Bookmaker margins this week: BetAnything cheapest at 5.27%, PMU (FR) costliest at 15.21%
Every Monday we publish what bookmakers never advertise: the real margin they charged on 1X2 football markets, measured from our own odds snapshots — 1,885 matches priced in the last 30 days. The margin is the built-in fee you pay on every bet, and it varies more than most bettors imagine.
This week's ranking
| # | Bookmaker | Avg. margin | Matches sampled |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BetAnything | 5.27% | 267 |
| 2 | BetOnline.ag | 5.52% | 619 |
| 3 | Coolbet | 5.78% | 588 |
| 4 | GTbets | 5.91% | 274 |
| 5 | Pinnacle (sharp benchmark) | 6.65% | 1,691 |
| 6 | Unibet (SE) | 6.92% | 636 |
| 7 | Marathon Bet | 7.01% | 624 |
| 8 | Dafabet | 7.18% | 1,051 |
Betting exchanges (Betfair Exchange, Matchbook, Smarkets) are left out of these tables: they charge commission on winnings, not a margin, so the two are not comparable.
The cheapest book this week charges 5.27% on average; the costliest in our sample charges 15.21%. Same football, same markets — a bettor at the wrong book pays several times more for every single bet, before any question of picking skill arises. The full live table, with every bookmaker we track, is on the Bookmaker Margin Index.
Margins by league
| League | Market avg. | Cheapest book |
|---|---|---|
| MLS | 5.85% | — |
| La Liga | 6.56% | 1xBet (1.54%) |
| Argentina Liga Profesional | 7.23% | — |
| Brazil Serie A | 7.36% | — |
| Primera A | 7.44% | — |
| Czech Liga | 7.58% | — |
| China Super League | 7.70% | — |
| Copa Sudamericana | 7.81% | 1xBet (3.91%) |
Small and exotic leagues consistently carry heavier margins — bookmakers price them lazily and charge you for their own uncertainty. If your betting lives in small leagues, your real cost per bet can be double what a Premier League bettor pays.
What we flagged this week
Across the last 7 days our forward test logged 170 matches and flagged 52 with a live value signal — a soft bookmaker priced above the devigged fair price. As always, most matches offered no value at all, and we said so on each page. Every signal is timestamped before kick-off and lands in the public track record, where the closing line grades it whether we like the grade or not.
How to read these numbers
The margin is computed per match as the sum of implied probabilities (1 divided by the odds) across home/draw/away, minus 100% — then averaged per bookmaker. Nobody pays for placement in this table and no affiliate deal reorders it. Method details: bookmaker margin & devigging; why the margin decides your long-run result: expected value.
This report is generated automatically from our odds database and published every Monday. Data: free API.
Correction, 29 September 2026: the value signals counted in this report were not individually recorded or timestamped at the time. The value-flag history in our track record was rebuilt on 26 September 2026 by replaying our current rule on the prices stored at the time — a backtest, labelled as such. Only flags from that date on are recorded live, with a sealed fingerprint, before kick-off.
More from the audit desk
- Which bookmaker has the lowest margin? 6,080 matches, 33 bookmakers, and why the usual ranking misleads
- Which bookmaker has the lowest margin on over/under and both teams to score? 667 matches, compared with Pinnacle
- Did bookmakers get more expensive this summer? Our own index said +1 point. Then we checked properly.
