Arbitrage betting is a sports betting strategy designed to create an advantage based on the difference between the odds offered by bookmakers. It consists of placing at least two bets on the same match, thus covering as many possibilities as possible. If the player plays his bets correctly, they become surefire bets that bring him a profit regardless of how the match ends.
If we define arbitrage betting in this way, the whole system does not seem very appealing, nor particularly understandable what it is all about. In order to be able to understand this strategy as well as possible, we will first introduce you to the irregularities in the odds levels in the market, because without this it is not possible to start dealing with this sports betting strategy.
If you have ever played online sports betting, you probably know that different sportsbooks offer different odds for the same sporting events. Odds for an individual player to win will usually vary from bookmaker to bookmaker. Let’s say you bet on tennis. For the match between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, the 1xBet bookmaker offers odds of 2.08 for Djokovic to win and 1.85 for Nadal to win. On the other hand, the bookmaker 22bet offers odds of 1.86 for Djokovic and 2.09 for Nadal.
This shows that the first bookmaker believes that Djokovic will win, while the second bookmaker favors Nadal. Although the difference between the odds is not great, it is an ideal opportunity to play a reliable bet, which is called “Arb” among bettors.
In such a situation, the arbitrage bet is certainly the easiest, since the player places a bet on Djokovic in the first bookmaker, and Nadal in the second. It is absolutely certain that one of the bets will win, which means that the player has a guaranteed win without any risk!
To make it easier to explain, let’s say that each bet is worth €100, so a total of €200. If Djokovic wins, then the player gets €208, and if Nadal wins, the player gets €209. It is true that the profit is not terribly high, but it is GUARANTEED, because in any case he gets almost the same amount of money, regardless of how the match ends.
Do you now understand why arbitrage betting is so popular among bettors? In this case, we made a guaranteed profit in a single match without any problems and with very little effort. It is not necessary to think about which player is better, which surface or weather suits him better, because in this situation it is completely irrelevant. You just need to find opportunities and take advantage of them.
The given example is otherwise very simple, since there are only two possible results and since both odds were above 2.0. Even if a player has a basic knowledge of math and odds types, he can be sure that this is a perfect arbing opportunity and take advantage of it.
Unfortunately, such obvious cases are quite rare, and such a clear opportunity almost never arises. Most arbing opportunities are much more difficult and require a bit of math to calculate the exact stakes.
