Arbitrage Betting Canada
Arbitrage betting is a type of a betting strategy that lets you take advantage of the odd discrepancies offered by sportsbooks. Arbing requires you to place two opposite bets on the same event, but in different bookies. Arbitrage betting involves backing all possible outcomes of an event to secure a risk-free profit. We explain arbitrage betting in great detail in our guide. Our arbitrage calculator allows you to enter the odds and your stake amount of any event to identify betting opportunities. Shrewd sports bettors can use hedging and arbitrage to lock in a guaranteed profit regardless of the result of a sporting event. Hedging your bets allows you to take advantage of line changes to. Arbitrage betting, also known as 'arbing', 'surebets' or 'value bets', is a relatively simple and extremely effective way of making a guaranteed profit by covering all outcomes of an event. For example, in a tennis match there are two possible outcomes. Either Player 1 wins or Player 2 wins.
Arbitrage betting is a sports betting strategy that aims to guarantee your chances of winning. Sometimes called riskless profit, arbitrage allows you to place a bet on every possible result of a particular game. This way, you will never lose a bet, per se. At the same time, it will deliver guaranteed returns every time you place a bid. In this post, we’ll cover everything you need to know about arbitrage betting.
What is Arbitrage Betting?
Betting works on odds. In arbitrage betting, you place your bets on a unique mix of odds so that you have a guaranteed profit irrespective of the game’s result. However, the profit you make with arbitrage is long-term rather than an instant return.
Known by multiple names like surewins and miraclebets, arbitrage betting is legal. You can find different odds on different online sportsbooks. As an arbitrageur, you have to find the perfect mix of bets to maximize your profits. If you are placing bets for the first time, you can maximise your winnings by using it in conjunction with the 200% welcome bonuses available at some online casinos.
How does it Work?
Arbitrage betting is wildly popular among sports bettors for a reason. You do not need to have any in-depth knowledge about the sport. However, it is important to note that arbitrage betting requires experience and skill of choosing the right bets.
This type of betting works on the premise that there are discrepancies in the odds across different platforms. Every bookmaker prices their bets differently. This difference may not seem huge, but it can be significant enough for arbitrage betting. If you find a big enough price difference, then you can place multiple bets on a single game to cover all probable results of the game.
Say, for example, you are betting on a game between Team A and Team B. Two different betting sites have placed varied odds for the two teams. Betting site 1 gives higher odds for Team A to win. Betting site 2 gives higher odds for Team B to win. By simply buying the best bets on both platform you are guaranteed to make a profit.
Different Ways to Approach Arbitrage Betting
Finding bets with significant enough pricing discrepancies is the first step towards making a profit. This involves making a calculation to determine whether the difference in odds is suitable for arbitrage betting.
Using the above example, imagine you are placing your bets on Team A on betting website one and on Team B on betting website 2.
To find out if it is suitable for arbitrage betting, use the equation:
O1-1 + O2-1
O1 stands for outcome 1’s odds, whereas O2 represents outcome 2’s odds. In simple terms, this is the summation of the inverse odds for both the outcomes.
From the above example, you can put Team A’s odds on betting website 1 in O1. Then put the odds for Team B on betting website 2 in O2. When you put these values in the equation, you will get a number. If the sum of these inverse odds is less than 1, then this is suitable for arbitrage betting.
Risks of Arbitrage Betting
Arbitrage betting is undoubtedly lucrative. However, it also involves some risk, like every other for of gambling.
Some of these risks include:
- Lack of experience: This is certainly the biggest risk in arbitrage betting. Insufficient knowledge about odds, types of wagers, and bookmakers’ processes will greatly damage your chances of success. You need to have the necessary skills to assess the right bets and react to changing situations on the feet.
- Dawdling: In arbitrage betting, this term refers to the time delay between placing multiple bets. If you have placed a bet on one result and take too long to place the second bet, then you could end up losing out. Time plays a key role in arbitrage betting. Even the slightest delay can represent a significant risk.
- Mistakes by Bookmakers: No odds are fool-proof. You will find a clause on every sportsbook that gives the bookmaker the authority to cancel any bets that have erroneous odds. Therefore, if you place any of your bets on mistaken odds, then the bet may be cancelled. You will end up with no second bet, and this creates an obvious risk.
- Volatility: Booking odds constantly change. Therefore, you might miss out on profit if you fail to place the bets in time. Just like dawdling, the odds’ volatility is also a big risk factor in arbitrage betting.
Arbitrage strategy is a popular strategy in sports betting. One of the reasons for its popularity is the guaranteed returns it claims for every bet, although it is not risk-free. To be successful in arbitrage betting, you need to do your research, determine if odds are suitable for arbitrage betting, and be carefully of timing and other risks.
Please enable JavaScript to view the discussion by Sidelines.Powered by SidelinesArbitrage betting – also known as arbs, surebets, miraclebets and surewins – is a technique in which you place bets with different online betting companies in order to cover all of the outcomes of a sporting event to guarantee yourself profit.
An arb arises when betting companies take an alternative view on the outcomes of a particular sporting event, meaning that they offer different odds to reflect the probabilities. Should you find a situation where bookies disagree by a large enough variance, you could lock in profit regardless of which outcome win.
Because of how a bookie sets their prices, you are guaranteed to lose money if you bet on each outcome within an event at the same bookmaker. For example, backing the favourite to win, underdog to win and the draw in a football match would ensure the bookie rubs their hands with glee as they take your hard-earned cash. This is because the betting company includes an overround in their pricing which gives them an edge as it replaces the true odds of each outcome with their own odds (You can read more about probabilities, odds and overrounds here.
However, comparing the odds for the same sporting event from different betting companies can open up an opportunity because the bookies have an alternative view, or may have made an error. This doesn’t mean that a favourite with one bookie becomes the underdog at another, more that there will be a slight difference in the odds that are on offer.
For example, BetVictor could price a Floyd Mayweather Jr win at decimal odds of 1.48 (67.6% implied probability) whereas 888Sport could think he’s even more likely to win and offer odds of 1.36 (73.5% implied probability). As a result, the price on his opponent would also change between the two bookies and mean that backing the underdog could see a range between 2.75 (36.4% probability) and 3.25 (30.8% probability). If the numbers add up correctly, you could find that backing Mayweather with BetVictor and his opponent with 888Sport could automatically put you into the green no matter who won the bout.
As shown in this boxing example, generally there is only a slight difference between the prices set by bookmakers. This means that you need to bet with high stakes in order to make any serious money as arbitrage bets typically range between 1% and 10% profit. This could mean that a £1,000 stake would return as little as £10 and as much as £100 which may not be worth the vast amounts of time taken to identify the surebet in the first place. Although the likes of online bookies and odds comparison sites have helped the punter identify arbitrage opportunities, it also means that the bookmakers themselves can use them to spot pricing mistakes or identify if there odds are drastically different. This means that the opportunity for arbing is less than it once was.
Software and bots do exist which identify arbitrage opportunities, however I’ve personally never used them so couldn’t comment on their effectiveness. Instead, we’re going to look at how to find arbitrage bets using a manual process, which is actually relatively simple to do, it can just be time consuming. The process is as follows:
1. Using an odds comparison site such as Oddschecker, find a sporting event which offers two outcomes.
2. Find the highest odds available for each outcome from two different bookmakers.
3. Calculate whether the odds represent an arbitrage betting opportunity.
4. If so, calculate the individual stakes you need to bet with at each bookmaker.
5. Place each of the bets.
To explain this process further, let’s look at a real-life example of a surebet based on the step-by-step approach above. As context, I went to Oddschecker, and after a little while of searching, came across the ATP Indian Wells tennis tournament which had Andy Murray (1.18 highest with Boylesports) as the favourite to win the match against Vasek Pospisil (7.00 highest with SkyBet). Why did this match grab my interest? Well, let me share the below table which gives an indication of the odds you’re looking for to potentially identify a surebet.
| Outcome 1 | Outcome 2 |
|---|---|
| 1.1 | 11.0 |
| 1.2 | 6.0 |
| 1.3 | 4.33 |
| 1.4 | 3.5 |
| 1.5 | 3.0 |
| 1.6 | 2.67 |
| 1.7 | 2.43 |
| 1.8 | 2.25 |
| 1.9 | 2.11 |
| 2.0 | 2.0 |
After noticing that 1.18 and 7.00 looked like a potential arbitrage bet by looking at 1.20 and 6.00 above, the next step is to calculate whether the odds actually represent a surebet. Luckily, there are plenty of online calculators available which do all of the hard work for you. However, we can take a look at the actual calculations to see how things work behind the calculator.
Firstly, if not using an online calculator, you need to work out the arbitrage percentage which identifies whether you have a surebet. As mentioned above, with an individual bookmaker, the total percentage of all outcomes in a sporting bet will add up to greater than 100% due to the overround. Therefore, we are looking for opportunities where all outcomes from different bookies add up to less than 100% as this suggest that the bookies have different opinions on the outcomes. To calculate the arbitrage percentage, you can use the following formula:
Arbitrage % = ((1 / decimal odds for outcome A) x 100) + ((1 / decimal odds for outcome B) x 100)
Andy Murray Win: (1 / 1.18) x 100 = 84.746%
Vasek Pospisil Win: (1 / 7.00) x 100 = 14.286%
84.75% + 14.29% = 99.032% (less than 100%, therefore an arbitrage bet)
Having found a surebet, we then need to calculate the profit we will receive based on the amount of money we are willing to invest. If, for example, you are wanting to place £500 stake on the tennis surebet above, you would calculate the profit using the following formula:
Arbitrage Betting Canada Online
Profit = (Investment / Arbitrage %) – Investment
(£500 / 99.032%) – £500 = £4.89 profit (from £500 stake)
The next step is to calculate how your investment needs to be broken down in terms of stakes across both bets. This is so that you are returning the same profit regardless of which outcome wins. The idea is to return the same profit regardless of whether the first or second outcome is successful, so it is critical to use the correct stakes – if not, you could find that one outcome is more profitable than the other or that you actually lose money if one outcome wins. To calculate the individual stakes:
Individual bets = (Investment x Individual Arbitrage %) / Total Arbitrage %
Andy Murray Stake = (£500 x 84.746%) / 99.032% = £427.87
Vasek Pospisil Stake = (£500 x 14.286%) / 99.032% = £72.13
£427.87 + £72.13 = £500 total stake
You therefore know that to make £4.89 profit from £500 (0.968% profit) you need to place a bet of £427.87 on Andy Murray to win at odds of 1.18 and £72.13 on Vasek Pospisil to win at odds of 7.00. As you can see, this is quite a lot of work for less than £5.00 profit, but as mentioned, online calculators can take a lot of the manual work away from this process.
As an aside, it is also worthwhile knowing how to calculate the stake for outcome B if you know how much you plan to bet on outcome A. Rather than the above approach where we split the total stake (£500) into two bets to guarantee the same profit, we can work out how much to place on outcome B if we have bet £500 just on outcome A. This can be done using the following formula:
Stake for outcome B = Stake for outcome A x (Odds for outcome A / Odds for outcome B)
£500 x (1.18 / 7.00) = £84.29 stake for outcome B
To work out total profit, you would then use the above figures in the following calculations:
Arbitrage Betting Canada Rules
Profit if outcome A wins: (stake for outcome A x odds for outcome A) – (total investment)
Sports Betting Arbitrage
Profit if outcome B wins: (stake for outcome B x odds for outcome B) – (total investment)
If Murray wins: (£500 x 1.18) – (£500 + £84.29) = £5.71
If Pospisil wins: (£84.29 x 7.00) – (£84.29 + £500) = £5.74
So, by investing £584.29 in this match, you would make a profit of £5.71 if Murray wins or £5.74 if Pospisil wins.
As described above, we’ve talked about finding surebets by looking at online bookmakers and odds comparison sites to identify the best prices for each outcome in a sporting event. This isn’t the only arbing opportunity though – it is also possible to do this via betting exchanges and in betting shops. For instance, you could use the likes of Betfair to back and lay a bet to create a guaranteed profit – along similar lines to trading in the financial markets – although an extra considerations is that you need to factor in the commission for using the service. Similarly, there is also the practice of ‘sharbing’ where you are able to create an arbitrage opportunity by using an online bookie for one outcome and a betting shop for the second as shops are usually slower to respond to price changes than online bookies.
Although arbing is not illegal per se, it is viewed very negatively by bookmakers and can often result in bets being cancelled should it be detected. This can have a knock on effect if a bet on outcome A is cancelled with bookie A, but outcome B is not cancelled with bookie B, meaning that you could be seriously out of pocket considering the large stakes at play. Going one step further, it is also not uncommon for betting accounts to be suspended if people are suspected of using surebets. Therefore, heed a word of caution when approaching arbitrage betting despite the promised guaranteed profit on offer.
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