Hedge betting: the pros, the cons and the risks

Hedge betting is gaining more and more popularity lately, as a strategy to minimize the risks of pending bets. When placing bets, punters want to win, but if they somehow feel that the chances of winning are getting smaller and smaller, then they can always hedge their bets in order to limit the expected losses, while making some room for potential profits as well. 

Now that in-play betting has become a core service offered by sportsbooks, totalizatori and betting sites across the world, hedging is being increasingly used by bettors to limit the risks of their bets and possibly lock in some profits. This is especially the case concerning future bets or pregame bets, but it can also be the case for live bets. 

Punters like hedge betting, because it offers some very important benefits. Let’s break down hedging and see exactly what these benefits are. 

What is hedge betting?

In simple words, hedging is betting against a bet that you have already placed. Betting against a pending bet has one critical purpose: to secure yourself from experiencing big losses and in some cases to lock in some profit, when the initial, original bet seems very unlikely to come off. 

Why should one hedge a pending bet?

Let’s say that you’ve bet on the Milwaukee Bucks to win the game versus the Boston Celtics in the regular season game of this year’s NBA. You place a pre-game bet, being confident that the Bucks will take on the Celtics because they are better lately and they have that unique Yannis Adetokunmpo, who is one of a kind and offers quite an advantage to the team.

Up until the game starts, the Bucks’ victory seems like the most possible scenario, but after the game kicks off, things seem to be quite hard for the team. The Celtics are coming very strong and Adetokunmpo – upon whom you place most of your hopes now- gets injured and stays out of the game. What can you do to minimize the potential loss of your bet on the Bucks?

Well, you can hedge your bet by placing an in-play wager against your previous bet. Since there is no way that two opposing events can occur at the same match – it can’t be that both teams win –  then you can find a silver line where you can bet on the victory of the Celtics. 

This way you get closer to a balance where your winnings from one bet can somehow account for the losses from the other bet or even surpass your losses and thus make some profit. 

So, simply put, hedge betting is a strategy that allows you to secure minimal losses while often turning potential losses into profits. 

What are the risks of hedge betting?

Well, hedging sounds like a guarantee to winnings, but this is not the case in the real world. 

First of all, hedge betting involves placing a wager and by definition this means putting money in. Sportsbooks have their vig built-in the bets offered and thus you always get to lose some money. 

Second, hedge betting limits your potential profits from a winning original bet. If you hedge against a bet, which eventually comes off at the end, then you have achieved only one thing: to put limits on your profits of your original bet. 

Imagine hedging a pending bet, which if it comes off then you will get a lot of money. You are kind of worried because you think that it will not come off and so you bet on the opposite side of the original bet. But eventually the original bet comes off. Since you have already hedged it, then you experience losses from the second wager. This limits your potential for winning big from your original wager.

It all comes down to how much risk you are willing to take and how tolerance you’ve got for losses. Hedge betting is a really useful strategy for punters, but it is not a panacea. 

It can make sure that you don’t lose big, but it can’t let you win big either! It’s up to you to decide whether to hedge or not, but make sure that before you do, you make yourself comfortable with all the possible scenarios.