Churning

Churning is arbitrage with the two bets perfectly balanced, so you do not win or lose anything. There is no profit on the bets themselves: you are running empty handle through the sportsbooks. The profit comes from rewards points, from the sportsbooks and from cards that pay you for depositing into them.

What churning is

Churning is the same thing as arbitrage, except the bets are perfectly balanced, so you do not win or lose anything. Churn sets sit in the Hedges feed alongside the arbitrage sets, and each one shows 0% ROI 1.

Why do it: rewards points

Why would you want to run handle through the sportsbooks for no profit? Rewards points. Not only do the sportsbooks themselves give you rewards points, but there are credit and debit cards that give you rewards points for depositing into sportsbooks. In the past I have seen offers as high as 1%, so let's use that number here.

One churn, worked through

Inside a churn, both sides say to profit $0 1 2. Like an arb, every churn has stake options 3: Account Stealth, then $10 up to $1,000, then Max.

Here I moved to Max 1, the biggest pair the books will take, and clicked Place Bets.

That means depositing $2,145 into these two sportsbooks: $975 on Tre' Harris over 3.5 receptions at FanDuel, and $1,170 on the under at bet365. At 1% cash back, that is $21.45.

Place both bets and you get paid out exactly what you put in: whichever side wins pays $2,145 1 2. You withdraw it, you pay off your credit card bill, and you keep your $21.45 of profit.

Where churning fits

This strategy is not super popular in the sports betting world. It is bigger in the credit card rewards world, where you exchange your points for flights and hotels. But this is a very potent way to do it, and candidly, you can make more money than you can in the credit card space.