In the betting industry, there are a lot of techniques that are designed in order to make gambling easy and profitable for ordinary bettors, and arbing is said to be one of the most popular among them. Also called as matched betting or arbitrage, this strategy was developed to deal with shares and stocks; it manifests itself in simultaneous buying and selling assets in order to minimize possible risks.

The given technique has existed in betting since the industry emerged. An attitude towards it, however, changed a lot after the technological progress had influenced the gambling industry enabling punters to place wagers online. As a result, thousands of bettors from the whole world successfully apply the given strategy, while a few bookmakers are not enthusiastic with it and try to prevent the punters from employing the arbitrage.

Arbitrage in Betting Explained

In short, arbing is based on different odds values published by different bookmakers on the same event in an attempt to guarantee profits whatever the outcome. For this, gamblers should place appropriate stakes on all the possible outcomes of an event. So, the main task here is to find bookmakers that have published essentially different odds on the same sports event. As for sports, you can apply the arbitrage to sports where either two (win or loss) or three (win, draw or loss) outcomes are possible. Thus, such sports as football, basketball, and tennis are perfectly suitable for arbing.

Though the given technique is said to be the only possible way of producing constant benefits, there are certain phenomena that make it rather complicated for everyone to apply. Arbing can lead to the desired results only if you have a rather extensive bankroll to place two or three bets simultaneously and strong patience because the winnings from a single event will be relatively small. In other words, it will take a while to earn a total of rather decent winnings.

Also, the patience is required to find situations suitable for the arbitrage. The thing is that you must have accounts with at least two online bookies and constantly monitor them. No one can promise that you can find the suitable conditions at any moment. Odds fluctuate and the successful combination of circumstances can last for several minutes only. When you found one, you must act lively in order to get the most advantages out of the arbitrage.

Example of Arbing

In order to better understand the general principles of arbing, let us consider an actual example with a tennis match. For instance, let us take a supposed match between Federer and Jokovich. So, let us assume that Bookmaker 1 offers the odds of 1.5 on Federer to win and 3.8 on Jokovich to win, while Bookmaker 2 has published the more attractive odds on Federer (1.8) but lower odds on Jokovich (2.9). Thus, the arbitrage prescribes to bet on Federer with Bookmaker 2 and on Jokovich with Bookmaker 1.

If the initial stake on Federer was $100, we can calculate the amount of money to be staked on Jokovich. For this, you should divide the shorter odds by longer ones and multiply the result by the stake placed. So, it is as follows:

(1.8/3.8) * $100 = $47

So, we should stake $47 on Jokovich to win in order to apply arbing. Now, let us check whether the given technique works. If Federer wins, we will obtain $180 of benefits, while the net profits will amount to $180 – ($100 + $47) = $33. The win of Jokovich, in its turn, will generate $47 * 3.8 = $178.6, while the net profits will be $38.6. So, the given strategy has proved to be effective.

The Legal Side of the Question

Though arbing seems to be an errorless technique for punters, some of them just cannot believe that they may freely employ it. Nevertheless, it is completely legal because it is based only on odds fluctuations that are created by bookmakers for different reasons.

On the other hand, bookmakers also understand the possibilities of the arbitrage. That is why they suspend or close accounts of punters who employed arbing. However, it is not a serious problem if your accounts were somehow limited after you used arbing because there are a lot of other online bookmakers who are still open to you.

Arbitrage and Betting Exchanges

Betting exchanges provide gamblers dealing with arbing with extremely helpful information and services. Not only is it possible to employ the arbitrage through them, gamblers also can find and compare odds published by different bookmakers in one place. Also, some betting exchanges indicate stake amounts punters are allowed to place. To tell the truth, it is extremely useful when you calculate your arbing stakes.

Arbitrage Software

In addition, there are various software programs that are designed in order to facilitate the arbitrage betting process for ordinary gamblers. Roughly speaking, this software can be subdivided into services that are to look for arbing opportunities throughout the whole industry, special calculators able of stating potential benefits and stake amounts to be placed, and certain filters to make your arbing convenient.

Conclusion

It is possible to say that discipline is the most important thing for successful arbing. The fact is that relatively small benefits are obtained from large stakes. Thus, even a single mistake can cost a lot for the entire strategy.