In this guide, we will cover everything you need to know about arbitrage betting. This is perfect for people who have never arbitrage bet before or if you are looking to become a more advanced arbitrage punter.

Arbitrage betting can sound too good to be true, but when done properly it is the best way to make risk-free money when betting.

Let’s get into it!

What is arbitrage betting?

Arbitrage betting is when you place bets that guarantee profit no matter what happens. This can happen because bookmaker set their prices independently. When there is the right discrepancy in price, smart punters can take advantage of this and lock in profit.

99% of betting markets will not have any arbitrage opportunities. It would be almost impossible to find arbitrage opportunities on your own. But as bookmakers continue to expand their betting offerings, there are always opportunities for smart punters who have the right tools.

Let’s look at an example

The easiest way to understand arbitrage betting is by looking at an example. Let’s take an example from Betsniper's Surebets product, a software that scrapes 100,000+ markets to find arbitrage opportunities every day.

Let's take the first arbitrage bet available, Trey Murphy assists at Betr and Dabble. We will need to place two bets:

1. On Betr, we bet over 4.5 assists at 2.25

2. On Dabble, we bet under 4.5 assists at 1.90

No matter the outcome, one of these bets will win.

Now we have to determine our stakes. The easiest way to do this is to use the Betsniper's arbitrage calculator.

In this calculator, we input the odds of the two bets as well as our initial stake. In this example, we use $100 for the initial stake. Then, it will automatically calculate the stake of the second bet which will be $118.42.

Let’s walk through the maths for both scenarios.

Scenario #1: Trey Murphy gets above 4.5 assists

1. The bet on Betr wins : $2.25 x $100 = $225 return = $125 profit (remove the stake)

2. The bet on Dabble loses = -$118.42

Combine the two results : $125 - $118.42 = $6.58 profit

Scenario #2: Trey Murphy gets under 4.5 assists

1. The bet on Betr loses = -$100

2. The bet on Dabble wins = $1.9 x $118.42 = $225 return = $106.58 profit (remove the stake)

Combine the two results : -$100 + $106.58 = $6.58 profit

As you can see with this actual bet, we have locked in $6.58 risk-free profit no matter what happens.

How to find arbitrage opportunities

It might surprise you, but at any time there are at least 20+ arbitrage opportunities you can find. However, betting companies offer thousands of odds daily across hundreds of events.

In order to find arbitrage opportunities you have to use a software like Betsniper.

Betsniper will scrape all markets and run an algorithm across the database in order to identify arbitrage opportunities.

For a quick overview of arbitrage betting, check out this video we put together:

Is arbitrage betting legal?

Arbitrage betting is 100% legal. There is nothing illegal about placing two opposing bets at two different bookmakers.

However, bookmakers can limit or restrict your accounts. What does this mean?

• Limit = bookmakers will limit the amount of money you can bet on certain markets

• Restrict = bookmakers can block your account entirely from betting on certain markets

The key with arbitrage betting is longevity. You want to keep your account alive for as long as possible so you can take advantage of this cash machine.

Half of what a bookmaker does is profile customers by analysing their betting pattern - trust us, we used to work for them!

What do you need to know before arbitrage betting?

We have been arbitrage betting for years, below we have compiled our best tips and tricks to help you with arbitrage betting and keep you making profit for as long as possible.

Staking

Staking refers to how much you put on each bet. It can be very tempting to put thousands of dollars because you know you are locking in profit no matter what. However, this is a guaranteed way to lose your account. Here is our best advice:

• Always bet with round numbers: although the calculator shows the bet in cents, it is recommend to round your bets to the nearest five or ten (better), so that your betting looks like regular activity

  • You may lose some edge here but it is marginal and is very important for account longevity

• Staking amounts need to be consistent with rest of your account activity: if you normally bet $5 or $10 and then your account starts having $500 bets, it will immediately flag your account

  • If you have historically been a small punter, you will need to build up your stakes over time

• Your stake can change depending on the liquidity of the market: the liquidity of a market refers to how much money is bet on a market, more liquid markets means you can usually bet more without being flagged

  • Match markets (head to head, over/under) are highly liquid, so it’s much easier to put $200 to $500 bets. Unfortunately, because these markets are so liquid, there are limited discrepencies in price. This means limited arbitrage opportunities.

  • Player props (even for the most popular players) are less liquid and anything over $100 would be considered a large bet. But there is a lot more price variance, which presents arbitrage opportunities.

    • As a general rule, the larger bookmakers have higher limits for props, while the smaller bookmakers have smaller limits and are much quicker to crack down on punters making big prop bets

It is impossible to recommend an actual number that you should stake. Ultimately a lot of it will depend on your account and arbitrage strategy.

However, our general advice is to always be conservative. Bet smaller than you want. Play the long game. Small gains will compound.

Timing of bets

When you place an arbitrage bet is also very important. The best advice is to try and place arbitrage bets on the same day of events. This is because, often bookmakers will reduce the limits on the same day of events and your bet is more likely to not be reviewed.

When you are place an arbitrage bet the day before, or multiple days before, these bets will often come through the trader’s desk and be manually reviewed. This is particularly true of betting in low liquidity markets like player props.

Where possible resist the temptation to take arbitrage multiple days before an event.

Betting activity

This is probably the most factor in keeping your account live. If your account is only betting on arbitrage opportunities, your account will not last long. You need to mix in a lot of other betting activity to keep your account alive.

Here are some guidelines to follow:

• Arbitrage bets should be at most 30% of your betting activity

• Multis can be a great way to show some retail activity. Sometimes in the short-run you can play some negative EV bets (which can still win) in order to prolong the life of your account.

• Your other betting activity stakes need to be within 50% of your arbitrage betting stakes (ideally the same)

Here are some ways you can increase your betting activity and still win!

• Play Positive EV bets. These can keep your account activity high and your stakes can be similar to arbitrage stakes as you know it’s positive EV

• Play Middle bets especially on liquid markets like total points and handicap. You will take a small loss, but if you play enough, you will occasionally hit a middle. Betting on hihgly liquid markets is great for account sustainability and you can do large stakes on liquid markets.

• Play low hold opportunities: These are opportunities where you bet on both sides of a market, like an arbitrage bet but you take a small loss. If you are serious about making money with arbitrage betting, these occasional small losses are very key to account sustainability. Just like the middles, often you can find low-hold opportunities on highly liquid markets. This means you can be betting large stakes that will help profile your account as a big better. On Betsniper, you can filter the arbitrage screen to find low hold-opportunities

  • I have filtered the arb profit to be below zero. You can see we have a ton of great turnover opportunities that will provide great retail betting activity on your account with close to no loss.

Accounts

If you are looking to get into arbitrage betting, you need to have an account with every major bookmaker in Australia. You will be severely limiting your opportunities if you only choose a couple. You get your edge by putting every bookmaker against each other.

Moreover, you should also deposit money into each book. This is because, once you find an arbitrage opportunity, you need to move quick. Prices can move quick and if you need to deposit into an account, there is chance you will miss the opportunity.

Nuances for sports

Some sports are better for arbing than others due to their popularity and variety of markets and matches.

One of the best sports for arbitrage opportunities in Australia is NBA. There is a ton of bookmakers offering over and under markets for a ton of different markets. This means there is more chances for arbitrage opportunities and you can spread your activity across a variety of bookmakers. Additionally, there are matches every day, so on any given day you can find decent opportunities. And finally, NBA is super popular so compared to other player props, there is a lot more liquidity.

Last year, on average Betsniper Pro users profited ~$531 per month on arbs during the NBA season for those who bet every other day

A lot of the other US sports i.e. NFL, NHL, MLB are played every day and have lots of different markets. However, only a few bookmaker offer odds for under markets.

Soccer can also be a great sport for arbitrage opportunities. However, it has the same problem as other US sports where there are not a lot of bookmakers that offer the under market limiting the variety of bookmakers you can use when arbing. Soccer also brings a couple other risks that are not present with the other sports:

1. Different bookmakers have different rules for settling bets depending on if a player starts or not

   To be safe, you can wait until lineups are announced (an hour before game) or you can use Rotowire to see predicted lineups (however there is always a risk they are wrong in their prediction)

2. Different bookmakers use different data sources to settle bets. Although it is rare for different data sources to reflect different stats, it is a risk that you need to be aware of when playing soccer arbitrage bets.

   We put together a detailed article explaining all the risks involved with arbitrage betting for soccer as well as our best pieces of advice

Other advice

• Double check the prices: before you place your first bet, make sure you have both bookmakers open and you can verify the price is correct

• Sit on Betsniper: by nature arbitrage opportunities should not last long. Our most succesful users will sit on the arbitrage screen for 30 minutes to an hour. They will act quickly when they see an opportunity appear and not go after opportunities that might already be gone.

• Massive ROI can be a trap: sometimes bookmakers will make a mistake and you will see an arb at 50%+. Although tempting to take, these can often get your account killed in one go. Sometimes it can make sense to leave these bets to avoid your account getting restricted.

We also have set-up Discord alerts for any opportunity that has a ROI above 5%.

How much can I win from arbitrage betting?

If you stay consistent and follow the advice above, you should easily be able make at least $500 per month from arbitrage betting. But the sky is the limit.

The amount you can make from arbitrage betting depends on a number of factors:

1. How often are you betting? Are you placing bets daily? Weekly?

2. How many bets are you placing per day?

3. What is the average ROI of your arbitrage opportunities?

4. How large are your stakes? How established is your account?

5. What time of year is it? Are the popular sports for arbitrage on?

6. How long do you want to keep your accounts alive for?

With support for 10+ leagues, all year round you can find decent arbitrage opportunities with Betsniper

With a more aggressive strategy and well established accounts, we have heard from many users making over $1,000 per month risk-free with arbitrage betting.

Can I lose money with arbitrage betting?

Once you make the bet, as long as you have got the correct prices and used the correct stakes (using the calculator), your arbitrage bet will return a profit.

Although, there certainly are risks:

• Different rules for settling outcomes: sometimes bookmakers will have different rules for settling outcome, as mentioned above for soccer. Another instance would be for head to head markets without a draw option. If the match ended in a draw, your arbitrage may lose money as different bookmakers settle draws differently. Although the loss would be small and this is quite a rare occurence.

• You place the first bet and then odds move before you can place the second bet: this is a much more common scenario, but you always have options to limit your liability. You can use the Betsniper odds screen to find the next best price. Sometimes may still be an arbitrage opportunity, other times, you will take a small loss. You can also let the bet ride however, this is taking on risk and is definitely negative EV to do so. Additionally, on some bookmakers you can cash out, but this is usually at a bigger loss than if you hedged it out (but depends on the bookmaker).

How can I start arbitrage betting?

If you are looking to get into arbitrage betting, you are going to need to have software.

Try Betsniper now - get 7 days free when you sign up!

Everyday there are opportunities, so in the 7 days you should have plenty of chances to make some risk-free money!

We are also offering one-on-one strategy calls when we will provide you tailored insights and staregies based on your personal situation. Book in a call now.