Arbitrage Betting - Make Money From Arbitrage Bets Online

Arbitrage is a very old and well known method of profiting from a kind of market, and is a term which can be applied to various different topics. In this case we will be dicussing betting arbitrage, where you can profit from differences in odds available at bookmakers.

When you first mention that it is possible to make money from online betting at no risk, most people will not believe you (I admit that I was very sceptical at first) but it is very important that you fully read all of the information available. There is no risk involved, as long as you are careful and are fully aware of what it is you will be doing.

Understanding Abritrage Betting

Firsty it is important that you understand what a betting exchange is, as it is a vital ingredient in making money from arbitrage betting. A betting exchange (betfair.com for example) allows you to set the odds on different events, and to take peoples money for these events - much like a real bookmaker would. You can set the odds on an event happening, and set the amount of money that you are willing to allow bet on this event happening. By allowing people to bet on an event what you are doing is "laying" a bet. This means you are betting against the outcome of an event happening. So if you set odds of 4/1 (decimal odds of 5) and a stake of £10 and you lay team A winning a football match against team B (laying a bet) then this is what would happen...
If team A wins you have to pay out £50 (odds of 5x£10 stake).
If team A doesn't win (draws or loses) you get to keep the £10.

If you have trouble understanding this try to picture what happens when you walk into a betting shop and place a bet. For any bet that you place, the bookmaker is basically laying a bet when you are backing a bet. The bookmaker is betting against an event happening, where as you are betting that an event will happen. The bookmaker gets to keep my money if I lose my bet, whereas I get to take the bookmakers money if I win my bet. A betting exchange allows you to do exactly the same as a bookmaker.

Now this is where it gets a little bit more complicated, and the exact process of arbitrage betting is explained. With the use of a betting exchange and a normal online betting site, if we find odds to back an event which are higher than the odds to lay an event, we can make a profit - and an arbitrage bet.

For example, say the odds at WilliamHill.com on Leeds to beat Chelsea are 9/1 (decimal odds of 10). The odds at the betting exchange Betfair.com to lay Leeds to beat Chelsea are 4/1 (decimal odds of 5).
If we place £10 on Leeds to beat Chelsea at the bookmakers site WilliamHill.com, then if Leeds win we earn £100, a profit of £90.
If we lay £10 on Leeds to beat Chelsea at the betting exchange site Betfair.com, then if Leeds win we have to pay out £50, a loss of £40.
Now you can see from this outcome, we will have an overall profit of £50. Even if Leeds draw or lose, we will still have a profit of £40.
If Leeds draw or lose, we will lose our £10 at the bookmakers site WilliamHill.com. However, at the betting exchange Betfair.com we will receive £50 back - a profit of £40.

The above example uses come very exagerrated odds, which will be very uncommon. Usually the difference in odds when an arb is formed is around 0.20, not 5 like in the above example. However, the profit is easily maximised by the amount that you bet. Instead of betting just £10, you could try betting around £300. This will maximise your potential returns from the arb, enabling you to earn more money from arbitrage betting.

Finding Abritrage Betting Opportunities

The hardest part of arbitrage betting (once you understand the concept) is actually finding arbitrage opportunities. These are obviously quite rare (bookmakers are careful not too have their odds too high) and so they tend to disappear quite quickly. It is recommended that you join the Rpoints forum, and browse through to the betting forum, and locate the arbitrage thread. Arbs are often posted several times a day, enabling you to easily make some money from the process of arbitrage. Free membership to the forum is required to read threads from the betting forum, so this is a real requirement.

One of the other downsides to arbitrage betting is that you need a fair amount of spare money before you can start up. Not only will you be placing large money bets on events, but you will also need to have money spare in your betting exchange - because if you lay an event with high odds and a fair amount of cash, and the event happens, you will have to pay out a lot of money (you will be winning a lot of money in the betting site though, so you haven't actually lost any money) but the money is needed in the betting exchange as liability (just incase you need to pay out).

Arbitrage betting is highly recommended, you can easily earn £30 a day just from spending a few minutes placing bets online. The hardest part is understanding the theory behind arbing, but once you do you will have a definite way of making money online. If you don't feel that you have enough money to start up with, have a read of the matched-betting article on this website. This is a very similar process to arbitrage, and involves betting much lower amounts of money but you can still earn a lot of money for minimum effort.

If you ever want to make a living from arbitrage betting then you will probably need to find an arbitrage betting subscription service. This will enable you to receive arbitrage betting opportunities as and when they occur, so that you are able to make as much money from arbitrage betting as possible. We recommend that you join the UCantLose arbitrage subscription service by clicking on the banner image below.