Federata zyrtarizon dy miqësoret e Kombëtares

Federata Shqiptare e Futbollit ka zyrtarizuar dy miqësoret e muajit nëntor të kombëtares së Shqipërisë.

Pas shumë ndryshimesh në listën e rivalëve të mundshëm, Sekretari i Përgjithshëm, Ilir Shulku ka konfirmuar ndeshjen e parë kundër Kosovës, e cila ashtu siç ishte parashikuar do të luhet më 13 nëntor në stadiumin e Prishtinës, e parashikuar ne orën 14:00.

Tre ditë më pas, kuqezinjtë e drejtuar nga Xhani De Biazi do të luajnë kundër Gjeorgjisë. Për këtë sfidë, kombëtarja shqiptare kthehet në stdiumin “Qemal Stafa”, teksa ndeshja është vendosur të zhvillohet në orën 20:00. /albeu.com/ http://sport.albeu.com/sport/federata-zyrtarizon-dy-miqesoret-e-nentorit/219141/

Juventusi merr një shqiptar

Pasi humbi në verë duelin me Interin për shërbimet e Rey Manaj, Juventusi kërkon një tjetër talent shqiptar të cilin thuajse e ka blerë.17-vjeçari Fabio Sakaj do të transferohet verën e ardhshme në radhët e bardhezinjve për ta nisur nga sektori i të rinjve aventurën e re. Sakaj ka luajtur disa ndeshje me Modenan jo si titullar, por në minutat e fundit të takimeve dhe paraqitjet e tij kanë rënë në sy me Juventusin që ka lëvizur menjëherë për të bllokuar lojtarin shqiptar me origjinë nga Lezha. Zonja e Vjetër ka disa të rinj shqiptar në sektorin e të rinjve.

Arbitrage Betting: Finding a Sure Bet is Not Easy Money

What sports bettor doesn’t dream about an amazing run of back to back wins for weeks on end? Well, there is one way to guarantee a profit while placing bet, arbitrage betting. Arbitrage sports bets are otherwise known as sure bets. That is because no matter the outcome of a certain event or match, the punter is guaranteed a profit. Yes, this is legal and is not cheating.
Arbitrage is a financial term which means to make a risk-free profit. In the world of finance it is done by taking advantage of pricing imbalances in markets. This is used often in currency exchange markets, but can be applied to anything where several trades can be executed simultaneously such as bonds, derivatives, commodities, and stocks. With electronic trading, there are computer programs continuously looking for these instant guaranteed profit opportunities. Arbitrage hunters actually help to correct the market and make it more ‘efficient’ by correcting price disparities often within seconds after they occur.
The same opportunity exists in the sports betting world. Think of the odds offered by bookmakers as prices on a certain outcome. Since different bookmakers often times offer different odds, arbitrage opportunities sometimes arise where bettors can take advantage of price disparities in the odds, where no matter the outcome of an event, the bettor is guaranteed a profit.
Sounds too good to be true doesn’t it? Well, there is a catch. It takes work to find the opportunities and a bit of practice to make sure that you are proficient enough not to make the wrong series of bets, that may increase your risk, or worse, rather than guaranteeing you a profit, guaranteeing a loss. The profit margins on these bets tend to be low, but again, they are guaranteed. It is considered ‘found’ or free money if you can identify a sure bet.

How Arbitrage Guarantees Profit

There is a mathematical way to view arbitrage through formulas; however, sometimes variables can make your head spin and complicate something that really is quite simple to understand. I don’t want you to be intimidated as it is something that is fairly elementary in concept.
I will start out with a simple illustration and follow it with the formulas; the math will hopefully be more intuitive this way. For this example, we will look at only two possible outcomes (win or loss). We will use theoretical odds offered by two different cricket bookmakers, Bookmaker A and Bookmaker B. Again, this is the most basic example, but it can be applied to multiple outcomes and multiple bookmarkers.
Let’s say we have an IPL cricket match between the Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians with only two possible outcomes Kings Win or Indians Win.

Outcome	Bookmaker A	Bookmaker B
1: Chennai Super Kings Win	1.5	1.75
2: Mumbai Indians Win	2.5	2

I will say first that there is an arbitrage opportunity in this scenario. I will show you later how to find it.
In order for arbitrage to be possible, we must create a betting scenario where the payout in either outcome is the same and where the total bets required equal less than the guaranteed payout.
In this scenario, if I place a £100 bet on a Chennai Super Kings Win at Bookmaker B with odds of 1.75, the payout will equal £175. If I bet £70 at Bookmaker A on a Mumbai Indians Win with odds of 2.5, that will also give me a payout of £175.
Notice that in this scenario I have made two bets for a total of £170 (£100 + £70), but in either outcome I will receive £175. This guarantees me a profit of £5 for every £170 invested. This is a risk free profit of 2.9%. Hey, I never said the profit margins would be huge, but they are guaranteed!
Keep in mind that is a 3% return for the time period until the match concludes. So, if take the position the day of the match, that is a 3% return for the day. That is an annualized return of over 1000%. Again, risk free!!
See our Arbitrage Tool (excel spreadsheet) to see how this example works. You can change the odds to show different outcomes.
This is another way to look at the investments and payouts:

	Kings Win	Indians Win
Total Investment	£170 (£100 + £70)	£170 (£100 + £70)
Payout	£175	£175
Profit/Loss	£5 Profit	£5 Profit

Arbitrage and Profitability Formulas

As I said before, I wanted to show how the concept of arbitrage worked first before getting into the math. If you were never good at advanced math, don’t worry, it isn’t has hard as it may look. Just keep reading. I will explain everything.
We will refer to this table of variables when showing the formulas (seriously, keep reading):

Variable	Explanation
s1	Stake in outcome 1
s2	Stake in outcome 2
o1	Odds for outcome 1
o2	Odds for outcome 2
p1	Payout of outcome 1
p2	Payout of outcome 2

Bookmaker Profit Margin

To find out IF a bookmaker’s odds are profitable for them, we can use the following equation:

o₁^-1 + o₂^-1 > 1

Another way to say this is the “sum of the inverse of odds” must be greater than 1 for the sports book to be profitable. If it is not, the sports book stands to lose money on its own odds. In fact, there would an arbitrage opportunity using the odds of both outcomes by the same sports book. Don’t count on that ever happening as a sports book that made a habit of it would go out of business very quickly.
So, let’s see if Bookmaker A is profitable using the odds above. Outcome 1 Odds = 1.5, Outcome 2 Odds = 2.5

1.5^-1 + 2.5^-1 = 1.0667

1.0667 > 1

Since the sum of the inverse is greater than 1, we know that Bookmaker A will be profitable for the bets they are offering.
Now let’s find out the actual profit margin of Bookmaker A. Bookmakers purposely price their odds in a way so that they take a cut for their services; after all, they need to eat too. Typically, you will find that the margins are between 8 – 12%. To find their margin on an event, you will need the following formula:

1 – (o₁ x o₂)/(o₁ + o₂) = Bookmaker Event Profit Margin

Looking back to our initial example, let’s find the profit margin of Bookmaker A. In this case Outcome 1 was a Super Kings Win with odds of 1.5. Outcome 2 was an Indians Win with odds of 2.5.
So, to find the profit on this event for Bookmaker A, we will use the following calculation:

1 – (1.5 x 2.5)/(1.5 + 2.5) = .0625 or 6.25%

This means that Bookmaker A will expect to earn a profit margin of 6.25% on the match up.

How to Find an Arbitrage Opportunity

In the same way that we found out if bookmaker was profitable using the equation:

o₁^-1 + o₂^-1

The difference here is that we want the “sum of the inverse” to be LESS than 1. Notice that in this case we are comparing the odds of two Bookmakers as we are assuming that both are offering their own odds which are profitable for them. However, if you ever find a bookmaker that is not profitable, where the sum of the inverse of their own odds is less than 1, then there is an arbitrage opportunity using the odds on both outcomes offered by that same bookmaker.
Again, using the same example before:

Outcome	Bookmaker A	Bookmaker B
1: Chennai Super Kings Win	1.5	1.75
2: Mumbai Indians Win	2.5	2

Let’s use the odds of Bookmaker B for outcome 1 (1.75) and the odds of Bookmaker A for outcome 2 (2.5).

1.75^-1 + 2.5^-1 = .0971
.0971 < 1

Since the sum of their inverse is less than 1, this indicates that an arbitrage opportunity is present.

How to Guarantee Profits Using Arbitrage

Now that we have identified an arbitrage opportunity, let’s take advantage of it. We know it will be profitable to bet on a Super Kings Win at Bookmaker B while also betting on an Indians Win at Bookmaker A.
Remember, as explained before, in order for it to be arbitrage, we must guarantee equal payouts for all outcomes, where the bets required are less than this guaranteed amount.
Let’s bet £300 on the Super Kings Win at Bookmaker B. This would give us a payout of £525 (£300 x 1.75) if the Super Kings won. Now we want to place a bet that will yield a payout of £525 if the Indians win using the odds from Bookmaker A.
To find out what we will need to bet for Stakes 2, simply use the following calculation:

p₁ / o₂ = s₂ => (£525/2.5) = £210

So, we would bet £300 on a Super Kings Win with Bookmaker B and £210 on an Indians Win with Bookmaker A for a total of £510. No matter the outcome of the event, whether the Kings win or the Indians win, we will receive a payout of £525 for a guaranteed profit of £15.

I Never Said it was Easy

As I mentioned before, sure bets require a bit of practice and work to find them. As you noticed the profit margins are also not very large, typically they are around 4%, but remember that is an annualized return of 1200%. If you could accomplish this everyday you would end up with a tidy profit. However, the opportunities are not always obvious and quickly go away as punters take advantage of the opportunity.
The key is that you must make both bets simultaneously. If you don’t, you risk the odds changing from your first bet to the second bet which can destroy your opportunity. This element of risk would disqualify it from being arbitrage.
Keep in mind that you can also use this with naked bets (bets that only count on one outcome) if you decide to hedge later on. If you took a bet earlier in the week on the Kings for 1.75 but you are losing confidence in your bet, you can lock in profits if you find favorable odds, instead of risking your entire first bet.

Using this as a Hedge, Not Arbitrage

You can also use it to partially hedge an outcome, where instead of betting so that you will receive the same payout in either case, you partially cover your downside by betting less. However, that of course would not be arbitrage as it is not guaranteed profit.
An example of this would be as follows: suppose you placed a £300 bet on the Kings to beat the Indians using the same odds as before of 1.75. Now, let’s say that later on you find odds of 2.5 for the Indians to win. As we found out before, there is sure bet opportunity if you want it because of the favorable odds, but if you only want to cover part of your total £300 risk, you can bet any amount below £210 on the Indians at the 2.5 odds which will cover your losses if the Kings don’t win. Let’s say you bet $100 on the Indians to win.

	Kings Win	Indians Win
Total Investment	£400 (£300 + £100)	£400 (£300 + £100)
Payout	£525	£250
Profit/Loss	£125 Profit	£150 Loss

Notice that if you stuck with your original bet of £300 on the Kings and they lost, you would lose all £300, whereas with this hedge you will only lose £150. However, if the Kings win, instead of winning £225 in profit, you only win £125. In this case, you reduced your upside, but also reduced your potential downside, which is known as hedging your bet. Whether you use hedges or not has to do with your personal betting strategy how you want to utilize it.
If you still need some more help, be sure to see our Arbitrage Tool (excel spreadsheet) which might help you get a better idea of how it works.

The Real Catch

Because of the terms and conditions of most bookmakers, there is never any truly risk free profit. Most reserve the right to cancel bets at any time before the event. This means that if you made an arbitrage bet between two bookmakers and Bookmaker A cancels, it leaves you wide open to the full risk of the bet you placed at Bookmaker B. If you can find two sites that don’t have these terms, you will be able to do it, but good luck with that as they likely do not exist. At least we haven’t found any that do.
Note: The bookmakers reserve this right to protect themselves from unbalanced odds on their own books by canceling bets and refunding wagers. However, bookmakers rarely cancel bets as this rightly upsets their customers and lowers their reputation. It only occurs in extreme situations where they have made a huge miscalculation with their odds.

Formulas and Maths Of Arbitrage

Arbitrage. An Arbitrage or Arb, is a transaction that takes advantage of price differences offered by different bookies and betting exchanges for the same event. The event may be a tennis game, football match or even a television talent show, but whatever the event, we only need prices offered by bookies to differ slightly in order to place a profitable Arb. No-matter what the subject of the Arb,  we need to find prices offered which allow us to Dutch the market of an under-round book, in order to make a guaranteed profit.

On this web page Over-round, under-round Making a book Arb a Win market spreadsheet New Arb Each Way spreadsheet

The Basics.  Odds as a percentage.
To recognize an Arb, we need to understand odds expressed as a percentage.

To calculate the percentage of your odds, divide the decimal "Betfair" odds into 100.
For example, we know that even money is a 50 - 50 chance, so evens should equal 50%.
Decimal "Betfair" odds for even money is 2.0.
100 divided by 2 = 50%

To calculate the percentage of fractional odds, add 1 to your odds and divide into 100.
For example, evens (1/1) + 1 = 2.0
100 divided by 2 = 50%

Another example, 3/1 + 1 = 4.
100 divided by 4 = 25%

Over-round and under-round of a book.
An Arb situation exists when the odds available from a selection of bookies allow us to place bets covering all outcomes of an event, and the odds obtained for our bets give us an under-round book.

Over-round or under-round is calculated by expressing all the odds of an event as a percentage, and adding them together.
If the total is more than 100%, the book is over-round, if less than 100%, the book is under-round.

The simplest Arb is an event with just 2 possible outcomes, such as a tennis match, where a draw is virtually an impossibility - either one player or the other will be declared the winner.
Other Arbs may involve 3 outcomes such as a boxing or football match which involve 2 wins and a draw, or an event with many outcomes such as a television talent show.

Making a book.
For example, a horse race has runners priced at evens, 3/1, 4/1 and 9/1.
1/1 is 2.0 in decimal odds, so 100 / 2 = 50%
3/1 is 4.0 in decimal odds, so 100 / 4 = 25%
4/1 is 5.0 in decimal odds, so 100 / 5 = 20%
9/1 is 10.0 decimal odds, so 100 / 10 = 10%
Adding all those percentages together gives 105%.  Our book is 5% over-round.
If we only had evens, 3/1, and 4/1, our book would be 95%, so would be 5% under-round.

Arb example.
Suppose we were interested in a tennis match.
We could look at a selection of bookmakers and compare the odds on offer :-

Bookmakers	Player A	Player B	Book %
Lads	Evens (2.0)	4/5 (1.8)	50 + 55.56 = 105.56%	Over-round
Hills	Evens (2.0)	4/5 (1.8)	50 + 55.56 = 105.56%	Over-round
Tote	Evens (2.0)	4/5 (1.8)	50 + 55.56 = 105.56%	Over-round
Coral	6/4      (2.5)	8/13 (1.61)	40 + 62.11 = 106.56%	Over-round

In this fictitious event, Coral take a slightly different view of the outcome.
Although each bookie has an over-round book of 105% or 106%, we can bet UNDER-round by betting with different bookies and obtaining odds of 6/4 (2.5) and 4/5 (1.8).
Those odds give a percentage of 40 + 55.56 = 95.56 which is under-round by 4.44%.

We can eliminate gambling and make a guaranteed profit on this match by Dutching both outcomes for an equal profit, no-matter what the outcome.
Whether Player A wins or Player B wins in irrelevant.
Get this right, and you cannot lose.
This is the equivalent of an "All Green Screen" on Betfair.

There is no need to learn any complicated math's in order to Dutch or Arb.
An Excel spreadsheet can easily work out stakes as fast as you can type, and will also eliminate mathematical errors.

Note that this spreadsheet limits your Total Stakes to a set £ amount.
In order to keep the Total Stake at a set amount input by the user, this spreadsheet does not use the percentage calculations described above.

Excel spreadsheets are a quick and reliable way of doing calculations. You can build a spreadsheet using the percentage formulas above, or purchase an excellent spreadsheet here for only a fiver. Be A Bookie spreadsheet. You will need Excel 2000 or a later version to view this spreadsheet.  Watch an on-line demo of the Be_A_Bookie spreadsheet This Be A Bookie spreadsheet calculates the lay stakes required to Lay up to 25 selections to an equal liability. You could of course use this spreadsheet for any event other than horse racing. A 2nd spreadsheet within this Excel file calculates the bet stakes required to bet up to 25 selections to an equal profit. Input the amount of your Total Payout, and as you input the odds of your selections, the spreadsheet shows :- Total payout on any winner remaining constant at your original input. The Lay stake or bet stake required for each runner. Equal liabilities or profit against each runner. Liability on each runner reducing as more runners are Layed. Profit on each runner that you have Bet. Percentage of your book at all stages. Total of Lay stakes at all stages - - - the "Skinner" amount. OR, total of bet stakes if you are betting. The more runners you Lay, the less your liabilities become. The more runners you Lay, the bigger the payout on a "Skinner" - a horse you haven't layed. The Betting spreadsheet can be used for Arbitrage of any event. Bet all runners for a book percentage that is less than 100% and you have guaranteed winnings with zero risk. These zero risk trades are available daily.

Is Arbitrage Worthwhile Pursuing? Is Arbitrage Legal?

Arbitrage is ‘Sure Betting’

In the world of sports betting the art of arbitrage involves wagering on both or all sides of an event with the right combination of odds and stakes in place to make a profit whatever the outcome of that event.

Image: 3Dmask (Shutterstock)

The principle of arbitrage is ‘sure betting‘, supposedly with minimum risk (for the seasoned arbitrageur) and long-term, guaranteed profits.
Surely this is the closest you can come to attaining the “Holy Grail” in betting? Or maybe not?
Despite the apparent rewards on offer the number of worldwide professional sports arbitrageurs is in the low tens of thousands, not more. In comparison, the German stock market employs over 3,200 staff, whilst one of the largest providers of automated arbitrage services, RebelBetting has even fewer subscribers than this number (as we write).
So, why such a relatively small group of customers taking advantage of the so-called ‘guaranteed’ gains averaging between 1.5% and 3.5% per bet (a typical ‘arb‘ provides around 2.5%), with perhaps 15-25% potential profit on the capital employed each month? That’s a far higher reward than any bank, building society, or share dividend offers!

Is Arbitrage legal?

There is no question that arbitrage is legal because the arber is simply exploiting price differences in the market, effectively buying and selling (bets) as any trader does. There is nothing illegal about this.
However, it is understandable that bookmakers are not fond of arbers. Every company has the right (even arbitrarily) to decide who their customers should be and many bookmakers prohibit arbers from their books. As soon as suspicion is aroused bookmaker accounts are quickly limited or even closed.

High Capital Requirement and Personal Characteristics

Successful arbitrage betting ultimately guarantees small returns but the sacrifice is that the process requires large funds. The money is tied-up in the venture for a potentially long period of time.
Pursuing an average 2.5-3.0% profit per betting round and targeting a return of 15-25% of the capital employed per month, the ‘arber’ needs, for example, a starting bank of at least 25,000 € in order to make 5,000 € profit per month.
Wow! A lot of money required at the start to make it worthwhile, and entering the arbitrage arena on these terms will be impossible for many.
Of course, arbitrage betting is a pretty safe investment, but in addition to substantial funds it requires not only great expertise but also some strong personal characteristics to make it possible at all:

• Many time-consuming calculations must be performed. Ouch, lots of maths!
• Clear and complete records of every transaction must be kept. How boring!
• Discipline and consistency has to be maintained at all times. Far too unsocial!

And lastly, a really stable, reliable and fast internet connection is essential, without any limitations to any bookmaker or exchange worldwide.
However, the average punter is perhaps not such a ‘professional’ investor, but bets for fun and/or the excitement of watching an event knowing that money is riding on the outcome. Of course, he hopes to profit from the wager but his are gambles, not investments. Is that the reason why there are so few ‘arbers’ out there and active in the market?

Arbitrage betting

Betting arbitrage, miraclebets, surebets, sports arbitraging is a particular case of arbitrage arising on betting markets due to either bookmakers' different opinions on event outcomes or plain errors. When conditions allow, by placing one bet per each outcome with different betting companies, the bettor can make a profit regardless of the outcome. In the bettors' slang an arbitrage is often referred to as an arb; people who use arbitrage are called arbers.^{[citation needed]}
Arbitrage betting involves relatively large sums of money for 98% of arbitrage opportunities return less than 1.2%.^[1] The practice is usually detected quickly by bookmakers, who typically hold an unfavorable view of it, and this can result in half of an arbitrage bet being canceled. Arbitrage betting is almost always insufficiently profitable due to detection, unreliable betting websites, limiting of stakes, hackers, and scammers that use high percentage arbitrages to trick bettors into providing security credentials.^{[citation needed]}
Bookmakers generally disapprove of betting arbitrage, and restrict or close the accounts of those who they suspect of engaging in arbitrage betting.^{[citation needed]} Although arbitrage betting has existed since the beginnings of bookmaking, the rise of the Internet, odds-comparison websites and betting exchanges have made the practice easier to perform. On the other hand, these changes also made it easier for bookmakers to keep their odds in line with the market, because arbitrage bettors are basically acting as market makers.
In Britain, a practice has developed in which highly experienced "key men" employ others to place bets on their behalf, so as to avoid detection and increase accessibility to retail bookmakers and allow the financiers or key arbitragers to stay at a computer to keep track of market movement.
Arbitrage is an extremely fast-paced process and its successful performance requires lots of time, experience, dedication and discipline, and especially liquidity.

Contents

• 1 Theory
  • 1.1 Using bookmakers
  • 1.2 Back-lay sports
  • 1.3 Bonus sports
  • 1.4 Shop arbitrage (sharbing)
• 2 Risks
• 3 See also
• 4 References

Theory

There are a number of potential arbitrage deals. Below is an explanation of some of them including formulas and risks associated with them. The table below introduces a number of variables that will be used to formalise the arbitrage models.

Variable	Explanation
	Stake in outcome 1
	Stake in outcome 2
	Odds for outcome 1
	Odds for outcome 2
	Return if outcome 1 occurs
	Return if outcome 2 occurs

Using bookmakers

This type of arbitrage takes advantage of different odds offered by different bookmakers. For an example of an event with only two possible outcomes (e.g. a tennis match - either Federer wins or Henman wins), the two bookmakers have different ideas of who has the best chances of winning. They offer the following Fixed-odds gambling on the outcomes of the event:

	Bookmaker 1	Bookmaker2
Outcome 1	1.25	1.43
Outcome 2	3.9	2.85

For an individual bookmaker, the sum of the inverse of all outcomes of an event will always be greater than 1. and
The bookmaker's return rate is , which is the amount the bookmaker earns on offering bets at some event. Bookmaker 1 will in this example expect to earn 5.34% on bets on the tennis game. Usually these gaps will be in the order 8 - 12%. The idea is to find odds at different bookmakers, where the sum of the inverse of all the outcomes are below 1, meaning that the bookmakers disagree on the chances of the outcomes. This discrepancy can be used to obtain a profit.
For instance if one places a bet on outcome 1 at bookmaker 2 and outcome 2 at bookmaker 1:

Placing a bet of $100 on outcome 1 with bookmaker 2 and a bet of on outcome 2 at bookmaker 1 would ensure the bettor a profit.
In case outcome 1 comes out, one could collect from bookmaker 2. In case outcome 2 comes out, one could collect from bookmaker 1. One would have invested $136.67, but have collected $143, a profit of $6.33 (4.6%) no matter the outcome of the event.
So for 2 odds and , where . If one wishes to place stake at outcome 1, then one should place at outcome 2, to even out the odds, and receive the same return no matter the outcome of the event.
Or in other words, if there are two outcomes, a 1/1 and a 2/1, by covering the 1/1 with $500 and the 2/1 with $333, one is guaranteed to win $1000 at a cost of $833, giving a 20% profit. More often profits exists around the 4% mark or less.
Reducing the risk of human error is vital being that the mathematical formula is sound and only external factors add "risk". Numerous online arbitrage calculator tools exist to help bettors get the math right. For example, arbitrage calculators can handle calculations for both book arbitrage ("back/back" or "lay/lay") and "back/lay" arbitrage opportunities on an intra-exchange or inter-exchange basis, and is free.
For arbitrages involving three outcomes (e.g. a game which can be won, lost or drawn) having the odds for Outcome 1, for outcome 2 and for outcome 3 with their respective bids being , and and sum of the bids being B.
The amount required to bet on each possibility in order to ensure profit can be calculated by

Back-lay sports

Betting exchanges such as Smarkets have opened up a new range of arbitrage possibilities since on the exchanges it is possible to lay (i.e. to bet against) as well as to back an outcome. Arbitrage using only the back or lay side might occur on betting exchanges. It is in principle the same as the arbitrage using different bookmakers. Arbitrage using back and lay side is possible if a lay bet on one exchange provides shorter odds than a back bet on another exchange or bookmaker. However, the commission charged by the bookmakers and exchanges must be included into calculations.
Back-lay sports arbitrage is often called "scalping" or "trading". Scalping is not actually arbitrage, but short term trading. In the context of sports arbitrage betting a scalping trader or scalper looks to make lots of small profits, which in time can add up. In theory a trader could turn a small investment into large profits by re-investing his earlier profits into future bets so as to generate exponential growth. Scalping relies on liquidity in the markets and that the odds will fluctuate around a mean point. A key advantage to scalping on one exchange is that most exchanges charge commission only on the net winnings in a particular event, thus ensuring that even the smallest favorable difference in the odds will guarantee some profit.

Bonus sports

Many bookmakers offer first time users a signup bonus in the range $10–200 for depositing an initial amount. They typically demand that this amount is wagered a number of times before the bonus can be withdrawn. Bonus sport arbitraging is a form of sports arbitraging where the bettor hedges or backs their bets as usual, but since they received the bonus, a small loss can be allowed on each wager (2–5%), which comes off their profit. In this way the bookmakers wagering demand can be met and the initial deposit and sign up bonus can be withdrawn with little loss.
The advantage over usual betting arbitrage is that it is a lot easier to find bets with an acceptable loss, instead of an actual profit. Since most bookmakers offer these bonuses this can potentially be exploited to harvest the sign up bonuses.
By signing up to various bookmakers, it is possible to turn these "free" bets into cash fairly quickly, and either making a small arbitrage, or in the majority of cases, making a small loss on each bet, or trade. However, it is relatively time consuming to find close matched bets or arbitrages, which is where a middleman service is useful. As many bookmakers require a certain turnover of the bonus amount, matching money from different bookmakers against each other enables the player to in effect quickly "play free" the money of the losing bookmaker and in effect transfer it to the winning bookmaker. By avoiding most of the turnover requirements in this way the player can usually expect a 70-80% return on investment.
As well as spending time physically matching odds from various bet sites to exchanges, the other draw back with bonus bagging and arbitrage trading in this sense is that often the free bets are "non-stake returned". This effectively reduces the odds, in decimal format, by 1. Therefore, in order to reduce "losses" on the free bet, it is necessary to place a bet with high odds, so that the percentage difference of the decrease in odds is minimised.

Shop arbitrage (sharbing)

Shop arbitrage (also known as sharbing) is the process of using a betting shop's coupons and a betting exchange to create an arbitrage position. This is made possible because online prices change quickly to close these positions and betting shops are slower to change the prices on their printed coupons.

Risks

While often claimed to be "risk-free", this is only true if an arbitrage is successfully completed; in reality, there are several threats to this:

• Disappearance of arbitrage: Arbitrages in online sports markets have a median lifetime of around 15 minutes,^[2] after which the difference in odds underpinning them vanishes through betting activity. Without rapid alerting and action, it is possible to fail to make all the "legs" of the arbitrage before it vanishes, thus transforming it from a risk-free arbitrage into a conventional bet with the usual risks involved. High street bookmakers however, offer their odds days in advance and rarely change them once they have been set. These arbitrages can have a lifetime of several hours.
• Hackers: Due to the large number of accounts that have to be created and managed (containing personal details such as email, name, address, ewallet, credit card information and often even a copy of the bettor's ID/passport or driver's license), arbitrage traders are highly susceptible to cyber fraud, such as bank account theft. While making deposits is usually made easy and quick, making withdrawals often requires proof of identity in the form of passport/driver license, copies of which need to be shared with the bookmakers via fax/email or even postal mail, which causes additional identity theft risks. Traders are often attracted to high odds comparison sites that yield high percentage profits per stake (5-30%); this is often used by hackers to lure a high number of arbitrage bettors that then place large sums of money on these arb's, only to lose all of the profit and even entire savings in bank accounts to hackers or untrustworthy websites, which may further use the gathered data to sell personal data to criminals.

• Making errors as an arber: In the excitement of the action and due to the high number of bets placed, it is not uncommon to make a mistake (like traders on financial markets). For example, the appropriate stakes may be incorrectly calculated, or be placed on the wrong "legs" of the arb, locking in a loss, or there may be inadequate funds in one of the accounts to complete the arb. Those errors might temporarily have an important impact. In the long term, the benefit will depend on the odds. For example, one could actually make more money by placing the "wrong" bet where the outcome happens to be beneficial, though not justified by the arbitrage calculation. However, repetition of this stroke of luck is unlikely, assuming the bookmaker has calculated the odds so they make a profit. Websites and bet placement interfaces differ between bookmakers, so that arbitrage bettors need to be familiar with different web interfaces. In some sports different bookmakers deal with outcomes in different ways (they differ in their handling of - for example - player withdrawal due to injury in tennis, overtime in ice hockey), meaning that both "legs" can lose. Matching terms for all bookmakers is time consuming, requires lots of expertise and experience, while still being fairly error-prone.
• Detection: There are very few bookmakers who openly tolerate arbing. Many bookmakers may now be using shared security servers in order to pinpoint people suspected of arbitrage betting; they can simply limit stakes to make arbing unprofitable and even close accounts without honoring a bet that was placed. Loss of deposited money into a bookmaker could occur. This usually leads to unprofitable arbing as the most successful bookmakers are so adept at identifying arbitrage bettors, without these countermeasure the gambling industry would not be able to generate a large overall profit consistently every year.^{[citation needed]}
• Stake reviewal: Some bookmakers are known to accept only very small stakes by default, while requiring larger stakes to be manually reviewed before being accepted, which basically makes it difficult for an arbitrage better to determine if a leg was completely accepted or not, until it may be too late.
• Bet cancellation: If a bettor places bets so as to make an arbitrage and one bookmaker cancels a bet, the bettor could find himself in a bad position because he is actually betting with all the risks implied. The bettor can repeat the bet that has been cancelled so as minimize the risk, but if he cannot get the same odds he had before he may be forced to take a loss. In some cases the situation arises when there are very high potential payouts by the bookmaker, perhaps due to an unintentional error made while quoting odds. Many jurisdictions allow bookmakers to cancel bets in the event of such a "palpable" ["obvious"] error in the quoted odds This is often loosely defined as an obvious mistake, but whether a "palp" in fact has been made is often the sole discretion of the bookmaker.

Other potential problems include:

• Arbers' dedicated email addresses are subject to advertising campaigns from third parties which suggests that client data may be resold behind the scenes.
• Bookmakers who encourage responsible gambling will close accounts where they see only large losses, unaware that the arbitrage trader has made wins at other books.
• Capital diffusion is serious; many bookmakers make it very easy to deposit funds and difficult to withdraw them (requiring lots of additional information, and documents as proof of identity, i.e. a passport/ID copy). Making a return involves many bets spread over typically many bookmakers and keeping track requires good record-keeping and discipline.
• Responding to an available arb may require transfer of funds from one bookmaker to another, through one or more ewallet accounts with each withdrawal requiring special approval.
• While there are commercial software products and web services available to help with some of these tasks, they are complicated and may involve significant initial investments and monthly subscription fees.
• Arbitrage bettors using software tools or web services to find arbitrages will often make an existing arbitrage even more prominent and obvious to the bookmaker because of the number of arbitrage bettors placing bets on the same outcome, so that the lifetime of an arbitrage found via such tools is often even much shorter than the average 15 minutes. Thus, the risk of seeing bets revoked is also often much higher for arbitrages found via such tools than for arbitrages found manually, that are not shared with other arbitrage bettors.
• Arbing often involves making use of bookmaker bonuses which usually require substantial transactions before being eligible for withdrawal, thus reducing total liquidity.
• Foreign currency movements can wipe out small percentage gains and can make quick calculation of stakes difficult.
• Transferring funds between bookmakers and ewallets may create additional costs at some point; most bookmakers and/or ewallets limit deposits to certain amounts per month.
• Withdrawals are often limited to a certain amount per month or to a certain number of free withdrawals per month
• Withdrawals are often charged for, not just on the side of the bookmaker, but sometimes also on the ewallet side (transfer to the bettor's bank account).
• In some countries, additional costs are imposed by government taxes, so that the final profit is further reduced by a fixed percentage of say 5% (Germany/Europe).
• Professional arbitrage betting may eat up considerable time and energy and requires lots of experience and liquidity, as well as sufficient funds to recover from inevitable losses that will happen sooner or later due to the aforementioned reasons.
• Typically, arbitrages have a profit margin of only 2-5% - many other arbitrages are regarded as "high risk" ("palps"). Accordingly, profits accumulated through 20-40 successful arbitrages can be lost on a single failed bet.
• Won arbitrages realized via betting exchanges are typically subject to a commission fee of about 4-5%. However, frequent punters may be subject to a discount of up to 60%, i.e. a minimum commission rate of 3%).
• Smaller betting exchanges may not be able to deal with consistently winning punters.

What is a Surebet?

A surebet is a risk free bet that guarantees a profit whatever the outcome. The result of whatever you’re betting on really doesn’t matter.
With a surebet you know how much you are going to win before the event even begins. How is that possible? Well it’s really quite simple.
To demonstrate through example: if you placed a bet on all outcomes of a football match at a single bookmaker then you would be guaranteeing a loss for yourself. It is common sense that the bookmaker has margins in place to protect itself from cheeky punters. Sure, your loss would not likely be considerable – maybe one to five percent of your stake – but it would be a loss all the same. This however is a big Earth and gambling is not a monopoly. There are hundreds of bookmakers in the world today with varied systems for calculating odds. Bookmaker opinions on the outcome of an event can often be different and for the well informed ‘gambler’ these small differences of opinion can be a gold mine.
Let’s take a step back and look at that example of a football match once more:
Team A are at odds of 4.5 to win at Bookmaker A.
Team B are at odds of 2.1 to win at Bookmaker B.
The Draw is at odds of 3.63 at Bookmaker C.
To ensure an equal profit from an a £500 stake you’d bet £114.09 on Team A, £244.48 on Team B and £141.43 on the draw.
In using those amounts you are ensuring that no matter the outcome your return is £513.41
Yep – you’ve just locked in a guaranteed risk-free profit of £13.41 for very little work!
For an even simpler example we can look at a tennis match:
Player A is at odds of 3.35 to win at Bookmaker A.
Player B is at odds of 1.5 to win at Bookmaker B.
Again taking our £500 stake, to ensure equal profit you would place £154.64 on Player A and £345.36 on Player B.
No matter which bet wins your return will be £518.04 – a profit of £18.04. Easy!
As you can see, there’s a reason this is called a surebet. Once the bet has been placed it really is a sure thing!