I contemplated putting this in ~oracle, but I feel I owe it to ~Stacker_Sports instead, even though it's applicable to both.
I won some bonus bets on a sports book this week, roughly $60. Note this is not a "no sweat bet" where I got bonus bets returned because a wager missed. It's a genuine extra set of bonus funds from a promotion where my wager hit.
Usually when I win bonus bets, I just play them like $1 at a time for fun. But this time, I decided to do some research and looked for ways to maximize profit.
I found this thread on reddit which discussed it. There are several viable choices there, with various percentage of the bonus funds "guaranteed." Most strategies involve arbitraging on another sports book in order to not get "in trouble" with the book.
Which led me to this site, where you can filter all sorts of things to find the best way to maximize a free bet on a given book by arbitraging on another book.
Here's what I ended up with:
- Buffalo Bills 2nd half total points over 23.5 in tomorrow's game. $60 bonus bet at +800 odds for payout of $480 on sports book A.
- Buffalo Bills 2nd half total points under 23.5 in tomorrow's game. $400 cash bet at -500 odds for payout of $480 on sports book B.
Either way, I get $480 paid out, less the $400 cash wager, guarantees $80 profit from a $60 bonus bet, or in other words, getting 133% of the bonus bet as cash.
Did I fuck up royally? Or did I do something smart?