Weekly case study · 24 July 2026
What the whole field charged this week
Same matches, every book, side by side. Where they disagree, that gap is money you either keep or hand over.
34 fixtures checked at 3 bookmakers. Picking the best price every time instead of the worst was worth R31.24 on an average R200 bet, or R3 186 across all 102 of them.
The honest comparison
Margins on shared fixtures only
Same fixtures only. Comparing one book's cup games against another's league games would be a fake comparison, so we do not do it.
Like-for-like margins
Measured| Bookmaker | Margin on shared fixtures | Fixtures compared | Payout |
|---|---|---|---|
| Playabets Cheapest | 5.98% | 7 | 94.36% |
| Hollywoodbets | 7.46% | 34 | 93.05% |
| ApexBets | 9.04% | 27 | 91.71% |
How far down this column you can read
Each figure above is measured only on fixtures that book shared with the field, which is what makes it like for like. Comparing two books to each other is only sound when those two priced the same matches.
- Hollywoodbets and ApexBets: 27 shared fixtures
- Hollywoodbets and Playabets: 7 shared fixtures
- ApexBets and Playabets: no shared fixtures this week, so their two figures are not directly comparable
Best-price wins
How often each book offered the top price, out of the outcomes it actually contested. A book that prices fewer fixtures gets fewer chances, so scoring every book out of all 102 outcomes would punish it for matches it never quoted.
Nobody wins everything
The cheapest book on average is not the best price on every single outcome, which is exactly why a punter should check the specific market rather than picking one app and trusting it forever.
The spread across the field this week was 4.41 percentage points, and the total value of always taking the best price instead of the worst was R3 186 across all 102 outcomes, at R200 a bet. That is R31.24 on the average bet.
Fixture by fixture
Where the money was left lying
Biggest gaps first. Same result, two prices, and what the difference is worth on R200.
Showing the 12 widest gaps of 34 shared fixtures. Prices as measured on 24 July 2026; markets move constantly and these are a permanent record rather than a live feed. How this is calculated →
Still being built
What this study will carry at full strength
The measurement engine is live and the numbers above are real. Three parts of the weekly study are still being built, and they are marked here rather than faked.
Week-on-week movement
Once several weeks are archived, each book gets a trend line and the study opens with who sharpened up and who drifted. Needs history that only time produces.
Two more bookmakers
Betway and TopBet are being wired in. TopBet and Supabets' prematch board share one platform, so a single piece of work adds both and widens every comparison on this page.
The racing study
SA racing runs year-round, so the racing index will run beside the soccer one, meeting by meeting, at all eight courses.
Playabets is cheapest this week
They take 6.00%, the lowest of the 4 books we measured. On a R20 000 season that is about R533 back in your pocket versus the dearest book.
Ranked on measured margin, never on what a book pays us. The method · how we make money. Costs you nothing; we may earn a commission. 18+. 0800 006 008.
Straight answers
About this study
Why compare only fixtures that appear at more than one bookmaker?
Do these prices still apply?
Why do some fixtures show only two bookmakers?
How is the rand figure calculated?
Next study: Thursday 08:30 SAST
Check the board before the weekend
The whole field is re-measured every Thursday morning, dated and archived. Nothing is edited after publication.