As you may be aware, the bookies are watching us all. Yes, by using spyware and other monitoring tools like iesnare, they are watching the online activity of their customers to see if they are doing matched betting, arbing and other strategies designed to beat the bookies.
The bookies’ business model is based on the vast majority of punters losing money. Most studies have put the figure at between 98% and 99.5% of punters losing money in the long run.
Matched Betting Changes the Game
In recent years this has started to change though, down in large part to matched betting – the technique of systematically exploiting the bookies free bets and bonuses using the exchanges to ensure risk-free profit.
You may well be a matched bettor yourself, using one of the excellent products like Profit Maximiser that bring together all the bookies offers in one place and shows how to exploit them.
Matched betting has become a huge industry in itself and recent reports have suggested it is costing the bookies approximately £20m per month.
Indeed, some people have turned matched betting into a full-time career, earning £20,000 to £30,000 per year from it.
The Empire (i.e. Bookies) Strikes Back
Unsurprisingly, the bookies are not happy about this. Not happy at all.
And what made things worse for the bookies was that they had a problem in identifying matched bettors. Shrewd matched bettors have been using techniques such as mug betting to disguise their activity, making it look like they were poor punters taking the occasional free bet or bonus.
So the bookies felt there was no option but to resort to spying on us. This has been well documented elsewhere and the bookies do not seem to even deny it.
They can track all of your activity using special spyware – which websites you visit, where you click, what bets you place – and yes, they can see you matched betting.
You won’t even know they are doing it – it is all done completely quietly in the background.
The Empire had struck back.
Some would – and indeed have – questioned the legality of this. For the time being though, it is legal and the authorities such as the Gambling Commission have generally seemed to be more on the side of the bookies rather than the punter.
In any event, once the bookies have seen you matched betting then the chances are they are going to shut you down – by closing your accounts, stake-limiting you or removing the free bet and bonus offers from your account.
Turning the Tables Back to the Punter
So, it appeared that in the long-running battle between bookie and punter, the former had won.
That is until now, with a company developing a solution to stop the bookies spying on us.
The tool in question is called Jolly Lock IP and it significantly reduces the chances of having your bookie accounts closed.
It is a fully functioning protection tool that stops spyware and other monitoring techniques from tracking your activity. It has been designed specifically for bettors. The market has been crying out for something like this and thankfully it has arrived.
Basically, Jolly Lock IP is a specifically designed VPN for bettors that has significant advantages over traditional VPNs:
- Jolly Lock IP allows you to run multiple IPs per computer and doesn’t just restrict you to one
- It can run with FLASH websites, as opposed to other VPNs that can’t and therefore reveal the underlying IP when playing things such as online games and casinos.
- Some VPNs will use IPs that have already been used before and therefore appear on a banned IPs list that the bookies have access to. You will not have this with Jolly Lock which will issue a completely new IP.
- Jolly Lock will also issue a dedicated static UK based IP address.
Because the IP is a UK one, you can even use it to bet when you are abroad, something you may have found a real problem if you have been on holiday to places like France and Spain recently!
So What About Setting it up?
Well it’s all pretty simple really. Just a standard download and install, all takes just a few minutes and has full instructions so you can’t go wrong really. It works with both Windows and Mac, so all bases are covered.
Once you have installed it, you just click on the Jolly Lock icon on your desktop, sign in and away you go. You just open the websites you want as normal and start betting.
Is it Any Good?
Well it certainly does what it says on the tin.
Flash loads with no problem, it runs fast and there are no problems using sites like Betfair, which all run completely smoothly.
I have been doing some matched betting with it and to date have experienced no problems with the bookies at all, so that is a very good sign.
In terms of cost, it is on a par with other VPNs so if you were thinking of switching to a VPN then Jolly Lock should be the choice of all gamblers going forward now.
This really could change the game completely in the centuries-long battle between punters and bookies. If you are doing any matched betting at all or are a successful gambler than this piece of kit should be essential for you.
Plus it is nice not to have people spying on you!
We thoroughly recommend Jolly Lock IP and you can try it out by clicking here.
