When it comes to sports betting, every punter enjoys their unique flavor. Novice or beginner punters will often stick to niche sports, finding niche betting markets within those sports to make some profit from this hobby.
Experienced punters, on the other hand, are much more adventurous. Less fearful of putting a foot wrong and losing a bet, these are progressive gamblers willing to brave less traveled roads to find opportunities that promise higher potential profit. Therefore, finding a veteran sports punter who sticks to money-line bets is challenging. Once they get the lay of the land and can move around without asking for directions, beginners will naturally diversify their game to include more novel strategies and markets.
Sure, there are some very unique sports for betting out there. Most people may need to remember to look at PDC Darts, Virtual Formula 1, or Esports when scouring their favorite platform for betting opportunities. However, even within niche sports like soccer, tennis, etc., lies some off-the-book ways to make predictions and a compelling profit. Below are two of them!
Arbitrage Betting
Arbitrage is a business concept, but sports betting is a business venture. If an item, service, or any other financial instrument retails at relatively similar prices in different markets, then traders can do arbitrage. In sports betting, arbitrage is an exceptionally low-risk betting strategy. If done meticulously, it is a zero-risk strategy. A punter needs the following conditions to do arbitrage betting:
- Two contrary outcomes from the same betting event.
- Two different sportsbooks offer relatively similar odds for the opposite outcomes.
Tennis is the perfect sport for this unusual betting opportunity because, of the two players competing in a match, one has to win, and the other has to lose. Let’s say one bookmaker offers odds of 2.20 for Player 1 to win, and the next bookmaker, believing Player 2 to be more likely, has priced Player 2 at 2.10. By backing both players with a similar amount of, let’s say, $100, the punter stands to make a risk-free, 100% guaranteed profit regardless of how the match goes. If Player 1 wins the day, the yield would be total gross (2.20*100=$220) less total invested (100*2=$200) = $20. Using the same formula, if Player 2 wins the match, the profit would be $10.
Matched Betting
Matched betting is quite similar to arbitrage, as explained above, but with one key difference: the punter partially relies on free bets this time. Also known as bonus hunting, this betting strategy requires free bonuses from the bookmaker for it to work. Fortunately, matched bets/bonuses are relatively common on the modern betting scene, so they shouldn’t be hard to come by. Using the tennis example from above:
- The punter deposits $100 with their bookmaker.
- The bookmaker matches the deposit with a free $100 gift.
- The punter backs Player 1 by betting $100 with their real-money deposit at odds of 2.20.
- The punter also backs Player 2 by betting $100 with their free bonus at odds of 2.10.
- This way, the punter only invests $100 of their real money. If Player 1 wins, the net profit would be (2.20*100=$220) less total invested ($100) = $120. If Player 2 wins, the net profit, using the same formula but with odds of 2.10, would be $110.
As such, the punter is guaranteed a profit despite the match’s outcome. Both arbitrage and matched betting are two unusual opportunities that every progressive sports gambler must try this year.
