Is Sports Arbitrage A Viable Option?

For some the idea of sports arbitrage is too tempting to ignore: risk-free bets, always in the profit, no sitting for hours, worrying whether your selection is going to let you down. Others point out the difficulties of generating an income with this form of sports betting: multiple bookmaker accounts which have to be well-managed, the need to be at your computer at the right time otherwise you might miss out on an "arb", and the relatively small profits. Andy White looks at a few things you'll need to make it work.

How to Make Money by Arbitraging in Baseball, Basketball and Tennis

by Andy White

Sports arbitraging occurs when two different bookmakers offering prices on an event with only two possible outcomes and there is enough of a difference in their prices such that you can back both outcomes and make a profit whoever wins. It's very similar to trading. The difference is that for arbitrage you are betting almost simultaneously with two books offering different prices. Trading is making a profit by backing both outcomes at different times (normally in-running). Arbitraging is sometimes described as risk-free betting, this is true in theory, but not in practice, so carefully read my advice on risk from arbitraging on my website prior to embarking on this pastime.

To succeed at arbitraging, you need to have:

1. An account with at least 5 and preferably 10 on-line bookmakers (books for short)

2. A reliable computer with broadband internet connection

3. The ability to work quickly with the excel spreadsheet to calculate stakes, and then place bets on two different sites, almost simultaneously. You will definitely need to use some software to calculate your stakes for you. My free spreadsheet does the job nicely, there's examples of the sums on my website, and you can request a free copy on too.

4. Good money management - the ability to keep track of all your bets, and move money quickly from one account to another. A Moneybookers account is the best way to do this.

For full details on how to profit every day from this method visit Sports Arbitraging.

About the Author

Andy White is a sports betting specialist. More details from his website Sports Betting.


Want to know what some well-known and maybe a few obscure sports betting systems are about? Check out Sports Betting Systems Reviews.



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Virtual Sports Betting

Professional sports bettors arrange their work days around their betting activities. They spend an hour or five on picking their selections (and justifying it to themselves), and then they place their bets.

But what do to if you're still stuck in a day job, with your (hopefully) serious sports betting activities limited to lunchtime and perhaps a few hours after dinner? The answer, as many people have discovered, is betting on virtual sports.

Many reputable online bookmakers offer virtual sports alongside their menu of regular (and real) sport events. The usual fare include virtual horse races, virtual greyhound races, and perhaps the most popular virtual action, soccer/football.

I have personally looked at virtual horse racing at Bet365. The graphics and speeds were good enough, but seeing that we're not in it for the thrill, what about the profit potential? Difficult to say. I paper tested a few races, lost a few, won a few, and ended up with a small profit (using the Smart Bet Wizard software). I didn't really use any fancy system (as I would with real horse races); all I did was back favorites higher than evens. (On the greyhounds I can't really comment, as I have yet to get to grips with actual greyhound races.)

The area where I have done some serious testing, is on virtual football (or soccer). I got hold of a copy of Frank Belanger's Virtual Sports Cash. (Frank Belanger is also the author of the reputable Bookie Buster sports betting manual, so I already knew he knows his stuff.) The Virtual Sports Cash manual is very comprehensive, taking you through the whole business of betting on virtual football games, including which bookmakers to use, why you should have more than one account, and of course, a number of actual systems to use with virtual football (the manual has recently been updated with three new systems).

The advantage of virtual football is clear from the start. In order for the bookmakers to keep punters coming back, the results have to be realistic. Of course Liverpool or Manchester United suffer the occasional defeat at the hands (or feet) of Bolton Wanderers or Birmingham City, but at the end of the season the usual suspects can be expected at the top of the league table: Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal.

The other BIG advantage of virtual football is that a complete week of play lasts only 90 seconds, and an entire season is played out within ONE hour! That means you can bet on football every day of the year, 24 hours a day (technically speaking). Yet another advantage is that you don't need a huge bankroll to start off with, seeing that you can build it up over a few hours with dozens of bets, and you don't need to analyze stats for hours (not time for it, anyways, as each week's games play out in 90 seconds).

So, if your day job is still in the way of getting ahead in your sports betting projects, I suggest you give virtual football a try, and instead of fooling around, get the Virtual Sports Cash manual to guide you along the way.



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How To Bet On NBA Teams That Have Given Up

Usually by this time of year, there are the teams at the bottom of the standings which have little to play for other than a better chance in the NBA Draft Lottery. This season it is the same. The teams at the bottom have proven to be bad for multiple reasons and as the season winds down, they are proving to be even more so. The Heat, Timberwolves, Grizzlies, Knicks, Bucks, Clippers and Sonics all come to mind. The information I saw recently had had this group of teams winning only around 25% of their games while being only a little better than 35% ATS over their last ten games as of mid-March. When you exclude those games played against each other, they drop to less than 30% ATS. How do you bet these teams?

Below are five rules in betting on these losing teams. While not applicable in all situations, the rules are a good starting point.

• Just don’t bet on them. But to some people this is like talking to a wall. That is why there are four other rules.

• Bet against them. Only Seattle had as many as five covers ATS in their last ten games. The competing teams covered the spread almost 70% of the time.

• Even a double digit spread is not enough. When these teams are underdogs by 10 or more points, it’s almost as if they have read the obit before the game is played. In these games, the favorite covered the spread almost 80% of the time. Only Seattle covered the spread more than half of the time. Once you take Seattle out of the mix the remaining teams failed to cover the spread almost 90% of the time. It takes real courage or some other quality, which I will not go into here, to go against those odds.

• East=West. Record ATS was just about the same against the East as it was the West. Do not assume that bad teams have an advantage against one division over the other.

• Home court meant little to these teams. With this group, it would have been very costly to bet for them because of a home court advantage. The data showed that in actuality, they were slightly better ATS on the road than at home. I emphasize the slightly. When you think about this, it does make some sense as empty seats at home do not cheer very loudly.

In reality after reading all of these rules, if you have any question as to how to proceed, re-read the first rule and leave it at that.

By: William Dumey

Bill owns Sports News Ticker which helps people learn about sports betting.

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