Arbitrage - The Bet You Just Can’t Lose
With the advent of the Internet and the boom in online gambling, arbitrage betting has become tremendously popular with the informed punter, but still remains a mystery to many.
The word ‘arbitrage’ itself comes from the financial trading world and is derived from the Latin word ‘arbiter’ or judge.
Arbitrage was originally a trade in the financial markets on the buying and selling of money and stocks etc., where if you judged the market correctly, you simply couldn’t lose on the transaction. And that’s how it applies to betting.
In its simplest form arbitrage takes advantage of the difference in opinion that bookies have about various sporting events, and of course these days, none sporting events.
One of the most famous examples of this type of “can’t lose” bet was during the American Presidential election between Al Gore and George Bush. If you recall it was a very close election to call and no one (not even the bookies) knew who was really going to win. In fact the strength and difference of opinion from all quarters made for a very confusing (and for the arbitrage hunter, a very profitable) betting market.
The day before the election it was easy to make some ‘free money’ because some bookies had Al Gore as the outsider at 6/4 and others had George Bush as the outsider, also, at 6/4! An ideal guaranteed arbitrage.
If you put £100 on George Bush to win at 6/4 and £100 on Al Gore to win at 6/4 you couldn’t lose, and were guaranteed a profit of £50 no matter who won! You’d get a return of £250 from an outlay of £200 – not bad for five minutes work.
So keep your eyes open for those ‘arbs’ – they are out there if you know what to look for.
