Live arbing sequence – over or under bet first?

Whereas in pre-live arbitrage sequence of placing bets is pretty much irrelevant, with just one, general basic rule so to place soft bookies bets first and cover with Asians later on, the live-arbitrage field is more complicated. Here we will present some basic rules, how to act in order to optimize live arbing.

 

 

First we need to highlight the all-important difference between live-betting at Soft bookies (Unibet and others) and Asians (SBObet, Pinnacle Sports, others). Soft bookies have so called “acceptance delay – normally 5-10 seconds”. This means, that once you place the bet, the timer starts and if nothing happens within this time frame (no odds change, no goal) the bet gets fully accepted.

Asian bookies live-bets acceptance is based on so called “the danger zone rule”. The idea is, that your bet, upon being placed will get fully accepted if the “current” danger zone gets cleared. It will, though be voided if there is a goal or red card resulting from the danger zone of interest. This VITAL difference may work both on your favor, but also may cost you a lot of money if used in a wrong way.

 

Perhaps an example of this a bit complicated issue will explain best what is a difference all about:

 

Let us imagine Barcelona is playing home against Valencia. The score is 1:1 and the game is ending with 85’ at the clock. Barcelona is about to have a corner. The odds for over/under are presented below:

 

 

Correct solution: Start betting Over 2,5 at Unibet, cover with an under bet at SBObet.

You fire your 100 EUR bet (over 2.5 @ 2.02) at Unibet, and after 5 seconds the bet is placed and accepted. Now you cover this bet at SBObet (under 2.5 @ 2.02) and it goes into “the danger zone”, so it is conditionally-accepted (will be fully accepted if no goal or red card is issued within the current danger zone). Now if the current danger zone results with a goal you will have your Unibet bet won (+102 EUR) and your SBObet voided.

Result: +102 EUR, no risk included.

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Now let’s imagine the same game, but the different situation with the odds being:

 

 

Correct solution 1: Start betting Over 2,5 with SBObet, wait until it is accepted and cover with an under 2,5 bet at Unibet.

This is the only way you are not risking much money. If you would start betting from an under 2.5 bet at Unibet and there is a goal coming from the current “Danger zone” you would lost considerable amount of money (Unibet under 2.5 bet would be lost and SBObet over 2.5 bet would be voided). If you wait for the SBObet over 2.5 bet to get it fully accepted you are in no-risk position.

 

Correct solution 2: No bet

In this case the percentage of an arb (1%) might be not profitable enough to start betting such an arb. It is likely that throughout the time SBObet will fully accept your over 2.5 bet @ 2.02 (until the current danger zone cleares) Unibet will lower the odds for under 2.5 (@ 2.02 initially) which woud close the arb opportunity and would force you to cover the arb with negative profit.