VIP has a loose definition in the eyes of the bookmaker, so you’re likely to get a lot more of these than you think and they are often very lucrative.
If you want Heads&Heads to check a VIP offer before you attempt it, just post on the forum or message us on Live Chat.
​
5. Enjoy It
Sounds cliché but don’t let it stress you out. Making money is great but taking the week off work and then running yourself into the ground all week isn't worth it. Matched betting is a side earner – something to enjoy and be done in your spare time to earn you some extra cash. It should not feel like a job.
​
6. A Small Exchange Balance Is No Excuse!
Is it worth taking part with a really small bank like £500'ish?
Even if you just did the offers that guaranteed a profit, you’d still make around £250 and this would not require a massive exchange balance. So yes, it is absolutely still worth it.
​
What If I Am Gubbed by Most Bookmakers?
This is a very common question and not an unreasonable one either. After all it is incredibly frustrating to have your account with a bookie gubbed. This is even worse when a huge event like Cheltenham is coming up.
Honestly, it will restrict your ability to make money, but it is still possible to make a profit from Cheltenham.
Extra place strategies are worth looking at (on Heads&Heads Training). This is made possible because Extra place betting doesn’t rely on you using free offers. So, if the bookie has only restricted your use of free offers then this is your best option. Furthermore, if you are restricted from getting reload offers by a bookmaker, you should still be able to take advantage of odds boosts. So, keep an eye out for these on the Heads&Heads Forum.
​
Anything I Should Be Looking Out For?
One issue to be aware of is that of the smaller bookmakers offering very generous odds. If an offer looks too good to be true then you should be careful. This was particularly true a couple of years ago, when a lot of smaller bookies offered really good odds and then refused to pay out people’s winnings.
This problem is unlikely to occur again (happened in 2017), with bookmakers under the spotlight by legislators like never before. In addition, if you have an account with the bookmaker prior to Cheltenham starting, then you’ll be slightly more trusted by the bookie and thus they will honour your pay-out.
​
Should You Book Time Off Work?
Are you planning to take time off work during Cheltenham? This could be a great idea. As well as watching the races on TV, you can stay up to date with all of the offers during the day. However, we want to stress that taking time off work is by no means 'required' to make money during this week.
That said, speed will be key for so many of the opportunities during the festival. You may only have a small amount of time to place your bet or lose the opportunity. Being at home will, of course, make this a lot easier.
However, not everyone can take all 4 days off. So which days should you prioritise?
Simple answer really. The first day – Tuesday (10th March).
The reason for this is that the first day sees more offers available than any other single day. The bookies tend to start off strong and tail off towards the end.
​
​
Cheltenham Schedule
​
Day 1 (Tuesday 10th March 2020)
13:30 -The Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle
14:10 - The Racing Post Arkle Challenge Trophy Chase
14:50 -The Ultima Handicap Steeple Chase
15:30 - The Unibet Champion Hurdle Challenge Trophy
16:10 - The Mares’ Hurdle
16:50 - The Close Brothers Novices’ Handicap Chase
17:30 - The National Hunt Challenge Cup
​
Day 2 (Wednesday 11th March 2020)
13:30 - The Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle
14:10 - The RSA Insurance Novices’ Chase
14:50 - The Coral Cup
15:30 - The Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase
16:10 - The Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase
16:50 - The Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle
17:30 - The Weatherbys Champion Bumper
​
Day 3 (Thursday 12th March 2020)
13:30 - The Marsh Novices’ Chase
14:10 - The Pertemps Network Final
14:50 - The Ryanair Chase
15:30 - The Stayers’ Hurdle
16:10 - The Brown Advisory & Merriebelle Stable Plate
16:50 - Dawn Run Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle
17:30 - The Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup
​
Day 4 (Friday 13th March 2020)
13:30 - The JCB Triumph Hurdle
14:10 - The Randox Health County Handicap Hurdle
14:50 - The Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle
15:30 - The Cheltenham Gold Cup
16:10 - The St. James’s Place Foxhunter Challenge Cup
16:50 - Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Handicap Chase
17:30 - Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle
​
​
Our Predictions
Now, predictions may seem a bit useless as we are matched betting. However, knowing who the experts favour to win can help you pick a horse. So, for example, if an offer was triggered if your horse lost, you'd want to be sure you were avoiding those favoured to do well. So, use the below to help inform some of your decisions when completing Cheltenham reload offers.
​
​
Epatante
Epatante has caught the eye of punters during the early betting for the Champion Hurdle and, at the time of writing, rates as one of the strongest race favourites of the week. We likely have not seen the best of this horse.
​
Benie Des Dieux
Benie Des Dieux is quoted for a few Cheltenham races this spring but traders at major bookmakers are confident she will run in the Mares Hurdle. If she does, bookies expect her to win the race with a bit to spare.
​
Envoi Allen
Envoi Allen is priced as the standout horse in the Ballymore Novices Hurdle and traders believe he will take all the beating. A loss here will rate as one of the biggest upsets of the week. He won each of his first seven starts.
​
Defi Du Seuil
Defi Du Seuil can be found quoted in the Champion Chase antepost betting and the early money has been promising. He has won 13 of his first 18 and those stats aren’t to be taken lightly, certainly not by backers.
​
Tiger Roll
Tiger Roll is a fans favourite but have we already seen the best of Tiger Roll? As it stands Tiger Roll is the antepost favourite to win the Cross Country Chase and is a short price at that.
​
​
Every Cheltenham offer will be posted on the Reload section (on Heads&Heads). It is also worth keeping up to date with the Cheltenham Forum thread (on Heads&Heads) – here the best offers of the day will be discussed.
If you are interested in giving matched betting a go or Heads&Heads a go I’ve posted a discount code below. As I mentioned at the start of the guide, you can either use it or not. The main thing for me will be people find one or two useful bits of info in this guide.
​
​
Discount:
£2 for 60 days of Premium membership to Heads&Heads.
Discount code: BUILDUP
Click the link to have the code automatically applied:
https://headsandheads.co.uk/sign-up?discount=BUILDUP
​
​
Timetable template for Cheltenham: https://headsandheads.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/Cheltenham+Timetable+-+template.xlsx
​
​
The most important thing is to get involved!
Best of luck and happy profit hunting!

Cigarette advertisements have been cracked down on and squashed in the UK, both in public and on TV, for the good of public health. The FA has taken a stand on alcohol, and Everton were no longer allowed to use their long standing brewery sponsor, Chang.
But the insidious addiction of gambling has replaced physical vices, and instead of blowing a hundred quid on a night out or thirty on a few packs of cigarettes, those who don't have the money to burn have been coerced into dropping thousands on betting. In towns like Stoke-on-Trent, Burnley, and Bolton, where the economy is stagnant and the people forgotten, gambling companies systematically mine the vulnerable for what money they have. How do the football teams representing these places respond?
Stoke City FC - Sponsored by Bet365
Burnley FC - Sponsored by Dafabet, and naming a stand after Ladbrokes
Bolton Wanderers FC - Sponsored by Betfred
Broadcast coverage bombards the viewer with betting ads.

BET IN PLEH WITH REH

Sideboards, stands, and shirts mean every shot includes a gambling advertisement. It's impossible to get away from. Betting companies have monopolised the "advertising vice" in football now alcohol is gone, and so the big offers are from gambling corporations. Hell, they've even managed to convince fans to walk around advertising their companies on matchdays - you can't get a shirt without the ad, but you have to pay extra for the league badges!
Below is a list of all teams in the Football League that don't use betting sponsors on their shirts. I implore you NOT to buy shirts with gambling sponsors on them.

Premier League

Arsenal - Fly Emirates
Brighton - American Express
Chelsea - Yokohoma Tires
Leicester - King Power
Liverpool - Standard Chartered
Man City - Etihad Airways
Man United - Chevrolet
Southampton - Virgin Mobile
Spurs - AIA Insurance
Watford - FxPro
West Brom - Palm Development
Total teams without gambling sponsors: 11/20

EFL Championship

Barnsley - C.K. Beckett
Bristol City - Lancer Scott
Cardiff City - Visit Malaysia
Derby County - Avon Tires
Ipswich - Marcus Evans
Middlesbrough - Ramsdens Currency
Millwall - DCS Roofing
Edit: Reading are also gambling free
Sheffield United - Teletext Holidays
Sheffield Wednesday - Chansiri
Wolves - The Money Shop - Payday loans, another scummy way of screwing the poor, so they can get lumped in with the scummy gambling sponsors
Total teams without gambling (or payday loans) sponsors: 10/24

EFL League One

Blackpool - TP
Bradford - JCT Cars
Bristol Rovers - Two Non-Gambling Sponsors
Bury - Two Non-Gambling Sponsors
Doncaster - Virgin Trains
Fleetwood Town - BES Gas
Gillingham - MEMS Power
MK Dons - Suzuki
Northampton - University of Northampton
Oldham - PFE Express
Oxford United - Liontrust
Peterborough United - Mick George
Plymouth Argyle - Ginsters Pasties
Portsmouth - Jobsite
Rochdale - Crown Oil
Rotherham United - Two Non-Gambling Sponsors
Scunthorpe United - British Steel
Shrewsbury - Two Non-Gambling Sponsors
Southend - Martin Dawn
Walsall - Homeserve
Wigan - Inter Sport
AFC Wimbledon - Football Manager (Love this one)
Total teams without betting sponsors - 22/24

EFL League 2

No betting sponsors, 24/24. Cheltenham have a shower company, which is cool. Notts County have a total of 8 sponsors, one each month - that's a pain.
Please don't encourage gambling, in the same way you wouldn't encourage cocaine or heroin addiction. Gambling destroys lives in the exact same way, and a person should be able to watch sport without having gambling corporations shoved into their face.
Thank you for reading.

With Cheltenham Festival coming up, I thought I’d put together a comprehensive guide and overview for what is THE most profitable time for matched bettors.
​
So whether you have been doing matched betting for a while or you’re completely new to the concept, with a bit of luck this post should be interesting/useful.
​
Just a quick disclaimer. Throughout this guide I will be referencing Heads&Heads, however, this is not a promotional piece. The advice below can be used and applied to whichever service you happen to be with. There will be an offer at the bottom of this guide. Ignore it if you are not interested, I won’t be offended – the important thing is we all smash Cheltenham while it is still so profitable.
​
Firstly, why exactly is this such a profitable time for Matched Bettors? Well, simply put, the Cheltenham Festival is one of the world’s biggest horse racing events. As such, all the bookmakers will be falling over themselves to ensure punters place their bets with them rather than their competitors.
​
​
Why Cheltenham is a Big Deal
​
Cheltenham Festival is one of the busiest times of the year for bookmakers with projections of around £500 million to be placed in bets over the 4 days of racing. There are a total of 28 races to bet on giving an average of around £17,850,000 bet on each race. Punters at the Festival and around the country betting online jump on early ante-post markets and last minute bets. The rise of mobile betting in recently years has given bookmakers a new way to connect with customers and now it’s easier than ever to place a bet wherever you are.
​
With so much money involved in betting on races at Cheltenham, bookies fight for customers in the run-up and during the festival. One way bookies entice customers to bet with them over a competitor is to run special promotions for the races. These can be in the form of free bet offers, money back specials, extra places, best odds guaranteed and more. Punters looking for the best value in their bets should take advantage of these enhanced offers while they are around as they can result in increased returns and minimised losses. All of this plays into the hands of matched bettors like us, who can take advantage of the value without incurring risk.
​
If you are holding back on completing welcome offers before Cheltenham, then you should know that several bookmakers run enhanced offers throughout Cheltenham. Some of the more popular ones being Betfair, SkyBet, Ladbrokes, Coral and Betfred.
​
​
6 Steps For Tackling Cheltenham
​
With all the offers and potential profit flying around it can become a little overwhelming. The best place to start is by simply practicing the basics - and that is our first of six steps for getting ready to tackle Cheltenham.
​
1. Practice Makes Perfect
When it comes to matched betting you can never get enough practice! You may think you understand every reload strategy there is. However, when the offers come as quickly as they do during Cheltenham, practice can be the difference between getting into breaking the £1,000 profit mark and missing out.
So, make sure that you have familiarised yourself with and practiced the popular horse racing offers before Cheltenham. These include 2nd to SP Fav, 2nd place refund, 4/1 winner, fallers insurance. Simply doing a Saturday’s worth of horse racing reload offers will tick a lot of these boxes.
If you would like to understand the concept a little more, we recommend going to the Training Section of Heads&Heads and looking at the guides under the sub-heading, ‘Offer Strategies’.
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2. Be Organised
This can be best summed up as - make sure that your money is where it needs to be before the end of the weekend prior to Cheltenham (7th & 8th March).
Additionally, try to have completed the majority of the welcome offers for the major bookmakers. The key bookmaker to have ready is Bet365 – their Horse racing offer during the festival is massively profitable.
Set up a separate PayPal for faster withdrawals.
If you've not got a massive exchange balance, then on this rare occasion we recommend boosting its size using your own funds. Of course, because you’re matched betting the only risk is the tiny qualifying loss per offer, which you should be used to by now. The last thing you want is to be missing out on offers and not making the most of the available profit.
Try to get some bets on the night before if the odds matches are strong. Know which offers are available on which races and know what offers you want to go for on each race.
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3. Go Easy Early
Do easy low stake reloads (Free bet on a loss, 2nd place, 2nd to SP favourite, etc) the night before if possible or early morning. The Exchanges will have a lot of liquidity, even hours before the races – meaning that you will not need to worry about unmatched bets when laying.
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4. Odds Boosts & VIP
Look out for the boosts and make a note to check the Heads&Heads forums facebook group hourly for any updates on potential boosts. These will come thick and fast, but if you are quick, you can create some pretty incredible profit margins.
Additionally, make sure you check your email over the 4 days. There will be plenty of bookmakers handing out ‘tailored’ offers to their VIP members. VIP has a loose definition in the eyes of the bookmaker, so you’re likely to get a lot more of these than you think and they are often very lucrative.
If you want Heads&Heads to check a VIP offer before you attempt it, just post on the forum or message us on Live Chat.
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5. Enjoy It
Sounds cliché but don’t let it stress you out. Making money is great but taking the week off work and then running yourself into the ground all week isn't worth it. Matched betting is a side earner – something to enjoy and be done in your spare time to earn you some extra cash. It should not feel like a job.
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6. A Small Exchange Balance Is No Excuse!
Is it worth taking part with a really small bank like £500'ish?
Even if you just did the offers that guaranteed a profit, you’d still make around £250 and this would not require a massive exchange balance. So yes, it is absolutely still worth it.
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What If I Am Gubbed by Most Bookmakers?
This is a very common question and not an unreasonable one either. After all it is incredibly frustrating to have your account with a bookie gubbed. This is even worse when a huge event like Cheltenham is coming up.
Honestly, it will restrict your ability to make money, but it is still possible to make a profit from Cheltenham.
Extra place strategies are worth looking at (on Heads&Heads Training). This is made possible because Extra place betting doesn’t rely on you using free offers. So, if the bookie has only restricted your use of free offers then this is your best option. Furthermore, if you are restricted from getting reload offers by a bookmaker, you should still be able to take advantage of odds boosts. So, keep an eye out for these on the Heads&Heads Forum.
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Anything I Should Be Looking Out For?
One issue to be aware of is that of the smaller bookmakers offering very generous odds. If an offer looks too good to be true then you should be careful. This was particularly true a couple of years ago, when a lot of smaller bookies offered really good odds and then refused to pay out people’s winnings.
This problem is unlikely to occur again (happened in 2017), with bookmakers under the spotlight by legislators like never before. In addition, if you have an account with the bookmaker prior to Cheltenham starting, then you’ll be slightly more trusted by the bookie and thus they will honour your pay-out.
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Should You Book Time Off Work?
Are you planning to take time off work during Cheltenham? This could be a great idea. As well as watching the races on TV, you can stay up to date with all of the offers during the day. However, we want to stress that taking time off work is by no means 'required' to make money during this week.
That said, speed will be key for so many of the opportunities during the festival. You may only have a small amount of time to place your bet or lose the opportunity. Being at home will, of course, make this a lot easier.
However, not everyone can take all 4 days off. So which days should you prioritise?
Simple answer really. The first day – Tuesday (10th March).
The reason for this is that the first day sees more offers available than any other single day. The bookies tend to start off strong and tail off towards the end.
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Cheltenham Schedule
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Day 1 (Tuesday 10th March 2020)
13:30 -The Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle
14:10 - The Racing Post Arkle Challenge Trophy Chase
14:50 -The Ultima Handicap Steeple Chase
15:30 - The Unibet Champion Hurdle Challenge Trophy
16:10 - The Mares’ Hurdle
16:50 - The Close Brothers Novices’ Handicap Chase
17:30 - The National Hunt Challenge Cup
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Day 2 (Wednesday 11th March 2020)
13:30 - The Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle
14:10 - The RSA Insurance Novices’ Chase
14:50 - The Coral Cup
15:30 - The Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase
16:10 - The Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase
16:50 - The Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle
17:30 - The Weatherbys Champion Bumper
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Day 3 (Thursday 12th March 2020)
13:30 - The Marsh Novices’ Chase
14:10 - The Pertemps Network Final
14:50 - The Ryanair Chase
15:30 - The Stayers’ Hurdle
16:10 - The Brown Advisory & Merriebelle Stable Plate
16:50 - Dawn Run Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle
17:30 - The Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup
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Day 4 (Friday 13th March 2020)
13:30 - The JCB Triumph Hurdle
14:10 - The Randox Health County Handicap Hurdle
14:50 - The Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle
15:30 - The Cheltenham Gold Cup
16:10 - The St. James’s Place Foxhunter Challenge Cup
16:50 - Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Handicap Chase
17:30 - Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle
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Our Predictions
Now, predictions may seem a bit useless as we are matched betting. However, knowing who the experts favour to win can help you pick a horse. So, for example, if an offer was triggered if your horse lost, you'd want to be sure you were avoiding those favoured to do well. So, use the below to help inform some of your decisions when completing Cheltenham reload offers.
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Epatante
Epatante has caught the eye of punters during the early betting for the Champion Hurdle and, at the time of writing, rates as one of the strongest race favourites of the week. We likely have not seen the best of this horse.
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Benie Des Dieux
Benie Des Dieux is quoted for a few Cheltenham races this spring but traders at major bookmakers are confident she will run in the Mares Hurdle. If she does, bookies expect her to win the race with a bit to spare.
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Envoi Allen
Envoi Allen is priced as the standout horse in the Ballymore Novices Hurdle and traders believe he will take all the beating. A loss here will rate as one of the biggest upsets of the week. He won each of his first seven starts.
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Defi Du Seuil
Defi Du Seuil can be found quoted in the Champion Chase antepost betting and the early money has been promising. He has won 13 of his first 18 and those stats aren’t to be taken lightly, certainly not by backers.
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Tiger Roll
Tiger Roll is a fans favourite but have we already seen the best of Tiger Roll? As it stands Tiger Roll is the antepost favourite to win the Cross Country Chase and is a short price at that.
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Every Cheltenham offer will be posted on the Reload section (on Heads&Heads). It is also worth keeping up to date with the Cheltenham Forum thread (on Heads&Heads) – here the best offers of the day will be discussed.
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If you are interested in giving matched betting a go or Heads&Heads a go I’ve posted a discount code below. As I mentioned at the start of the guide, you can either use it or not. The main thing for me will be people find one or two useful bits of info in this guide.
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Discount:
£2 for 60 days of Premium membership to Heads&Heads.
Discount code: BUILDUP
Click the link to have the code automatically applied:
https://headsandheads.co.uk/sign-up?discount=BUILDUP
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Timetable template for Cheltenham: https://headsandheads.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/Cheltenham+Timetable+-+template.xlsx
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The most important thing is to get involved!
Best of luck and happy profit hunting!