What Is Arbitrage Betting?
Arbitrage betting (or arbing) is a matched betting technique that you could use to make guaranteed profits. Arbing is where the bookmaker odds are higher than the exchange odds, allowing us to make a profit.
Usually when we place a matched bet, the exchange odds are higher than the bookmaker odds. This creates a small qualifying loss when we place our matched bet.
In the above screenshot, we can see that the odds of Fiorentina winning are 1.8 on Coral.
The lay odds offered by Matchbook are 1.88. This results in 43p qualifying loss when betting £10.
But, if the odds offered by Coral were higher than on Matchbook, we could place a matched bet for a profit. This is known as arbing.
If the odds on Coral were 1.8 and 1.7 on Matchbook, we can see that we will make a small profit instead of a qualifying loss.
This example is only a very small arb, using low stakes. So the profit is quite small.
But, arbing can provide bigger profits when you find bigger arbs and use larger stake.
Arbs can be done on almost every sport that is offered by bookmakers and exchanges, including football and horse racing.
How To Find Arbs
The best way for you to find arb bets is to use the Outplayed Oddsmatcher tool.
The Oddsmatcher tool constantly compares bookmaker and exchange odds, and will finds arbs that you can profit on.
Arbs are displayed on the Oddsmatcher by a red box in the Ratings column.
Anything with a rating of over 100% is considered an arb, and will make us a guaranteed profit if we place and lay the bet.
The screenshot above shows a list of arbs found by the Oddsmatcher.
You could place a matched bet on these events for a guaranteed profit!
Note: arbs do not stay for long. Bookmakers can quickly realize the arb is present and lower their odds on that event. When you decide to take an arb, place and lay your bets quickly and always double check the odds haven't changed.
Risks of Arbing
Arbing can be a great way to make consistent, guaranteed profits.
But, bookies don't like people who arb. So, you may find your bookie account gets gubbed or stake-restricted if you arb too much!
Bookmakers are able to check lay odds, and will know that you are arbing. If they see that you placed a £500 arb bet on an obscure team, you’ll quickly find your account gets stake-restricted.
To arb safely, choose only bets on popular teams or popular horses that lots of people will be betting on as well. If we find an arb on Chelsea to win, chances are your arb won’t be noticed. Plenty of other regular punters will be betting on Chelsea to win as well.
How Much Can You Arb?
Your stakes should be roughly the same as your other bets with the bookmaker.
The bookie can notice unusual activity. If you normally bet £20, and you suddenly use a £100 stake on an arb, they'll probably notice. And you might find your account quickly stake-restricted. Once your account is stake-restricted, it is very unlikely that it'll be reversed.
Arb using the same stakes as your other bets. If all your bets with this bookmaker has been from £20 - £50 stakes, then look to stake around £30 - £40. You should then increase your stakes gradually over time.
Which Bookmakers Should You Use?
We should only arb with bookmakers that don't have regular offers. Some bookmakers offer a sign up offer, but very few reload offers
In these cases, we don’t have to worry too much about getting gubbed. These bookmakers don't offer us much anyway.
We can also arb on accounts that are already gubbed. When our account is gubbed, we usually are still allowed to place bets with them. This allows us to place arbs and squeeze a bit more profit from the account.
Be very careful if you want to use a healthy account from a good value bookmaker to arb. Only arb on popular bets to lower suspicion. The offers that a good bookmaker can give us are often more valuable than potential arb profits.
Arbing vs Matched Betting
When we arb, we are taking advantage of the bookmaker’s odds being higher than the exchange odds. Matched betting, however, relies on offers given to us by bookmakers.
We should prioritize matched betting over arbing if possible. This is because matched betting offers us more value in the long run. We look more like regular punters if we take offers and place mug bets, as compared to if we take arbs all the time.
If we were to take arbs all the time, bookmakers will detect that and they can gub us very quickly. If we arb rarely and take offers and mug bets, it may be harder for a bookmaker to know if you’re a matched bettor or not, as punters take offers all the time, too.
Once our account is gubbed by a bookmaker, that’s when we use that account to arb. We can no longer get any value from matched betting using that account anyway. But if our account is not gubbed, it might be better to use that account for matched betting instead of arbing.
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