I was the same when I got started [member=1118]misseb[/member] ...too many numbers and I was like wahhhhh!
You should get the majority, but not all, of your money back. Because it's a qualifying bet you will have a qualifying loss. So, in your example if you are putting a qualifying bet on for £5.00 in order to complete an offer then you should be looking at a qualifying loss which is less than 50p. Then you get your free bet, place that and get your profit and keep in mind that you need to subtract your qualifying loss from your overall profit.
Example:
Offer: Bet £5 get a £5 free bet
Qualifying bet: Leicester-Arsenal, Leicester to win 3.5/3.65 on Smarkets. I place a £5 back bet at the bookies and the calculator tells me that I should lay £4.82 on Smarkets with a liability of £12.77 and that my qualifying loss will be 27p.
Possible outcome 1: Leicester do win. My bet wins at the bookies. I win £12.50 at the bookies. I lose £12.77 at Smarkets (liability amount). Overall I am 27p DOWN.
Possible outcome 2: Leicester do not win. My bet loses at the bookies. I lose my £5.00 at the bookies. I win my lay bet at Smarkets, which is £4.73. Overall I am 27p DOWN.
Overall, in either outcome: I am 27p DOWN but I have triggered the offer and receive a £5 free bet from the bookies.
Then you use your free £5 bet, and let's say you manage to get about £3.80 from that bet. Bearing in mind that you started off 27p down, that means your overall profit is £3.53.
I hope that makes sense! So basically you are NEVER at risk of losing all of your money as long as you back and lay your bets correctly. You will always incur a small qualifying loss because the odds at the exchange will be higher than the odds at the bookies for whatever you bet on. The aim is to keep the qualifying losses as low as possible so you can extract more profit from offers.
If you want me to look over your first bet before you place it then just tag me and I can help