Quick answer: hedge betting in roulette is less common than in sports or poker, as the house edge makes it statistically unprofitable. However, placing multiple wagers on different outcomes in roulette can manage risk and improve the likelihood of a win.

<a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/how-to-play-roulette">Roulette</a> has a long and proud history, and is thought to date back several centuries - the modern version of roulette was first played in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roulette">Paris in 1796</a>.

We tend to associate roulette with the glamour of the casino, with Montecarlo or Las Vegas, and with James Bond.

But roulette has been available at online casinos for some time now, making it much easier for online players to access and potentially profit from roulette.

The difficulty, of course, lies in making any money from a game of chance that’s designed always to <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/110415/why-does-house-always-win-look-casino-profitability.asp">favour the house</a>. But there are tactics you can use to give yourself the best chance of coming out with a win when playing roulette, and hedge betting is a useful one to understand before you start playing.

What’s The Difference Between Sports Hedge Betting And Roulette Hedge Betting?

They sound like very similar terms - and the principles involved are essentially the same in both cases - but <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-hedge-betting">sports hedge betting</a> and roulette hedge betting are in practice very different techniques.

<a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-hedge-betting" target="_blank" title="">Sports hedge betting</a>

In sports, a hedge bet is a bet that you place some time after you’d placed a previous bet. Your hedge bet is designed to oppose your original bet, covering the opposite outcome to that bet, ideally resulting in a more favourable position for you no matter the outcome of the event.

Bettors will often use a hedge bet to reduce their potential losses if their original bet doesn’t win, but in some circumstances a well-placed hedge bet can allow the bettor to lock in a profit no matter the outcome of that event.

For example, you place a £50 bet on Alexander Zverev to win the US Open before the tournament begins, at odds of 12. To everyone’s surprise, neither of the original favourites, Alcaraz and Sinner, make it through, meaning that Zverev’s chances are looking pretty good when he comes to play Ben Shelton in the final.

You’re confident about Zverev’s chances - he’s now the favourite to win - but just in case you check the available odds on Ben Shelton, to see if a hedging opportunity might be there. Sure enough, you find odds of 2.3, which mean you’ve got the perfect chance to hedge your bet and lock in a profit.

You place a hedge bet of £100 on Shelton, which allows you to come out in profit no matter who ends up lifting the trophy. You’re still best off if Zverev wins, with an overall profit of £450 (a return of £600 minus your stakes of £50 and £100), but even if Shelton wins you’ll make a smaller profit of £80.

As with sports hedge betting, the aim of roulette is risk management, but in practice it works very differently.

When hedge betting in roulette, a player will place more than one bet covering different areas of the wheel in order to maximise their chances of a win.

‘The biggest mistake is treating roulette hedging like a conventional hedge, where the second position can improve your overall expected return. On a roulette wheel, adding bets changes the distribution of outcomes, but it doesn’t remove the mathematical disadvantage built into the payouts.’

The trick is to get the balance right, as the more possibilities you cover, the lower the return you’re likely to see compared to your stake.

For example, lots of people choose to bet on either red/black, or on odd/even, which gives a slightly lower than 50% chance of winning your bet, and would pay out the same value as your stake if you win. The problem is that you’ve got a slightly higher than 50% chance of losing your bet.

If you also placed a bet on, say, the first 12, you’d drastically improve your chances of a win, as well as introducing the possibility that both bets win. Of course, placing a second bet means doubling your stake, and thus limiting your potential profit, and there is still a not insignificant chance that your bet will lose altogether.

If you’re not already an experienced roulette player, it may be helpful for us to give you a quick rundown of the main types of roulette bet. If you’re already a dab hand at roulette and are familiar with roulette bet types, feel free to skip this section.

Roulette bets can be split into two main categories: inside bets and outside bets. Inside bets are precise, usually involving a few numbers at most, and are consequently harder to win - but they also produce higher returns.

Outside bets are the opposite - they cover a much larger range of numbers, and are therefore much easier to win. However, the payouts will be lower.

This covers the most common bets you’ll find in roulette, but check out our dedicated <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/how-to-play-roulette">Roulette Guide</a> for additional information on a few particularly obscure roulette bets.

What’s The Best Way To Hedge Bet On Roulette?

You know that hedge betting in roulette involves placing multiple bets in order to maximise your chances of winning, but what are the best bets to choose for this? Due to the differing number of possibilities covered by any particular bet, there are certain ways to hedge bet in roulette that will offer a likelihood of better returns for your stake.

The <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-house-edge" target="_blank" title="">house edge</a>

It’s important to be aware that hedge betting in roulette cannot eliminate the house edge for the casino - if it did, hedge betting would almost certainly be against the rules.

You may increase your chances of a win by hedge betting, but ultimately you’re always likely to lose more than you win by playing roulette. For this reason, we wouldn’t recommend simply playing roulette, even with hedge bets, as a means to make money. However, if you’re playing roulette as required wagering for a casino offer, hedge betting can be a great way to keep your losses to a minimum (so long as hedge bets are permitted as part of your wagering technique).

European roulette produces a house edge of 2.7%, meaning that, over the long run, a player’s theoretical loss is 2.7% of the total amount staked. Changing the way bets are distributed across the wheel does not remove this underlying mathematical cost.

- <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346375375_Statistical_risk_warnings_in_gambling">Behavioural Public Policy</a>

A popular tactic for roulette hedge betting is what’s known as the 3/2 betting system or plan.

It involves placing two different bet types; one on red/black or odd/even, and one column bet.

However, you don’t stake the same amount of money on each; you put three chips on red/black or odd/even, and two chips on the column. If you’re betting with £1 chips, you’ll have staked a total of £5.

You’re therefore covering significantly over half the board, with a chance of winning both your bets on any spin. However, even if only one of your two bets wins, you’ll still come out with a small profit of £1 on that bet.

That’s not to say that you can’t lose money with this system, however; you are, of course, leaving a portion of the board uncovered, and as we’ve established, the house edge remains.

You should be aware that if you choose to bet on either red or black, that the red/black numbers in each column aren’t always equal. For example, there are only four black numbers in column one, but eight in column two. If you choose to bet on red/black as part of your 3/2 strategy, the column you choose will alter the odds of a win.

This is a rather more complex strategy, and involves placing the following:

As a total of 17 numbers are covered, you’ve got just under a 50% chance of winning something on any bet, with the potential for a high payout, especially if it’s the straight bet that wins.

Of course, your stakes for every bet are pretty high, and you’re likely to win less than 50% of the time, so the risk is also higher than with a 3/2 strategy. Ideally, you’ll be looking to win big from your straight bet with a payout of 35-1, with your other bets helping to keep your funds going in the meantime.

However, it’s important not to forget that no strategy can outweigh the house edge, and you’re still overall more likely to lose money than you are to win money on roulette.

What Are The Advantages And Disadvantages Of Hedge Betting On Roulette? 

‘A useful discipline is to judge a roulette strategy by the total amount staked, rather than by how often it produces a winning spin. Frequent small wins can make a system feel successful even when the occasional losses are large enough to outweigh them.’

Are There Any Other Strategies You Can Use When Betting On Sports Or Casino To Maximise Your Profits?

If you’re looking to make money from online casino, then taking advantage of casino offers is the absolute best thing you can do.

As we’ve established, even when using an optimal hedge betting strategy, the house edge will still result in the casino making a profit overall, and the player losing money.

But when you factor in casino offers, which give the player rewards such as Golden Chips, free spins or bonus funds, the balance shifts and the player can end up being the one to hold the statistical advantage (though it's important to remember that this is not a risk-free strategy).

<a href="https://outplayed.com/pricing">Outplayed Diamond members</a> get access to our full range of casino offers and guides, which can make you potentially hundreds of pounds if you follow the instructions correctly.

To find out more, check out our <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/matched-betting-casino-offers-explained-in-a-nutshell">guide to casino offers</a> for all the information you need to get started.

On the sports side of things, Matched Betting is one of the best strategies you can use to make money, especially if you aren’t already a habitual sports bettor.

Matched Betting is a technique that involves placing bets on two opposing outcomes, the first with a bookmaker and the second with a <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-a-betting-exchange">betting exchange</a> as a <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-lay-betting">lay bet</a>. As with casino offers, making money from Matched Betting hinges on earning and using bookie rewards like free bets in what is most often a two-step process.

1. You place a bet with your own money, known as a ‘qualifying bet’, which unlocks a reward such as a free bet. You match your qualifying bet with a lay bet at a betting exchange, typically making a small loss of a few pence.

2. You then place a second matched bet with the free bet you’ve unlocked, which is what makes you a profit.

Matched Betting is perfect for newcomers to sports betting, as it’s extremely low risk and doesn’t require any existing sports knowledge or any significant bankroll.

To find out more, take a look at our <a href="https://outplayed.com/what-is-matched-betting">Beginner’s Guide to Matched Betting</a> for all you need to know to get started.

Arbitrage betting is very similar to Matched Betting, in that it involves placing two bets on opposing selections.

With arbitrage betting, though, the key is to find pairs of odds that make it possible to lock in a profit with every single set of matched bets you place.

It’s easiest to arbitrage bet between a bookmaker and a betting exchange, just as you would when Matched Betting. The difference is that arbitrage bettors look for back odds with a bookmaker that are higher than the lay odds with the exchange, which can lock in an immediate profit.

To find out more, take a look at our dedicated <a href="https://outplayed.com/what-is-arbing-or-arbitrage">guide to arbitrage betting</a> for all the details about how this strategy works.

If you’re a more experienced sports bettor, you’re comfortable with a higher level of risk, and you’ve got a solid bankroll already, Value Betting can be a sound strategy.

You don’t lock in a profit with your bets, as you would with Matched Betting or arbitrage betting, but you do still look for particularly favourable odds from bookies. Specifically, odds that are higher than the true probability of a win would imply.

If you confine your betting to selections with disproportionately favourable odds, there’s a statistical likelihood that you’ll profit overall, even though there’s no guarantee that any individual bet will win. In fact, if you’re betting at high odds, it’s quite likely that most of your bets will lose - but if you’ve done things right, your winning bets will produce enough return to outweigh your losses and generate profits overall.

To find out more about how Value Betting works and how you can get started, check out the dedicated <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-value-betting">Outplayed guide</a>.

Stephanie Sorrell

A Guide to Roulette Hedge Betting

Quick answer: if you’re looking to get into hedge betting, football is one of the best sports out there. It’s important to be aware, though, that hedge betting involves risk, and is best suited to experienced sports bettors.

Football is the <a href="https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-are-the-most-popular-sports-in-the-world.html">most popular sport in the world</a>, and Brits are particularly ardent fans - there are about <a href="https://thesporting.blog/the-10-most-popular-sports-in-the-uk/">25 million</a> of them in the UK.

But for smart bettors, football matches don’t just represent a fun (or often desperately disappointing) way to spend their time - they represent the possibility of profit.

And hedge betting is one way that you can improve your prospects if you’re <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-value-betting">Value Betting</a> or otherwise trying to optimise your sports betting.

In this article, we’ll take you through how hedge betting works, how it can be applied to football specifically, and other strategies you can employ to get the most out of your betting.

<a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-hedge-betting">Hedge betting</a> is a <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/sports-betting-guide">sports betting</a> technique, which involves placing an opposing bet to counter an earlier bet in order to improve your position. This might only involve limiting potential losses, but sometimes you can lock in a profit no matter the result of the event.

In most cases, successful hedge betting relies on the movement of odds over time, ideally resulting in more favourable odds on a selection that opposes your original bet, which makes it possible to improve your position.

For all the details on the mechanics of hedge betting, take a look at our <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-hedge-betting">dedicated guide</a> - for now, we’ll run you through a quick example of a hedge bet to illustrate exactly how and why you might hedge a bet in practice.

At the start of the football season, as a dedicated Liverpool fan, you bet £10 on your team to win the FA Cup at odds of 29, not particularly expecting to make anything from it.

Liverpool do surprisingly well and manage to make the final against Arsenal, who have been the favourites to win all season.

You’re optimistic about Liverpool’s chances, but you can’t help worrying that Arsenal will overpower them, given how strong they’ve consistently been.

Having checked the odds available now on each team to win the cup, you realise you’ve got the perfect opportunity for a hedge bet. You bet £35 on Arsenal to win the final at odds of 1.8, which allows you to emerge in profit regardless of who ends up winning.

As you can see from the above table, you’ll still make the greatest profit from a Liverpool win, with an overall profit of £245 (a £290 total return, minus your stakes of £10 and £35), but even an Arsenal win will make you a small profit of £18.

Most people’s idea of a hedge bet involves placing each bet with a different bookmaker - this is a form of <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-dutching">Dutching</a>, technically speaking.

However, this isn’t the only way you can hedge a bet. Simply using a <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-lay-betting">lay bet</a> at a <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-a-betting-exchange">betting exchange</a>, in the same way as you would when <a href="https://outplayed.com/what-is-matched-betting">Matched Betting</a>, is perhaps the easiest way of hedging a bet - even if it might not be the method that comes to mind when you think of hedging.

This has the advantage of ensuring that your lay bet directly opposes your back bet, so long as you can find the appropriate market with a betting exchange, and you can work out your stakes with a straightforward Matched Betting calculator.

One final alternative, if you truly no longer have any confidence in your original bet, and you just want to limit the amount of money you’ll lose, is to consider cashing out, or partially cashing out, your original bet.

This should only ever be considered as a last resort, though, as bookies’ margins on cashed out bets are particularly high, meaning you’ll lose a disproportionate amount of money by cashing out.

What’s The Best Way To Hedge Bet On Football?

Hedge betting is quite an opportunistic strategy, so the best way to hedge bet will always be dependent on how the odds happen to shift on any of your existing football bets.

That said, there are certain types of bet you can place, and <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/hedge-betting-strategies">hedging strategies</a> you can aim to follow, that will maximise your chances of finding good hedging opportunities.

‘The strongest football hedges usually come from having a clear exit point before you place the original bet. If you wait until the market is moving rapidly and then decide what profit you want to protect, emotion can take over and you may accept a much poorer price than the market was offering moments earlier.’

Because hedge betting relies on the shift of odds, betting on events whose conclusions are some way in the future, such as the outright winner of a tournament or championship, has the potential to be a successful strategy for hedging. If your selection starts off at relatively high odds and then does well, you’re likely to find a good hedging opportunity. On the other hand, if your selection’s chances fall away as time goes on, you’re unlikely to be able to capitalise on your position with a hedge bet.

In-play betting is fast-paced and exciting, due to the frequent swings of momentum over the course of a match. Those swings of momentum can also be useful if you’re hoping to hedge a bet. If you’ve placed a pre-match bet on a team and at some point during the match things seem to be going their way, it’s the perfect time to hedge your bet and, ideally, lock in a profit.

‘A 2025 study of 1,224 German Bundesliga matches found that, after an equalising goal, stakes on the team that scored were 61.8% higher than stakes on the team that conceded. However, the researchers found no evidence that the equalising team was actually more likely to win.’

- <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ecin.70008">Economic Inquiry</a>

This is a particularly high-risk strategy, and we wouldn’t recommend it to new hedge bettors or anyone without a good bankroll. However, if you’re an existing fan of accas, a hedge on your accumulator can allow you to lock in an excellent profit in the right circumstances. For example, if you’ve placed a 4 leg acca and three of the matches have already gone your way, you’re likely to find an extremely favourable hedge on the final match, allowing you to make a solid profit no matter what happens.

This strategy is more commonly found in the US, and isn’t exactly what we’d consider a standard hedge bet in the UK, but it has the potential to be a profitable strategy in the right circumstances. It involves betting on an Over/Under market, such as number of goals, and placing two separate bets with different bookmakers in such a way that it’s possible for both bets to win. For example, you might bet that there will be Over 1.5 and separately that there will be Under 2.5 goals in a match. No matter what happens, you’ll win at least one of those bets - and if you’re very lucky, you could win both bets if there are exactly 2 goals in the match.

What Are The Risks Of Hedge Betting On Football? 

Hedge betting on football isn’t inherently riskier than hedge betting on any other sport - but it’s important to be aware that it does involve risk, especially if you choose your initial bet poorly.

Some of the most significant risks of hedge betting on football are as follows:

‘A common mistake is judging the quality of a hedge solely by whether it produces a profit. Sometimes taking a smaller guaranteed loss is the better decision if the alternative is leaving a large, exposed position running purely because the bettor is reluctant to accept that the original bet has gone wrong.’

In-play betting is hugely popular; research by the UK Gambling Commission found that 60% of online bettors had participated in in-play betting during the previous four weeks, with 30% having done so in the previous seven days. Among 18–24-year-olds, four-week participation was as high as 77%.

- <a href="https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/statistics-and-research/publication/taking-a-more-in-depth-look-at-online-gambling">Gambling Commission</a>

Are There Any Other Strategies You Can Use When Betting On Football To Maximise Your Profits?

Hedging can be a highly effective strategy, but it’s not the best strategy for everyone. If you’re a new sports bettor, it’s likely to be a bit too risky for you, and if you’re a highly experienced bettor you may even find hedging to be over-cautious.

Happily, there are other sports betting strategies that may suit you better if you decide that hedge betting isn’t the best option for you.

Our first recommendation would always be Matched Betting, especially if you’re new to sports betting. At Outplayed, we’re the experts in Matched Betting, and we’ve helped thousands of people make money using this technique, plenty of whom have no experience of sports betting at all.

Like hedge betting, Matched Betting involves placing bets on opposing outcomes, the first with a bookmaker and the second with a betting exchange as a lay bet. But unlike hedge betting, making money from Matched Betting hinges on earning and using bookie rewards like free bets in what is most often a two-step process.

1. You place what we call a ‘qualifying bet’, which unlocks a reward such as a free bet. You match your qualifying bet with a lay bet at a betting exchange, typically making a small loss of just a few pence, known as a qualifying loss.

2. You then place a second matched bet with the free bet you’ve unlocked, which is what allows you to turn a profit.

Matched Betting is fantastic for beginners as it involves very little risk, requires zero knowledge of sports, and can allow you to build up your bankroll pretty quickly as you move through sign up offers.

To find out more, take a look at our <a href="https://outplayed.com/what-is-matched-betting">Beginner’s Guide to Matched Betting</a> for a full breakdown of the strategy and how to get started.

Arbitrage is another extremely similar technique, involving placing two bets on opposing selections.

With arbitrage betting, though, you look for pairs of odds that lock in a profit with every single set of bets you place.

It’s easiest to arbitrage bet between a bookmaker and a betting exchange, just as you would when Matched Betting. With arbitrage betting, however, you look for back odds with a bookmaker that are higher than the lay odds with the exchange - if this is the case, you’re able to lock in an immediate profit.

For experienced sports bettors, whose bankroll and temperament can withstand a level of risk, Value Betting can be a sound strategy.

You don’t lock in a profit with your bets, but in some respects Value Betting is quite similar to arbitrage betting, because it relies on locating favourable odds from bookies. Specifically, odds that are higher than the true probability of a win would imply.

If you bet only on selections with disproportionately favourable odds, there’s a statistical likelihood that you’ll profit overall, even though any individual bet you place may well end up losing (hence this strategy involving more risk than arbitrage betting or Matched Betting).

Value Betting also has the advantage of combining well with hedge betting, which can mitigate some of the risk involved - though we wouldn’t expect most value bettors to wish to hedge every bet, as this will remove some of the value from that bet.

To find out more about how Value Betting works and how you can get started, check out the <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-value-betting">dedicated Outplayed guide</a>.

Hedge betting can be a very useful technique for the keen football bettor to employ - but it’s best suited to experienced bettors with a good bankroll, who are comfortable with the risk involved.

If you’re newer to sports betting, or you’d rather stick to lower-risk strategies, Matched Betting is the ideal choice, and can be used to make <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/how-much-can-you-make-from-matched-betting">£300 - £1000+</a> in profits each month.

To find out more, take a look at the Outplayed <a href="https://outplayed.com/what-is-matched-betting">Beginner’s Guide to Matched Betting</a> for all the information you need to get started.

Or if you’ve heard enough and are ready to get stuck in, take out our free trial and start making your first profits.

1. Can you hedge football bets?

You certainly can! Not all football bets will produce a good hedging opportunity, but given the frequency and popularity of football it’s definitely one of the better sports for hedge betting.

2. Should I hedge bet in-play on football?

It’s one possible strategy, but it does have a couple of downsides. Because it’s so fast-paced, you’ll have to move fast to take advantage of odds shifts while they’re in your favour, so there’s a risk of making mistakes. In-play betting is also particularly associated with problem gambling, so be sure not to let yourself get carried away if you do decide to hedge bet on in-play football matches.

3. Is hedging betting on football suitable for beginners?

If you’re new to sports betting, we’d recommend a lower risk strategy, such as Matched Betting, to build some experience and your bankroll before you move on to higher risk strategies like hedge betting or Value Betting.

4. Is hedge betting on football legal?

Absolutely! Bookmakers aren’t keen on hedge bettors (which is why you should always place your opposing bets between different bookmakers), but there’s <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/is-hedge-betting-legal">nothing illegal about this strategy.</a>

5. What do I do if I can’t find a way to hedge my bet?

You’ve got a couple of choices. You can either let the bet play out - you presumably had a good reason for placing it originally - or, as a last resort, you can cash it out with the bookie.

A Guide to Football Hedge Betting

Quick answer: you can hedge bet on any sport in theory, so long as you can find opposing markets for your bets. However, some sports are better suited to hedging than others, especially particularly popular sports and those whose markets often offer only two outcomes (e.g. the winner of a tennis match).

Recreational gamblers aren’t always successful. In fact, the majority of bettors lose more money than they make, evidenced by the fact that, when surveyed by the Gambling Commission, it was found that <a href="https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/blog/post/commercial-restrictions-by-betting-operators">almost three-quarters of active betting accounts</a> were in a net loss position.

Any strategy you can adopt to give yourself a leg up when sports betting is therefore worthwhile, and <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-hedge-betting">hedge betting</a> is a highly popular one, as it can protect you from losses and even lock in secure profits.

But can you hedge bet on any sport? And which sports are best suited to hedge betting? In this article, we’ll investigate how hedge betting can work on major British betting sports, to help you decide how to proceed with a hedge betting strategy, or whether you’d prefer to adopt an alternative strategy altogether.

<a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-hedge-betting">Hedge betting</a> is a <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/sports-betting-guide">sports betting</a> strategy designed to limit risk and potentially lock in a profit by placing one or more additional bets that oppose an existing bet.

Generally speaking, hedge betting is most successful when there is a period of time between the original bet and any hedges that oppose it, which allows the bettor to take advantage of changing odds. If the odds opposing a bet have lengthened since it was placed, the chances are good that you’ll have a favourable hedging opportunity.

To illustrate how this can work in practice, we’ll imagine a hedge bet placed over the course of the football season.

At the start of the season, as a Manchester United fan, you place a bet on your team to win the FA Cup. At the time, this isn’t considered particularly likely, and so you’re able to place a £100 bet at odds of 15.

To your delight, Man Utd go on to have a fantastic season and, several months after your initial bet, they make the finals against Arsenal.

Arsenal are still the favourites to win, but pundits certainly aren’t ruling out a Man Utd victory. You have faith in your team, but when you realise that you’ve got the perfect opportunity to hedge your bet, you decide it’s worth it.

The best available odds on Arsenal are now at 1.7, and having worked out your preferred position using a hedging or <a href="https://outplayed.com/calculators/dutching-advanced-calculator">Dutching calculator</a>, you decide to place a hedge bet of £300 on Arsenal to win.

Having done so, you’re now in a position to profit no matter what happens. You’re still best off with a Man Utd win, which will make you a profit of £1100, but even if Arsenal take the trophy you’ll still have an overall profit of £110.

An alternative to hedge betting with another bookmaker is to hedge with a <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-lay-betting">lay bet</a> at a <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/what-is-a-betting-exchange">betting exchange</a>, just as you would when <a href="https://outplayed.com/what-is-matched-betting">Matched Betting</a>.

The benefit of this option is that it’s incredibly easy to work out whether you have a potentially profitable hedge - if the lay odds are lower than the back odds you took, you’re in a position to lock in a profit. You can then simply use a standard <a href="https://outplayed.com/calculator">Matched Betting calculator</a> to work out your stakes.

The downside is that betting exchanges do charge commission, though it’s worth noting that <a href="https://outplayed.com/pricing">Outplayed members</a> enjoy 0% commission with both Matchbook and Smarkets.

What Sports Are Best Suited To Hedge Betting?

You can hedge a bet on pretty much any sport, so long as there are markets that allow for opposing bets. But some sports certainly offer more opportunities than others, and make it easier to find and take advantage of hedges.

<a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/football-hedge-betting" target="_blank" title="">Football</a>

Football is the most popular sport in the UK, and is consequently also the most popular sport for betting on. You’ll therefore find no shortage of markets, which often makes it easier to find suitable bets for hedging.

Football is by far the biggest sport for remote betting in Great Britain. In the Gambling Commission’s latest full-year industry statistics, football generated £1.3 billion in gross gambling yield, compared with £766.7 million for horse racing.

- <a href="https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/statistics-and-research/publication/industry-statistics-annual-report-financial-year-april-2024-to-march-2025">Gambling Commission</a>

Of course, the fact that a football match can end in one of three ways (Team A win, Team B win, draw) means that if you’re hedging on the match winner between bookies, you’ll need to use three bookmakers rather than just two. However, you can of course simply use a betting exchange to lay your bet if you prefer.

Alternatively, you can use markets that allow for easier two-way hedges, such as Over/Under markets. You can also employ a strategy called ‘middling’ on a Totals market, where you place two bets, such as Over 1.5 goals and Under 2.5 goals, where you can be sure that at least one bet will win, and there’s a possibility of both bets winning if there are exactly the right number of goals (2, in this case).

Tennis is another <a href="https://yougov.com/en-gb/articles/52571-who-bets-on-tennis-profiling-the-uks-tennis-betting-audience">massively popular sport</a> for betting, and in some ways its matches are ideally suited for hedging. With no possibility of a draw, it’s easy to find opposing bets - simply bet on one player to win with one bookie, and their opponent with another.

However, it’s important to be aware that retirement rules can make life difficult. Not all bookies handle the retirement of a player due to injury in the same way, so if you’re not careful you could end up in a position where you lose both your bets. Check our <a href="https://outplayed.com/blog/tennis-retirement-rules">retirement rules guide</a> before betting to make sure the bookies/exchanges you use line up with each other, or alternatively bet on markets such as the outright winner to avoid issues of this nature.

‘Tennis hedges need more than matching prices between bookmakers. The timing of the hedge matters because a player’s physical condition, momentum and court position can move the market sharply. A price that looks attractive can disappear within seconds, particularly during an in-play match.’

Golf is another sport that’s hugely popular with bettors, and it can work well for hedging.

It can be trickier to find opposing bets that exclude all other possibilities, though, due to the number of participants, unless you lay your bet with an exchange.

Still, it’s perfectly possible to improve your chances of coming away with a profit by hedging on your selection’s biggest challengers, even if you can’t lock in a certain profit.

Like tennis, boxing matches have two participants and a single winner, making it pretty simple to hedge a bet on the winner of a fight. It’s best to be a boxing fan, or at least someone with good knowledge of the sport and its fighters, if you’re going to bet on boxing, though, as the success of your hedging will rely to a great extent on placing a sound initial bet.

You can also bet on, and hedge, other markets, such as Over/Under (for the total number of rounds), or whether a boxer will score a knockdown.

Horse racing can be tricky to hedge, due to the number of competitors in almost all races. It’s rare that a race will feature fewer than four horses, and in many cases there are far more, meaning that covering all possibilities with a traditional hedge bet becomes extremely difficult.

That said, if you’ve bet on a particular horse in advance and it goes on to do well, with just one or two other horses looking promising at the race’s mid-point, you could consider hedging on your nearest competitors to cover all likely potential outcomes of that race.

Alternatively, you could of course lay with a betting exchange, which avoids the issue of having too many possible outcomes to cover.

‘With horse racing, the biggest mistake is confusing a hedge with simply backing the obvious dangers to your original selection. A race can change dramatically after the start, so unless the hedge is structured to account for the full market, you may reduce one risk while leaving another largely untouched.’

So long as a sport is popular enough to be featured on multiple bookmakers, the chances are good that it’s possible to hedge a bet on it.

However, that doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea. If you plan to hedge bet on any sport, you should have a detailed knowledge of how it works and have done significant research before placing any initial bet. Hedging on any sport you don’t fully understand is never a good idea.

Considerations When Choosing A Sport For Hedge Betting

It may be possible to hedge a bet on most sports, but there are still some important considerations to bear in mind when deciding which sport you plan to hedge bet on.

Although hedge betting isn’t as likely to result in bookmaker restrictions as other strategies (especially arbitrage betting, but also Matched Betting), it still makes sense to focus your betting on more popular sports and markets. You’re most likely to end up with a hedging opportunity if you choose a selection with over-valued odds, as the chances are higher that the odds for your choice will drop, and its opponents will rise.

But betting exclusively on highly competitive odds can attract the attention of the bookies and potentially lead to account restrictions, so it’s important to make an effort to blend in. Focusing on the most popular sports out there, as well as high profile matches, will help you blend in with the crowd.

As well as this, more popular sports tend to feature more markets, offering more hedge betting opportunities.

It’s important to consider how difficult it will be to cover all outcomes if you’re planning to hedge a bet, although if you use a betting exchange and there’s a straightforward lay market for your bet, it’s easy enough. It’s worth noting that more niche sports may not be available with betting exchanges, however.

Of course, in some cases, such as an outright bet on the eventual winner of a football league, there may be many potential outcomes to begin with, but only two by the time you come to hedge your bet - assuming your original selection is still in the running.

You should be aware of how betting rules are applied to any sport you’re betting on, as these can have a significant impact on the success of your hedge betting.

Tennis is the most obvious example of this, as bookmakers and exchanges don’t all offer the same terms regarding whether a bet is honoured or voided in the event of a player retiring due to injury (e.g. some bookmakers require that one full set is played before a bet is settled, while others require the full match to be completed).

Make sure that you understand how betting rules are applied to any sport you intend to hedge bet on (or place any other type of bet on, for that matter!) to avoid running the risk of losing money.

It’s in the nature of sports betting that the odds will shift, however some sports are much more uncertain than others.

For example, it’s relatively uncommon to see a significant upset in a sport like football, but it’s very common for a horse other than the favourite to win a race.

Betting on futures can increase the chances of an odds shift before your bet settles, though, and you can also consider betting in-play, especially on sports like football, to make use of momentum swings between the two teams.

In-play betting is already a significant part of sports betting in Great Britain. Gambling Commission data found that 4% of adults had bet in-play on an event or sport in the previous four weeks, making it the second-most common type of betting after live football.

- <a href="https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/report/gambling-survey-for-great-britain-annual-report-2023-official-statistics/gsgb-annual-report-gambling-participation">Gambling Commission</a>

Other Strategies That Can Help You Profit From Sports Betting

Hedge betting can be a brilliant way to profit from sports betting, but it does involve risk, and it requires a reasonable amount of sporting knowledge and experience.

If you’re uncomfortable with the element of risk, or newer to sports betting, there are other fantastic strategies out there that will allow you to make money, some of which can lock in a profit on a sports bet, just like hedge betting, but without the initial risk.

At Outplayed, we’re the experts in Matched Betting, and we consider this to be the very best place to begin if you’re new to sports betting and looking to start building some profits.

Like hedge betting, Matched Betting involves placing bets on opposing outcomes, using a betting exchange as a rule. However, Matched Betting hinges on using bookmaker offers to turn these matched bets into profit in what is typically a two-step process.

First, you place what we call a ‘qualifying bet’, which unlocks a reward such as a free bet. You match this bet with a lay bet at a betting exchange, typically making a small loss of just a few pence, known as a qualifying loss.

Then you place a second matched bet with the free bet you’ve unlocked, usually making a profit of around 70-80% of the value of your free bet.

Matched Betting is a low-risk technique which makes Outplayed members as much as £300 - £1000+ per month, making it a fantastic <a href="https://outplayed.com/side-hustle-ideas">side hustle</a>.

To find out more, take a look at our <a href="https://outplayed.com/what-is-matched-betting">Beginner’s Guide to Matched Betting</a> for a full breakdown of the process and how you can get started.

Arbitrage betting is another very similar technique both to hedge betting and Matched Betting, as it again involves placing bets for and against the same outcome.

Instead of waiting and hoping the odds allow for a good hedge, though, or unlocking a reward with a qualifying bet, arbitrage betting involves finding pairs of odds that are so favourable you’re able to lock in a profit immediately.

In the UK, this usually involves placing a back bet with a bookmaker and a lay bet with a betting exchange, just like with a matched bet. If the odds for your back bet are higher than those for your lay bet, you’ve got an arbitrage bet, which will generate a profit no matter what happens in the event.

To find out more, take a look at our dedicated <a href="https://outplayed.com/what-is-arbing-or-arbitrage">guide to arbitrage betting</a> for all you need to know about how this strategy works.

Value Betting is a more advanced strategy than arbitrage betting or Matched Betting, but it can pair well with hedge betting. Because there is risk involved, we strongly advise newer bettors to build up their experience of sports betting and also their bankroll before they get started.

If you’re already in that position, though, Value Betting can make a significant contribution to your profits. Although you don’t lock in a profit with your bets, Value Betting relies on a similar principle to arbitrage betting - that of locating favourable odds from bookies. Specifically, odds that are higher than the true probability of a win would imply.

By betting exclusively on selections with disproportionately favourable odds, you’re statistically likely to end up profiting overall. It’s important to note, though, that with nothing to lock in a profit, you could lose any bet you place.

It also combines well with hedge betting, which can mitigate some of the risk of a Value Betting strategy, although we wouldn’t expect most value bettors to wish to hedge every bet.

As we’ve established, you can in theory hedge bet on any sport you like - but the availability of suitable markets, betting rules, and popularity of each sport will mean that, in practice, some sports are better suited to a hedge betting strategy than others.

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