What is a SureBet?

A SureBet, or arbitrage bet, is a set of bets where you are sure to win money, irrespective of what the outcome of the event turns out to be. You cannot lose.

At BetBrain, we cover two types of SureBets, ?all-back? SureBets, where you make sure to win by betting on all possible outcome, and ?back/lay? SureBets, where you make sure to win by both buying and selling the same outcome.

Consider a tennis match between Hewitt and Federer, where two bookmakers, Book 1 and Book 2, offer odds like this:

	Hewitt	Federer
Book 1	3.00	1.40
Book 2	2.65	1.55

The bookmakers here operate with odds that are somewhat different. In fact they are so different, that you can make a SureBet by betting at both outcomes.

Assume you want to get a payout of ?100 no matter what happens. By betting ?100 / 3 for Hewitt with Book 1 and ?100 / 1.55 for Federer with Book 2, you will achieve it. Your total stake will be

?100 / 3 + ?100 / 1.55 = ?33.33 + ?64.52 = ?97.85.

At the end of the day, one of the bets is won and one is lost, but irrespective which one comes through, you will realize a profit of ?100 - ?97.85 = ?2.15. Making ?2.15 on an amount of ?97.85 is a return of 2.2%. Not bad for an investment horizon of one or two days.

In the example above, there were only two outcomes. But all-back SureBets will work with any type of bet as long as you can cover all possible outcomes. For instance you can make a SureBet on a football match by betting for both home, draw and away.

Let us look at the same example, but now with a betting exchange, Exch, involved. The odds are like this:

		Hewitt
Book 1		3.00
Exch	Back	2.65
	Lay	2.75

The betting exchange charges some commission on winnings, let?s say 3% of net profits on bets. This means that the net odds, after deduction of commissions, look like this:

		Hewitt
Book 1		3.00
Exch	Back	2.60
	Lay	2.80

The Lay odds of 2.80 means that it?s possible for you to take a bet of Hewitt to win and, net of commission, you?ll be required to pay out 1.80 times the stake in case Hewitt defeats Federer, but will receive the stake if he doesn?t.

Now assume that you place ?100 for Hewitt to win with Book 1 and at the same time lay ?100 at the exchange. There are two possible outcomes:

1. Federer wins. In this case you lose your bet at Book 1, but you receive the stake for the ?100 bet you accepted at Exch. Your net profit is ?0.
2. Hewitt wins. In this case you have to do a payment of (2.8 - 1) x ?100 at the exchange, a net loss of ?180. At Book 1 however, you are paid 3 x ?100, resulting in a net win of ?200 at Book 1. In total, you have a net profit of ?20.

In this way you cannot lose and you?ll win as much as ?20. As with the all-back SureBets, it is possible place the two bets in such a way, that your profit is the same irrespective of what happens.

You can find the list of current SureBets at BetBrain. Depending on your subscription at BetBrain, the list will have some delay in publishing the data. Also depending on your BetBrain Pro subscription, SureBets involving betting exchanges will be included or not. See our BetBrain Pro subscription products.

From every SureBet, you?ll find a link to our SureBet Calculator. When you click through here, you?ll be helped to calculating the correct stakes to place. The calculator makes it possible to calculate stakes for the best SureBet of the event. You can also do calculations using the odds from other bookmakers, where the odds may be lower, but which for some reason is more attractive to you, for instance because you have money available on an existing account or that you can bet higher stakes. The SureBet calculator can even make these calculations individual to the currencies you employ at your accounts and the commission you pay at the exchanges involved!

To take advantage of a SureBet, you will have to be signed up at all three bookmakers. The calculation does not include expenses for transferring money to and from bookmakers. There is also a risk of having bets voided by bookmakers after they are placed. Finally some bookmakers require that you bet on more than a single match to accept your bet.