In sports betting, you will have a large selection of strategies and styles. One such method is arbitrage betting.
Sometimes referred to as arbing, surebets, arbs, and even miraclebets, there are plenty of names to call this style of betting. The method is when you place multiple bets on an event to guarantee yourself a profit, regardless of the outcome.
Top Tips For Arbitrage Betting
If you are looking into arbing, you need to know a few things to keep in mind. As such, you want to be sure you are very familiar with betting terms and that it is right for you and your betting habits.
We gathered the top tips for arbitrage betting under these headlines:
- What is arbitrage betting?
- How to make an arbitrage bet
- Keep up with your bets
- Check the odds
- Your bankroll
What Is Arbitrage Betting?
As you have read above, arbitrage betting involves making multiple bets on an event to try to make the most money without any regard to the actual outcome. Bookies have to allow bets to come in, but they tend to keep a close eye on this.
Arbitrage betting requires that you have patience and some composure. Since you will be betting on both sides of the event, with different sportsbooks, you will see losses along with your wins.
Bookies will monitor your account, especially if you happen to win just about every single event you bet on. While this is not meant to scare you, keep in mind how the terms and conditions fare for your sportsbook of choice.
How to Make an Arbitrage Bet
The first thing, to keep it simple, is to have at least two sportsbooks of choice. For this example, you will see that odds will be placed on two different sportsbooks.
Example:
- New England Patriots: -165 odds at Sportsbook A
- Indianapolis Colts: +180 odds at Sportsbook B
Say you place a bet of $100 on the Patriots at Sportsbook A. Then, you wager $57.36 at Sportsbook B. After it is all said and done, you will make a profit of $3.24.
By making this amount of money, you can see that you obviously will not get rich doing this. However, what you can see is that you will make money regardless of the situation if you are able to spot the odds at different sportsbooks at the right times. Of course, this requires you to know how to read betting odds in the right way.
Keep Up With Your Bets
If you can find the odds at difficult sportsbooks and take advantage of the differences, this is key to your arbitrage betting. When making multiple bets like this, you also need to keep track of where and what you have bet on.
You do not want to make yourself look suspicious to a sportsbook. Again, the terms and conditions for each one will differ, but most of the time, they will say things directed towards “professional” bettors.
To put it simply, they do not want people to place bets that win all the time. This costs money to them, or at least the one that you keep winning with all the time.
Check The Odds
Since you will be placing bets at multiple sportsbooks, the odds are going to be different for any event that you bet on. It is important to make sure you check them often to see when the best time to strike on the best odds.
In doing this, you should know beforehand what amount of money you are comfortable with spending on a certain event. You are looking for the odds that are the biggest gaps in your betting opportunities.
Your Bankroll when doing arbitrage
Most importantly, you are going to need to watch your bankroll. Since you are placing multiple bets, you are essentially putting more money to work at any given time. You are also subject to losing if you miscalculated your odds.
With this in mind, you should definitely keep a record of your wins and losses. Your records will show if you have the proper amount of money to play with or if you should even bet in the first place.
Where can I do arbitrage betting?
The most important to do arbitrage betting is comparing different sportsbooks to compare the different odds, therefor, it would be ideal to reside in a state with a wide offer of Sportsbooks. We recommend you to compare all the legal sportsbooks on your residing state which you can easily find on our list by state of all US sportsbooks.
