Recommended Betting Exchanges
1) What are Betting Exchanges and how are they different from Bookmakers?
2) How Betting Exchanges are similar to the Stock Market.
3) Conclusion
Betfair
Betdaq
Betsson
Parbet
TradeBetX
TradeSports
Intrade
Betfair
Betfair is the one betting exchange that we recommend everyone must have. It is the original betting exchange and easily the biggest.
Betfair has 300,000 registered members, with over 70,000 who are active. It employs around 450 people at its UK headquarters and matches millions of bets each day (over 12,000 every minute).
In December, 2004 it achieved the high distinction of being named the UK Company of Year. In 2003 it won the Queens award for enterprise and in 2002 it won the Emerging Entrepreneur of the year award.
Betfair offers a massive range of markets on all kinds of sporting and non-sporting events. It covers a huge range of soccer matches and is particularly strong on UK soccer. It covers every conceivable option of betting for each match.
Their commission rate starts at 5% and reduces to a minimum of 2%, dependant upon the members individual turnover.
Betdaq
Betdaq is the trading name of the Global Betting Exchange UK Ltd, a UK based betting exchange. They rank behind Betfair as being the second largest exchange.
Multi-lingual and offering multiple currency options, it presents a truly global betting marketplace. While covering all sports, its particular strength is in football betting, especially in Asian Handicaps, where prices and volumes are generally well in excess of other operators. It is a very popular betting exchange which also offers an excellent multiples service.
Betsson
Betsson Limited was established in 2002 and is licensed and regulated in accordance with UK law.
Betsson offer four separate services:
Primarily, they are a betting exchange, where you can back or lay a sporting event.
A Sportsbook where you can back most sporting events.
Betsson also offer an online Casino as well as an online Poker room.
At the Sportsbook you can back in multiples, up to 10 events simultaneously.
Parbet
Parbet is a popular Malta based exchange. It offers very competitive commission structure which starts at 4% and reduces to a minimum of 1.5%.
Aside from the betting exchange, Parbet also has the following:
- Parbet Casino.
- Parbet Poker.
- Parbet Supertoto.
Supertoto is a coupon consisting of 14 European top matches. You win with 11, 12, 13 and 14 correct picks. If you are a single winner with 14 correct picks, you are guaranteed a payout of 100.000 Euro.
Parbet also offer Supertoto Extra. This coupon consists of 10 games picked from the Champions League qualifications. You win with 9 and 10 correct picks.
You can choose your own combinations, make your own systems or if you want you can let the Parbet randomised application do it for you.
TradeBetX
TradeSports
Intrade
TradeBetX, TradeSports and Intrade are three separate exchanges operated by the same company - Trade Exchange Network Ltd. Trade Exchange Network Ltd is based in Dublin, Ireland.
The three exchanges have been operational for almost 3 years. In that time, already US$1.0Billion has already been traded on the exchanges. Almost 70,000,000 contracts have been matched and it has over 30,000 members.
The Exchange is audited by PriceWaterhouseCoopers and its audit report is unqualified.
Whilst UK and European soccer are covered by Tradesports and TradeBetX, the exchanges do have a particular US slant and are very popular with American traders.
TradeBetX
TradeBetX is designed for the general sports fan, offering the mechanism of an exchange in an easy to understand sportsbook format. Familiar terms and betting parlance ensure a simple and easy introduction to sports betting using a P-2-P
TradeSports
Tradesports is the exchange which lists all events, designed with a 'trader' and sports bettor in mind and presenting the data as a Day Trader might expect to see it. Covering every possible category of event.
Intrade
Intrade is designed with a very strong slant towards the Financial Trading Community. Listing all 'non-sports' contracts.
1) What are “Betting Exchanges”and how are they different from Bookmakers?
When you place a bet with a bookmaker you are essentially a passive customer. In other words, you have to accept the odds that the bookmaker is offering. You can not say to the bookie: "I want better odds on this event before I choose to bet on it!". The bookmaker will offer his odds, and then it is up to you as to whether you will accept those odds and place a bet on it or not. And so, essentially, the bookmaker makes the running and you basically then have to decide whether to play on his terms – or not.
However, with a betting exchange, there are several major differences:
1)Instead of accepting the odds offered from the bookmaker, you are accepting odds from other members of the exchange. In other words, the other members of the exchange who are offering those odds to back are acting as quasi bookmakers in their own right.
2)If you decide you are not happy with the odds being offered by the other exchange members, you are able to “ask” for your own odds, rather than simply accept the odds that are being offered. Your bid then may be “matched” (or accepted) by the exchange market, or alternatively it may ignore your request and so your bet will remain “unmatched” and then subsequently cancelled out at match time. (At least then you can stop worrying about whether your bet will win or lose…!) However, if your bet is matched, then it is matched at the price you requested.
3) Instead of betting on an event in the traditional manner, or to “Back to win” an outcome, you are also able to act as a bookmaker, and “Lay to lose” the outcome.
2) How Betting Exchanges are similar to the Stock Market
For those who are familiar with stock exchanges (backing and selling stocks), there is a similarity here. In a stock exchange there are numerous "lay-orders" and also numerous "back-orders" in the system, waiting to be matched. A betting exchange is very similar to this scenario, in that you can place orders, which means that you can enter your wishes into the bet exchange's database, and when a matching offer has been found, your bet will be made. Or alternatively, you may wish to simply accept the odds being offered and have your bet matched immediately.
For example, you may wish to bet on a home win on Man United versus Southhampton. However, the odds on offer are only 1.74 and you want at least 1.80 before you will consider placing the bet. You then will simply place the bet at odds at 1.80 and hope that the exchange “market” will accept your request. Again, if your bet is not accepted by match time, it will be automatically cancelled.
3) Conclusion
For those who are used to the usual way of betting through a bookmaker, it may take a little time to become familiar with this form of betting. But be assured, it is well worth spending the time on the “learning curve”.
You may well find the odds obtained from a betting exchange may very often be higher than those obtained from the bookmaker (where you need to fight the profit margins of the professional bookmakers).
Additionally, in many sports it also offers you the ability to trade on the fluctuation of the odds, which is certainly not possible with bookmaker. It also offers the possibility to sell your bet back to the exchange market if you change your mind about a bet. (This is done by simply laying the bet and so wiping out your liability of your bet).
One word of warning however – please be aware of the large possible outlays if you are not careful if you decide to act like a bookmaker and "lay" an outcome. If the outcome goes against you (ie the selection wins instead of losing as you predicted), you will have to pay out at the odds offered. For example, assume that you layed Crystal Palace to lose a match against Arsenal. You placed $100 at odds of 4.20 that Crystal Palace would lose or draw the match. If, (by a freak of nature perhaps…) Palace actually won the match, you would have to pay out $420. So, as you can see, you need to be additionally careful when laying an outcome.
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