Arbitrage Betting Guide: What It Is and How to Do It in Sports Betting

They rarely last long — but while they exist, a disciplined bettor can exploit them. Alonzo Solano is an author, sports analyst, Editor in Chief of BossofBetting.com, and host of the ‘NFL Latino TV’ podcast.Outside of family, his biggest passion is NFL football. Perhaps he is best known for his podcast ‘NFL Latino TV,’ where he shares his analysis and perspectives on the game with a worldwide Spanish-speaking audience. WagerTalk’s team of NFL expert handicappers offer daily free NFL picks – you’ll find free NFL picks every day.

Being a greedy arbitrage bettor will result in a very short career. The probabilities add up to 104.33% which means that the house has an advantage of 4.33%. Of course, this is not an advantage against a single bet, but a general advantage that can turn a profit for the house after multiple bets. It also means that you cannot make any arbitrage bets using these two given bets. If you don’t care about keeping your bookmaker accounts active and are prepared for them to be closed down, there are short-term profits to be made — no doubt about it.

This could be an opportune time to employ a sports betting arbitrage strategy. By betting $100 on the Falcons at +110 and $100 on the Panthers at +110, you would guarantee yourself $10 in profit no matter which team ends up winning. Arbitrage betting is a legal activity, it does not have any legal consequences. As an arbitrage bettor, you are simply placing bets on sports events at multiple bookmakers, on odds that are favorable for you.

Prediction Markets vs. Betting: Legit or Loophole?

The first of these is through manually searching and comparing bookmaker odds in order to find where the breaking points are and where the profit lies. Due to the chance for draws to occur during sports like football, we would recommend staying with sports that tend to have a win-or-lose result, as a draw can lower your chances of success. As you would be placing a bet on both teams to online casino license curacao win, a draw would mean that both bets lose, and therefore, you would not make any profit. To ensure you make a profit, stick to the sports listed above, such as American Football and Tennis. If you are interested in American football betting, then you can check out our detailed NFL betting guide.

In my experience,e arbitrage betting is not possible for everyone, but it is the surest way to beat the bookmakers. If you want to be an arbitrage bettor for the long term, you need to know all the pros and cons of arbitrage betting. In the industry of sports betting, we are buying different outcomes on sports events. Why not have a read of our other handy betting guides and see what other tricks and tips you can pick up. Arbitrage betting is a unique type of betting that guarantees profit. Though as you can probably guess, finding these spots can be tricky.

That’s why some sharp bettors say you shouldn’t hedge at all unless your bankroll really needs you to lock in the win. For example, if Team X actually won that championship and you hedged, you’d be $400 poorer than if you hadn’t hedged (in our scenario above). Hedging also means you’re paying the sportsbook’s juice twice—once on the original bet and again on the hedge—so over the long run, frequent hedging can eat into your profits.

How to Find an Arbitrage Betting Situation

Arbing opportunities occur when the odds offered by different sportsbooks differ to the extent that you can cover all possible outcomes and still secure a profit. Some adjust odds based on sharp action, while others are slower to react. Books that take more recreational money (like DraftKings or BetMGM) may lag behind sharp books (like Pinnacle or Circa), creating arbitrage spots. These laws can vary from state to state, so make sure you are familiar with your state’s tax laws before setting out to practice arbitrage betting. This is also why sportsbooks tend to balance the odds at -110 when the sides are equally likely rather than +100.

EV Betting Guide 2025 How to Win With Expected Value Betting

• Avoid sports where there are three or more possible outcomes such as football, racing, golf, and others.
• It should be noted that minimal max bets is a sports betting strategy that all types of bettors should embrace.
• More experienced bettors may look to increase their wager frequency by finding a p2p betting exchange.
• It’s this difference that allows you to then invest in the favorite at Sportsbook No. 1 and then play the underdog at Sportsbook No. 2.

Many developers try building a sure bet finder but fail because of the bad source of odds API. Based on my experience, the 2-week free trial of RebelBetting (for Europe and the US mainly) and the 1-week trial of OddsJam (USA and Canada) are your best shots for pre-match sure betting. Being successful in manual searching at live events needs a lot of experience. The same rule applies to tennis if you are not very experienced in betting on basketball.

The best tip for arbitrage betting an experienced sure bettor can give is to stop being greedy place bets with smaller profits on a bigger sports event. This way, you can keep your betting account active for a longer period. The bookies will disable betting lines, odds, or matches for different reasons. But you, as an arbitrage bettor, need to cover that outcome no matter what. For these cases, I advise having emergency funds at other bookmakers.

In real life, arbitrage opportunities might not be as obvious as both sides at +110, but the concept is the same. This can happen due to sportsbooks having different opinions or local biases on the game. But if you are comparing odds between a sharp and a soft bookmaker, letting an uncovered is simply a value bet. If you start using sure bet scanners, you will often notice that some bookmakers are making more mistakes than others. To ensure a consistent profit regardless of the outcome in this example scenario, you must lay approximately £11.11 on the exchange.

The key is to exploit discrepancies in odds offered by various bookmakers to ensure a profit regardless of the outcome. To ensure a guaranteed profit from an arbitrage bet, you need to distribute your total stake between the bookmaker and/or exchange in a way that balances the potential outcomes. The calculations differ according to the number of selections used and whether the arb involves bookmakers or betting exchanges.

So, this could be a possibility for you depending on how much you want to commit to this type of online sports betting. However, the problem is that bookmakers don’t like arbitrage bettors. That said, I’m going to discuss more on how you can pull off this technique and avoid being detected by sportsbooks. I learned about the risk of arbitrage betting with my own first-hand experience. First, I would manually scroll through mobile apps to find sure bets in the most obscure markets.

Stick to your staking rules, avoid chasing missed opportunities, and do not deviate from your plan because of short-term frustrations. Understanding the main types will help you interpret the output from arb-finding software and decide which opportunities are practical to execute. After all, a sportsbook will likely take action if they see that you place a lot of suspicious-looking bets with them. If you become good enough at arbing, you might start relying on it to supplement your income or even make a living.

Both offer their services with a slight limitation on the profit % (in the free trial), allowing you to spot arbitrage bets that are still live. Finding arbitrage bets manually is the most complex and least profitable way to practice this betting strategy (for most players). If you have a lot of experience, this way might be the most profitable strategy. But for a beginner, I advise using free arbitrage betting software. From the bookmaker’s perspective, both arbers and value bettors challenge their ability to set accurate odds, thereby leading to account restrictions or closures.

Tracking your bets and profits is an excellent way to identify leaks and wins. You can use a dedicated spreadsheet or arb-tracking software to log every bet, stake, expected return, and actual profit. While it’s not illegal, arbing isn’t supported by the sharpest sportsbooks, so they actively monitor such activities. As a result, arbers are constantly at risk of losing their sportsbook account, so it’s important you avoid being detected. Estimating the implied probability of odds and finding value odds is one of the most essential pieces of knowledge for increasing your profit from online sports betting. To identify arbitrage opportunities effectively, you need to use specialized software and resources that scan bookmaker odds and highlight discrepancies.

However, they can guess if you’re arbing based on your bet sizes, deposit/withdrawal frequency, wager types, and/or favorite markets. An arbitrage betting calculator is a great way to figure out how much to wager on arbitrage bets. For some, doing the math to figure out the dollar amounts can be difficult.

For example, betting on “Team A -1” in the handicaps and “Draw” in the match result market. However, the cross-market arbitrage is more complex and not the best pick for beginners. Arbitrage sports betting is completely legal in most jurisdictions, including the United States. There are no federal laws prohibiting bettors from placing offsetting wagers across multiple sportsbooks.

Bookmakers actively work to prevent arbitrage betting, and successful arbers must constantly adapt to changing conditions and restrictions. Additionally, tax implications of arbitrage betting profits should be carefully considered, as they may be subject to gambling or income tax depending on local laws. However, bookmakers are private companies that reserve the right to refuse service to anyone, including those they suspect of engaging in arbitrage betting. From a legal standpoint, arbitrage betting is generally considered a form of advantage play, similar to card counting in blackjack. It’s not illegal to use publicly available information (in this case, odds) to make betting decisions. Let’s say one sportsbook offers player bets on NFL props earlier than other betting sites.