Arbitrage sports betting is a proven way to get regular risk-free profits from the massive online fixed odds market. In a way, it’s like a swoop and scoop of steady small profits from pitting one fixed-odds bookmaker against another.
Sports arbitrage betting takes its origins from arbitrage trading in financial markets. In financial markets, an arbitrage trade exploits the difference in the price of a listed company on a stock market in different countries. Sports arbitrage trading regularly trades price inconsistencies between fixed odds bookmakers on the same sporting event. After all, bookmakers are only human, and they make mistakes. These mistakes can be exploited by someone who wants to spot them.
In truth, many fixed odds bookmakers don’t want you to know this information, but sports arbitrage betting is legal and doesn’t harm the bookmakers’ business. The returns you can expect from sports arbitrage trading are limited only by the fixed odds bookmakers who cap the stake size. The only investment needed with a ‘sport arb’ is your betting stake, which, you’ll learn, is guaranteed.
What sort of budget should I start with for sports arbitrage trading?
Well, this is your decision. Depending on your experience level, we suggest free sports arbitrage betting with the free bets available from online fixed odds bookmakers. You can increase your budget with your level of confidence. The winnings with sports arbitrage trading can be added to your bank. If you decide to invest a percentage of your bank each time, your stake and profit will increase accordingly.
How do bookmakers lose their money?
Sports arbitrage trading is all about spotting inconsistencies between different bookmakers’ prices that regularly exist. As a result of mistakes by fixed-odds bookmakers, an under-round occurs. An under-round form is the basis of a sports arbitrage bet. Simply the under band is when the total number of probabilities priced by the odds on that event are below 100%.
A typical under round is where you must invest £96 to get the bookmaker to pay you £100. Using this example, a sports arbitrage bet would give you a return of 4%. You can expect a return of around 4% for sports arbitrage bets. Sometimes you will get more than 4%.
Sports arbitrage bets win regardless of the event’s outcome without needing expert knowledge of sports betting or sports. This is one of the reasons sports arbitrage betting has a popular following. There are two sides to any fixed odds bet, back and lay. Sports arbitrage bets come as back / back bets or back / lay bets. Let’s have a look at how these sports arbitrage bets might look.
Back/back sports arbitrage.
On October 7th, many arbs were between 3% and up 9.17% for the European Championship Qualifiers played that week. Several of these sports arb opportunities lasted longer than usual because of the massive interest in the games.
An example of one sport arb that week is given below: –
Poland Vs. Latvia You could bet: – Latvia at 15.0 with Bet365 or Eurobet The Draw at 7.0 Luvbet Poland at 1.35 with several bookmakers including Unibet.com and Nordicbet.com. The odds have been converted to a percentage to make it easier to visualize. By splitting your total stake in Poland at 77.951%, Draw at 15.033%, and Latvia at 7.016%, you would guarantee a profit of 5.23% regardless of the match’s outcome.
i.e.
Poland 77.951 x 1.35 = 105.23 Draw 15.033 x 7 = 105.23 Latvia 7.016 x 15 = 105.23
Why do these pricing inconsistencies or under-round prices occur?
As bookmakers can now operate online, there are hundreds of online fixed odds bookmakers. They are all competing with one another and are located in various countries and time zones. To be the person who prices a particular sportsbook, you have to have a massive amount of knowledge of that sport.
To compete, fixed odds bookmakers offer loads of sports in their sportsbooks, but there isn’t the expertise to cover every sport. They may have the relevant stats, but they can’t possibly know every participant and every event. Considering this and the difference in time zones, you get hundreds of opportunities for sports arbitrage trading every week. In short, mistakes can and do happen.
Take two examples.
Bookmakers may offer the opposition at an inflated price to create a balanced book. When England plays soccer, most bets with UK bookmakers will support England. In a typical week with four golf tournaments and a couple of tennis events, bookmakers may have to price up 800 or so outright odds plus over 400 matches in these two sports alone. To create an opportunity, we only need two bookmakers from the many available to differ in one of these markets.
Back / lay sports arbitrage betting.
Back / lay sports arbitrage betting has been made easier due to betting exchanges like Betfair. A betting exchange allows members to apply for an event (e.g., for a horse to lose). You can also find a sports arb between the event’s back and lay price (win/lose). A back / lay sports arbitrage bet occurs when the price offered by a bookmaker is higher than the earthly price available on a betting exchange for the same selection.
The difference between the two represents your profit. Often a bookmaker can be slow to change the price on a favorite when something has happened to reduce the odds. As the price drops on the betting exchange, you profit by laying low with the betting exchange and backing high with the bookmaker.
How do we find sports arbitrage bets?
Finding sports arbitrage bets can be time-consuming. Spotting them is relatively easy. You convert the opposing odds on an event to a percentage and see if they add up to less than 100%. Instead of trawling odds comparison sites, we recommend using one of the available sports arbitrage services. These companies use software to search for sports arbitrage bets for you.
What is the first step to successful sports arbitrage trading?
Sports arbitrage opportunities can spring up anywhere; a fixed-odds bookmaker in the USA, UK, Europe, or Australia. The first step is to open an account with a selection of online fixed odds bookmakers. Some specific bookmakers suit sports arbitrage betting because they allow a high stake size. As you’ll learn, having a bookmaker who allows a high stake is essential when you consider you are making around 4% on each sports arbitrage bet.
How do I set up a sports arbitrage bet once I have opened my fixed odds bookmaker account?
When you know which fixed odds bookmakers present a sports arbitrage opportunity, log into your account with each bookmaker. Have each bookmaker’s fixed odds betting terminal open in a separate browser window. Enter your stake in each one. Click confirm quickly one after the other, and your sports arbitrage risk-free profit is secured.
