Almost anyone who does Matched Betting regularly will eventually end up keeping a large cash float in their exchange accounts. This money is an obvious target for hackers, don’t let them steal your cash!

But wait, Can’t they only withdraw back to my own card?

All of the major bookmaker and exchange sites try to limit the appeal of hacks by only letting you withdraw deposited money back to the card/account which was originally used. The theory being that it would be pointless to hack into an account if all they could do is withdraw the cash back to it’s rightful owner. However the bookmaker will let you withdraw any additional funds to new sources. For instance if you deposit £500 into Betfair you must withdraw at least £500 back to that same card before you can withdraw anything extra to a different one. What a hacker will do is get into your account and then start doing very large casino or sports bets in the hope of hitting a big win. If they make a large enough profit they will then withdraw your original cash back to your card and anything extra back to theirs.

2 Factor Authentication helps protect your exchange account by requiring a unique code every time you log in. This code is generated by your mobile phone so someone would need to have physical access to your phone in order to log into your account. The codes constantly change and are only valid for a small time period so even if a hacker could get hold of one of your old codes it still wouldn’t let them access your account.

There is absolutely no reason why you should not be using 2 factor authentication!

It is free, takes a minute to set up and is very easy to use.

Both Betfair and Smarkets have 2 factor authentication. They both have instructions on setting it up:

Betfair 2 Factor Guide

Smarkets 2 Factor Guide