The introduction of the Betting Exchanges revolutionised traditional gambling methods. Not only did you now have the ability to lay one or more contenders in a contest, you could also TRADE! As with the currency exchanges and the stock exchange you can ' trade prices ' on the betting exchanges as the market fluctuates according to the support for or against a particular contender. If you know what you are doing you can virtually obliterate the risk element as you now become a 'TRADER' and not a 'GAMBLER'.....
There are 3 UK betting exchanges. We recommend that over time you make a deposit at each site, your deposit will be matched with a free bet amount. You may use these amounts to practice and hone your trading skills in advance. Please check each site's terms and conditions.
Betfair - £25 FREE
Betdaq - £25 FREE
WBX - £25 FREE
The aim is to secure both 'back' and 'lay' positions at different prices on the same contender. This will lock in a profit regardless of the outcome of the event so it doesn't matter if your selection wins or loses YOU still make money!
Horse racing is partucularly suited to exchange trading due to the fluidity in the market place. A lot of trading activity takes place in the last ten minutes before the 'off time'. Most activity is at the top of the market i.e. on the market leaders. Generally the favourite will be most heavily backed as the race start time draws closer.
If market indicators suggest support for the favourite you need to back first, placing your lay stake afterwards as the price falls. This way you win more than you pay out should your selection triumph at the winning post. If your selection loses then you lose nothing as your back and lay stakes were equal ~ so you win as much as you lose. If you increase your lay stake slightly making allowance for how far the price has actually shortened then you will lock in your profit whether your selection wins or loses.
If you have a drifting favourite then simply reverse the process and place you lay stake first and your back stake afterwards, again adjusting the stake amounts with a simple calculation.
This produces what is know as a 'green screen' on Betfair as which ever horse wins you have already secured your profit on your matched bets, in fact the resut is irrelevant. You are not actually interested in the race itself, you are simply predicting the movement of the market and securing your profit before the event even starts.
Occasionally you may get it wrong and the market suddenly swings against you before completing your bets. You may therefore have to accept a small loss. You could leave your bet in running and hope you can salvage the situation but now you are relying on luck which was the factor you were trying to eliminate in the first place. So just accept the occasional loss and move on to your next race. There are certainly enough of them daily to repeatedly trade in to profit race after race after race so the odd mishap will not really damage you!
Other good markets to concentrate on are the cricket and tennis markets. Often there is a very clear favourite and there will not be the type of movement in the market just before the start of a match as occurs with horse racing. In this instance you would need to lay a short price favourite first. During longer events it is highly likely that a minor upset will occur at some point during the game. For example the underdog in a tennis match may actually be the first to break their opponent's serve. Is this an upset on the cards? No, probably not by match end, but the 'in play' prices can swing dramatically in your favour and you can now back the favourite at a higher price and an adjusted stake, again locking in your profit regardless of the final result.
Automated software or 'betbots' can even do it for you!
