Splitting your bankroll evenly across both sides of an arbitrage usually leaves one outcome paying less than the other. Arbitrage stake math fixes that by sizing each leg so every outcome returns the same gross amount. You will learn the reciprocal-sum method, then run a two-way example with opposing prices of +130 and +200 on a $100 pool, landing at roughly $56.60 and $43.40. A three-way market with home, draw and away follows the same logic. The practical half matters just as much: whole-dollar increments, rounding, fees and max-payout caps can nudge the result, so you will recompute actual payouts rather than trust the tidy formula.
Learning objectives
- Reproduce the mathematical or scenario analysis.
- Explain contract, execution, and settlement assumptions.
- Identify when the apparent opportunity is not reliably actionable.
