What are surebets?

Every bettor quite logically strives to beat the bookies and win large amounts of money. To do this, the bettor comes up with lots of various strategies and methods. However, to this day, the most effective method of making money on betting is still surebets.

In this material, we will reveal the basics of the surebets, as well as analyze their types and principle of generation.

What are surebets, and how are they being generated?

Surebets are some situations when a bettor is offered an opportunity to bet on the opposite outcomes of the event, and thus make a profit regardless of the outcome of said event. This happens when the bookmakers set too divergent (and often inflated) odds for the same match.

Surebets can be found both in live and prematch betting lines. In live mode, you can catch a surebet with a profitability of up to 10-15%, but the prematch surebets do not have the same level of profitability - on average, you can get 2-4% and less of the amount wagered on a single surebet. We will explain you what exactly prematch and live modes are little bit later in this article.

The surebets can get generated for various reasons, but the most common ones are:

• deliberate increase in odds due to serious competition in the market;
• delays in updating the line;
• dropping odds (a large number of bets) for one of the outcomes;
• low margin set by one of bookies;
• a banal error in setting odds.

It is important to understand that surebets is not a classic betting method, because with it, the bettor guarantees a win. The bookmakers mightily dislike the surebettors, and do their best to deal with them, but a carefully thought-out and accurate strategy will help you make tangible money on surebets.

Surebet - an illustrative example

To better understand the meaning of the "surebet" term, let's analyze a situation on a real example. By using the BetWasp surebet finder, we found the fitting match in less than a minute. It turned out to be the match of the 22nd round of the Second League of the French Championship, "Amiens vs. "Metz". One of the bookies has set a 2.88 odds for TU 1.5 (Total under), and the other one has set the 1.61 one for the TO 1.5 (Total over) one.

As you can see, we've got a 2-arms surebet. For convenience, let's take a total stake of $100. After having calculated the required distribution of bets with the surebet calculator, we are now in a possession of the following data: we are to wager $36 on "TU 1.5", and the remaining $64 - on "TO 1.5" (the bet amounts must be slightly rounded so that the bookmakers would not suspect anything).

Let's look at the possible outcomes of the event:

Option 1: teams do not score any goals, or only score 1 goal.

Bet calculation: $36 x 2.88 = $103.68

Profit gained: $103.68 - $100 = $3.68

As you can see, the net profit in this case will be $3.68, or 3.68% of the total stake amount.

Option 2: teams score 2 or more goals in a match.

Bet calculation: $64 x 1.61 = $103.04

Profit gained: $103.04 - $100 = $3.04

In this case, our profit will be $3.04, or 3.04% of the total amount.

As you can see, in any scenario of the event, we get a profit of just over 3% of the total stake. Yes, the amount is miniscule, but it is guaranteed!

Types of surebets

In the world of betting, there are 2 main types of surebets: live and prematch. Live surebets get generated during the match, when the bookies update their odds depending on the progression of events.

Some bookmakers do not have time to monitor and update the odds, resulting in the favorable situations for the bettors. However, such events are being "alive" for only a few minutes, and sometimes even seconds (until the bookies correct/update their odds).

In turn, prematch surebets are being generated before the start of the event, and so they can last for several hours.

All surebets can also be differentiated by the number of outcomes: 2, 3, 4 or more. Each outcome of the same surebet is called the arm of the surebet. The most common are 2-arm surebets, as they are the simplest and most understandable for quick betting. 3-arm surebets are a little less common, and lots of bettors neglect them (due to the difficulties with wagering all bets).

However, the latter option can bring more winnings, and it also helps to make tracking of surebet bettors much more difficult. 4, 5 or more arms in the same surebet are extremely rare, but still we recommend not neglecting them: they are also profitable, and much safer.

Main differences between Live and Prematch surebets

Live and prematch surebets are very different from each other, so they are popular with different segments of bettors. The main differences can be summarized as follows:

1. Generation time: Live surebets are being generated during the event, while the prematch ones are being generated before the start of the match.
2. Difficulty of betting: Live betting requires quick reaction and constant monitoring of the situation, since all changes occur during the match and can change rapidly. And the bet made before the start of the meeting can only be wagered on the basis of a long-term analysis and research, there is no rush here.
3. Risks: In the prematch, there is a risk of not having enough time to bet all levers of the surebet, but it is minimal. In live mode, the bettors quite often do not have time to wager all necessary bets, since the odds are being updated every 10-15 seconds (very few bookies "hold off" their updates for up to 1 minute).
4. Cause of a surebet: some of prematch surebets result from predictions and careful analysis, while the live surebets are based on real data coming from the current match.

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