The Poorhouse is well aware that his claims of being a successful & balanced citizen who just happens to run thousands of pounds through bookies is a statement unbelievable to many. But it's true, trust me, you can profit. Guaranteed. Well, except via things more akin to "acts of god" than simply picking a 3 legged horse.

The Poorhouse refers of course to the technique of matched betting (with perhaps a little arbitrage betting thrown in, but that's more for people with a concentration span of over the Poorhouse's 10 minute limit).

Thanks to the recent betfest that is Cheltenham, Poorhouse just passed a notable £5000 profit benchmark, so thought it was time to bring it up again for you skeptics. Although of course I might still be lying just to trick you into...ermm...giving your money to someone else for no good reason.

Now it's not replacing the day job, sadly. For some a mix of that & arbitrage gambling may, but not for those with the limited time and bankroll that the Poorhouse can be bothered to put into it.

Here some stats. Thanks to record-systems changes, they're all a little dubious, except for start and end date, and of course profit. But they should be in the ballpark, surely.

Start date: 6th October 2006
Date of the £5000 breakthrough: 13th March 2009
Bets placed: circa 670

Time spent: who knows, but we're basically talking a few minutes here and there, except in super lucrative Cheltenham festival type times where an hour or two might be taken. And in many ways it gets easier as time goes on what with wonderful pre-made record-keeping spreadsheets and sites to actually show you specifically what to bet on commonly available these days (although be warned, too much reliance on the latter could lead to what is commonly referred to as a "gubbing", funnily enough bookies don't exactly like punters doing this). Gone are the days where we used to have to scratch out our bet formulae with chalk and slate.

Totally liability of bets and lays placed (give or take): £63,818. Yes, it may sound more than a small degenerate gambling problem to say that I gambled through 60 grand when, let's face it, my savings account isn't exactly at the same level. But look, the system is nearly foolproof. And the "nearly" bit is only there to reflect the possibilities of user error, dodgy bookies pulling illegal stunts or going bust. Nonetheless, you should most certainly only bet with money you can afford to lose - even if you know you are going to win.

Buildup: Unfortunately, the Poorhouse recently transferred his historic records to a new system so the detailed history is hard to get. Here's a chart of profit since then. Note that it only goes up. Many days are flat, for there being no decent offers or a lack of being bothered to do them, but the long term trend is clearly up!

It should be noted that this period covers the Cheltenham festival (which boosted both profitability and time spent doing by a rather substantial amount) which upped the profits by probably 2 or 3 hundred, so don't think that this is a typical week - otherwise, paid employment would become a thing of the past trust me - but hey it's a tidy little output and it's all I can chart up without spending more than 2 minutes playing in Excel, which is not happening at this time of night. The point is, you can regularly make enough money for a few pints if you can be bothered.

Mistakes made: Well, just like crossing the road, horror stories of costly mistakes do go around - so you do have to be careful and don't take risks. But the Poorhouse's personal experience is a pretty error-free rise to glory. Once there was an accidental backing instead of a laying taking place (read the technique for why this can cost serious money), but it was a silly user error and immediately correctable - as long as it was noticed in time of course, which it was.

He doesn't have the patience to look for the best odds for hours - time is money, kiddies - so squanders away potential £ there no doubt. And finally, the basis of the technique relies on fluctuating signup offers, and in many cases in retrospect he regrettably took the worst (yes, laugh at me having squandered a potential £200 Coral bookie signup with a £10 one. GRR.), which is where hundreds of potential free pounds have probably been lost.

One of the more worrying moments was where a bookie was holding onto a reasonable sized chunk o' cash due to concerns about UEFA cup match fixing. If only the Poorhouse had such power! It's weird stuff like this - and only stuff like this and user error - that brings any element of risk in (and hence the maxim that you should never bet anything you truly can't afford to lose). The rest is maths - and doing your research on both bookie and technique beforehand.

Conclusion: One of the few legitimate ways to make free money with a level of risks probably along the lines of those one takes using ebay. WINNER.

Get involved! And if you really know the Poorhouse, come here first for some mutually beneficial lessons :-)