Betting Exchanges

Betting Exchanges are a form of bookmaking which is set up as bettor-to-bettor, meaning that you are making bets with people just like yourself. You will usually find the best odds on betting exchanges. The percentage of people making a profit on betting exchanges as opposed to sportsbooks is much higher. There are many people making a living off of betting on betting exchanges, including myself.

www.betfair.com is the leader among betting exchanges, capturing over 90% of the market. Based in Hammersmith in West London, England, Betfair is the largest online betting company in the UK with over 2,000,000 clients. On average the odds found on Betfair are 20% better than those offered by a sportsbook, with their commission being between 2% and 5% depending on how many points are accumulated.

I make my living trading on Betfair, below you can see How To Trade On Betfair

Betfair enables a bettor to Back a bet (bet for this to happen) or Lay a bet (bet against this to happen). The picture above is showing a bet that I am about to place. I am backing Peter Hanson to win the tournament for $50. I have selected to back Hanson at odds of 23.0 as this is the highest available to back. If this bet comes in it pays me out $1100.

You can also see above that if I make this bet it will show my potential outcome on each golf winning. So here is how my book looks after placing the bet.

You can see the bet was successfully matched at 23.0 for $50.

During the third round of the tournament I decided I wanted to place a bet to Lay Peter Hanson that would guarantee me winning money. I could do this because the odds on Hanson had been lower because he now had a better chance of winning the tournament.

This picture is hard to make out so I will break it down.

I decided to bet to Lay (bet against) Hanson to win the tournament giving odds of 7.6 for $150. When you Lay a bet it means that I am giving someone else those odds for that amount. 7.6 were the highest odds availabe to Lay at the time. So if Hanson wins the tournament I would pay someone else for a bet of $150 at odds of 7.6, which would be $990. This is alright because of the bet I made earlier which would pay me $1100. I would still come out ahead $110.

By making this bet it would ensure me winning at least $100 in this market.