For those who aren’t sure, arbitrage betting mainly arises from a situation when different bookmakers have different opinions on the probable outcome of an event. By placing one bet per each outcome with different betting companies, the bettor makes a profit, regardless of the outcome. This is known as ‘arbing’ and the bet-tactic itself is an ‘arb’. Typically, an arb sees profit of around 2 percent, often less; occasionally 4–5 percent. For this reason and because of the complications (and easy-to-make errors) involved, arbs must be high-value stakes – so you must have a very large bank roll.
There are pros and cons to arbing, and the pros are really only applicable to those who can afford it. You can write an essay about the cons, but I’ll try to surmise. Bookmakers tend to disapprove of arbers and have been known to restrict and close accounts – and even withhold the winnings – of people they suspect to be arbing. Additionally, they have the right not to accept your bet. Odds-comparison sites and software have made arbing an easier-to-implement process, but at the same time, these technological advances have allowed bookmakers to consistently offer the same or extremely similar odds. The main difficulty of arb betting, even with software, is the massive incongruence you’ll encounter between seeing advertised odds and being quick enough to secure them (at a high-enough stake each to see a return). What can happen is that you place the first bet, and by the time you’ve placed the second, the odds have changed and what was a calculated arb then becomes a simple bet – or two bets. The whole enterprise works in theory, but is very high-risk in reality. One way arbers have found a way to be successful, is to work in tandem with other bettors willing to place bets on the original arber’s behalf.
Lesson over, I’ll return to the product to be reviewed. Rob Green is the (supposed) man behind a software system with webinar support, to be found at www.bettingarbitrages.com (Editors Update: It’s not there any more! Thank goodness) . You don’t have to be totally dyslexic to glance at that web address and read ‘betting garbage’, which is pretty much what this product is.
I’ve never seen a sales-page for a product take the form of a ‘live’ webinar that demands: ‘FREE Training: Learn How to Make *GUARANTEED* Profits Every Day From Betting’. Points for originality, but I severely doubt there is anything live about the webinar at all. I think it’s a simulation that ultimately insults prospective punters’ intelligence. If it is live, then Rob Green must be glued to his computer, which is odd, because if I’d made the kind of money he claims he has, the last place I’d be is at my computer. There’s a list of attendees on the right of the screen, and a Q&A section below. I asked a few probing questions and they were all met with a stoney silence from Rob. The only answers he seemed to respond to were ones that allowed him to paint the product in a fantastic light. It didn’t take me long to realise that the entire sub-window must be a running script. The names of webinar ‘attendees’ are recycled too.
Next realisation is that the ‘FREE Training’ of the headline is a complete falsity. The training actually costs $197 a month (an eventual decrease from $297) – so it’s a very expensive software subscription, the accumulative price of which mirrors the large bank-roll you must have to really take advantage of arbitrage betting.
Once signed up, the software calculates whenever there’s a chance to place arbitrage bets. More disillusionment follows when you realise that finding the same odds as those the software has found, is as likely as finding a solid gold grain of sand in a sand-dune. There is simply no correlation – and that’s if you’re able to keep accounts going at different bookmakers (only Betfair and Pinnacle seem to allow arbitrage betting). Also, some bookies who suspect arbitrage betting limit the amount that you can bet, therefore minimising the profits so much so that it’s not worth the effort.
Further disgruntlement arose when, in one of their seminars, they stressed in all earnest that arbs with profit margins exceeding 80% are common occurrences. This is just not true. Arbs of 20% are an annual occurrence – if that. It soon becomes plain insulting, and when I started to look into other punters’ experience with this product, I could see that it gets actually insulting: one guy says that after asking repeatedly ignored questions, the webinar host was rude and aggressive.
Who’s to say whom this webinar host really was. There have been many names associated with this Betting Arbitrage system, and many insistent and hard-line email marketing campaigns that all lead back to their website and stink of desperation.
Further comments to be made include incongruent profit claims, very poor customer-service, pushy and pressurising sales tactics, difficulties in claiming refunds (a 30-day money-back guarantee is stated – if you want a refund then try emailing SWREG directly on info@swreg.org). Ultimately though, the main error of this product is that the software declares arbs that simply do not exist in reality.
BonusBagging is an alternative system that includes arbitrage betting and is worth a look, because you use the free bets that bookmakers give you for joining their sites, rather than risking your own money.
