Complete Guide to Arbitrage Betting in the UK

Since the majority of UK punters look for smart methods of improving their betting yields, arbitrage betting is slowly but surely becoming a craze in the UK. Also known as arbing or arb betting, arbitrage betting entails placing more than one wager on the contrary outcomes of a sports match so that you could ensure yourself a profit no matter what the outcome of the game or match is.

Feeling like placing an arbitrage bet without knowing where to start? Arbitrage betting is legal in the UK and all you have to do is locate the right bet for arbitrage betting and lock-in bookmakers to put in your bets — we can help with that. In this guide, you will learn what arbitrage betting is and the common forms of arbitrage bets that you can find at top betting sites in UK. We will also explain the advantages and disadvantages of arbitrage bets.

What is Arbitrage Betting?

Arbitrage betting on all possible outcomes of a sporting event, i.e. a football, tennis, or boxing match, will yield you a profit regardless of which outcome wins. This type of sports gambling will be most applicable to games that have just two possible results. Nonetheless, you can try arbitrage on sport events with multiple results, but since you will have spread your margins too thin over more bets, your winning ratio will be very low. Thus, we recommend you to hold on to games or matches between two players or teams to ensure maximum returns.

To place an arbitrage bet, you first need to find a game that you would want to bet on and subsequently find bookmakers with different odds on the same sporting event. But be aware that the majority of UK betting websites will not welcome your arbitrage betting, since you are winning at their loss.

How Does Arbitrage Betting Work?

Arbitrage betting is carried out by exploiting the variations in odds offered by two or more bookies. The following are simple steps to follow when placing an arb bet.

• Identify two bookies with varying odds for one sports event.
• Calculate how much you need to stake on each outcome to receive the highest amount back.
• Place a bet on both sides. The overall return from the outcomes will be higher than your overall stake.

Regardless of whether your team loses or wins the match, you get £110 (for winning one of the bets), and on top of that, you'll also get the original £100 (the amount you staked on the winning bet) as a sum of $210. And as you invested £200 on the two bets and £210 was paid out, you get a 5% (£10) back on the arbitrage.

Is Arbitrage Betting Legal in the UK?

If you are a beginner when it comes to UK arbitrage betting, then you may be afraid of arbing purely because you don't want it to be against the law. The best part is that arbitrage betting is perfectly legal in the UK and is viewed by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) as a form of advantage play (like card counting in baccarat and blackjack) where you use publicly available facts (betting odds in this case) to make your betting decisions.

While it is permitted, few bookmakers like it because you are beating them at their own game, and some may restrict the amount that you can bet by setting arbitrage bet limits. Others may even ban you if they discover that you are arbing. Therefore, utilize the top UK arbitrage bookmakers that we recommend in this guide and on our website because they are licensed, secure, and maintain reasonable betting terms. You can bet wisely to avoid detection too.

Types of Arbitrage Bets

This is the most basic type of arbitrage bet and comprises two bets (back bets and lay bets) between a bookmaker and a betting exchange.

A back bet is simply an act of betting that a certain outcome is going to happen, whereas a lay bet is the act of betting that an outcome will not happen. Thus, in back/lay arbitrage gambling, you wager the back bet with the bookmaker and then gamble on the lay bet at the betting exchange. To take advantage of a back/lay gamble, you place the bet when you notice that the lay price at one exchange is shorter than the win odds (back odds) at another bookmaker or exchange.

Multi-Way Arbing

Multi-way arbing is where you apply arbitrage bets in sports games with more than two probable outcomes. For instance, a sports game may have three, four, or five possible outcomes. In a football match, for example, there are three possible results: winning, losing, or a draw. If you place a bet on the three possible results, it is referred to as three-way arbing.

The main advantages of multi-way arbing over back/lay arbitrage are that it offers greater profit-opportunities. Additionally, it's hard for the bookmakers to spot since you're not betting against opposing sides overtly.

Cross-Market Arbitrage

Arbitrage betting in this type involves doing arb bets on different markets or kinds of bets that complement each other but are not identical.

So instead of laying corresponding (though opposite) propositions at two bookmakers, you lay two different propositions that are connected. That is, you can wager with one bookmaker on the ultimate outcome of a football match and then wager with another bookmaker on some specific facet of the match, i.e. the quantity of goals scored. With cross-market arbitrage, you can create a totally new layer of value, driving your profit higher.