Soft Vs Sharp Bookies
In the arbritage and sports betting world you may of come across the terms soft bookie or sharp bookie, if you are new to this world you might not know what they mean, I've kept it simple and given a brief overview of these terms.

Soft Bookie
Soft bookmakers in general are less sharp with their odds. What do I mean about this? Well their software is less sofisticated, they are typically less quick to respond to events and more regularly have errors in their odds.

As arbers this is great, more incorrect odds means more profits! Soft bookies you can typically spot from fancy (and alot of) advertising and seductive welcome offers.

Soft bookmakers typically have short lived customers who give up after loosing everything (usually re-gambling any winnings they have). I mean before you joined the arbritage betting world, how many times have you taken up an huge welcome bonus, won loads then put on something else (maybe won some more) then eventually loosing it all. Soft bookies, rely on your doing just that.

Most well known betting sites come in to soft bookmakers, to name a few Bet 365, Coral, Ladbrokes & William Hill.

Soft bookmakers are always the best for high investments when arbing, however they are also the most difficult when trying to avoid getting limited. Why? Because this just isn't their business model. For more for information see How to never get limited by the bookies.

Sharp Bookie
Sharp bookmakers and quite literally the opposite of the above. They typically have fast moving and sophisticated software that reacts quickly to events and less frequently have arbritage opportunities (Arbs still exist!).

Sharp bookies tend to fork out less on marketing and have far smaller welcome bonuses. This means in general they can afford to offer better odds, as they less spend to cover in their margin.

To summarise sharp bookmakers also have a great place when arbritage betting. In comparison to their soft bookie counterparts they rarely limit or ban your account (because they are so sure of their system), but may have lower maximum stakes which could put off some professional gamblers.

A few sharp bookie examples would be 188Bet, 12Bet & Pinnacle.

Overview
Should I use soft or sharp bookies for Arbritage betting?
There is no good answer for this. In a lot of cases it works nicely to mix Sharp & Soft bookies when looking for Arbs. High percentage investments is the the reward for not getting limited with the soft bookies. Each will suit different styles of betting.

I hope gives you a brief insite to the different opportunities available to you. In this battle I will leave you to decide which is Jedi and which is Sith (reference the header image!) and if you have any questions please let me know in the comments below and let me know what your arbritage style is!