It's not often you come across genuine free money. Here's my guide to making it through betting sites. You might be thinking I'm talking out of my arse, but I promise you this is zero risk, although it does require a small amount of capital.

Almost every betting site tries its best to pull punters in. To do this, the majority of them offer initial sign up promotions and bonuses. This is where the free money is to be had. I'll try to keep this guide as brief as possible by using an example.

Step 1

Locate a betting site. In this example we'll use Ladbrokes (there are a number to choose from that offer similar promotions).

The Ladbrokes promotion is a £50 free bet sign up offer; you deposit £50, make a £50 bet and once the bet settles (regardless of whether you win or lose the bet), you receive a £50 FREE bet.

Step 2

To make this free money, you must hedge yourself. The most efficient way of doing this is by using Betfair exchange.

Let's take a horse race for this example. Using the £50 you deposited, you place that on Jameerah to win.:

To hedge yourself, you 'lay' the horse on Betfair:

The outcomes:

1) The horse wins - you win £200 on Ladbrokes. You lose £205.80 on bet fair. You are net/net £5.80 down.

2) The horse loses - you lose your £50 stake on Ladbrokes. You win £46.55 on Betfair Exchange (Betfair charges 5% commission on winnings on the exchange). You are net/net £3.45 down.

In both outcomes, you lose a small amount of money but gain the £50 free bet.

Step 3

You now have the £50 free bet. You can go about using this free bet in a number of ways. The most profitable, long-term thing to do is to back and lay again on Bet Fair. You can tweak the amount you choose to back/lay for to your liking. If you can't be bothered to go through the effort of backing and laying again, you can simply enjoy the £50 free bet (which either cost you £3.45 or £5.80, in this example).

Ladbrokes is just one example of some of the promotions out there. Here is a list of the most popular promotions out there;

http://www.oddschecker.com/free-bets

Please note: some promotions are harder to unlock than others. Ladbrokes is one of the easier ones with a simple 'make a bet and receive a free bet' promotion.

I'm happy to help anyone with any questions they have about the process or which promos are the best. This is genuinely free money. You can make an account for your mum, your sister, your friend (as long as they live at different addresses) and could comfortably make a few £hundred, if not close to £1,000. Not bad for zero risk.