Ever wondered if you could place a bet without the risk of losing?

Or maybe you’ve found yourself one game away from a huge parlay win and thought, “Should I cash out or hedge my bets?”

This guide will walk you through two advanced (yet beginner-friendly) tactics—arbitrage betting and hedging—that can help you lock in profits or minimize losses. 

Arbitrage Betting Explained in Simple Terms

Arbitrage betting (also known as “arbing” or “sure betting”) is essentially risk-free betting. It means taking advantage of different odds offered by different sportsbooks, so that you bet on all possible outcomes of a game and guarantee yourself a profit no matter who wins.

In other words, you’re covering every outcome by placing multiple bets. Because the odds are in your favor (thanks to discrepancies between bookies), the returns from the winning bet will outweigh the losses from the others.

This isn’t magic or cheating—it’s more like spotting a price error or sale in a store.

Sportsbooks sometimes disagree or post different odds on the same game. Arbitrage bettors capitalize on these small differences.

The catch: the profit on each arbitrage bet is usually small (often in the range of 1-5% of your total bets) . But a guaranteed dollar is better than a risky dollar, right? Over time, those small wins can add up.

A Basic Arbitrage Example

To see arbitrage in action, let’s look at a beginner-friendly example. Imagine an upcoming basketball game between Team A and Team B.

On Sportsbook 1, Team A is listed as a slight underdog at +110 (meaning you win $110 profit on a $100 bet). On Sportsbook 2, Team B is also +110 underdogs against Team A.

How can both teams be the underdog? This can happen due to sportsbooks having different opinions or local biases on the game.

For an arbitrage bettor, it’s like a dream scenario.

Here’s how you could take advantage:

  • Bet $100 on Team A at +110 with Sportsbook 1. If Team A wins, this bet pays out $210 (your $100 stake + $110 profit).

  • Bet $100 on Team B at +110 with Sportsbook 2. If Team B wins, this bet pays out $210 (stake + $110 profit).

Now you’ve bet a total of $200 ($100 on each outcome). Let’s break down the outcomes:

  • If Team A wins: You win $110 profit from Sportsbook 1. You lose your $100 bet on Team B. Net profit: $110 – $100 = $10.

  • If Team B wins: You win $110 profit from Sportsbook 2. You lose your $100 bet on Team A. Net profit: $110 – $100 = $10.

No matter who wins the game, you’re guaranteed a $10 profit.

This is arbitrage betting in a nutshell—covering all outcomes so you can’t lose.

In real life, arbitrage opportunities might not be as obvious as both sides at +110, but the concept is the same.

For instance, one sportsbook might have an underdog at +120 while another sportsbook has the favorite at -110, creating a small margin you can exploit . Arbitrage calculators and odds comparison tools can help pinpoint the exact amounts to bet on each side to lock in a profit.

The Realities of Arbitrage: Challenges and Tips

Arbitrage betting sounds like free money, and in a way it is—but it’s not easy money. There are practical challenges that make it more of a grind than a get-rich-quick scheme. Before you dive in, keep these realities in mind:

  • Odds Change Quickly: Arbitrage opportunities are fleeting. Sports odds can shift in seconds due to things like a last-minute injury or a flurry of bets on one side. If you spot an arb, you need to act fast. Hesitating even a minute can mean one sportsbook adjusts their line and the opportunity disappears. Many arbers use real-time odds trackers or alerts to move on opportunities before they vanish.

  • Fast Execution is Key: Placing multiple bets almost simultaneously is tricky. Ideally, you want to put down all your bets back-to-back so that you’re not exposed.

    For example, if you bet one side of an arbitrage and wait too long to bet the other, you risk the second sportsbook changing their odds in the meantime. It’s a bit of a race! Some arbitrage bettors even keep multiple browser windows or apps open and ready to go for quick execution.

  • Calculations and Mistakes: You’ll need to calculate how much to bet on each outcome to guarantee a profit. This often isn’t a simple 1:1 split— you have to weight your bets based on the odds. Miscalculating stakes is a common rookie mistake that can turn a sure win into a loss.

    Fortunately, there are online arbitrage calculators to do the math for you; just plug in the odds and your total intended stake, and they’ll tell you how much to put on each side.

  • Bet Limits and Liquidity: Sportsbooks often have limits on how much you can wager, especially on less popular events or unusual lines. A great arbitrage opportunity might only allow you to bet, say, $50, limiting your absolute profit to just a few bucks. High rollers can’t always arb with huge sums because one side of the bet might get capped by the bookmaker.

    Also, if you’re betting on smaller markets (like lower-league soccer or obscure sports) to find arbs, those markets may not handle large bets without moving the odds.

  • Account Restrictions (Sportsbooks Don’t Love Arbers): Perhaps the biggest challenge is that sportsbooks frown upon arbitrage betting. While arbitrage isn’t illegal (it’s perfectly legal wherever sports betting is legal), it can violate the sportsbook’s terms of service.

    Bookmakers make money by taking a cut (the vig) from losing bets, so a bettor who always wins (even small amounts) raises red flags. If a sportsbook detects that you’re consistently arbing, they might limit how much you can bet or even suspend/ban your account.

    For example, many arbers find their accounts suddenly limited to betting only a few dollars per wager. It’s the book’s way of saying, “we know what you’re up to.” To avoid detection, serious arbitrage bettors try to fly under the radar: they spread action across many books, avoid rounding their bet sizes to obvious amounts, and sometimes even intentionally lose a tiny bit on purpose occasionally to look like a regular bettor.

    Still, if you’re only doing this casually with small stakes, you might slip by unnoticed. Just be aware: if you arbitrage heavily, your sportsbook accounts might not last long.

Bottom line: Arbitrage betting can indeed give you guaranteed wins, but it requires work and vigilance. You need multiple sportsbook accounts, quick reflexes, and careful planning. It’s like couponing or day-trading: lots of small profits that, with time and effort, can amount to something meaningful. Don’t expect to turn $10 into $10,000 overnight. Arbitrage is a grind, but for some bettors, the thrill of a “sure thing” and slowly growing a bankroll is worth it.

Hedging Bets: Protecting Your Wager and Locking in Profit

While arbitrage is about seizing new opportunities, hedging is about managing bets you’ve already made. Hedging means placing a new bet on the opposite side of an existing wager.

The goal is to reduce your risk or guarantee some profit from that original bet.

In plain language, hedging is like an insurance policy for your bets. You’re sacrificing a bit of potential profit in exchange for more certainty.

Hedging doesn’t make a bad bet a good one, but it can make an uncertain situation a bit more comfortable. If you’re unsure about the outcome or just want to secure something no matter what, hedging can be a smart play.

Keep in mind, because you’re placing an additional bet (and thus paying the sportsbook’s vig twice), hedging will always trim your maximum possible winnings. You’re essentially saying, “I’m happy to take a smaller payout, as long as I don’t walk away empty-handed.”

When Does Hedging Make Sense?

Not every bet needs hedging—most of the time, bettors just let it ride. But there are a few common scenarios where hedging is popular:

  • Longshot Futures Bets in Reach: This is the classic hedging scenario. Imagine you’ve got a $100 bet on Team X at +1000 to win the championship (perhaps you picked a dark horse before the season started). To your delight, Team X defies the odds and makes it to the final game! Your original bet would pay out $1000 profit if Team X wins the title.

    But now they’re up against Team Y in the final, and Team Y is the favorite (say Team Y is -200 odds to win that final game). You’re torn between letting it ride for the big payout or ensuring you don’t walk away with nothing. By hedging, you can lock in a profit regardless of what happens in the final.

    For example, you might bet $400 on Team Y at -200 in the final. If Team Y wins the championship, you’ll win $200 from that hedge bet (and lose your $100 futures bet on Team X), netting you $100 in profit overall.

    If Team X wins the championship, you lose the $400 hedge but win $1000 from your original bet, netting $600 profit.

    In either case, you make money — either about $100 or $600 — instead of facing a scenario where Team X loses and you get $0. Hedging in this way gave you peace of mind and a guaranteed payday. (You could hedge more or less to change the balance of guaranteed vs. upside; how much to hedge is up to your risk appetite.)

  • Parlays or Big Multi-Leg Bets: Another time hedging comes in handy is when you have a parlay with just one leg left.

    Suppose you placed a $20 parlay on five NFL games and the first four results are winners. The final game is Monday Night Football, and if your last pick wins, you’d collect, say, $500. Now, $500 is on the line from just $20—exciting, but if that last team loses, you get nothing.

    Hedging here would mean betting on the opposite side of your last parlay leg. If your parlay’s final pick is Team A to win, you’d place a separate bet on Team B (the opponent) to win that game. This way, you ensure some payout.

    For instance, you might bet $200 on Team B at whatever the current odds are. If Team B (your hedge) wins, you might profit enough to pocket, say, $150 (and your parlay loses). If Team A wins (hitting your parlay), you win $500 from the parlay but lose $200 on the hedge, netting $300.

    Either outcome, you walk away with money — less than the full parlay, but not a total loss. Many bettors hedge parlays in this way when they’re so close to a big win; it takes the edge off the all-or-nothing stress.

  • Change of Heart (Protecting Against New Information): Sometimes you place a bet and later events make you doubt it. Maybe you put money on your team early in the week, and then the star quarterback got injured a day before the game. Suddenly that bet doesn’t feel so hot.

    You can hedge by betting the other side to mitigate your potential loss. You won’t guarantee a profit in this case, but you might reduce how much you could lose if your initial bet likely goes sideways. Essentially, you’re cutting your losses.

    For example, you bet your team at -3 (to win by more than 3 points) earlier, but after injuries, you’re not confident. You could hedge with a bet on the other team +3 or the moneyline on the other team. If your original bet loses, your hedge will soften the blow by paying out. If your original bet still wins, you’ve given up some of those winnings because of the hedge.

    This kind of hedging is about risk reduction rather than locking a sure profit, and it’s a personal judgment call based on your confidence level. Some bettors would rather ride or die with their original bet; others prefer to salvage something when news turns against them.

Weighing the Upsides and Downsides of Hedging

Hedging has clear upsides: you can guarantee a win or reduce a loss. It’s especially great for peace of mind. If a potentially big payout has you so nervous that you can’t enjoy the game, hedging can alleviate that stress. After all, as the saying goes, winning something is better than losing everything. By hedging, you’re ensuring you leave with at least some money.

However, there are cautions to be aware of with hedging. The biggest one is that it cuts into your potential profit. When you hedge, you are willingly giving up the maximum payday in exchange for a smaller (but safer) return. If your original bet ends up winning, you might kick yourself for reducing your winnings.

For example, if Team X actually won that championship and you hedged, you’d be $400 poorer than if you hadn’t hedged (in our scenario above). Hedging also means you’re paying the sportsbook’s juice twice—once on the original bet and again on the hedge—so over the long run, frequent hedging can eat into your profits.

In pure mathematical terms, if you consistently make +EV (positive expected value) bets, hedging often is theoretically giving away some of that edge. That’s why some sharp bettors say you shouldn’t hedge at all unless your bankroll really needs you to lock in the win.

Another downside: Hedging requires that you can actually place the hedge bet in the first place. In the case of a futures bet reaching the final, you need enough funds available to bet the other side (in our example, we needed $400 to hedge). If you don’t have the cash or your sportsbook limits the amount you can put on the hedge, you might not be able to fully hedge even if you want to.

Also, sometimes the timing or odds make hedging hard—maybe the lines moved a lot since your original bet, wiping out the chance to hedge effectively.

In the end, hedging is a personal decision. It’s less about squeezing out maximum value and more about managing risk and emotions. If locking in a sure profit (or avoiding a total loss) will help you sleep better or enjoy the game, it might be worth sacrificing a bit of potential earning.

Just remember that it’s a tool for risk management, not a strategy to get rich quick. Many casual bettors hedge not because it’s mathematically optimal, but because it lets them enjoy the sport without so much stress about the outcome. And there’s nothing wrong with that!

Final Thoughts: Using Arbitrage and Hedging Wisely

Both arbitrage and hedging strategies show that you don’t always have to be 100% at the mercy of chance in sports betting—you can take some control over your outcomes.

Arbitrage betting is about finding those rare pockets of guaranteed profit by playing bookmakers off against each other.

Hedging is about safeguarding a bet you’ve already made, trading a bit of upside for security.

For casual to intermediate bettors, these tactics can be useful tools in your betting toolkit, but they require a bit more work and understanding:

  • Arbitrage: great for the analytically minded bettor willing to put in time scanning odds and managing multiple sportsbook accounts. It’s a slow and steady grind. You’re not winning big, but you’re aiming to never lose (even if it’s winning small). Just be cautious and don’t paint a target on your back with the sportsbooks.

  • Hedging: useful for those moments when you’ve got a lot on the line and want to secure something. It’s not about maximizing profit; it’s about peace of mind and protecting your bankroll. If you find yourself in a sweat over a potential big win, hedging can be a lifesaver (or at least a bankroll saver).

Finally, keep your expectations realistic. Neither of these approaches will make you a millionaire overnight.

Arbitrage can yield a trickle of steady profits, and hedging can save you from heartbreak or bankroll busts. Think of arbitrage and hedging as risk management strategies rather than money-printing schemes. Used wisely, they can enhance your betting experience—helping you grind out a profit here and there (with arbitrage) and sleep easier on those big bets (with hedging).

And even if you don’t use these tactics all the time, just knowing about them means you’re thinking like a sharp bettor who understands that sports betting isn’t just about picking winners, it’s also about managing risk and reward.

Good luck, and happy betting!