Read our top 10 tips to avoid being banned from sports betting when Arbitrage and Matched Betting in 2023.
1. Don’t be greedy. A common question may be as follows: “If I can stake a total of £40 and make £5 profit, then could I stake £4000 and make £500 profit?”. Although the simple answer is yes, this is never a good decision. Unreasonable stakes are an instant reason for a bookmaker to flag your account for manual review. It may be tempting, but smaller profits will add up to more in the long run. Maximum £50 per bet is a good start, but we would strongly recommend not exceeding even £30 per bet.
2. Mug betting - Keep a log of your arbitrage and value betting history. This can help to identify which of your bookmaker accounts are winning frequently. For these accounts, employ the strategy of mug betting. Mug bets are bets that are designed to make you look like an ‘average’ gambler. For example, accumulators, bet builders and singles on mainstream events. These bets are likely to lose so stake sensibly and include in your arbitrage betting profit log.
We would suggest laying these mug bets on an exchange to minimise your net loss. For example: Man City to win the FA Cup final on PaddyPower. Lay Man City to win on Smarkets. The lay odds will be relatively similar allowing you to cover yourself for the most part. Unsure? See our exchange beginners guide here.
3. Think twice about betting on low tier obscure leagues. Random countries and random leagues can be extremely illiquid (they never have much staked on them). If you place a bet with high stakes on an illiquid market, it can be a red flag to a bookmaker as an arbitrage bettor. If you have placed bets on these types of markets recently, space them out with more mainstream bets in between.
4. Use betting exchanges where possible. A betting exchange is a marketplace for bettors to bet against each other, rather than against a bookmaker themselves. For this reason there is no risk of account restrictions. If it is possible to place the same bet via an exchange, do so instead of a bookmaker.
5. Deposit more than the minimum requirement when matched betting. Matched betting is the process of using a bookmaker purely to profit from their sign up offer. An offer requirement may be to deposit £20. Here, avoid depositing exactly £20, carrying out the offer and withdrawing your whole balance. This easily highlights a matched bettor and often results in immediate account closures. By doing this you are forfeiting the opportunity to return to the bookmaker for arbitrage bets in future.
6. Stake round numbers. For example, stake £40 instead of £38.47. The idea is to disguise yourself as an ‘average’ gambler and after all, who would bet £38.47?
7. Ignore clear mistakes. Arbitrage betting takes advantage of discrepancies in odds between multiple bookmakers on the same event. In finding arbitrage opportunities, you may identify an obvious pricing error, such as the one pictured below, rather than a regular discrepancy. Although it may be tempting, avoid these errors as they often result in immediate account restrictions.
8. Avoid arbitrage betting on events that are well into the future. This may be referred to as ‘long-term arbs’. Markets for events that are more than a week away will be fresh, and have had no time to reach a fair price. Taking advantage of these too often can result in a manual account review.
9. Do not withdraw 100% of your balance immediately after an arbitrage or value bet settles. As long as you can afford to, leave a buffer balance in your account.
10. Make a small initial deposit. When opening an account for the first time, avoid depositing hundreds initially. Despite having arbitrage betting intentions, the key is to disguise yourself as an ‘average’ gambler. £50 may be a reasonable place to start. As your account gathers more betting, deposit and withdrawal history this can be increased.