Arbing or sports arbitrage is a math-based betting method that’s been around for a while and bettors had been using it years before matched betting came around.

It’s older than matched betting, but is it better? Can you combine the two to take your betting profits skyward? Is it safe to arb as part of your betting strategy?

Keep on reading to find all the answers you need!

Top 3 Key Takeaways:

1. Same as Matched Betting, Sports Arbitrage is also a legal math-based method.
2. Arbing profits are small, but you can find a large number of arbs every day.
3. There’s a big risk that you’re going to get gubbed by the bookmakers if you do arbing.

Arbing vs Matched Betting – Which One’s Better?

Same as matched betting, arbitrage betting a.k.a. arbing is also a perfectly legal method to make some sure profits. But, that is exactly the reason why bookmakers hate it. They like to make money, not lose it.

Both methods, if done wisely, can bring a lot of money your way. But, which one is more profitable? And could you multiply your profits by combining these two methods?

To understand whether it would be wise to combine arbing and matched betting, first you need to understand how these methods work. Matched betting lets you make use of the bonuses that bookmakers give, by pairing them with betting exchanges.

Basically, you’re betting on one outcome using the bonus while laying the same outcome at an exchange using real money. To help you go through the entire process effortlessly, you need the help of a matched betting software such as Oddshero.

With arbing, you need a software tool that would go through the entire offers of sportsbooks in order to find odds that are favorable to the player. The tool will find high odds on all the potential outcomes of a certain event so that when you cover all of them, you’re going to receive a small profit.

Doesn’t sound clear? Let’s explain it with an example. Take a look at the image below and you’ll see how arbing works.

As you can see in the example above, an equal profit awaits you no matter what happens in the game. You just need to put the right amount of money on each bet.

Getting Gubbed – The Biggest Downside of Arbing

As you’ve seen in the arbing example we’ve picked, it’s based on an ice hockey game from the Finish SM Liiga. Not the most famous sports competition in the world, don’t you agree?

Furthermore, in order to win your €34.9, you would have to wager a total of €1000. You might be able to get the €172.2 accepted by Pinnacle, but there’s no way SportingBet would ever accept an €827.8 hockey bet. At least not without flagging your account.

What this practically means is that your account would get on the list of suspicious accounts. The reason is not that you placed a fairly large sum of money on an event that’s not too popular among sports bettors. It’s because your stake is not a round number.

Who places bets like these? Only those who are using some kind of betting method to get a sure win. And such bettors are the ones bookmakers want to stay away from.

But, arbing is 100% legal, you might argue. It is, which is why the bookmaker cannot take away your winnings. But, they have discretionary right to limit or suspend any account. And if you’re an arber, your account is likely to get restricted or completely banned.

In order to deal with arbers, some bookies might decide to take a different approach. Instead of ‘gubbing’ their account, they might simply increase the odds or lower down the maximum stake for the match in question.

As ‘arbs’ are usually centered around events that are flying under the radar of high-rollers, bookmakers might limit stakes on such games.

Practically, this means that at some bookmakers, you’re allowed to bet thousands of Euros on Premier League events, but betting on lower tiers, e.g. English National League North would not be possible with such high stakes. Instead, you would probably only be able to bet a maximum of a few dozen Euros.

And that can be a big problem for ambitious arbers. Without being able to bet large sums, you are not going to make big profits on arbitrage betting. In fact, your profits are probably going to be measured in cents!

Let’s say there’s an arb that’s guaranteed to bring a profit regardless of which of the two possible outcomes happens. Let’s say the odds on each outcome are 2.05, which means that the guaranteed profit is 2.5%.

However, if the bookmaker is not letting you put more than €10, it means that the profit you’re going to make on €20 staked in total is going to be only 50 cents.

Can You Make Money Doing Arbing in 2020?

The most arbs you will find on a daily basis are those that bring only a tiny profit. The good news is that if you’re using good arbing software, you will get a pretty big number of arbs you can take advantage of.

Of course, the number of arbs you will be getting depends not only on the tool you’re using, but also on the number of sportsbooks you’re registered at. The more bookies’ accounts you have, the more arbs you will be able to make.

And the more arbs you make, the more money you’ll end up with. The trouble is that in order to make a decent sum from arbing, you would have to place bets all the time.

Actually, you would probably have to spend more hours in front of your computer doing arbing than you would if you had a proper office job.

Tips and Tricks for Boosting Your Arbing Profits

Arbing will never die – you can be sure of that. The only trouble with it is that it’s not as profitable as it used to be. But, there are some ways which you can up your sports arbitrage profits. One of them is to ensure you stay non-gubbed as long as possible.

To achieve that, you need to present yourself to the bookmakers as a regular bettor, not an arber. And what separates ordinary bettors from arbers? It’s the fact that they often lose. What we’re saying is that in order to keep your account unrestricted, you’ve got to lose some bets from time to time.

But, worry not, your losses are not going to be big ones. A method called Dutching can help you with this. Basically, it’s arbing in which you make a tiny profit loss instead of making a tiny profit gain.

Losing a couple of Euro every now and then will not affect your budget heavily, but it could keep your account under the radar from bookies.

Another good piece of advice is to use multiple accounts. The thing is that even though bookmakers have different names, some of them belong to the same betting company. Did you know, for example, that CORAL is owned by Ladbrokes?

So, if you’re doing arbing on two sister-sportsbooks, you’re likely to get busted. The solution is to team up with your buddies or avoid the bookmakers that might be connected in some way.

Combining Arbing with Matched Betting

So, is it ever safe to add arbing to your matched betting strategy? As you probably realize by now is that arbing can get your bookmaker accounts gubbed easily. Such a thing happens much less frequently for those sticking only to matched betting.

This is why we recommend staying cautious. But, this doesn’t mean you should forget about arbing. On the contrary, we’re just saying that you should keep these two methods separated.

You can do arbing at those bookmakers where you’ve already cleared your bonuses. If you have no other use for them anymore in your matched betting strategy, why not make use of them through arbitrage betting.

After clearing the bonuses, your account might already have a decent reputation in the bookies’ eyes. This means that it’s going to be a while until your arbing campaign gets those accounts blacklisted.

3 Key Takeaways

1. Arbing used to be the number 1 method for making profits off sports betting. But, in 2020, it might not be your very best choice.
2. The reason is that bookmakers have become very good at figuring out who is an arber. And if they get you, they’re going to gub you!
3. This is why it’s better not to mix arbing with matched betting. But, you can always do the two separately.