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Is arbitrage betting profitable, briefly

Seen from both sides, "Is arbitrage betting profitable?" leads to one event. Hedging and arbitrage both mean betting on more than one side of the same event. A hedge does it after a first bet is already placed, to lock in part of a win or cut a loss. Arbitrage does it at the start, across different books whose prices disagree, so that every outcome returns a little more than the total stake. What they share is the arithmetic of splitting stakes between opposite results.

How much to hedge a bet depends on the aim. To guarantee the same return on both sides, divide the first ticket's potential return by the decimal odds of the opposite side, and stake that. To only cover the first stake, bet less. Should I hedge my bet is a question about risk: every hedge pays the book's margin a second time, so a hedge bet strategy used on every ticket slowly costs real money.

Is arbitrage betting allowed? Placing bets on both sides of an event is legal almost everywhere, and is hedge betting legal for the same reason. Books still dislike the practice openly, and does arbitrage betting get you banned is the practical question: accounts that only take arbitrage prices get limited or closed. Is arbitrage betting profitable, then? In small sums and only briefly, until those limits arrive and close the run.

More questions

How are stakes split in an arbitrage bet?

The budget is divided in proportion to the inverse of each best price, so every possible outcome returns about the same total.

Does hedging every bet cost money?

Yes. Each hedge pays the book's margin a second time, so a habit of hedging every ticket slowly eats into the overall return.

Is arbitrage betting worth the time it takes?

Gaps are usually one or two percent and last minutes, so the return has to be weighed against the hours spent searching for them.

Why check prices again before placing the second leg?

Prices can move in the moments between two bets, and a changed price can turn a planned arbitrage into an ordinary bet with a loss.