Sports arbitrage betting is often referred to a risk free betting or scalping and the most common method nowadays is to lay a result on a betting exchange and then back the opposite action on at a standard bookmakers such as Bet365.
It is possible however to gain an arb bet of a few percent simply by backing all actions at various bookmakers.
Example
For this example I’m using a tennis match and assume that both odds are the best available from internet gambling sites. Our fictional match is Roger Federer v Tommy Robredo, which obviously sees Roger being the clear favourite…
- Bet365 have best odds of 1.95 for Roger to win the match
- Eurobet have top odds 2.25 for Robredo to win the match
Basically on a 2 horse race such as a tennis match, if the combined odds is over 4.0, then there is a profit to be made. In this example 1.95 + 2.25 = 4.20, so a profit is guaranteed, provided that you wager the correct bet amounts on each player. Calculating the arbitrage bet amounts is the most complicated part of securing your arb, but fortunately I’ve put together a spreadsheet which does the hard work for you 
We’ve decided to place a total of £200 on this wager, the calculator tells us to put £107.14 on Federer to win and £92.86 on Robredo. This would then create the following scenario.
If Federer Wins
- £101.79 Profit on Federer…. £107.14 x 1.95 = £208.93 (less stake of £107.14 = £101.79 profit)
- £92.86 Loss on Robredo
- £8.93 = Total Profit (£101.79 – £92.86)
If Robredo Wins
- £116.07 Profit on Robredo…. £92.86 x 2.25 = £208.93 (less stake of £92.86 = £116.07 profit)
- £107.14 Loss on Federer
- £8.93 = Total Profit (£116.07 – £107.14)
As you can see, it’s a win win and you really cannot lose. There are some tips for sports arbitrage because there are little pitfalls you have to watch out for, such as the odds moving or getting your account limited by a sportsbook because they think you are an arber….which you obviously will be. There are ways around this and I’ll cover them in more detail soon
