Weekly case study · 21 August 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.
27 fixtures checked at 7 bookmakers. Picking the best price every time instead of the worst was worth R496.54 on an average R200 bet, or R39 227 across all 79 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| betway Cheapest | 7.96% | 16 | 92.63% |
| Playabets | 8.22% | 25 | 92.40% |
| Hollywoodbets | 8.93% | 10 | 91.80% |
| zarbet | 8.94% | 11 | 91.79% |
| luckyfish | 8.95% | 10 | 91.79% |
| tenbet | 10.14% | 24 | 90.80% |
| betbus | 10.87% | 2 | 90.20% |
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.
- Playabets and tenbet: 24 shared fixtures
- Playabets and betway: 14 shared fixtures
- Playabets and zarbet: 10 shared fixtures
- Playabets and Hollywoodbets: 9 shared fixtures
- Playabets and luckyfish: 9 shared fixtures
- Playabets and betbus: 2 shared fixtures
- tenbet and betway: 13 shared fixtures
- tenbet and zarbet: 9 shared fixtures
- tenbet and Hollywoodbets: 9 shared fixtures
- tenbet and luckyfish: 9 shared fixtures
- tenbet and betbus: 2 shared fixtures
- betway and zarbet: 9 shared fixtures
- betway and Hollywoodbets: 6 shared fixtures
- betway and luckyfish: 6 shared fixtures
- betway and betbus: no shared fixtures this week, so their two figures are not directly comparable
- zarbet and Hollywoodbets: 5 shared fixtures
- zarbet and luckyfish: 5 shared fixtures
- zarbet and betbus: no shared fixtures this week, so their two figures are not directly comparable
- Hollywoodbets and luckyfish: 10 shared fixtures
- Hollywoodbets and betbus: no shared fixtures this week, so their two figures are not directly comparable
- luckyfish and betbus: 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 79 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 3.86 percentage points, and the total value of always taking the best price instead of the worst was R39 227 across all 79 outcomes, at R200 a bet. That is R496.54 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 27 shared fixtures. Prices as measured on 21 August 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 is wired in. Some partners' 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 8.12%, the lowest of the 7 books we measured. On a R20 000 season that is about R361 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.