Arbitrage betting is one of the best guaranteed methods for sports bettors to consistently earn profits. Basically, you’re wagering on both outcomes of a bet, taking advantage of odds discrepancies between two different sportsbooks. The goal is to place bets when the discrepancy between those odds will guarantee you a profit, no matter what the outcome of the game, match, or event ends up being. The advantage of arbitrage betting is that, technical and human errors notwithstanding, you are always going to earn a profit.
The problem with arbitrage betting, however, is that the profitable opportunities come and go VERY quickly. You have to know the odds of your various sportsbooks fast, so you can act on them before they are changed. For that reason, you need a tool with extremely low latency, which will allow you to see the odds as soon as they are updated by the book.
What does low latency mean for sports betting?
Latency refers to the delay between a sportsbook updating their odds, and how quickly your arbitrage betting software reflects those changes. The lower latency your tool or software delivers, the more accurate your information is. Knowing the right odds is crucial when arbitrage betting, especially when you’re betting live. So when deciding which tool or software to use, always look at how quickly they are able to update the odds they’re showing you.
Live arbitrage betting
Live and arbitrage betting go hand in hand, because the continuously changing odds during gameplay will often create arbitrage opportunities between different sportsbooks. And when it comes to live betting, having the correct odds information fast is even more important, because as the game goes on and conditions change, so do the odds.
To find profitable arbitrage opportunities before they disappear, you need a tool that does not have a significant delay in displaying odds once they are updated by the sportsbook. If you do have a delay, even just a slight one, then you are going to be placing your bets with out of date information. When you actually go to the sportsbook to place your wager, the odds will look different than they did on your tool or software, and the arbitrage betting opportunity may no longer exist. Even worse, you may have already placed the first side of the bet at one sportsbook, but by the time you get to the other book, the odds have changed.
Speed is everything
Everything about arbitrage betting relies on being quick. You have to find the opportunities before the odds change, determine how much to bet, and place both sides of the wager before the arb disappears. If you are working with a tool or software that isn’t updating those odds as quickly as possible, then by the time you even see the opportunity, you’re behind and your risk of losing money has greatly increased.
The quicker you have updated odds, the more time you’ll have to see the arb, figure out your bet, and place the wagers at both books. Seeing the most up to date odds even a little bit faster is crucial when seconds matter.
DoubleDown Odds offers the lowest latency odds in the industry
At DoubleDown Odds, every part of our platform is designed to make you faster when arbitrage betting. Our goal is to minimize your risk with extremely low latency odds (typically within 200ms of them being updated on sportsbooks), as well as features like automatic bet sizing that eliminates the need to do any math and optionally linking directly to the game page, so you take less time to place your bets. The result is that you are armed with the accurate information required to find arbitrage betting opportunities, and you have tools that help you actually take advantage of them before they disappear.
Successful live and arbitrage betting takes time and practice. The more you do it, the faster you will be, and using a tool like ours will put you ahead of the curve. Plus, when you join, you’ll get access to the most up-to-date insider tips and best practices for how to best place bets and how to create your setup in a way that lets you place bets as fast as possible.