Anyone familiar? Sounds a bit too good to be true to me. There are loads of sites offering an alerting service to arbing opportunities . . . . .

I believe that these opps exist but crucially:

i) How long do the opps exist - ie long enough to place two bets by internet?

ii) How large is the arb opp - ie is it so small that credit card charges eat most of the profit.

iii) Why don't bookies put a stop to it - the explanations on the site are pretty frail.

Anyone any experience of this as a side line -

I'd appreciate any feedback -

Cheers

Arbing opportunities do exist but never for very long and almost certainly not long enough to be alerted by text and to place your bet. I know a few people who have subscribed to an arbitrage service and they have yet to make a profit from it. Bear in mind that all the bookies are watching each others prices and are very quick to close down an opportunity when one occurs. The only other place you may get a chance it on the betting exchanges where you can act as bookmaker one minute and backer the next. But even then it is not easy to spot the opportunities. Personally I would forget it unless anyone knows of a SB company that offers out of market hours trading ?


Paul

As I imagined Paul - thanks for your reply.

There are tens of sites out there offering subscription services. One I read actually addressed this question of time available and was very reassuring about the time being long enough to place your bets . . . but then they would be.


It's the wild west out there on the web - does no one regulate anything??

Shame really cos it makes you dubious of everyone. . .

Cheers

Hi Fastnet

If it looks two good to be true = it is.

These arbing opportunities do exist, though I don't know if these pay sites are any good. The biggest problem is it is easy to spot people who arb because you have to place odd sized bets. The betting companies then just ban you.

I used to work with a guy, who spent most of the day with the 3 main SB pages up on his screens, arbing between them. He made some good money last year, but when I last asked him, he said the opportunites had largely vannished.

Yes, I got some excellent results for a short time between 2 SB co's- then the loop hole was firmly shut!

It's a common problem with SB companies. There are good opportunities from time to time (not just arbing) but if they see you making good profits then they may examine what you are doing more closely and alter the instrument spread or bias to suit, especially if they have a monopoly on a particular market!

Hence the rule is make the most of these opportunities whilst you can.

Hi all and thanks v much for yr replies -

To be honest I must confess that (ignoring the philosophy of this board) my post was not about SB arbing but sports betting ie fixed odds.

I can imagine that arbing SB cos would be a v difficult task since there are only a handful of cos making a book.

However there are over 100 UK based fixed odds bookmakers and many more based offshore. These cos make a market in hundreds of sporting events around the world. They often have to make a market even though they might not have a specific knowledge in the event. The best opps from UK based bookmakers are in US baseball, NFL etc (apparantly)

It is here that the service providers claim the arbing opps are to be found.

I dont know - just repeating the rhetoric from their promotional sites. . . it make you wonder though. . . . I agree with mmillar that you might be easy to spot with you odd bets but (and maybe someone could help me out here) I can't really see why the bookies would mind . . . at the end of the day folk are placing one side of a large bet with them and the other with another company. They are just as likely to keep the cash and let the other bookmaker pay out. . .

Just my opinion, but I think sports betting companies would mind because you are actually betting against them - if you lose they win, if you win they lose. They set the odds in such a way that you MUST lose (over time). If you come into the market and start winning you are going to screw them, so they don't want you around.