Sports Arbitrage Part Four

This is your final lesson of your BashTheBookie.co.uk course on making money from guaranteed risk-free arbs. We hope you've so far found the information we've given to you to be enlightening. You may even by now have made your first risk-free money from an arb! We will finish this course off by telling you about some of the best arb subscription services we've tried and tested. They are a surefire way to increase the number of arbs you can invest in as well as further protecting you from making any mistakes when finding your own. We'll also give you some tips on getting more out of arbs and increasing your chances of success. We'll also explain a couple of fantastic alternative types of arbs we also use to further increase the profit we make.

"Why should I pay for something that I can do myself?" is the most common question we've been asked about this section and one that maybe you're thinking right now. Well, why do we eat out in restaurants or buy take-aways when we can cook ourselves much more cheaply at home? Both questions have the same answer - we want to save on hassle and time, and we'll pay to get better results. The same can be applied to arbitrage subscription services - they employ people, or they have developed special software, to find good verified arbs so that we don't have to, so it is only fair that they should charge a reasonable price for this service. We have no objection to this - of course, we object to other websites providing similar information to us for a costly fee. That's just not right! But with subscription packages starting from just a few pounds per month this should be money very well spent.

We feel that as a beginner to arbs it would be worthwhile to try out at least one subscription service just to start seeing where and when these websites find their arbs. You can then use this knowledge to start looking to find similar arbs yourself. Whilst you can take advantage of free trials and introductory offers, many other people we have introduced to arbs have tended to keep at least one subscription active to supplement the arbs they were finding themselves. We will now introduce to you some of the services we believe offer the best value, starting with the least expensive first.

UCantLose is an ever expanding arbitrage service that costs from just pennies per day for arb alerts by e-mail. These alerts tell you what the event is, what the odds are and the approximate profit margin - just follow the links to the profit! They also provide a SMS text alert service from an additional few pennies per day - the advantage of this is you don't need to be sitting at your computer waiting for an e-mail to come. Instead do whatever you want until you receive an instant text message to your mobile phone - you then just need to get to your computer and get that free cash. Excellent service that very frequently uses the bookmakers you've already joined as well as a few more. Usually they send out 4 to 5 higher percentage arbs per day. Full history of all arbs advised are displayed on their website.

Upon accessing the home page of Arbhunters, you can tell that that they provide a professional service, but with packages starting from just Ł10 per month they aren't expensive. Like UCantLose they offer different standard packages, the most expensive again being the package that includes SMS text alerts. Up to 10 good arbs are advised to members per day. Very good service.

The FreeMoneyLoophole Arb Alert service sends out, by e-mail and text, over 100 arbs per month to their members with an average profit of around 5%. Very popular with investors based outside the UK, but with a strong exchange rate at the moment the $29.97 fee per month works out a steal for UK buyers. Well worth considering. Often have free trials, so check out their website!

There are bound to be other suppliers that enter this ever growing and lucrative niche market, so if you find any that you'd like to recommend then please drop us a line.

We're now coming towards the end of your initial instruction on how to profit from the traditional form of arbitrage. In a moment we will introduce a couple of additional methods that will increase your returns, but first here's a few tips to maximise your profit whatever the method of arb investing employed.

I think we've established the need for you to be as organised and as quick as possible when placing arb investments because the best odds are always under pressure to shorten. So whilst it is essential for you yourself to be as quick and methodical as possible, you cannot afford to let your internet connection slow you down. We'll be honest - you will almost certainly need broadband to be able to benefit from arbs successfully so would recommend a 500k connection as the minimum. If you can't get broadband (and we know there are some of you who've emailed to tell us they are unable to get broadband where they live) we would recommend OnSpeed whose clever system brings broadband speed to a dial-up connection for just for a very small monthly fee. Remember - a quick internet connections is essential.

When we first wrote this guide it was possible in some circumstances to get credit card cashback and other rewards for your gambling activity. Unfortunately things have gone full circle since then as a large number of credit card companies now class deposits to bookmakers as a cash advance, and charge accordingly. We recommend you check out a website like MoneySupermarket for all the most up to date credit card deals and read up on which of those will not charge for gambling activity. A work around this is to get an Egg Money card, which works like a pre-paid credit card therefore not incurring a cash advance fee, but can also be funded by a balance transfer with another credit card. Also, if you are going to be using a lot of foreign based bookmakers, you may wish to consider a Nationwide debit card, as they do not charge any additional fees for currency exchanging.

No we're not suggesting you hide your profits from your husband or wife!!! What we're pointing to is that there is some thought that bookmakers dislike people making money - their money - from arbs. We're not so sure this is the case for all bookmakers, or even the majority of them for that matter. After all, a number of bookmakers are happy to advertise on our website and on our e-mails knowing that we are a website called "bash the bookie"!! We actually think some bookmakers are fond of arb investors as some particular bookies have frequently took our money as they were on the losing element of an arb investment we have placed - money they might not have received from a regular punter. What we can say is that some bookies don't like people always winning from them whatever method of betting or investing has been used. In these extreme cases it has been known for bookies to set lower maximum stakes to these people reducing potential liability. To avoid this try not to have all the winning sides of your investments at one bookmaker all the time!! And use different login names, as already suggested for security reasons, as some bookmakers are affiliated to one another and could apply the lower stake limit across all their sites. It will also be less obvious to the bookmakers if you round up any stakes suggested by the Calculator to whole numbers as nobody else would have any reason to stake in unusual amounts. Don't worry, it's usually only the full time professional high-rolling arb investors who need to protect themselves against this sort of action.

All your tuition so far has been about arbs on sporting events but it really doesn't stop there. Some of the best arbs occur on non-sporting events such as Big Brother and other TV shows, elections, the Oscars, or even "snow at Christmas"!!!. Make sure you open your eyes to the possibilities of which events could feature surebets.

Although we've just preached about the need for speed on your computer so that you don't miss out on arbs, we have to point out that arbs don't just occur on the internet. Do you recall the example about England football odds offering poor value because of the patriotic flow of money? The same can apply regionally within the country at local betting shops. Imagine a Newcastle v Sunderland derby match (or Old Firm etc), you're likely to find the best odds for the Sunderland win in a betting shop in the centre of Newcastle because all the money there will be going on the 'Toon, and vice versa. These odds would probably be a lot better than any on the internet, and combined with the best internet odds for the other outcomes could well work out to a good arb. If you live close to a betting shop that could be influenced by these such market movements then make sure you compare their odds to those on the odds comparison sites. Equally so, bookmakers often print fixed odds football coupons which, unless otherwise stated within the actual bookmakers, remain at the odds printed on the coupon. Whilst you may find yourself limited to certain levels, if the odds have shortened on Betfair then you will be able to look in a guaranteed profit. See below for a further explanation of this last part.

If ever there could be a motto of an arb investor, 'Little and Often' should be it. Because that is the way that the very best arb investors make the most money. So if you're looking for an arb investment of 5% profit and dismiss two you find at 2.5% each, don't be annoyed when you realise you could have made as much money from those as the 5% surebet you never found. So never ignore the smaller arbs, they're your bread and butter, and they will allow you to really enjoy and appreciate the bigger arbs that come along in between.

There has been a revolution in internet betting in the last few years, not just in the sheer growth of money being gambled but also in the new types of betting websites that have appeared. Two of these newer types of internet gambling, spread betting and betting exchanges, give us even more opportunity to make risk free cash out of differences in opinion.

Spread betting is a relatively new addition to the sporting world, having been developed initially from wagering on the financial markets. Each opportunity to wager is basically a question where you the punter, Bruce Forsyth style, are asked higher or lower?. Except in sports spread betting it's not cards we're trying to play right, it's occurences in sporting events. Therefore, some examples we can gamble on are total goals in a match, supremacy (how many goals one team will win by), to anything like total booking points to totals of goalscorer's shirt numbers. And it's not just football but any sport we can 'spread' on - runs in a cricket match, points scored in a rugby match and so on. From this the spread betting website publishes a range in which it thinks the outcome is most likely to occur, with the opportunity for the punter to sell or go lower if they think the result will be under the range, or to buy or go higher if they think the range will be exceeded.

Here's an example. Arsenal are playing Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League with both teams in need of the points. BetHiLo predict the time of the first goal to be 33-36 minutes. In this game we fancy Arsenal to break the deadlock early on so sell (go lower than) 33 minutes at a Ł5 stake. Congratulations - Arsenal score after 5 minutes. Our winnings are calculated by the difference between the spread price and the actual result multiplied by the stake - 33 minutes minus 5 minutes is 28 minutes multiplied by Ł5 equals a Ł140 win. Great result, but before you want to abandon our risk-free betting advice in pursuit of these big winnings consider the risk involved if they hadn't scored after 5 minutes. In fact if the first goal had come in the 90th minute we'd be looking at a 57 minute difference or a Ł285 loss. Ouch!

The above was just a brief introduction to spread betting, and in case you're wondering how a bookmaker makes money on this event, it's if the goal came in the 33-36 minute spread where everyone who bought and everyone who sold loses. Where in traditional betting we managed to pit bookmaker against bookmaker to turn an over-round into an under-round for us, we can pit spread bookmaker against spread bookmaker to create a safe spread window for ourselves. We'll give an explanation of this below.

Wales are playing Romania in rugby and spread betting sites are predicting a spread for when they think Romania will score their first try. Sporting Index think it'll be 53-56 minutes whilst Spreadex think it will be 59-62. Here we can buy (or go higher) at 56 minutes on one site and sell (or go lower) at 59 minutes at the other site. If we keep our stakes the same at each site we are guaranteed a 3 point return no matter what the result is. In this match Romania scored in the 36th minute giving us (assuming we'd wagered Ł10 per point) a Ł30 profit. We lost 20 points under 56 where we 'went higher' but won 23 points under 59 where we 'went lower'. But the most important point was we were guaranteed this 3 point return before the match even started. You can use the calculation for any minute of the match and you'll get the same result.

Spread betting gives us some great opportunities to cash in risk free as the same principles of differences of opinion and monetary pressure can cause differences in spreads. You simply need to use a similar method to check the rules and events are like for like at each bookmaker before making the investment. And continue to look for the less likely markets and events where often the biggest differences on opinion lie.

Some people in the gambling industry feel that betting exchanges offering person to person gambling (P2P) will soon make traditional bookmakers extinct. We're not sure if this is true but they have certainly revolutionised betting. They're like the gambling equivalent of eBay matching punters that want to bet for and bet against an outcome. It's this second point that is the most appealing, especially if you've ever been to the races and every horse you backed lost and you wished you'd been able to bet that they wouldn't win their races. That's precisely what the betting exchange allows you to do. The second important factor about the betting exchange is that the over-round on an event is virtually non-existant so in theory we should normally find the best odds on the exchanges. We often will, and exchanges will form an important part of your standard arb investments, but they don't always have the best odds.

It's this last point that lets us think about another alternative form of arbs which requires the use of betting exchanges. It's very simple - if you look at any market on the betting exchanges you will see that there is very little difference between the back and lay best odds for each outcome. So if the back odds on an exchange aren't the best odds on the internet then it is possible that the lay odds are also lower than the best back odds found elsewhere. In other words the liability you would have to pay out on the lay bet could be less than the return from backing the outcome.

As we wrote this part of the article on a Saturday morning we challenged ourselves to find one of these surebets as fast as we could. It took under 2 minutes. We simply looked at the football markets on BestBetting to compare best back odds against best lay odds (you can do this in any individual match by clicking the Info tab) and found such a arb on a Watford v Crewe league match. The Watford win was priced at 2.20 at William Hill but you could lay (bet against the win) at 2.10 at Betdaq. There was plenty of liquidity (money available to be matched in the odds box) so after placing Ł300 at William Hill, we could place a Ł318.84 lay at Betdaq. After commission, this gave us a profit of Ł9.28 no matter what the result was. So when Watford won the match 3-1 we had nearly Ł10 straight into our pocket thank you very much. If they hadn't won then our it would have been exactly the same result as far as we were concerned.

We had a further look round to find these sort of occurances on virtually every sport you could think of including horse racing. It's very possible to make all sorts of consecutive investments on a Saturday to end up with a nice profit at the end of the afternoon to spend as you wish (we recommend the pub!!). So what we are really looking for are poor odds from betting exchanges to allow a corresponding low liability lay so we suggest you have a go looking around for these sorts of situation.

We have a section of our sports arbitrage calculator which will tell you whether given the back and lay odds, and the commission rate, it is possible to lock in a guaranteed profit. If you had taken our advice and completed the matched betting deals then you should already be well versed in backing and laying the same outcome!

Well, you've now reached the end of these instructional lessons which we hope you've found to be both useful and exciting.