Reminder: Do NOT buy from 3rd Party Marketplace Seller on Ebay/Amazon/Newegg (unless you want to pay more). Assume all the 3rd party sellers are scalping. If it's not being sold by the actual retailer (e.g. Amazon selling on Amazon.com or Newegg selling on Newegg.com) then you should treat the product as sold out and wait.
Below is the compilation of all the reviews that have been posted so far. I will be updating this continuously throughout the day with the conclusion of each publications and any new review links. This will be sorted alphabetically.
NVIDIA says that the RTX 3080 is the gaming card and the RTX 3090 is the hybrid creative card – but we respectfully disagree. The RTX 3090 is the flagship gaming card that can also run intensive creative apps very well, especially by virtue of its huge 24GB framebuffer. But it is still not an RTX TITAN nor a Quadro. These cards cost a lot more and are optimized specifically for workstations and also for professional and creative apps. However, for RTX 2080 Ti gamers who paid $1199 and who have disposable cash for their hobby – although it has been eclipsed by the RTX 3080 – the RTX 3090 Founders Edition which costs $1500 is the card to maximize their upgrade. And for high-end gamers who also use creative apps, this card may become a very good value. Hobbies are very expensive to maintain, and the expense of PC gaming pales in comparison to what golfers, skiers, audiophiles, and many other hobbyists pay for their entertainment. But for high-end gamers on a budget, the $699 RTX 3080 will provide the most value of the two cards. We cannot call the $1500 RTX 3090 a “good value” generally for gamers as it is a halo card and it absolutely does not provide anywhere close to double the performance of a $700 RTX 3080. However, for some professionals, two RTX 3090s may give them exactly what they need as it is the only Ampere gaming card to support NVLink providing up to 112.5 GB/s of total bandwidth between two GPUs which when SLI’d together will allow them to access a massive 48GB of vRAM. SLI is no longer supported by NVIDIA for gaming, and emphasis will be placed on mGPU only as implemented by game developers.
So there we have it. The RTX 3090 delivers - at best - 15 to 16 per cent more gaming performance than the RTX 3080. In terms of price vs performance, there is only one winner here. And suffice to say, we would expect to see factory overclocked RTX 3080 cards bite into the already fairly slender advantage delivered by Nvidia's new GPU king. Certainly in gaming terms then, the smart money would be spend on an RTX 3080, and if you're on a 1440p high refresh rate monitor and you're looking to maximise price vs performance, I'd urge you to look at the RTX 2080 Ti numbers in this review: if Nvidia's claims pan out, you'll be getting that and potentially more from the cheaper still RTX 3070. All of which raises the question - why make an RTX 3090 at all? The answers are numerous. First of all, PC gaming has never adhered to offering performance increases in line with the actual amount of money spent. Whether it's Titans, Intel Extreme processors, high-end motherboards or performance RAM, if you want the best, you'll end up paying a huge amount of money to attain it. This is only a problem where there are no alternatives and in the case of the RTX 3090, there is one - the RTX 3080 at almost half of the price. But more compelling is the fact that Nvidia is now blurring the lines between the gaming GeForce line and the prosumer-orientated Quadro offerings. High-end Quadro cards are similar to RTX 3090 and Titan RTX in several respects - usually in that they deliver the fully unlocked Nvidia silicon paired with huge amounts of VRAM. Where they differ is in support and drivers, something that creatives, streamers or video editors may not wish to pay even more of a premium for. In short, RTX 3090 looks massively expensive as a gamer card, but compared to the professional Quadro line, there are clear savings. In the meantime, RTX 3090 delivers the Titan experience for the new generation of graphics hardware. Its appeal is niche, the halo product factor is huge and the performance boost - while not exactly huge - is likely enough to convince the cash rich to invest and for the creator audience to seriously consider it. For my use cases, the extra money is obviously worth it. I also think that the way Nvidia packages and markets the product is appealing: the RTX 3090 looks and feels special, its gigantic form factor and swish aesthetic will score points with those that take pride in their PC looking good and its thermal and especially acoustic performance are excellent. It's really, really quiet. All told then, RTX 3090 is the traditional hard sell for the mainstream gamer but the high-end crowd will likely lap it up. But it leaves me with a simple question: where next for the Titan and Ti brands? You don't retire powerhouse product tiers for no good reason and I can only wonder: is something even more powerful cooking?
When we had our first experience with the GeForce RTX 3080, we were nothing short of impressed. Testing the GeForce RTX 3090 is yet another step up. But we're not sure if the 3090 is the better option though, as you'll need very stringent requirements in order for it to see a good performance benefit. Granted, and I have written this many times in the past with the Titans and the like, a graphics card like this is bound to run into bottlenecks much faster than your normal graphics cards. Three factors come into play here, CPU bottlenecks, low-resolution bottlenecks, and the actual game (API). The GeForce RTX 3090 is the kind of product that needs to be free from all three aforementioned factors. Thus, you need to have a spicy processor that can keep up with the card, you need lovely GPU bound games preferably with DX12 ASYNC compute and, of course, if you are not gaming at the very least in Ultra HD, then why even bother, right? The flipside of the coin is that when you have these three musketeers applied and in effect, well, then there is no card faster than the 3090, trust me; it's a freakfest of performance, but granted, also bitter-sweet when weighing all factors in. NVIDIA's Ampere product line up has been impressive all the way, there's nothing other to conclude than that. Is it all perfect? Well, performance-wise in the year 2020 we cannot complain. Of course, there is an energy consumption factor to weigh in as a negative factor and, yes, there's pricing to consider. Both are far too high for the product to make any real sense. For gaming, we do not feel the 3090 makes a substantial enough difference over the RTX 3080 with 10 to 15% differentials, and that's mainly due to system bottlenecks really. You need to game at Ultra HD and beyond for this card to make a bit of sense. We also recognize that the two factors do not need to make sense for quite a bunch of you as the product sits in a very extreme niche. But I stated enough about that. I like this chunk of hardware sitting inside a PC though as, no matter how you look at it, it is a majestic product. Please make sure you have plenty of ventilation though as the RTX 3090 will dump lots of heat. It is big but still looks terrific. And the performance, oh man... that performance, it is all good all the way as long as you uphold my three musketeers remark. Where I could nag a little about the 10 GB VRAM on the GeForce RTX 3080, we cannot complain even the slightest bit about the whopping big mac feature of the 3090, 24 GB of the fastest GDDR6X your money can get you, take that Flight Sim 2020! This is an Ultra HD card, in that domain, it shines whether that is using shading (regular rendered games) or when using hybrid ray-tracing + DLSS. It's a purebred but unfortunately very power-hungry product that will reach only a select group of people. But it is formidable if you deliver it to the right circumstances. Would we recommend this product? Ehm no, you are better off with GeForce RTX 3070 or 3080 as, money-wise, this doesn't make much sense. But it is genuinely a startling product worthy of a top pick award, an award we hand out so rarely for a reference or Founder product but we also have to acknowledge that NVIDIA really is stepping up on their 'reference' designs and is now setting a new and better standard.
This commentary puts the RTX 3090 into a difficult spot. It's 10 percent faster for gaming yet costs over twice as much as the RTX 3080. Value for money is poor when examined from a gaming point of view. Part of that huge cost rests with the 24GB of GDDR6X memory that has limited real-world benefit in games. Rather, it's more useful in professional rendering as the larger pool can speed-up time to completion massively. And here's the rub. Given its characteristics, this card ought to be called the RTX Titan or GeForce RTX Studio and positioned more diligently for the creatoprofessional community where computational power and large VRAM go hand in hand. The real RTX 3090, meanwhile, gaming focussed first and foremost, ought to arrive with 12GB of memory and a $999 price point, thereby offering a compelling upgrade without resorting to Titan-esque pricing. Yet all that said, the insatiable appetite and apparent deep pockets of enthusiasts will mean Nvidia sells out of these $1,500 boards today: demand far outstrips supply. And does it matter what it's called, how much memory it has, or even what price it is? Not in the big scheme of things because there is a market for it. Being part of the GeForce RTX firmament has opened up the way for add-in card partners to produce their own boards. The Gigabyte Gaming OC does most things right. It's built well and looks good, and duly tops all the important gaming charts at 4K. We'd encourage a lower noise profile through a relaxation of temps, but if you have the means by which to buy graphics performance hegemony, the Gaming OC isn't a bad shout... if you can find it in stock.
Summarizing the GeForce RTX 3090's performance is simple -- it's the single fastest GPU on the market currently, bar none. There's nuance to consider here, though. Versus the GeForce RTX 3080, disregarding CPU limited situations or corner cases, the more powerful RTX 3090's advantages over the 3080 only range from about 4% to 20%. Versus the Titan RTX, the GeForce RTX 3090's advantages increase to approximately 6% to 40%. Consider complex creator workloads which can leverage the GeForce RTX 3090's additional resources and memory, however, and it is simply in another class altogether and can be many times faster than either the RTX 3080 or Titan RTX. Obviously, the $1,499 GeForce RTX 3090 Founder's Edition isn't an overall value play for the vast majority of users. If you're a gamer shopping for a new high-end GPU, the GeForce RTX 3080 at less than 1/2 the price is the much better buy. Compared to the $2,500 Titan RTX or $1,300 - $1,500-ish GeForce RTX 2080 Ti though, the GeForce RTX 3090 is the significantly better choice. Your perspective on the GeForce RTX 3090's value proposition is ultimately going to depend on your particular use case. Unless they've got unlimited budgets and want the best-of-the-best, regardless of cost, hardcore gamers may scoff at the RTX 3090. Anyone utilizing the horsepower of the previous generation Titan RTX though, may be chomping at the bit. The GeForce RTX 3090's ultimate appeal is going to depend on the use-case, but whether or not you'll actually be able to get one is another story. The GeForce RTX 3090 is going to be available in limited quantities today -- NVIDIA said as much in yesterday's performance tease. NVIDIA pledges to make more available direct and through partners ASAP, however. We'll see how things shake out in the weeks ahead, and all bets are off when AMD's makes its RDNA2 announcements next month. NVIDIA's got a lot of wiggle room with Ampere and will likely react swiftly to anything AMD has in store. And let's not forget we still have the GeForce RTX 3070 inbound, which is going to have extremely broad appeal if NVIDIA's performance claims hold up.
In Summary: this card is a real giant, especially at higher resolutions, because even if the lead over the GeForce RTX 3080 isn’t always as high as dreamed, it’s always enough to reach the top position in playability. Right stop of many quality controllers included. Especially when the games of the GeForce RTX 3090 and the new architecture are on the line, the mail really goes off, which one must admit without envy, whereby the actual gain is not visible in pure FPS numbers. If you have looked at the page with the variances, you will quickly understand that the image is much better because it is softer. The FPS or percentiles are still much too coarse intervals to be able to reproduce this very subjective impression well. A blind test with 3 perons has completely confirmed my impression, because there is nothing better than a lot of memory, at most even more memory. Seen in this light, the RTX 3080 with 10 GB is more like Cinderella, who later has to make herself look more like Cinderella with 10 GB if she wants to get on the prince’s roller. But the customer always has something to complain about anyway (which is good by the way and keeps the suppliers on their toes) and NVIDIA keeps all options open in return to be able to top a possible Navi2x card with 16 GB memory expansion with 20 GB later. And does anyone still remember the mysterious SKU20 between the GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090? If AMD doesn’t screw it up again this time, this SKU20 is sure to become a tie-break in pixel tennis. We’ll see. For a long time I have been wrestling with myself, which is probably the most important thing in this test. I have also tested 8K resolutions, but due to the lack of current practical relevance, I put this part on the back burner. If anyone can find someone who has a spare 8K TV, I’ll be happy to do so, if only because I’m also very interested in 8K-DLSS. But that’s like sucking on an ice cream that you’ve only printed out on a laser printer before. The increase in value of the RTX 3090 in relation to the RTX 3080 for the only gamer is, up to the memory extension, to be rather neglected and one understands also, why many critics will never pay the double price for 10 to 15% more gaming performance. Because I wouldn’t either. Only this is then exactly the target group for the circulated RTX 3080 (Ti) with double memory expansion. Their price should increase visibly in comparison to the 10 GB variant, but still be significantly below that of a GeForce RTX 3090. This is not defamatory or fraudulent, but simply follows the laws of the market. A top dog always costs a little more than pure scaling, logic and reason would allow. And the non-gamer or the not-only-gamer? The added value can be seen above all in the productive area, whether workstation or creation. Studio is the new GeForce RTX wonderland away from the Triple A games, and the Quadros can slowly return to the professional corner of certified specialty programs. What AMD started back then with the Vega Frontier Edition and unfortunately didn’t continue (why not?), NVIDIA has long since taken up and consistently perfected. The market has changed and studio is no longer an exotic phrase. Then even those from about 1500 Euro can survive without a headache tablet again.
RTX 3080 was heralded by many as an excellent value graphics card, delivering performance gains of around 30% compared to the RTX 2080 Ti, despite being several hundred pounds cheaper. With the RTX 3090, Nvidia isn’t chasing value for money, but the overall performance crown. And that is exactly what it has achieved. MSI’s RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio, for instance, is 14% faster than the RTX 3080 and 50% faster than the RTX 2080 Ti, when tested at 4K. No other GPU even comes close to matching its performance. At this point, many of you reading this may be thinking something along the line of ‘well, yes, it is 14% faster than an RTX 3080 – but it is also over double the price, so surely it is terrible value?’ And you would be 100% correct in thinking that. The thing is, Nvidia knows that too – RTX 3090 is simply not about value for money, and if that is something you prioritise when buying a new graphics card, don’tbuy a 3090. Rather, RTX 3090 is purely aimed at those who don’t give a toss about value. It’s for the gamers who want the fastest card going, and they will pay whatever price to claim those bragging rights. In this case of the MSI Gaming X Trio, the cost of this GPU’s unrivalled performance comes to £1530 here in the UK. Alongside gamers, I can also see professionals or creators looking past its steep asking price. If the increased render performance of this GPU could end up saving you an hour, two hours per week, for many that initial cost will pay for itself with increased productivity, especially if you need as much VRAM as you can get.
As with any launch, the primary details are in the GPU itself, and so the first half of this conclusion is the same for both of the AIB RTX 3090 graphics cards that we are reviewing today. If you want to know specifics of this particular card, skip down the page. Last week we saw the release of the RTX 3080. A card that combined next-gen performance with a remarkably attractive price point, and was one of the easiest products to recommend we've ever seen. 4K gaming for around the £700 mark might be expensive if you're just used to consoles, but if you're a diehard member of the "PC Gaming Master Race", then you know how much you had to spend to achieve the magical 4K60 mark. It's an absolute no brainer purchase. The RTX 3090 though, that comes with more asterisks and caveats than a Lance Armstrong win on the Tour de France. Make no mistake; the RTX 3090 is brutally fast. If performance is your thing, or performance without consideration of cost, or you want to flex on forums across the internet, then yeah, go for it. For everyone else, and that's most of us, there is a lot it does well, but it's a seriously niche product. We can go to Nvidia themselves for their key phraseology. With a tiny bit of paraphrasing, they say "The RTX 3090 is for 8K gaming, or heavy workload content creators. For 4K Gaming the RTX 3080 is, with current and immediate future titles, more than enough". If you want the best gaming experience, then as we saw last week, the clear choice is the RTX 3080. If you've been following the results today then clearly the RTX 3090 isn't enough of a leap forwards to justify being twice the price of the RTX 3080. It's often around 5% faster, sometimes 10%, sometimes not much faster at all. Turns out that Gears 5 in particular looked unhappy but it was an 'auto' setting on animation increasing its own settings so we will go back with it fixed to ultra and retest. The RTX 3090 is still though, whisper it, a bit of a comedown after the heights of our first Ampere experience. To justify the staggering cost of the RTX 3090 you need to fit into one of the following groups; Someone who games at 8K, either natively or via Nvidia's DSR technology. Someone who renders enormous amounts of 3D work. We're not just talking a 3D texture or model for a game; we're talking animated short films. Although even here the reality is that you need a professional solution far beyond the price or scope of the RTX 3090. Lastly, it would be best if you were someone who renders massive, RAW, 8K video footage regularly and has the memory and storage capacity to feed such a voracious data throughput. If you fall into one of those categories, then you'll already have the hardware necessary - 8K screen or 8K video camera - that the cost of the RTX 3090 is small potatoes. In which case you'll love the extra freedom and performance it can bring to your workload, smoothing out the waiting that is such a time-consuming element of the creative process. This logic holds true for both the Gigabyte and MSI cards we're looking at on launch.
There’s no doubt that the $1,500 GeForce RTX 3090 is indeed a “big ferocious GPU,” and the most powerful consumer graphics card ever created. The Nvidia Founders Edition delivers unprecedented performance for 4K gaming, frequently maxes out games at 1440p, and can even play at ludicrous 8K resolution in some games. It’s a beast for 3440x1440 ultrawide gaming too, as our separate ultrawide benchmarks piece shows. Support for HDMI 2.1 and AV1 decoding are delicious cherries on top. If you’re a pure gamer, though, you shouldn’t buy it, unless you’ve got deep pockets and want the best possible gaming performance, value be damned. The $700 GeForce RTX 3080 offers between 85 and 90 percent of the RTX 3090’s 4K gaming performance (depending on the game) for well under half the cost. It’s even closer at 1440p. If you’re only worried about raw gaming frame rates, the GeForce RTX 3080 is by far the better buy, because it also kicks all kinds of ass at 4K and high refresh rate 1440p and even offers the same HDMI 2.1 and AV1 decode support as its bigger brother. Nvidia likes to boast that the RTX 3090 is the first 8K gaming card, and while that’s true in some games, it falls far short of the 60 frames per second mark in many triple-A titles. Consider 8K gaming a nice occasional bonus more than a core feature. If you mix work and play, though, the GeForce RTX 3090 is a stunning value—especially if your workloads tap into CUDA. It’s significantly faster than the previous-gen RTX 2080 Ti, which fell within spitting distance of the RTX Titan, and offers the same 24GB VRAM capacity of that Titan. But it does so for $1,000 less than the RTX Titan’s cost. The GeForce RTX 3090 stomps all over most of our content creation benchmarks. Performance there is highly workload-dependent, of course, but we saw speed increases of anywhere from 30 to over 100 percent over the RTX 2080 Ti in several tasks, with many falling in the 50 to 80 percent range. That’s an uplift that will make your projects render tangibly faster—putting more money in your pocket. The lofty 24GB of GDDR6X memory makes the RTX 3090 a must-have in some scenarios where the 10GB to 12GB found in standard gaming cards flat-out can’t cut it, such as 8K media editing or AI training with large data sets. That alone will make it worth buying for some people, along with the NVLink connector that no other RTX 30-series GPU includes. If you don’t need those, the RTX 3080 comes close to the RTX 3090 in raw GPU power in many tests.
NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3090 is an interesting card for many reasons, and it’s harder to summarize than the RTX 3080 was, simply due to its top-end price and goals. The RTX 3080, priced at $699, was really easy to recommend to anyone wanting a new top-end gaming solution, because compared to the last-gen 2080S, 2080 Ti, or even TITAN RTX, the new card simply trounced them all. The GeForce RTX 3090, with its $1,499 price tag, caters to a different crowd. First, there are going to be those folks who simply want the best gaming or creator GPU possible, regardless of its premium price. We saw throughout our performance results that the RTX 3090 does manage to take a healthy lead in many cases, but the gains over RTX 3080 are not likely as pronounced as many were hoping. The biggest selling-point of the RTX 3090 is undoubtedly its massive frame buffer. For creators, having 24GB on tap likely means you will never run out during this generation, and if you manage to, we’re going to be mighty impressed. We do see more than 24GB being useful for deep-learning and AI research, but even there, it’s plenty for the vast majority of users. Interestingly, this GeForce is capable of taking advantage of NVLink, so those wanting to plug two of them into a machine could likewise combine their VRAM, activating a single 48GB frame buffer. Two of these cards would cost $500 more than the TITAN RTX, and obliterate it in rendering and deep-learning workloads (but of course draw a lot more power at the same time). For those wanting to push things even harder with single GPU, we suspect NVIDIA will likely release a new TITAN at some point with even more memory. Or, that’s at least our hope, because we don’t want to see the TITAN series just up and disappear. For gamers, a 24GB frame buffer can only be justified if you’re using top-end resolutions. Not even 4K is going to be problematic for most people with a 10GB frame buffer, but as we move up the scale, to 5K and 8K, that memory is going to become a lot more useful. By now, you likely know whether or not the monstrous GeForce RTX 3090 is for you. Fortunately, if it isn’t, the RTX 3080 hasn’t gone anywhere, and it still proves to be of great value (you know – if you can find it in stock) for its $699 price. NVIDIA also has a $499 RTX 3070 en route next month, so all told, the company is going to be taking good care of its enthusiast fans with this trio of GPUs. Saying that, we still look forward to the even lower-end parts, as those could ooze value even more than the bigger cards.
Still, the performance offered by the RTX 3090 is impressive; the Gaming X is 53% faster than RTX 2080 Ti, 81% faster than RTX 2080 Super. AMD's Radeon RX 5700 XT is less than half as fast, the performance uplift vs the 3090 is 227%! AMD Big Navi better be a success. With those performance numbers RTX 3090 is definitely suited for 4K resolution gaming. Many games will run over 90 FPS, at highest details, in 4K, nearly all over 60, only Control is slightly below that, but DLSS will easily boost FPS beyond that. With RTX 3090 NVIDIA is introducing "playable 8K", which rests on several pillars. In order to connect an 8K display you previously had to use multiple cables, now you can use just a single HDMI 2.1 cable. At higher resolution, the VRAM usage goes up, RTX 3090 has you covered, offering 24 GB of memory, which is more than twice that of the 10 GB RTX 3080. Last but not least, on the software side, they added the capability to capture 8K gameplay with Shadow Play. In order to improve framerates (remember, 8K processes 16x the pixels as Full HD), NVIDIA created DLSS 8K, which renders the game at 1440p native, and scales the output by x3, in each direction, using machine learning. All of these technologies are still in its infancy, game support is limited and displays are expensive, we'll look into this in more detail in the future. 24 GB VRAM is definitely future-proof, but I'm having doubts whether you really need that much memory. Sure, more is always better, but unless you are using professional applications, you'll have a hard time finding a noteworthy difference between performance with 10 GB vs 24 GB. Games won't be an issue, because you'll run out of shading power long before you run out of VRAM, just like with older cards today, which can't handle 4K, no matter how much VRAM they have. Next-gen consoles also don't have as much VRAM, so it's hard to image that you'll miss out on any meaningful gaming experience if you have less than 24 GB VRAM. NVIDIA demonstrated several use cases in their reviewer's guide: OctaneRender, DaVinci Resolve and Blender can certainly benefit from more memory, GPU compute applications, too, but these are very niche use cases. I'm not aware of any creators who were stuck and couldn't create, because they ran out of VRAM. On the other hand the RTX 3090 could definitely turn out to be a good alternative to Quadro, or Tesla, unless you need double-precision math (you don't). Pricing of the RTX 3090 is just way too high, and a tough pill to swallow. At a starting price of $1500, it is more than twice as expensive as the RTX 3080, but not nearly twice as fast. MSI asking another $100 on top for their fantastic Gaming X Trio cooler, plus the overclock out of the box doesn't seem that unreasonable to me. We're talking about 6.6% here. The 6% performance increase due to factory OC / higher power limit can almost justify that, with the better cooler it's almost a no-brainer. While an additional 14 GB of GDDR6X memory aren't free, the $1500 base price still doesn't feel right. On the other hand, the card is significantly better than RTX 2080 Ti in every regard, and that sold for well over $1000, too. NVIDIA emphasizes that RTX 3090 is a Titan replacement—Titan RTX launched at $2500, so $1500 must be a steal for the new 3090. Part of the disappointment about the price is that RTX 3080 is so impressive, at such disruptive pricing. If RTX 3080 was $1000, then $1500 wouldn't feel as crazy—I would say $1000 is a fair price for the RTX 3090. Either way, Turing showed us that people are willing to pay up to have the best, and I have no doubt that all RTX 3090 cards will sell out today, just like RTX 3080. Obviously the "Recommended" award in this context is not for the average gamer. Rather it means, if you have that much money to spend, and are looking for a RTX 3090, then you should consider this card.
Let's be clear: the GeForce RTX 3090 is now the fastest GPU around for gaming purposes. It's also mostly overkill for gaming purposes, and at more than twice the price of the RTX 3080, it's very much in the category of GPUs formerly occupied by the Titan brand. If you're the type of gamer who has to have the absolute best, and price isn't an object, this is the new 'best.' For the rest of us, the RTX 3090 might be drool-worthy, but it's arguably of more interest to content creators who can benefit from the added performance and memory. We didn't specifically test any workloads where a 10GB card simply failed, but it's possible to find them — not so much in games, but in professional apps. We also weren't able to test 8K (or simulated 8K) yet, though some early results show that it's definitely possible to get the 3080 into a state where performance plummets. If you want to play on an 8K TV, the 3090 with its 24GB VRAM will be a better experience than the 3080. How many people fall into that bracket of gamers? Not many, but then again, $300 more than the previous generation RTX 2080 Ti likely isn't going to dissuade those with deep pockets. Back to the content creation bit, while gaming performance at 4K ultra was typically 10-15% faster with the 3090 than the 3080, and up to 20% faster in a few cases, performance in several professional applications was consistently 20-30% faster — Blender, Octane, and Vray all fall into this group. Considering such applications usually fall into the category of "time is money," the RTX 3090 could very well pay for itself in short order compared to the 3080 for such use cases. And compared to an RTX 2080 Ti or Titan RTX? It's not even close. The RTX 3090 often delivered more than double the rendering performance of the previous generation in Blender, and 50-90% better performance in Octane and Vray. The bottom line is that the RTX 3090 is the new high-end gaming champion, delivering truly next-gen performance without a massive price increase. If you've been sitting on a GTX 1080 Ti or lower, waiting for a good time to upgrade, that time has arrived. The only remaining question is just how competitive AMD's RX 6000, aka Big Navi, will be. Even with 80 CUs, on paper, it looks like Nvidia's RTX 3090 may trump the top Navi 2x cards, thanks to GDDR6X and the doubling down on FP32 capability. AMD might offer 16GB of memory, but it's going to be paired with a 256-bit bus and clocked quite a bit lower than 19 Gbps, which may limit performance.
Going through old issues of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and posting highlights in my own words, continuing in the footsteps of daprice82. For anyone interested, I highly recommend signing up for the actual site at f4wonline and checking out the full archives. FUTURE YEARS ARCHIVE: The Complete Observer Rewind Archive by daprice82
Update on the Terry Taylor car accident. Last week Dave mentioned that Taylor was injured, but didn’t have much in the way of details other than the story that they were side swiped. We now know that he was riding in the back seat and Gilbert slammed the brakes when the car pulled out in front of them. Gilbert hit the brakes so hard that the seat belt around Taylor’s waist cut him from the impact (Dave says he “was literally cut in two by the belt around the abdomen”). The shoulder straps on Gilbert and Hyatt kept them from suffering similarly, and it’s likely if any of them hadn’t been wearing their seatbelts they would not have survived. He spent the past week in a New Orleans hospital and had part of his intestine removed, as well as his appendix, in addition to the repair work on his abdominal muscles. His earliest return date is speculated to be September, but November is much more likely. UWF plans include several interviews and promos to keep him fresh in viewers’ minds. What’s going to be tricky is that he had just made a major heel turn (Dave would say his newly turned character was the hottest act in UWF), but coming back from an injury like this is going to mean he’s an automatic babyface upon return. So that’s going to be a hell of a needle to thread. Taylor’s surgery required 18 staples in his stomach, and if the injuries had been even slightly more severe his career would be over.
Also in a car wreck last week were the New Breed, Chris Champion and Sean Royal. Dave only has sketchy details on that. The accident happened about a day or two after Taylor’s and was in North Carolina. Initial estimates had Champion out for at least a year and Royal out for a minimum of two months. After a few days of recovery, Champion’s estimated return is as early as the end of August. Both men went through the windshield of their car, and fire was involved somehow as well. Both were treated for cuts, bruises, and burns (3rd degree in Royal’s case).
Continuing the theme of motor vehicle accidents, Kerry Von Erich had his bad ankle (from a motorcycle accident last year) fused about a week ago. Doctors couldn’t do much beyond basically weld the joint into walking position. There’s no flexibility or dexterity left in that joint, and Dave sees this as the end of Kerry’s career for all intents and purposes. No doubt he’ll have comebacks and gimmick matches, but a full recovery is out of the question enough that Dave never sees him resuming a legitimate wrestling career. Just wait until Dave learns Kerry doesn’t even have a foot.
New Japan has a whole lot of weird stuff happening in the wake of Riki Choshu’s June 1 return. They did three shows in 12 days that grossed $190,000 gates each and Antonio Inoki pinned Masa Saito on June 12 at Sumo Hall to win the IWGP tournament. After the match, Choshu stormed the ring with Tatsumi Fujinami, Akira Maeda, Super Strong Machine, and Kengo Kimura to announce they were forming a new group (a new faction, not a new promotion, Dave clarifies). So all the Fujinami/Choshu matches they’d built toward aren’t going to happen. Why would New Japan drop all the hot angles they’d built up and knew would draw massive gates for an angle that will work, but probably won’t draw nearly as much? They’re still in a weird position, too, as TV-Asahi hasn’t broadcast any match involving Choshu for fear of legal retaliation by Nippon TV, so all Choshu’s appearances at tv tapings have been in dark matches after the taping, which has the additional effect of bumping Inoki’s matches from “main event” status for the live crowd. So while gates are booming, tv ratings are still poor due to no Choshu.
Dave spent the weekend in Houston, Texas with a few readers at Crockett’s Western States tournament card on June 20. The show drew about 3,400 fans for a $20,000 gate, and the show was good, but UWF is hurting for main event heels without Taylor. Black Bart of all people was in the finals. Dave thinks Crockett should make a play for the Midnight Rockers and turn them heel. By the way, Dave didn’t mention it last week, but the Rockers don’t have jobs anymore. He makes a joke about it when talking about Shane Douglas (who was in the opening battle royal on this show), and says that Douglas in two years might end up where Shawn Michaels is now (not out of a job, but as a star teenybopper babyface who puts on good matches). Anyway, he reviews the rest of the show as well and the final of the tournament saw Barry Windham beat Black Bart in a match where 20% of the crowd left before it even started. Surprisingly the match wound up really good anyway.
There’s a tape called “Secrets of Pro Wrestling” that came out last week. The brochure for it says two ex pros who got a raw deal from promoters are going to expose the business. Dave hopes nothing comes of this.
A judge overturned the ruling in the Big Daddy (not the UK Big Daddy) vs. Dusty Rhodes lawsuit. This is the suit where Big Daddy claimed his career was ended by being told by Dusty to bump over the top rope, whereupon he broke his ankle. He won the initial ruling on the grounds that Dusty’s response to the court’s attempts to reach him were completely uncooperative. But about a week ago a judge ruled that the ruling was too harsh against Dusty when Dusty didn’t have a chance to defend himself, so it’s been overturned.
Iron Sheik will get a year of probation for cocaine possession. All charges will be dropped upon completion of probation. No word on how his career will be affected, but he’s still officially “suspended” by WWF.
WWF injury updates: Jake Roberts is back early. He’s in great pain, but he got back in the ring on June 19. Harley Race still wrestled Hogan on June 6 and is making his dates, despite tearing knee ligaments. Dave believes he’s going to be taking a break in about a week.
WWF debuts: Chavo Guerrero is set to debut at the June 23 tv tapings. Billy Graham will be on the following tapings on July 15-16. Jack Hart will be coming in from Memphis in mid-July, but since they have Bret and Jimmy, they’ll probably want to give him a new last name. Dingo Warrior is in WWF on the c-team level (more on him when we get to World Class).
So the big news with the Midnight Rockers is this: they got fired after just one match. That’s gotta be a new record. Apparently they and McMahon didn’t see eye to eye and got let go after a week. They were demanding money and the tag titles, it seems, and McMahon just didn’t want the headache. So out they go. Guess we’ll never know what they could have been in WWF. I bet that Marty Janetty could have become something. Michaels could make a good heartthrob, but I just don’t see him going beyond that level.
[WWF] Ted DiBiase has made some c-string appearances for WWF already, working as a babyface. But he’ll be pushed when he gets to television in early August as a heel with some kind of rich playboy gimmick.
So Dingo Warrior is out of WCCW. He went to the Von Erichs and demanded a guaranteed contract and something like $1500/month (hardly unreasonable) but was turned down. He went to UWF, but they didn’t want him. He finally settled on the WWF c-string deal where he’s not on tv and not getting a push. He was supposed to have a world title match with Kevin Von Erich, but that’s been scrapped and World Class has announced that Al Perez beat Dingo Warrior “in the Carribean” for the Texas Title.
World Class shows their class, double hitter. First, they did a lumberjack match at a recent show where Brian Adias beat Al Madril following a punch to the neck, with all the babyfaces rushing in to try and revive Madril (recreating the scene from a few weeks back where Kevin Von Erich legitimately passed out). On commentary they were acting like they were in fear for Madril’s life. And coming up on June 26 in Dallas, they’re giving away free posters of Mike Von Erich to attract fans, as well as letting all fathers in free (they’re now doing a gimmick each week where all fathers/mothers/kids/teens/whatevers get in free in an attempt to get enough of an audience for the show to look remotely good on tv). Attendance is higher with the free admission, but the gates aren’t growing at all.
Oklahoma newspapers were saying Jim Ross offered Brian Bosworth $25,000 to be in Steve Williams’ corner for a match in UWF. No doubt UWF would love to have Bosworth, but Dave doubts they’ll do it because they already have an Oklahoma University tie-in happening for the July 11 Oklahoma City show (Barry Switzer’s doing stuff with Williams then).
New Japan is doing good business with Choshu able to actually wrestle. Nothing really new from last issue on this front, but they have pretty much eliminated comedy from their tv.
All Japan’s next tour begins July 3 and ends July 30, but the big show on their current tour on June 9 was announced as a sellout in Budokan Hall (should be a $400,000 gate if legit). But All Japan announces a sellout in Tokyo any time they come near 4000 seats sold, let alone the 12,000 they’d need for Budokan Hall. Dave hopes to have real numbers in a week or two. That featured Giant Baba vs. Rajah Lion lasting 1:44 with Baba securing a submission and having Lion request that Baba train him so he can be the tallest pro wrestler in the world. Dave’s not seen the match, but going by photos he estimates Lion to be five or six inches taller than Baba, who is legit around 6’8” or so.
[AJW] The Crush Gals had another match on June 13. Lioness Asuka beat Chigusa Nagayo here, and Dave notes that their matches are the best there are in wrestling, with FlaiWindham not even a close second.
[AWA] A couple trivia notes: Sheik Adnan al-Kaissey placed in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics in Greco-Roman wrestling in the 198 lb weight class. He didn’t represent the U.S. or Iraq, though, but Greece, where he was born. Wahoo McDaniel’s little league coach when he was a boy was current Vice President George Bush.
A while back, Dave said something about wanting Crockett to not focus the cameras on Magnum T.A. while he struggles to get into position for interviews. A letter writer takes exception to that with what Dave agrees is an excellent point: we should be applauding Magnum’s struggles rather than turning our heads and pretending they don’t exist, as this “is a classic example of the general public’s tendency to have the physically impaired heard, but not seen.” Crockett has an opportunity to make its audience face what has happened to Magnum, and hiding it does nothing good for anybody.
In the letters, Mike Lanzalotti comes in with what seems like a preposterous take: WWF will be the only game in town. He writes that it’s looking more and more like this will be the case, but he does think it’ll kill Macho Man to turn him face (see how well it worked in Memphis). As for Crockett, what Lanzalotti thinks is necessary for them to compete, is to offer something completely different and also combine Florida, JCP, and UWF into one big promotion - it’s an insult to Ric Flair and even Hulk Hogan to call Big Bubba a world champion. Combining all three into one thing wound up being part of the transition to WCW, and WWF eventually does become the only game in town, so maybe Lanzalotti was on to something.
[WWF] Dave thinks this is kind of an amazing statistic. At the June 16 Albuquerque card, they had only 1705 fans. When they announced Hulk Hogan would appear on July 20, more than 2000 tickets were purchased within 30 minutes of the announcement. Curious.
Details on the split between Dave McLane and GLOW. McLane and the guys in charge of GLOW had a disagreement on the content. The financial backers wanted more T&A and comedy, while McLane felt the show would die on tour if it continued like that. So he left and took 21 of the 26 wrestlers with him to form POWW. And they’re teaching them how to actually wrestle. They had a date scheduled for Felt Forum in Madison Square Garden for June 20, but canceled it until October, citing a lack of exposure in the area. POWW is scheduling a show in Miami for August and will start syndication in September (most of the women in POWW will also be on GLOW in September because they’ve already filmed season 2 of GLOW). So in case you get confused, remember that the GLOW tapings were last year when none of them knew how to wrestle. Same women on both shows, but different names. Dave saw a demo tape for POWW and while the wrestling isn’t good, it’s much better than GLOW and some of the promos are actually good (and it shows that a lot of the wrestlers did high school drama).
NEXT ISSUE:More on why the Rockers got fired, Paul Heyman fired from Memphis, WWF does a drug test
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. 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. 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. 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!
Warcraft III | Introduction | Beginner Guides | Community Links
1. Subreddit Info
Welcome to warcraft3, the official Blizzard recognized subreddit for all related topics. Content and discussions can range from the base game, campaign/lore, custom games, competitive ladder, memes, esports, modding, art, and more! Please see the rules on the right hand side. Official Discord: Warcraft 3 United - Players and representatives from hundreds of WC3 communities gathered in one place!
2. Basic Game Info
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (2002) is a real time strategy game set in the fantasy universe of Azeroth. The game combines classic RTS mechanics with RPG elements as you play through the Human, Orc, Night Elf, and Undead campaigns. Warcraft III: Reforged (2020) acts as a graphical remaster accompanied with major infrastructural upgrades and many new features.
Already own the classic game(RoC)? Redeem your keys here you get access to Reforged with classic graphics.
2a. Gameplay and Game Modes Warcraft III presents itself as an accessible yet highly dynamic game. Besides the melee mode, there exists many different ways of playing the game - solo or in multiplayer with up to 23 other players. It is a fusion of lore-heavy campaigns, competitive match-based gameplay, a diverse custom game selection, a thriving esports scene, endless modding and artistic possibilities, and more. 2b. Standard or Melee
RANKED MODES: 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, and FFA
OBJECTIVE: Gather resources, build a base, train your army, level your hero, and totally destroy the enemy base and army.
SPECIFICS: Balance micro (swift decision making, individual unit control, movement, ability usage, hero exp/items) and macro (resources, buildings, army upkeep, expansion). The high level of competition has led to WC3 becoming a prominent esport that still has a thriving to this day!
CUSTOM GAME TYPES: Genres include hero arenas, campaigns, strategies, RPGs, tower defenses, mini-games, and even the unique shooter or 2D platformer.
SPECIFICS: Popular maps include DotA, Footies, Wintermaul, Legion TD, etc. Thousands more maps can be played competitively, creatively, or casually. The World Editor, WC3's modding tool, has allowed maps to essentially become unique games within the client. It is famous for the creation of DotA which has pioneered MOBA genre.
3. Guides, Tutorials, and FAQ
THE CAMPAIGN TEACHES BEGINNERS THE GAME BETTER THAN ANY GUIDE! THE STORY IS WORTH IT! In addition, the Classic War3 Battle.net site provides explanations and statistics for all the gameplay features and races in the game. The guides below are largely based on introductory concepts relating to each scene, so they are beginner friendly under the assumption that you've already familiarized with the base game. You'll also find more niche and advanced guides if you dig through the websites hosting the provided links. 3a. Competitive Melee and Ladder Guides
GRAPHICS MOD: The Quenching Mod is an open source program intend to enhance the graphics of Warcraft III: Reforged.
3c. Custom Game Guides
There are an endless amount custom game tips and pointers that would suit your needs for each map, whether it be for DotA or your favorite TD. Your best bet is to visit communities that specialize in the custom game you are interested in!
3d. FAQ
Where can I play online? The built in battle.net is the official server excluding China. There are 3rd party servers that are not supported by Blizzard, in which warcraft3 does not support nor condone.
Where/how to Play Reforged? You need to have purchased the game. In the BNetApp at the WC3 tab you have the Install/Play button.
How do I host? HOSTING IS INSTANT NOW. No port forwarding, no bots (on Reforged).
Is Reforged worth it? That in the end is up to you, we suggest that you look into the maps/modes you would like to play. This post have some comments about events from a veteran player's point of view. Also as previous mentioned if you have the Reign of Chaos you already have access to the Classic(SD) version and if you do buy the Reforged version and don't like it you can easily Refund it here.
How do I find games? You can checkout game lists like: w3maps/w3stats or use the ingame search/filter function ingame (the box where game names are).
What is PTR? PTR also known as the Public Test Realm is what one might call a beta-server. Where players can test incoming patches and provide blizzard with feedback. The old PTR had a separate installer but now it's a "drop-down" option beside the main game and server options.
Where can I download the latest patch? Current patches are downloaded automatically through battle.net if you have an official copy. Also see patch history.
Is Blizzard's new ladder done/working yet? At the moment no it's still in the works. However W3Champions is a community made ladder that a lot of players use.
Which realms are more populated? For ladder, the Europe (former) Northrend realm has the highest activity but Americas (former) Azeroth & Lordaeron can be more during American times. 1v1 and 4v4 are the most active ladders. Custom game activity is huge and is and can be played on all realms.
Anyone know name of [blank] map? When asking this question, please provide as much information as possible. Things like describing the gameplay, the theme, terrain visuals, and possible names should be considered and described to the best of your ability to increase the chances. Don't forget to check map databases on your own first, though!
Is the community alive? Yes, it is absolutely bustling. See below!
4. Community Directory
Here you can find communities, websites, social media outlets, and content creators whom have elected to post in our affiliate section on discord. There are few exceptions to communities that are not partnered with us that could be considered essential that have been included. Visit our discord for more information on these communities, or visit them yourself! TIP: USE CTRL+F to search! Terminology: LFG = Looking For Game is a term used for any arranged gaming. Clans are by nature LFG groups, but are generally more specialized and tightly nit. Streamer = Used for most types of Content Creators. 4a. Melee, Ladder, and Esports
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. 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. 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!
Value betting is taking advantage of overpriced odds that are higher than their true probability. Simply put, when value betting, you will be placing bets that have a larger chance of winning than implied by their odds. When I was matched betting regularly, I was easily making around £200-£300 a month in just a few hours each week matched betting. In my best month, I made nearly £600. The more time you spend, the more you can earn. (Disclosure: I put my own matched betting on hold recently when I was preparing to apply for a mortgage because I didn’t want ... NFL in particular was an absolute Gravy train and in terms of time vs return 2-up can’t be beaten IMO. ... There aren’t many bookies that will do that just because you have done some traditional matched betting. Check out the OddsMonkey forum for more advice on avoiding gubbings etc and also more general info… it’s an absolute treasure ... OddsMonkey provides matched betting training and assistance, boasting years of experience in the industry. Originally, they provided other matched betting sites with their revolutionary oddsmatching software (which tracks the odds on bookmakers and betting exchanges). They then moved on to offer their own full matched betting service in April 2016. 2nd trip for us (both paid for 100% with Matched Betting btw ) Went last year and stayed at the Doubletree Hilton at Seaworld which was an AMAZING resort! It had 3 pools, mini golf thing, the rooms were brilliant as well and the staff were great.
Was I Good Enough? (UK Football Trials Match Analysis ...
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