Instead of having a whinge this week I thought I would share an email I received from the son of a cousin who lives in the UK. He was asking about Arbitrage and I figured that maybe there were a few people out there wondering about the same things. He wrote:
Thanks for your email; those websites are really informative and useful.
I’m not sure why those companies wouldn’t allow Aussies to bet with them, I was surprised by that. At least you got a good run from this though, and did well from it. I’ve been getting to grips with your system, and I’m going to meet up with Grandad within a couple of week, and I think we’ll both simultaneously work through the bookies. How many bookies did you find, that offered these free bets?
I wanted to ask you more about arbitrage opportunities. I was looking at Betsquare, and I noticed several football games where the highest potential payout (provided you bet with the correct bookies) was over 100%. I’ve checked out sums to make sure it’s correct, and I can’t seem to find any loophole in it. Provided you lay an amount proportionate to the likelihood of that outcome happening, and make sure every outcome is covered, there’s always a profit to be made, regardless of the result. I can’t find a flaw with this, but it worries me, because it seems too good to be true (the interest rate here is currently 0.5%, so to make a 2-5% return within a day seems unlikely.) Are there any problems I’ve overlooked?
Thanks for the advice, I’ll make sure I take it slowly, and don’t take any risks where money could be lost. I’ve got a couple of weeks until I’m going to start to claim the free bets, so I’m going to use this time to make sure I understand the methods, and don’t make any mistakes with the real thing.
R. Murdoch (Name changed to protect the innocent)
This may be a case of the blind leading the blind but I wrote back anyway.
Hi Rupert
Pleased to hear that you are taking a cautious view on this as a fool and his money are soon parted. I ended up harvesting about 15 bookie bonuses and a diligent search would have found more. Like I said though, the restrictions applied to Australians do not affect UK citizens, so your pool of bonuses is much higher. My thoughts on restrictions to Ausies you would have read in my Rant, so I won’t repeat them here.
Arbitrage is where I am heading next, and only this week I have started sending money into my moneybookers account in preparation for my Arbitrage assault. There is no real loophole in Arbitrage only a few pitfalls for the unwary. These mainly being different rules for different sports at certain Bookmakers. These being mainly tennis and Baseball, due diligence should take care of that; either don’t use these sports or only Arb between bookies with the same rules. Bookmakers will restrict bets if they think your are arbing, so round your bets out, i.e. don’t bet something like $136.57 as it is a dead giveaway. Worse thing that happens there is, you place your first bet and your second bet get restricted, so to cover yourself, you have to go to several other bookies and possibly lose the Arbitrage opportunity and end up with a small loss instead of a small win. Operator error is another factor, as to get an Arb on, you need to be quick and that is where mistakes happen. Practice, Practice, and more Practice with small stakes is the best precaution against operator error. The other hindrances are, having enough liquidity to make it worth while as 2% of $100 is only $2 and as your money can sometimes be tied up between accounts, with bookies being slow to settle or allow withdrawals, the old adage “too much money is barely enough” holds true. I am buying a new computer tomorrow and the I am going to subscribe to an Arbitrage alert service and get a little serious about it all, as at present I have been in the practice mode and now feel ready to start in earnest.
That about covers most of your questions, and I will be interested to follow how you get on. Unfortunately I am so busy with my studies at present I do not get near enough time to devote to this as I would like, but when I set my new computer up, I am going to make the time available. Say hello to your Grandad for me and will talk later.
LOL (Lots OF Luck).
Trevor.
(PS to find out more just Google Arbitrage and start surfing Ucantlose is a good site so is sports arbitrage world and sports arbitrage guide)
I was hoping that if anybody had anything relevant to add or share they would post their comments and help to inform Rupert and myself as we travel down Arbitrage Avenue.
Lucky Trev
Written by on Mar 24th, 2011. 5 Replies Click To Reply. 
When I was little and my Father asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up and I replied that I wanted to be a “Professional Punter”, he looked at me sadly and said “Son you can’t do both”. His words have a ring of truth about them as I have found that it takes a certain amount of youthful optimism on the punt and it is very easy to get discouraged during the inevitable losing runs and start changing horses in midstream as it were. Changing from one system to another and ending up giving up just before things turn around and improve. I might have been guilty of this myself in my attempts to kick start my Arbitrage career.
I look for low risk in my gambling portfolios and I have a few of the Steve Davidson’s methods which I bought after reading their excellent reviews here and which suit my temperament, but unfortunately some of then require me to stay up all night to implement and so for the moment they are gathering dust until an opportune time arrives to bring them out. Looking for another low risk sure gain opportunity I turned my attention to Arbitrage trading. My ambition at the moment is to become an Arber, and though I hate to admit I am not having much success. I have opened as many bookie accounts as I have been allowed to (see previous post “An Open Letter to Ladbrokes, Paddy power and Corals”) and have harvested the bonuses in preparation for my grand career, so far so good. Where I am failing is in identifying the arbs, and getting the bets on quickly enough while the opportunity to profit is still there.
I have had a look at the arbing software available and find most of them so expensive I wouldn’t even consider signing up. You would need a bank far larger then mine to make them worthwhile. I did like the look of Zero Risk Bets and bought a subscription, an upgrade, and an automation software package. Champing at the bit I was ready to start. Well the first thing to happen or should I say not to happen, was the software download, only an error message when I went to the download page and an injunction to try again later. Ok will do, meanwhile no arb alerts either, not looking to good. A couple of emails sent off reassured me that I was on their subscriber list, and when alerts became available I would receive them. Feeling reassured I went back to the software download support page, which was through a different company, and I was given a ticket and told an answer would be forthcoming. It was, but it was only to tell me to see the original vendor. I did this, and was given a ticket and told the answer would be forthcoming. It was, and I was told to see the owners of the company. It was starting to feel like Groundhog Day and déjà vu all rolled into one. Not looking good, but at least I was now receiving email alerts, and yes you guessed it, they nearly all needed Ladbrokes, Paddy power or Corals as one or the other of the bets I needed to place.
Deciding I might have been a little hasty in signing up for this service I applied for a refund, and I am happy to say this was granted quickly and with no fuss. For some reason or the other I am still receiving the email alerts from Zero Risk Bets, and if I am quick enough, I can still see that sometimes the odds quoted are still available. I now use the service to identify markets that have the potential for arbs, and then find my own amongst the bookmakers accounts that I do have. After doing this for the last week or two I have decided that, even If I only used their service for that one thing, as in identifying potential arbitrage markets and I doing the rest myself, it would be worth the subscription, which is quite reasonable. I never did find out about the automation software other then to check my junk mail folder, which I had been doing all along anyway. I concede I may have been too hasty in chasing my refund. Make haste slowly will be my new motto and if anyone out there has any tips for a newbie wannabe Arber I am all ears.
Luckytrev.,
Written by on Mar 9th, 2011. Have Your Say!.
