Sports arbitrage betting
Arbitrage sports betting is a proven way to get regular risk free profits from the massive online fixed odds betting market. In a way it’s like a swoop and scoop of regular small profits from pitting one fixed odds bookmaker against another.
Sports arbitrage betting takes it’s 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 is where someone 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 a lot of fixed odds bookmakers don’t want you to know this information….but sports arbitrage betting is legal and doesn’t harm the bookmakers business in any case. 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 as you’ll learn is totally guaranteed.
What sort of budget should I start with for sports arbitrage trading?
Well, this is your decision. Depending on your level of experience we would suggest free sport 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 sport arbitrage trading can be added to your bank. If you decided to invest a percentage of you bank each time your stake and you 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 forms the basis of a sports arbitrage bet. Simply the under round is when the total number of probabilities priced by the odds on that event are below 100%. A typical under round is where you would have to 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 outcome of the event without any need for 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.
Lets have a look at how these sports arbitrage bets might look.
Back / back sports arbitrage
In the week of October 7th there were many arbs between 3% and up 9.17% for the European Championship Qualifiers played that week. Several of these sport arb opportunities lasted longer than normal because of the massive amount of 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 Poland 77.951%, Draw 15.033% and Latvia 7.016% you would guarantee a profit of 5.23% regardless of the outcome of the match.
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 now 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 actually 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 sportsbook, 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. In short mistakes can and do happen. Taking this into account and the difference in time zones you get hundreds of opportunities for sports arbitrage trading every week.
Take two examples.
When England play soccer most bets with UK bookmakers will be supporting England. Bookmakers may offer the opposition at an inflated price to create a balanced book.
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 just in these two sports alone. We only need two bookmakers from the many available to have a difference of opinion in one of these markets to create an opportunity.
Back / lay sports arbitrage betting
You can also find a sport arb between the back and lay price (win / lose) for the event. Back / lay sports arbitrage betting has been made easier due to betting exchanges like Betfair. A betting exchange allows members to lay an event (e.g. for a horse to lose). A back / lay sports arbitrage bet occurs when the price offered by a bookmaker is higher than the lay 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 favourite 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 just 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 sports arbitrage services which are available. 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. There are some specific bookmakers who suit sports arbitrage betting because they allow a high stake size. As you’ll learn it is important to have a bookmaker who allows a high stake 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 by fixed odds bookmaker account?
When you know which fixed odds bookmakers are presenting a sports arbitrage opportunity log into your account with each bookmaker. Have the fixed odds betting terminal of each bookmaker open in a separate browser window. Enter your stake in each one. Click confirm quickly one after the other and you sports arbitrage risk free profit is secured.