Overdue Update

It has been a while since the last post, and I do apologise. There has been a lot of changes recently, the main one being a change of jobs. Also, the kids have just started going back to school after the summer holidays, and its been manic at times.

I have stopped trading on Betfair for the time being. Since I started, I made £908 profit altogether. I am quite pleased with this. However, I noticed that I was finding it extremely difficult to grind out a profit day in, day out. I was scared that I'd lose the money by chasing a loss, or even worse, that whatever "edge" I had was gone. So I did the best thing I could do at the time...I stopped.

Since then, I have decided to turn my hand to arbitrage or arbing. It seems that you need a large bank to make it worthwhile, but in my case I have a small betting bank of £1500 or so, and this is what I'll be using.

There are a few websites that offer free arb opportunities or "surebets". These are: Oddsportal, Oddstorm and Wettportal. I am sure there are many others, but I haven't found them yet. There are also a number of services that send you arbs in real time, and they vary in quality and price. I did find a forum that reviews some of these services for anyone interested. Just visit Arb Users.

I have had to open a lot of bookmaker accounts, and have taken advantage of a few sign up offers which has helped grow the bank as well. I've been a bit wary, as some of the bookmakers are not high street names, so I've had to do some digging to see if they are legitimate and not scam artists.

One thing that has surprised me is that some bookmakers, i.e. Stan James and Victor Chandler, which  are supposed to be large companies are very quick to restrict your account. I have not been using massive stakes, normally between £100 - £200, and they have restricted me to pennies. Apparently, they do not like people who arb! I assume it is because they know they have the best prices on a particular market and monitor the bets they receive. Also, the fact that a lot of other arbers are placing the same bets and I am labelled an arber too. I find this a bit poor really. These companies have professional traders and odds compilers. A bookmaker can't lose on a market as they have their over round and profit margin built in, i.e. on 110% over round book, they will make 10% profit no matter what happens. So, if they set a good price, then why should it matter if I am an arber and bet with them. I assume they want to make as much profit as possible, and if I only bet with them when they have a good price, then I must not be a very good customer!

In the past fortnight, I have taken advantage of 30 arbs. This could have been a lot more, but I am still finding my feet, and with my small bank I have to wait for money to be moved around. I have turned over a total of £4531, and made a profit of £137.96. This is a ROI of 3.04%. At the moment, it seems I average £4.59 per arb. I'm quite happy with this. If I can make roughly £10-£30 per day, then that's a very good income stream. I'm quite a way off from this, but that is the aim once the bank grows.

I would love to know if there are any other bloggers or readers that are doing the same thing. Feel free to leave a comment. I'll try and update more frequently from now on.