What Is an Open Bet and What You Should Do If You Want to Win in Sports Betting
If you’ve ever placed a pre-match bet, you’ve probably come across a fixed odd: a figure that shows how much you can win if you’re right… and that stays stable once you place your bet.
And although at first glance it may seem like a guarantee of stability, the truth is that betting at fixed odds drastically limits your chances of winning with a real edge.
How do fixed odds work?
When you see a bet with odds of 2.00, for example, it means that for every euro you bet, you can win another euro in profit if you’re right.
These odds may have changed in the hours (or days) before, but once you place the bet, those odds are locked, and you play with that number.
This has two key implications:
If the odds improve after your bet, you miss out on them.
If the odds drop, you keep your original odds… but that doesn’t mean you got real value.
Because the most important thing is not whether your odds are “fixed”, but whether they were well calculated at the exact moment you bet.
What's the problem with betting at fixed odds?
The main problem is that fixed odds don’t always accurately reflect the real probability of the event, especially if the bookmaker has already adjusted its margin and protected its position.
In addition:
Bookmakers “lock” those odds right when there’s the most betting traffic (the hours before the event).
The market has already absorbed a lot of information, so the odds are more efficient and have fewer errors.
And you bet with less edge, or even at a statistical disadvantage.
In the long run, if you only bet pre-match fixed odds, you’re playing on ground that favors the bookmaker.
The winning alternative? Betting in real time on odds that change (and that make mistakes)
Instead of getting stuck on fixed odds, the real opportunity lies in detecting moving odds in real time that have been miscalculated.
Why?
Because in live markets:
Bookmakers are forced to constantly update their odds.
They make mistakes under pressure, especially in low-liquidity events or unexpected moments of the match.
It’s easier to find overestimated odds, that is, bets where the bookmaker pays you more than it should according to the real probability.
That’s what’s called a value bet.
And if you know how to find those value odds, you can have a profitable strategy even without always being right.
But… can you find them manually?
The short answer: no. Detecting these errors in real time means:
Comparing hundreds of odds across multiple bookmakers every second.
Calculating the real probability of the event instantly.
Knowing whether those odds are overestimated.
And betting before the market corrects the error.
At a human level, this is simply impossible. And this is where BetOven comes in.
BetOven: your edge over fixed odds
For years, the concept of an “open bet” has been seen as a flexible and useful strategy to gain an edge when betting. But the truth is, in today’s market—dominated by speed, automated adjustments, and technology—placing an open bet manually no longer makes sense.
What used to be called an “open bet” is simply a single bet placed with the intention of completing it later. And in the context of sports arbitrage, that’s just the first step of a surebet.
BetOven is sports arbitrage software, specifically designed to automate the betting process for both surebets and valuebets. It is such a powerful tool that it can detect errors made by bookmakers in real-time when setting their odds, and automatically place bets on these errors.
In the following video, you can see how BetOven’s AI works and how you can try it for free:
Some results with BetOven's AI
If you came looking for picks, you’ve struck gold! Check out the results of some hunters thanks to BetOven:
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