Hedge Calculator
How to Use Our Hedge Calculator
To see how much you should bet to hedge an existing wager and your hedge profit scenarios:
- Select your Odds Format (American, Decimal, Fractional, etc.)
- Enter the odds of your original bet in the "Original Odds" input.
- Enter your original bet amount in the "Original Bet Amount" input.
- Enter the odds available to hedge in the "Hedge Odds" input.
- Choose between "Equal Profit" and "Prevent Loss" as your Hedge Strategy.
After you've entered valid odds and a bet amount, the calculator will automatically output how much to bet to hedge your original wager, given your chosen hedge strategy. It will also outline your profit for each possible outcome.
About Our Hedging Calculator
Our hedge calculator lets you easily calculate how much to bet to hedge an existing wager. It also calculates your profit or loss.
Hedging a Bet
As described in the hedging strategies section below, hedging a bet is placing a bet on both outcomes of an event to ensure profit or prevent loss.
In sports betting, hedging a bet most commonly describes when a bettor places a wager, the odds move in their favor, and they're able to bet on the opposite outcome to ensure a profit regardless of whether their original bet wins or loses.
Arbitrage betting is a form of hedge betting where a bettor can wager on both sides of an outcome on two different sportsbooks and ensure profit. These opportunities are fairly rare and usually only exist for short periods of time. Arbitrage opportunities can exist due to differing opinions in odds among sportsbooks, errors, or a sportsbook being slow to update their odds.
See our arbitrage calculator.
Hedging Strategies
Our calculator lets you choose between two hedging strategies: Equal Profit or Prevent Loss.
Equal Profit
The default hedging strategy is Equal Profit. Using this strategy, the calculator will show you how much to bet to ensure equal profit regardless of the outcome of an event.
Let's say you bet $100 on the Bengals at +12000 odds (121 decimal odds, 120/1 fractional) to win the Super Bowl at the start of the 2021-2022 NFL season. Miraculously, the Bengals made it to the Super Bowl, facing the favored -200 (1.5 decimal, 1/2 fractional) Los Angeles Rams.
With "Equal Profit" chosen as your hedge strategy, enter your +12000 original odds into the "Original Odds" input, 100 into the "Original Bet Amount" input, and -200 into the "Hedge Odds" input.
You'll see that by betting $8,066.67 on the Los Angeles Rams at -200 odds, you can guarantee a $3,933.34 profit.
- If the Bengals win, your original bet will profit $12,000, and your hedge bet will lose $8,066.67, for a total profit of $3,933.34.
- If the Rams win, your hedge bet will profit $4,033.34, and your original bet will lose $100, for a total profit of $3,933.34.
Prevent Loss
The "Prevent Loss" strategy tells you how much to bet to break-even if your original bet loses.
For this example, let's assume you bet $100 on the Golden State Warriors at -200 odds (1.5 decimal, 1/2 fractional) against the New York Knicks. The Warriors get off to a big lead, and the Knicks are now +500 dogs. You decide you want to ensure that you at least break-even if the Knicks come back to win.
With "Prevent Loss" chosen as your hedge strategy, enter your -200 original odds into the "Original Odds" input, 100 into the "Original Bet Amount" input, and +500 into the "Hedge Odds" input.
You'll see that by betting $20 on the Knicks at +500, you can win enough to cover your original wager if the Knicks come back to win.
- If the Warriors win, your original bet will profit $50, and your hedge bet will lose $20, for a total profit of $30.
- If the Knicks win, your original bet loses $100, and your hedge bet wins $100, breaking even for $0 total profit.