What’s betting exchange arbitrage?
Betting exchange arbitrage is simply doing sports arbitrage between conventional bookmakers and betting exchanges rather than only among conventional bookmakers to make risk-free profits.
Matched Betting & Sports Arbitrage
We beat the bookies by Matched Betting / Sports Arbitrage / Value Bets On Proven Tipsters to lock in a profit or consistently earn extra income based on mathematical edge.
And we always think about how our readers can maximize SYNERGY among these advantage of gambling. Arbitrage Betting using a Betting Exchange is obviously one of the ways to achieve it between matched betting & sports arbitrage.
Just in case, you are not familiar with these advantage plays, take a look at;
Originally, sports arbitrage betting came from financial trading tactics that take advantage of market inefficiencies namely a price difference between two or more markets without risk.
And matched betting uses this arbitrage betting concept to capitalize on the benefits of bonuses & free bets from bookmakers.
The rapid increase of matched betting popularity in the UK/Ireland attracted many players in other countries, see
- Australia – see Matched Betting in Australia – Why Bonusbank?
- DACH (Germany, Austria & Switzerland) Region – Matched Betting in Germany – Use DoppelWetten
- Rest of the world including the USA & Canada – Matched Betting Anyone in the World incl. USA
Although arbitrage betting is still prevailing worldwide, among the matched bettors, arbitrage betting is not considered as a daily tool but something to avoid if possible.
Fear of Gubbing (account restriction)
Why is that? Very simple, the gubbing scares the crap out of matched bettors. Because arbitrage betting is somehow believed to be the sure formula to get gubbed quickly.
Yes, it is fundamentally true. Soft Bookies set the radar to look for those who constantly take value and restrict their accounts.
However, we feel matched bettors seem to be excessively nervous about taking up arb opportunities. Is arbitrage betting more dangerous than matched betting from gubbing viewpoint?
We conducted small research which results will be found in the next section.
Sports Arbitrage Betting Exchange Process
We quickly draw the possible approach of Sports Arbitrage Betting by using Betting Exchanges, which is a natural extension for the matched bettors but not automatically considered by sports arbitragers.
Firstly, allow me to discuss a few basics, especially for those who know arbitrage betting but are not familiar with matched betting;
Betting Exchange
If you started sports arbitrage but have not started matched betting, you need to have a betting exchange account such as Betfair (you may want to use Betfair Alternatives).
Simply put, we make the best use of Lay Bet in exchange. It is the bet on the “Thing NOT To Happen”. On the other hand, the bet we usually place in the conventional bookmakers is called Back Bet which is “Thing To Happen”.
In the event with multiple outcomes such as football – Win/Lose /Draw, you need to bet both Loose & Draw for “Not Win” in usual bookmakers.
However, in exchanges, you can cover “Not Win” with 1 single bet. Namely, you become a bookmaker position when you lay in exchanges.
There are 4 established betting exchanges as below;
For full details of betting exchanges, the below 2 documents will be of good help;
Besides, for those who can’t access to the 4 key betting exchanges, don’t worry, you can use bet brokers, but you need to take a cautious approach given their small business operation.
The following 2 documents will help you select the right one(s);
Lastly, are you aware of Pinnacle Sports? Pinnacle is probably the most reputable professional-friendly sharp sportsbook that officially promotes Arbitrage Betting on their site.
Interestingly, Pinnacle can be an alternative to the betting exchange, see Pinnacle Arbitrage – Alternative to Laying on Exchanges.
However, Pinnacle doesn’t accept many countries, if you reside in a country Pinnacle is not available, use the above bet brokers that place bets not only on Pinnacle but also on several other sharp Asian bookies such as SBObets. Just FYI.
How to use Arbitrage in Matched Betting
In the matched betting method, we take the approach to find the narrowest odds gap on the same event & market between the bookmaker & betting exchange.
We use the software called Odds Matcher, which lists the best opportunities. See the below example showing the William Hill (bookmaker) case;
The top event shows the English League 2 football match of Accrington vs Newport County.
The calculator indicates if you bet £100 to back Newport County (means Newport County win) at William Hill and Lay £101.98 Newport County (means Newport County does NOT win, namely lose or draw) you will lose £0.06 regardless of the outcome.
Yes, it incurs a loss. Bear it in mind, higher lay odds than back odds like the above case creates profit.
But we have to take the Betting Exchange Commission (Smarkets is 2%) into account, thus it results in a marginal loss. In any case, matched betting uses the bookmaker’s offer as a free bet.
This means the £100 you bet at William Hill is assumed as the free bet, thus you will profit from the free bet value minus loss.
Practically, it is not such simple but theoretically, it works like that. The point here is how this process applies to Sports Arbitrage.
How To Arbitrage Between Bookmaker & Betting Exchange
The Odds Matcher often captures the profit opportunities rather than lost opportunities, such as;
The % in the red box shows 100+ %, which means Lay Bet Odds are Better Enough than Back Bet Odds after taking the exchange commission into account.
This is the condition of sufficient under-round which creates a profitable arbitrage opportunity. The calculation shows;
It says if you place a £100 back bet on Reivers Lodge (Horse Racing at Ayr) in William Hill while laying £107.45 on the same horse in Betfair, you will lock in £5.30 net profit no matter if Reivers Lodge wins or loses.
This is exactly the sports arbitrage profit. This means, betting exchange arbitrage can bring benefits to both arbitragers & matched bettors.
Arbing Research among Matched Bettors
However, as said before, matched bettors worry about gubbing that can be caused by arbitrage. We conducted small research among our GEM members over the last 3 months (just after the new football season started).
Methodology
The research was designed as below;
- 20 UK/Ireland members including us to monitor their bookie’s account.
- All of them are regular matched bettors and subscribe to paid matched betting services thus can use high-quality software like Oddsmonkey to find arb opportunities.
- Split the members into 2 groups (10 each) as follows;
- 1) Do only their usual matched betting,
- 2) Do arbitrage betting regularly on top of their usual matched betting.
- For arbitrage betting activities, use Odds Matcher or Dutch Matcher to locate arb opportunities, and asked to take only up to 6% profit opportunities
- Only we, the GEM staff took risky arbs like over 10%
- Asked all the members to place mug bets regularly
Brief Findings
- Arb opportunities Found & Used: 97% from Odds Matcher (means between bookmaker & betting exchange) & 3% from Dutch Matcher (among bookies).
- Average % of Gubbed Accounts (can’t express in absolute numbers because each member has a different number of accounts): 1) 6.9% 2) 6.2% ===> the % is calculated by # of gubbed accounts divided by the total account # of all members during the research period.
- Average # of Arbitrage Betting per day: 5.7 with an average stake of £/€47
- Average Profit from Arbitrage Betting: Around £/€390 per month
- Average % Arb: 4.9% ===> Calculated from the above 3 numbers as £/€390 / 5.7 x £/€47 x 30 days
- My StanJames (which was bought by Unibet) account seems to be the only case that proves the obvious effect of arbitrage betting. I myself took over 15% horse racing arb 3 days consecutively, pls see the details later.
- The average number of mug bets is unknown due to our fault (we had failed to ask the members to record it), but all of them said they regularly bet on the chosen teams in several football leagues (Premier League, Championship, League 1 & 2, La Liga, Serie A & Bundesliga, etc), Rugby Union & League, and the US major 4 sports as well as place constant ACCA.
Wrap Up
Let me emphasize that, from a pure research perspective, these numbers are far from reliable. Because it is based on a limited sample # & different bases such as # of bookmakers, age of each bookmaker account, bankroll amount & frequency of arbitrage & matched betting among each member.
Therefore, we are not in a position to assure any safety or the actions you will find in this document.
Nevertheless, it still displays an interesting indication & useful insight into the myth that arbitrage betting is evil.
On the contrary, proper regular practice of arbitrage betting may make a role of mug betting, which we could possibly read & speculated from the lower gubbed account % of the group that did arbing.
But, remember the bookies can identify the event in which odds exceeds Betfair odds (arbitrage condition). So the consequence of only taking such bets will be obvious & imminent. Proper mug betting is essential.
The key fact is that people earned average additional earnings of £/€390 per month from regular arbitrage betting. BTW, according to RebelBetting, the world’s No.1 arbitrage software, the projected arbitrage profit per month is €1,500. If you’re interested in it, take a look at our RebelBetting Review.
Precautionary Tactics
As kept saying, bookies are very keen to find price takers and will impose a restriction on the account that keeps taking high values.
This is what matched bettors fear and consider arbitrage betting as a real evil, which our research shows is Not Necessary.
However, the fact still remains that bookies will limit your account to whoever keeps taking value. Allow me to remind you that it’s a well-known fact that bookies traders use software to detect the bets of which odds are higher than exchange, especially Betfair.
This means if you are the one who places only such bets, it’s really a matter of time to get limited. So it’s of paramount importance to keep taking precautionary actions.
If you use high-quality Oddsmatcher like Oddsmonkey always capture arbing opportunities as shown in the screenshot.
However, as said repeatedly, any opportunities with over 10% profit (in the oddsmatcher, the rating % of 110% <) could be a palpable error. The bookies may cancel the bet. If you lay the long odds and the back wins, your loss will become huge.
Let’s quickly review the opportunities In the table;
Nasty Bookie
- The top rating event is StanJames horse racing with a 15.22% profit. StanJames may not cancel the bet but if you take this sort of value a few times, they will immediately restrict your account. I’m a living example of this research. I took around 15% arb 3 days consecutively, then on the following day, I receive the below e-mail. It suddenly happened after 2-years of calm happy-matched betting life in this account. Don’t take too much value in racing specifically from those bookies listed in 30 World Betting Site. It was not only gubbing/restriction but jumped into Closing;
Same Odds Among Multiple Bookies
- 2nd rating event is the 15.2% profit of PSG vs Celtic Champions League found in 4 bookmakers including Ladbrokes. Generally speaking, when multiple bookies show the same odds, it may not be an error. But, there are many a.k.a. clone sites or syndicates where the same source of odds service is used.
- Therefore, the same odds among multiple bookmakers only don’t prove “Not a Palp”. Then let’s compare with more bookies by checking the oddscheker. It shows Ladbrokes’ outstanding odds. They may not cancel but obviously the one you’d better stay away from, because in case they cancel your loss could be huge given such long odds. Even not cancel, Lad may put your account on the watch list;
- Bottom-line, from all angles, it’s better to avoid any opportunities with over 10% profit. Don’t try to be greedy. If you take only up to 8% as shown by the blue arrow in the table, you may be safe although there is no guarantee.
I can’t emphasize more, our research can’t ensure anything.
If you decide to take this approach, place the mug bets as many as possible.
Always try to get into the minds of casual (mug) punters and act as you can imagine. For example, as our sample members (in fact, all of them) do, choose 1 – 2 team (s) in each major football league, say Chelsea, and bet on Chelsea whenever they play.
You do it across several sports categories. Isn’t it a sort of betting pattern that recreational punters do? No guarantee, but acting like that regularly may disguise your true professional colour, thus could prolong your account life, which is your matched betting lifeblood.
We have actually prepared the following 2 guides;
When it comes to mug betting, see the Very Specific & Comprehensive Mug Betting Instructions in the “Essential Guide To Avoid Gubbing & Keep Beating The Bookies”.
Betting Exchange Arbitrage Software
Betting Exchange Arbing Earning Projection
As said, high-quality oddsmatcher constantly capture arb opportunities. Considering our research results, the followings are possible earning scenarios;
- Bet stake of £/€40 – 60 with an average 5% arb profit x 5 – 10 bets/day
- Monthly Profit would be in the range of £/€300 – 900
- If you cover many bookies say over 30, you may be able to arb efficiently. Besides, you may not have to keep arbing in the same bookie which could trigger the bookie’s unnecessary attention.
Sports Arbitrage Betting Exchange Software
Given the nature of arbitrage betting, the opportunity disappears extremely quickly. Therefore very high-quality odds matcher is required as the standard arbing (such as the one of RebelBetting – see our full review if you’re interested).
The free oddsmatcher which I use as an example in the various matched betting instructions can’t cope with it because their data is around 20 minutes late. It’s impossible to capture the arb opportunity that changes in minutes or even seconds.
The below 3 are the current best choices (one of the benefits to using them is 0% Betting Exchange Commission thanks to their partnership with Smarkets, Matchbook & Betdaq.
Only with this, you can cover years of their subscription fee.);
- Oddsmonkey – Full Review Full Inside Analysis Through The Founder Interview
- Outplayed (renamed from Profit Accumulator) – Full Review Should We Believe 20,000 Members’ Earning Claim?
- Profit Maximiser – Full Review The Engineer Of Matched Betting Success, Still Good?
- And – Comparison among 3 premium services
However, these focus on UK/Ireland, therefore the players outside these countries use the software we mentioned before.
Betting Exchange Arbitrage – Conclusion
Matched Betting & Sports Arbitrage Next Stage
Besides, these methods are all about scalping small margins.
Therefore, people often feel frustrated with the limited profit amount in each bet that comes from the risk-hedging nature.
Thus, evolving into Value Betting WITHOUT RISK-HEDGE which is more size with better efficiency for the long-term is a natural move as an ultimate betting activity.
If you may consider moving up to the next sports trading level while exploiting the bookies via matched betting & sports betting, the following are proven methods that can be used by basically anyone in the world;
- ReBelBetting Value Betting Software – model to double your bank in 3 months
- Smart Betting Club Tipster – smart bet winning formulas for global punters
- ZCode System – formula to earn $1,500 profits every month
When it comes to sportsbooks, World 19 Best Offshore Betting Sites Offers would be of great help.
Besides, on this occasion, let me share the fact that cryptocurrency betting has become a major stream, especially for international players because it can circumvent some geographical restrictions, so suggest you go through;
BTW, if you happen to be a sharp casino & game bonus hunter, strongly suggest taking a look at the List of 52 Best Bitcoin Casino Bonuses and for those who appreciate the highest privacy, go to the List of Best Anonymous Bitcoin Casinos & Bonuses, just FYI.
If you have any inquiries or need any help from us, please contact us anytime.
Good Luck!!
Joshua Walker (bio)
Editor – Global Extra Money (GEM)