How much can you actually make arbitrage betting?
Most answers to this question are made up. Ours isn't. Our scanner has logged every single alert since April 2026 — so instead of theory, here's what the real numbers say, and the honest limits that most arbing sites won't tell you about.
The raw numbers
From 5 April to 30 September 2026 our bot logged 3,134 alerts, of which 900 were arbs — opportunities where backing every outcome locked in profit whoever won.
One thing we learned along the way: a gap of 4.5% or more between two soft bookmakers, with no exchange involved, was usually a stale price rather than a real opportunity. The scanner now holds those back, and we've taken the 109 historic ones out of these figures. That leaves 791 arbs at an average of 2.32%, or about £2.04 per £100 staked.
The most recent full month, September 2026, produced 158 arbs at an average of 2.03%. Placing every one at £100 would have made £274, about £1.73 an arb. Volume follows the fixture list: since the summer it has run at 25–60 arbs a week, with a peak of 135 in Wimbledon's second week and dips during international breaks. Every September arb is on our results page, with a downloadable log.
What that means in pounds
An arb's profit is a percentage of your total stake, so your earnings scale with two things: how much you stake and how many arbs you act on. Nobody catches every alert — odds move, you sleep, you have a life. Here's the honest maths at September's real rate of £1.73 per £100 staked, for different levels of effort:
| Stake per arb | 10 arbs/week | 20 arbs/week | Every arb (Sept: 158) |
|---|---|---|---|
| £100 | £17/wk · ~£75/mo | £35/wk · ~£150/mo | ~£64/wk · £274/mo |
| £250 | £43/wk · ~£187/mo | £87/wk · ~£375/mo | ~£160/wk · £684/mo |
| £500 | £87/wk · ~£375/mo | £173/wk · ~£749/mo | ~£319/wk · £1,369/mo |
The last column is a ceiling, not a forecast: it assumes you caught every arb in September. Want to play with the numbers yourself? The profit simulator on our results page uses September's real average, and the arb calculator lets you rework any individual opportunity.
The honest limits
Anyone quoting bigger numbers than the table above is selling something they can't deliver. Four things cap arbitrage earnings in the real world:
- Bankroll. A £500-per-arb operation needs money spread across many bookmaker accounts, because you can't predict which books the next arb will use. Realistically you want 5–10× your per-arb stake across your accounts.
- Speed. Arbs live for minutes. Miss the window and the gap has closed. This is exactly why alerts need to reach your phone instantly.
- Account limits. Soft bookmakers eventually restrict winning accounts. You slow this down with sensible behaviour — our ex-bookmaker's guide to staying under the radar covers it — and you route around it by leaning on exchanges, which never limit you.
- Volume varies. Wimbledon's second week produced 135 arbs; the quietest full week in September (21–27 Sep) produced 26. Judge arbing by the month, not the day.
Realistic expectation: a diligent arber with a sensible bankroll, staking around £250 an arb and catching half the alerts, clears a few hundred pounds a month, tax-free. It's a genuine edge, not a get-rich-quick scheme.
Don't forget the value bets
Arbs are the guaranteed half of the story. Our scanner also flagged 2,234 value bets in the same period — single bets where a bookmaker's price beat the sharpest line in the market by 4% or more. Individually they can lose, and the edge only shows up over hundreds of bets, so treat them as a slower, longer-term play than arbs. Think of arbs as the floor and value bets as the long game.
And winnings are tax-free
In both the UK and Ireland, betting winnings carry no tax for recreational punters. Every pound in the table above is yours.
See the real alerts behind these numbers
The free channel posts a daily sample of genuine arbs and value bets — judge the volume yourself before paying a penny.
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