Today, we’ll talk about the key characteristics of Prematch and Live arbitrage opportunities in sports betting.
What Are Prematch and Live Arbitrage Bets?
First, let’s clarify what Prematch and live (in-play) arbitrage bets or surebets are:
Prematch arbitrage refers to betting opportunities that arise before a match/fight/race begins.
Live arbitrage, on the other hand, occurs during events that are already in progress.
Naturally, both types of arbitrage bets have their own distinct advantages and disadvantages, and we’ll dive deeper into each.
Prematch Arbitrage and Its Features
Advantages:
- Easier to work with
- Odds change more slowly
- Greater variety of opportunities
Prematch arbitrage is often recommended for beginners due to its simplicity. Since the odds don’t change as quickly, bettors have more time to place their bets and cover all outcomes (called “legs” of the arbitrage).
Another big plus is the sheer variety—Prematch arbitrage opportunities can be found across numerous leagues, championships, and sports, regardless of the season.
Disadvantages:
- Lower profitability
- Slower turnover of funds
- High competition
Prematch arbitrage rarely offers a return higher than 10%. Because of this, many bettors eventually move to live arbitrage, which can be more lucrative.
Additionally, since bets are placed before the event, it may take days for the outcome to be decided and for the funds to be available again.
Also, due to the longer lifespan of Prematch arbitrage opportunities, more bettors can exploit them. This large volume of bets on the same outcomes often attracts the attention of bookmakers, potentially resulting in sanctions such as account limitations.
Live Arbitrage and Its Features
Advantages:
- Higher profitability
- Lower risk of sanctions
- Fast bankroll turnover
Live arbitrage generally offers higher returns than Prematch betting. However, bettors should be cautious—if the arbitrage margin is unusually high, it might signal a mistake in the bookmaker’s odds, which could result in the bet being voided.
Despite this, the risk of sanctions is still lower in live arbitrage since the opportunities appear once the event has started and are harder for bookmakers to detect.
Another major benefit is the fast turnover. Since bets are placed on ongoing events, the results come quickly, allowing bettors to reinvest the funds sooner.
Disadvantages:
- More difficult to execute
- Odds change rapidly
- Risk of issues due to differing bookmaker rules
Live arbitrage is more challenging because the odds can change within seconds. Even experienced bettors may struggle to place all required bets in time, especially for three-way bets where three outcomes need to be covered.
Another issue is the potential difference in bookmaker rules. For example, one bookmaker might settle bets based on the regular time result, while another includes extra time. This mismatch can lead to unwanted surprises if the outcome is decided during extra time.
You might also be interested in: Worked example of arbitrage betting
Some arbitrage scanners (like BetBurger) help by alerting users to potential rule discrepancies for specific arbitrage opportunities.
BetBurger Surebet Service
BetBurger is a robust online surebet scanner (also known as an arbitrage tool) designed to uncover betting opportunities that guarantee profit regardless of a game’s outcome. Founded in 2013, it has since become one of the industry leaders, serving over 100,000 users worldwide.
What sets BetBurger apart is its extremely fast and comprehensive scanning. It monitors odds from well over 600 global and local bookmakers and their numerous clones across more than 45 sports and hundreds of markets, updating opportunities in real‑time—often by the second.
This speed allows users to spot high‑yield arbitrage situations (typically between 2% to 15% profit) before bookmakers correct their lines.
BetBurger offers both Prematch and Live surebet scanning. Prematch is beginner‑friendly with slowly changing odds, while Live mode surfaces more frequent and potentially higher‑profit opportunities, though with shorter time windows to act.
Its interface is intuitive yet detailed, packed with powerful tools like advanced multifilters, grouping by event, bet accounting, and direct stake calculation tailored for each bookmaker and currency.
Conclusion
As you can see, both Prematch and live arbitrage bets have their own unique features that should be considered carefully when choosing your strategy.
Anyway, you’ll need to have a reliable surebet service, because manual search of arbitrage situations takes much time and effort. Without such software, you should analyse many betting lines and calculate surebets on your own, just wasting time.
