OddsMonkey - basic principles
Arbitrage or matched betting requires a bookmaker and an exchange.
You bet at the bookmakers and you lay your bet at the exchange.
BetConnect, BetDaq, Betfair, Matchbook and Smarkets are the 5 available exchanges.
In this example, the market on Solihull v Dagenham and Redbridge has Dagenham to win at 5.0 (5.0 decimal is 4/1 fractional).
(* 99% of punters in the UK use fractional odds. This is actulally a more complicated way of understanding betting than decimal odds. You wont think so initially but after a while you’ll get used to decimal odds and fractional odds will seem strange)
OddsMonkey is setup for decimal odds.
In this example £10 to win on Dagenham wins you £40 with a return of £50 (your winnings + your stake).
In order to arbitrage this book (a book is any betting opportunity) you could bet £10 at 5.0 at 888 and LAY £10.87 on the exchange at 4.6 (18/5 fractional).
When you LAY a bet at the exchange, you are acting like a bookmaker so if, in this case, you are betting (called laying) £10,87 AGAINST Dagenham and Redbridge NOT winning.
If Dagenham and Redbridge win then you win £40 at 888 BUT YOU WILL HAVE LOST YOUR EXCHANGE BET.
This means in order to LAY £10.87 at the exchange you will need AT LEAST £39.13 in your account as this is your liability for the wager.
If you imagine that you’re a bookmaker and someone says to you “I want to bet £10.98 on Dagenham and Redbridge NOT winning against Solihull but I want odds of 4.6”.
You take that bet and if Dagenham and Redbridge DO win – then you keep the £10.87.
However, if Dagenham LOSE OR DRAW then you’ve offered 4.6 odds that this won’t happen so you’ll be liable for £39.13.
As you can see on this book that OddsMonkey has found, whatever happens in this match, you will win.
If Dagenham win, then the bookie pays you £40 but you lose £39.13 at the exchange (your liability) and if Dagenham lose then you lose your £10 bet with the bookie but you win £10.87 at the exchange.
Either way – you’re .87p ahead.
THIS FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE IS THE ABSOLUTE KEY TO MATCH OR ARBITRAGE BETTING.
This is another example of a bet you cannot lose on.
However the odds against Kyrgyzstan are 18.5 so in order to place this bet, you will need £199.15 in your Smarkets account – IN CASE KRYGYZSTAN WINS!!!
This is why although you’d only need £10 in your UK-WL betting account to BET on this market, if you wanted to LAY the bet you’re going need sufficient funds to cover the wager should Kyrgystan EITHER draw or lose.
Of course, the exchange prices will vary so if you have money in all 5 exchanges you’ll be able to find the best value but I personally favour Smarkets and I have the bulk of my exchange money lodged at Smarkets and this works perfectly well.
