Low hold, and clearing a rollover without bleeding
The cheapest two-way markets on the board — how to churn turnover for the least money.
Updated September 27, 2026 · TrueEdge Academy
A low-hold pair is an arbitrage that does not quite get there: the two best prices add up to a bit over 100% instead of under it. You lose a small, known amount — often under 1% — and in exchange you have put real turnover through an account.
Why you would want that
Deposit bonuses and promotions almost always carry a rollover: wager some multiple of the bonus before it becomes withdrawable. Doing that on ordinary −110 markets costs about 4.5% of everything you wager (a 4.76% hold). Doing it on 0.5% low-hold pairs costs a tenth of that. On a $5,000 rollover, that is the difference between about $227 and $25.
- On standard −110 markets
- 4.76% hold → 4.55% of the $5,000 → about $227 lost
- On 0.5% low-hold pairs
- 0.5% hold → about $25 lost
- Difference
- about $202, for choosing different markets
It is also a diagnostic
A market with an unusually low hold is one the books are competing hard on, which usually means it is a market they are confident about. Persistently wide hold is the opposite signal.