BOOK PROFILE · ROUND 1
Cloudbet: the 2-3% claim vs the board we sampled
Cloudbet is the easiest book in our basket to measure: odds render logged-out, worldwide, no account needed (verified 8 Jul 2026). We pulled five markets that day. Football 1X2 came back between 4.90% and 5.48% overround — real numbers to hold against the numbers Cloudbet has published about itself.
Measured 8 Jul 2026: four World Cup 1X2 fixtures at 5.35%, 5.29%, 4.90% and 5.48% overround, plus a live tennis match-winner at 5.55%. n=5 — below our n≥6 bar for medians. Mid-pack in round 1.
The claim on file
Cloudbet's own blog (10 Jun 2020) stated the book runs "margins typically of 2%-3%", against competitors at "7% or 8%, or even more". Their live sports page today has softened to "lower margins than traditional bookmakers" — no number attached. Our 8 Jul 2026 sample sat at 4.90-5.48% on football 1X2. Both figures are dated; both are on the record. You can draw the line between them yourself, and the gap is exactly what our history log exists to track over time.
For context on where 5% sits: the standard US -110/-110 line works out to a 4.76% overround, and Pinnacle's own 2018 figures put its soccer moneyline at 2% against an 8% industry norm. Cloudbet's round-1 prices land between those poles — cheaper than the old-industry worst, not at the sharp end. Method details are on the de-vig page.
What we verified first-hand
Anonymous access is the headline: the full board renders logged-out worldwide, which makes Cloudbet the most measurable book in the basket. No API tricks required, no account fingerprint on the sample. License: Curacao, per the site footer. Cloudbet has also run documented Zero-Margin promo campaigns — EPL and the French Open in 2020. One vendor reports a $1,000 winnings cap per customer on those promos; that cap is unconfirmed by any primary source, and we flag it as such on the zero-margin page.
Measured samples — 8 Jul 2026, single round
| Event | Market / state | Odds | Overround |
|---|---|---|---|
| France vs Morocco | 1X2, pre-match | 1.58 / 3.80 / 6.35 | 5.35% |
| Spain vs Belgium | 1X2, pre-match | 1.61 / 3.95 / 5.60 | 5.29% |
| Norway vs England | 1X2, pre-match | 4.35 / 3.75 / 1.81 | 4.90% |
| Argentina vs Switzerland | 1X2, pre-match | 1.71 / 3.45 / 5.55 | 5.48% |
| Tennis match-winner (teams not recorded) | 2-way, LIVE | 2.08 / 1.74 | 5.55% |
All rows sampled anonymously on 8 Jul 2026. Full basket comparison lives on the football 1X2 market page.
KYC and access notes
Public reporting puts Cloudbet on a threshold KYC model — roughly $2,200/day in withdrawals for unverified accounts. That figure is reported, not primary-verified by us, so treat it as secondary. Odds access, by contrast, we verified ourselves: fully open to anonymous visitors, which is why Cloudbet will accumulate samples faster than any other book we track.
What the data says — and doesn't, yet
Ad Some outbound bookmaker links on this site can earn us a commission — commissions never reorder or touch the measured numbers.
Five rows put Cloudbet mid-pack in round 1: clearly wider than Duel's 1.74-2.49% football prices, clearly tighter than Thunderpick's 10%+ esports board. The interesting story is not the ranking — it's the distance between a six-year-old "2-3%" claim and a measured 4.90-5.48% board. One sampling day cannot say whether that gap is permanent, promo-dependent, or fixture-dependent. That is a medians question, and medians need n≥6. Watch it resolve on the history page, or see Cloudbet's board and run the numbers alongside us.