Betting in football and other sports is supposed to be extremely hard to beat and only a few bettors succeed in winning long-term profits through this kind of betting. An arbitrage in sports betting is when bettors make multiple bets on one sporting event to guarantee a profit no matter the end result. Generally, it’s the result of different bookies offering different odds on the same event.
Arbitrage is a kind of hedging, but the actual definition is where bettors need to place their arbitrage bets at the same time.
Top Tips to Look for Arbitrage Opportunities
The problem with arbing is that the profit margin isn’t very big. However, you can still make a good amount of money if your bets are large enough.
Indeed, you need to find some good arbs before counting your winnings. We’ll discuss that in the points below, including the software that may help you find excellent profitable opportunities.
Finding Arbitrage – the Main Challenge
The first thing to note is that online sportsbooks despise arbitrage, so you won’t get any help from any bookie finding arbs. The good news is that there are plenty of arbs that exist daily. Therefore, it’s all up to you to find these opportunities. Assuming you can sport arbs regularly, then you’ll be hitting some winnings over and over again.
There are many different markets in the sports betting world. However, the trouble is that you need to find arbs and bet on each leg. If you mess up in one leg, you’ll likely lose the guaranteed profit.
Arbitrage betting combines making profitable bets and capitalizing on opportunities in time. If you can master these skills, you’ll be rewarded with consistent winnings.
Don’t Depend on Finding Arbs Yourself
The first thing you do regarding arbitrage betting may be to try and look for these opportunities yourself. Doing this requires monitoring different sportsbooks and looking for potential arbitrage.
In theory, you can still find good opportunities this way, but the chances and effort you need to put into this are not worth it. As we’ve previously mentioned, bookies hate arbers – they usually remain close to each other when it comes to odds to avoid giving up arbs.
Indeed, sportsbooks each offer different odds to make better winning opportunities, but they usually close these gaps before too many bettors take advantage of them. If you’re opening 10 sportsbooks on your phone and constantly refreshing them, you won’t be timing the odds correctly. The bottom line is – that you can’t find arbs on your own.
Use Arbs Software
The best and most sensible way to arbitrage bets is to use a software. You need to find a program that specifically looks out for arbitrage betting opportunities. You can find programs that are designed specifically to find arbs and will notify you when they’ve found a good arb.
Sometimes, general sports betting software programs can also do the same trick. These programs are also useful for other purposes like finding betting percentages and updated odds. In some cases, these arb finders are even available for free.
Free Arbitrage Betting Software
Luckily, free programs exist online, so you won’t need to spend a dime on any arbitrage betting software. It’s great to have free software to launch these programs and start looking for arbs.
However, these freebies have a few downsides as they suffer from several problems:
- They cover a limited number of markets
- They take time to refresh
- Odds may come in on a delay
- These programs aren’t reliable for betting each leg in time
Due to these limitations, you might consider investing in software. But if you think it’s an excellent place to start, go for it, as these programs are easy to use. The best free software you can use are surebet.com, Betburger, RebelBetting, and OddStorm.
You can continue with these free programs until you’re comfortable and ready to upgrade to the full service.
Buying the Software
Whether you want to pay for arbing software or not depends on how serious you are in the betting space.
If you are serious about becoming an arber, then upgrading the software is well worth it as it provides you with the following advantages:
- Odds refresh faster and offer a better chance to bet every leg in time
- You’ll get extra features like an arbitrage calculator, alerts, etc.
- They cover more markets
Speed is essential when finding arbs, which is why the free programs are riskier. You can cut down this risk by paying for software, as you’ll get refreshed odds faster with more in-depth programs.
Conclusion - Finding Arbitrage Opportunities
Arbitrage betting is a great way to make money through sports betting. When it’s done right, arbitrage can give you guaranteed profits. You only need to find situations where bookies offer different enough odds for a given match to win. This is indeed easier said than done.
You can find arbs by yourself, but we don’t recommend it as you’ll be going through hell to find the right one. You can use free programs if you’re not looking to invest in software. However, free arb finders refresh slowly and don’t cover many markets. If you are serious about making money from arbing, you should go for paid software. However, if you just want to try out arbing, free programs should be enough and may get you some small profits.
