Arbitrage Betting Explained – Beginner’s Guide

The essence of betting (gambling) is to beat the house. Beating the house fills bettors with immense joy and happiness while at the same time allowing them to fatten their wallets. However, not many players are capable of beating the house. Some suffer huge losses which demotivate them, in some instances, leading them to ditch gambling. Fortunately, there are some proven strategies which guarantee that every time a player places a bet, they win and hence beat the dealer! One such strategy is arbitrage betting also known as ‘arbing’.

An In-Depth Look at Arbitrage Betting

Arbitrage betting is a sports betting strategy which enables players to beat the dealer. When perfectly implemented, players are guaranteed to win regardless of the bets they place. Pleased with what you are hearing? Well, let’s now get into the juicy details illustrating how the strategy works.

When players choose to use the arbitrage betting strategy, they will have to bet on all possible outcomes of an event. In essence, this means if betting on a tennis match, punters bet for both Player A and Player B. Likewise, when betting on football matches and other team sports, they place three bets – one for the Home Team, another for the Away Team and a Draw bet.

To put the above into perspective, it’s possible for bettors who source for arbitrage opportunities to find favourable odds for all outcomes of the same event, often, at different sportsbooks. Suppose at one sportsbook the odds for the Home Team are 4.5, at another bookie the odds for the Away Team are 4 and Draw bet odds for the same event are 2 at another bookmaker, a punter with $195 may bet $45 for the Home Team, $50 for the Away Team and $100 for the Draw bet. Regardless of the outcome of the match, the punter is guaranteed to win a payout in this instance. If the Home Team wins, a $7.50 profit is guaranteed while an Away Team win or a Draw bet result rewards the player with a $5 profit.

Applying the Arbitrage Betting Strategy

When it comes to the actual implementation of the strategy, the first thing that players need to do is to source for the arbitrage opportunities. The best way to do this is to visit as many reputable sportsbooks as possible. At each of these sportsbooks, players need to source for arbitrage opportunities by considering the following factors:

• Look for Ridiculously High Odds: Owing to the desire to retain existing punters as well as attract new ones, some sportsbooks at times do offer ridiculously high odds. In such an event, punters with an observant eye can find great arbitrage opportunities.
• Spot sportsbooks’ shortcomings and errors: Sports events are quite dynamic. A perceived strong opponent may see its winning chances diminish rapidly owing to different factors which include unfortunate injuries that may be picked up by top players on the eve of the event. For live sports, sportsbooks may fail to quickly react to some circumstances such as the brandishing of a red card to one team or the other. Thanks to this, those with an observant eye can quickly denote arbitrage opportunities.

Upon locating arbitrage betting opportunities, punters need to proceed to make the necessary calculations to know the bet amount to use for each possible outcome. While punters generally deal with figures, not many are adept at solving complex mathematical problems such as calculating arbitrage bets. Recognising this, there are several handy online arbitrage betting calculators that players may make use of. The calculators enable punters to maximise arbitrage opportunities by stating in explicit terms how much (in percentage form) opportunity is available. The calculator also states how much to bet for each possible outcome to maximise the potential payout.

Once done with the calculations, place the bets and wait for the event to commence knowing at all times that a payout is coming your way regardless of the outcome.

Is Arbitrage Betting Legal and Permitted

Is arbitrage betting legal? The answer is a big YES. Is it permitted? Well, this is a different ball game altogether. The thing is, there is no law in any gambling-friendly jurisdiction that prohibits arbitrage betting. However, most if not all sportsbooks prohibit punters from pursuing the arbitrage betting strategy. This isn’t surprising since arbitrage betting is a cheat code which ensures that bookies lose regardless of the bets placed by a punter.

Owing to the fact that bookmakers prohibit arbitrage betting, they put in place mechanisms to detect players who pursue this strategy. In some instances, bookies simply make it impossible for punters to place multiple bets on the same event. Even at sportsbooks that don’t have such mechanisms, players are recommended to disengage from pursuing the strategy at one sportsbook as detection will mean an immediate suspension or ban.

Players who want to pursue this strategy therefore need to source arbitrage opportunities from different sportsbooks. The strategy works better this way.

Risks Associated with Arbitrage Betting

While a perfect implementation of arbitrage betting guarantees a profit for the player, there are some risks which players need to eliminate to ensure they perfectly implement the strategy. The common risks to eliminate hence ensure that your betting adventure is safe and secure include: