A Guide to Betting Exchanges
In betting exchanges, the availability of money in the market, or liquidity, is crucial for matching bets. High-liquidity exchanges may support a variety of betting and trading strategies, including price comparison and market-based approaches that rely on differences between available odds. The liquidity at a betting exchange represents the maximum stakes a user can place on a specific outcome.
However, it’s there to help customers and a lot of exchange traders make good use of the data. Smarkets are very data driven and provide customers with a host of live odds data, graphs and statistics. However, opting to use the basic plan would mean any free games, rewards or offers are removed.
Betfair is the longest running and largest betting exchange in the world and considered by most to be the market leader by some distance. New customer offer – Matchbook currently offers the longest 0% commission offer to all Outplayed members. As with their competitors, there is a very good App to use when you’re on the go.
Having backed Arsenal at 3.0, you can now back the other options or lay Arsenal to guarantee you a winning outcome on a betting exchange. This is where your second betting exchange account comes to the rescue. If the exchange you are trading on goes down at a point when you are in a high liability open position, you will have no way of closing. Whilst betting exchanges are generally very reliable, it is inevitable that they will have some technical failure or downtime at some point. Traders do not bet in the same way as normal punters and as such need absolute security that they can have access to a market at all times.
EasyBet uses Matchbook’s liquidity and offers its customers fantastic promotions, along with a competitive 2% commission rate (4% for UK and Irish customers, 2% for Rest of World players). Although there are challenges, such as liquidity and unmatched bets, the benefits of better odds, trading opportunities, and the social elements make exchanges increasingly popular. This means that it’s not possible to get a sizable bet early on in the day and if you try, you’ll likely tip off the ‘bots’ used by professional traders. When it comes to placing bets at betting exchanges, most of this will need to happen late in the day. While there is no limit to the size of a bet that you can place on a betting exchange, it relies entirely on layers taking on that bet.
There are slight differences in the advertised exchange commission rates depending on your activity and some pass over of point of consumption takes. We present the basic commission rates for UK Betting Exchanges in the table above, and then in subsequent sections go on to explain them in further detail, exchange by exchange. We thought it would be helpful to find a full commission rate comparison for betting exchange sites in one place, as when we were researching for this article we couldn’t find one online. The “lay” is more like a traditional bet with a bookie, so with exchange betting (and this is simplifying it somewhat) you can place a bet, or be the bookmaker. The low commission rates make it an excellent option, and they even do a brilliant and influential podcast that is well worth a listen. Matchbook has comparable liquidity to Betfair on horse racing and major events, while the app, and site, has a slick feel across its platform.
To help explain betting exchanges, there are a few key differences that are important to understand. Below are a few key terms commonly used when discussing betting exchanges. This added flexibility to oppose something that a bettor does not think will happen has seen the popularity of exchange betting take off. Whereas with a traditional bookmaker, they do the laying, so with them you can only back a selection to win when using your prop betting strategy for example. When we’re comparing betting exchanges with traditional bookmakers or sportsbooks, the main difference is that with a betting exchange, you can lay a selection to lose and back them to win. Now that we’ve explained what betting exchanges are, let’s dive a little bit deeper to look at how they actually work.
The main source of income for popular betting exchange sites is commissions. These differences make betting exchanges attractive for those who want to have more control over their bets and wager with better odds. In this way, layers take on the role of a traditional bookmaker, but without the risk for the exchange, as it is not directly involved in the payment of winnings. The role of a backer is similar to standard punters who place bets on traditional sports betting sites, but on the exchange they interact directly with other players. A ‘No’ bet means that the player betting sites no gamstop offers odds that a certain outcome will not happen. Instead, punters act as bookmakers themselves, offering and accepting bets from each other.
However, on the exchange those placing back and lay bets are effectively the bookmakers. With back bets at a normal bookmakers, the bookie takes on the liability of a customer’s bet winning. This is the opposite of the back bet we just covered in that you’re betting on an outcome not happening this time. If Scotland win, you will be paid £38 from other exchange users who placed a lay bet against Scotland winning, plus you will get your stake of £30 returned to you. When placing a back bet at an exchange, you are doing the same as you would at a normal bookies.