Guide · 7 min read
Free arbitrage finders: what free sure bets really give you
You can find sure bets without paying anything: with the free tier of a scanner, or by hand with an odds comparison and a calculator. Both are good ways to learn. This guide shows what the free options leave out, what stale odds cost you in euros, and a simple formula to check, with your own numbers, whether a paid finder would cover its price.
Updated 22 October 2026
Contents
What free tiers show
Most sure bet scanners have a free tier. It is there to show you how the tool works, not to replace the paid product. Three limits are typical:
- A cap on the margin. According to its own comparison page, Surebet.com's free version shows sure bets up to 1% return in real time. BetBurger's help pages also state sure bets up to 1% for free use. Everything above that is for paying customers.
- Delay. According to Surebet.com's comparison page, BetBurger's free version shows sure bets with a delay; independent reviews give figures from about one to fifteen minutes. Surebet.com states no delay for its own free tier.
- Fewer filters and bookmakers. Filters for your own accounts, sports or minimum odds are often missing or restricted.
A 1% cap matters more than it sounds. At 1% and €200 in total stakes, you keep €2. If an Austrian bookmaker passes on the 5% betting fee on a €100 leg, that leg costs €5 and the sure bet is negative before you start. How much margin you need after fees and rounding is covered in what counts as a good arbitrage percentage.
Be careful with Telegram channels and groups promising "free sure bets" or safe tips. They are often bait for expensive subscriptions or for unlicensed bookmakers. How to spot them is in arbitrage betting scams.
Finding arbs by hand, with a calculator
The completely free route is an odds comparison site plus a calculator. For a market with two or three outcomes, take the best odds for each outcome and add up the reciprocals. If the sum is below 1, it is a sure bet.
1/odds A + 1/odds B (+ 1/odds C) < 1 → sure bet
Bookmaker A offers 2.06 on player 1, bookmaker B offers 2.00 on player 2.
1/2.06 + 1/2.00 = 0.4854 + 0.5000 = 0.9854. Margin: 1 ÷ 0.9854 − 1 = about 1.5%.
With €200 in total you stake €98.52 at A and €101.48 at B. Both sides return about €202.96: +€2.96, provided both bets stand.
Doing it by hand teaches you the mechanics better than anything else; our arbitrage calculator does the stake split for you. The catch is time. You compare dozens of markets across several bookmakers, and good opportunities often disappear within minutes. The other ways, from manual search to scanners, are in how to find arbitrage bets.
What delay and stale odds cost
A sure bet usually exists because one bookmaker has not yet updated its price. That price is the first to change. If you have placed the first leg and the second price has dropped in the meantime, you have to hedge at a worse price.
You have staked €98.52 at 2.06 with A. At B the price is no longer 2.00 but 1.90. To get the same return on both sides you stake 202.96 ÷ 1.90 = €106.82 at B.
Total stakes €205.34, return €202.96: −€2.38.
If one attempt in three goes like this: 2 × €2.96 − €2.38 = €3.54 from three attempts, about €1.18 per attempt instead of €2.96.
A failed leg can cost almost as much as a successful sure bet earns. That is why freshness matters more than anything else in sure bet data: with a delay of a minute or more, some of the opportunities you see are already gone. Free opportunities are also seen by many users at once, which speeds up the price correction. What to do when a price changes is in when an arbitrage leg fails.
The options side by side
| Option | Cost | Sure bets shown | Freshness | Effort |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| By hand with odds comparison and calculator | €0 | Whatever you find | As fast as you are | High |
| Surebet.com, free tier | €0 | Up to 1% according to the provider | Real time according to the provider | Medium |
| BetBurger, free use | €0 | Up to 1% according to the provider | Delayed | Medium |
| ArbVantage, trial | €0 for 14 days, then €97/month | Every margin, pre-match, plus middles | Continuously updated | Low |
As of October 2026. Details of other services from their public pages, see sources. Paid plans of other services are compared on separate pages, for example ArbVantage vs Bet Hero.
When a subscription pays: work it out with your numbers
Whether a paid scanner is worth it depends on three numbers: your average margin after fees, your total stake per sure bet, and how often you manage to place both legs at the shown prices. The number of sure bets that would cover the fee each month is:
sure bets per month = fee ÷ (margin × total stake per sure bet)
- 1.5% margin, €1,000 per sure bet: 97 ÷ 15 = 6.5, so about 7 sure bets.
- 1.5% margin, €300 per sure bet: 97 ÷ 4.50 = 21.6, so about 22 sure bets.
- 1.0% margin, €200 per sure bet: 97 ÷ 2 = 48.5, so about 49 sure bets.
This assumes every bet is placed at the shown odds and stands. Real results vary and can be negative: odds change, bets get voided and accounts get limited.
With small stakes a subscription is harder to justify. How much capital makes sense and how to spread it is in starting bankroll for arbitrage betting. If you only have a couple of accounts so far, searching by hand or using a free tier is a sensible way to learn the routine first.
Trying ArbVantage for 14 days
ArbVantage has no permanent free tier. Instead, the 14-day trial has no restrictions: you see sure bets of every size and middles, exactly as paying customers do. A card is required so that each person only trials once; if you cancel before day 15, nothing is charged. Value bets are coming soon.
Use the two weeks to fill in the formula above with real numbers. Tick the bookmakers you actually have, note how many usable sure bets appear for your accounts and how many you really placed at the shown odds. ArbVantage builds the Austrian betting fee into the stakes where it is known and rounds stakes to ordinary amounts. After that, you know whether a subscription pays for you instead of guessing.
Frequently asked questions
Are there good free sure bet sites?
Yes, for getting started. According to their own information, the free tiers of well-known scanners mostly show sure bets up to 1 percent, sometimes with a delay and with fewer filters. That is enough to learn; after betting fees and failed legs, little is often left at 1 percent.
Why are free sure bets often gone?
Sure bets usually exist because one bookmaker has not yet updated its price, and that price often changes within minutes. If a service shows sure bets with a delay, some are gone before you see them. Many users also see the same free sure bets.
Is a subscription to an arbitrage finder worth it?
That depends on your numbers: the fee divided by margin times total stake per sure bet tells you how many sure bets would cover it. At €97, a 1.5 percent margin and €1,000 per sure bet, it would be about 7 a month in this example. Profit is not guaranteed.
Sources
- Surebet.com: "SureBet vs BetBurger" comparison page in the surebet.com wiki, checked on 22 October 2026 (free tier: sure bets up to 1% in real time; BetBurger free access delayed).
- BetBurger: help section (betburger.com/help), checked on 22 October 2026 (free use: sure bets up to 1%, value bets up to 2%).
- Length of the BetBurger delay: independent reviews, checked on 22 October 2026; the figures differ between reviews.
- ArbVantage: own information on arbvantage.net, as of 22 October 2026.
- Unternehmensserviceportal (USP, Austria): Wettgebührenabrechnung (betting fee)
- RIS (Austria): Federal Act against Unfair Competition (UWG), § 2a comparative advertising
As of October 2026. Worked examples are our own calculations, rounded to the cent. We deliberately do not link to competitors.
Betting involves risk, sure bets included: odds change, bets get voided and accounts get limited. Only bet money you can afford to lose. Our responsible gambling page lists free help.
Not betting, legal or tax advice. 18+. As of October 2026. See our disclaimer.