TrueEdge Academy
75 free guides in 9 lessons, from reading odds to converting bonus bets, matched betting, arbitrage and positive EV. Every number is worked rather than asserted, and every downside is stated where it exists. Start at lesson 1 or jump to the question you came with.
Sports betting basics
Odds, the main bet types, and the vocabulary every other lesson uses.
Bonus bets and sportsbook promotions
Turning bonus bets, no-sweats and boosts into cash you keep.
- What is a bonus bet?
- How to convert bonus bets into cash
- What is a good bonus bet conversion rate?
- Site credit vs bonus bets: why the stake changes everything
- No-sweat bet value: what one is worth, and the math
- Profit boosts and odds boosts: how to tell if one is worth taking
- Deposit match bonuses and rollover: what they are really worth
- How to work through sportsbook sign-up bonuses
- Promotions: the most reliable money in betting
Matched betting
Locking in promotion value by betting both sides.
- What is matched betting?
- Matched betting in the US: hedging across two sportsbooks
- The hedge bet formula, for cash, bonus bets, site credit and lays
- Qualifying bets: unlocking a promotion for the least money
- Matched betting vs +EV betting vs arbitrage
- Is matched betting legal?
- Matched betting and taxes in the US
- Matched betting mistakes, and how to avoid each one
Hedging, arbitrage and middles
Positions that pay whatever happens, and the ones that sometimes pay twice.
- Hedging a bet you already have
- How to hedge a parlay on its last leg
- Arbitrage: profit that does not depend on the result
- How to find arbitrage bets
- Arbitrage betting risks, and how people manage them
- Middles: the small loss that occasionally pays 20 to 1
- Low hold, and clearing a rollover without bleeding
- Hold and vig explained
Positive EV betting
Betting prices that are wrong in your favour, and sizing them.
- What a bet is actually worth
- Positive EV, and why it feels like losing
- The expected value formula for sports bets
- What edge means in betting, and how to calculate it
- How to devig odds: four methods, worked
- Sharp sportsbooks, and why their prices are the benchmark
- The Kelly criterion for sports betting, worked
- Variance in sports betting: how long until an edge shows
- Closing line value: the only honest scoreboard
- Positive EV betting mistakes, and how to fix them
Bankroll, tracking and taxes
How much to bet, how to know it is working, and what to keep for April.
Keeping your sportsbook accounts open
Why books limit winners, and how people bet for years without it.
Books, exchanges and prediction markets
Where you can bet, how each one settles, and the rules that void hedges.
- Exchanges and prediction markets
- The types of betting sites, and how each one prices and settles
- How prediction markets work for sports betting
- Kalshi fees explained, with the formula and net odds
- Does Kalshi's payout include your wager?
- Lay betting explained: liability, commission and the lay stake
- Sportsbook house rules: the fine print that decides your bet
- Listed pitchers vs action in MLB betting
- Settlement rules: regulation vs overtime, and tennis retirements
Using TrueEdge
Every screen, what it answers, and a worked example ending in a placed bet.
Free tools that go with the guides
- Positive EV bet finder — sportsbook and exchange prices that beat de-vigged sharp odds
- Low hold bet finder — the cheapest two-way markets across books, for clearing a rollover
- Hedge calculator — how much to bet on the other side of a bet you already placed
- Hold calculator — any market's hold (vig) and its no-vig fair odds
- Matched betting — what it is and how it works at US sportsbooks