Understanding Betfair

[Betfair.com]

A lot of confusion over Betfair so let me see if I can clear up a couple of things for you guys...

1. FIRST KEY TO UNDERSTANDING BETFAIR...

Just like eBay matches up buyers and sellers, Betfair matches sports gamblers up on either side of the bet with the odds they agree. Simple.

It's a "marketplace" for sports gamblers. We call this markeplace a Sports Exchange and Betfair invented it in 2000.

Keen to know more...?

Here is a book about Betfair... You Bet: the Betfair Story.

Since you are betting against others, you usually get better ODDS.****(Really important thing to understand here is you get better ODDS NOT more points on a pointspread or more points on an Over/Under).

For example if a bookie has the Jets at -1.5 (-110). Check out Betfair, and look for Jets -1.5. It may be Jets -1.5/(-102)....and there's a Decimal/US odds converter on the HELP TAB to help you compare.

Also, Betfair doesn't care who wins or loses, they simply hold the money, pay the winner and take a small commission (2-5%). (From the winner ONLY). That means, we will never reduce your stakes or kick out winners.

For example, check out the World Series Future Market. Some folks think the Cards are going to win the World Series and have posted odds and amounts they'd like to bet on THIS board. We call each board a "market". You can take that bet or post your own odds if you want. Blue column are the BEST AVAILABLE ODDS to BACK a team & PINK ARE BEST AVAILABLE ODDS TO LAY (More on that later...)


2. SECOND KEY TO UNDERSTANDING BETFAIR...

You can either make a BACK BET (Bet on who is going to WIN, just like you always have) OR place a LAY BET.****
*** Please note that laying a bet on a betting exchange means you are betting AGAINST that selection – you want it to lose. This is a KEY point of difference from standard North American betting terminology.


a. If you think something WILL HAPPEN. BACK IT.
b. If you think something WON'T HAPPEN. LAY IT.

a. Back Betting.Same as at any bookie. This is the traditional way to bet you are used to. Nothing new here...


b. Lay Betting

You are betting against something happening. You've probably never done this before. This is what a bookie does everytime he takes a bet from you. Bookies LAY Bets.

3. THIRD KEY TO UNDERSTANDING BETFAIR...

The whole Backing and Laying thing doesnt make tons of sense if there are only 2 outcomes. This is a real point of confusion for people.

e.g. Pointspreads (Dallas -1.5); O/U 53.5 dont make alot of sense and tends to confuse things so dont worry about Backing/Laying on these boards/markets.

Just remember, you may still get better odds on these since you are betting with others and setting your own odds. Not taking odds from a bookie who TELLS you what odds you CAN have.

So, the whole BACK/LAY thing makes way more sense when there are 3 or more outcomes.

e.g.
-Win Draw Win in Soccer;
-NHL 60 minutes with a Tie;
-Tennis Futures
-Super Bowl Futures,
-Golf Futures
-AFC Divisional Futures
-Who Will Win Best Actor - Oscars?
-Any Horse Race

You can LAY Tiger to win the US Open.
You can LAY Roddick to win Wimbledon.
You are betting for them to lose.
You can LAY (bet against the Tigers to Win the World Series) and someone, somewhere will take that bet. If there isn't somebody willing to take the bet right now, place odds up and wait for someone to come along and match your bet...

Fourth KEY to Understanding Betfair...

Every single Board/Market is In-play. (It's a market for sports betting...)

This brings up the concept of trading on Betfair and guaranteeing yourself a profit every TIME you bet!

I'm going to let you guys digest the above and hopefully we can get a good discussion threead going here. But for those of you interested there are tons of guys who trade for a profit on Betfair. It's called "greening up your book" on Betfair.

www.thebettingadvantage.com

This is a Canadian customer who trades on US Sports and golf. A good site to get started on trading.

Please ask any questions here and I will respond.

thanks,

Rob

 

[fokam]

Hi Betfair,
What I can't understand is:
Take a look at soccer matc Italy-Brazil. If you want to back draw odds is 3.5 and if you want to lay draw odds is 3.55. If you play both you are winner for sure. Where is the trick I just can't figure it out
Thanks for explanation!

 

[SportSavant]

when you "LAY" the 3.55 is not the odds you are getting, but rather the odds you are giving to the person who is "BACKING" your 'LAY" bet.

 

[fokam]

That explains everything I need to know.
Thanks Savant for your answer

 

[Betfair.com]

Laying means YOU ARE BOOKING THE BET.

Thanks SS.

Think of Laying as "You being the bookie". You are taking the bet. And don't get caught up thinking that BF is matching people 1:1. For example:

Bob: $50 on the Bills(-7.5) at 1.91 (-110)
John: $110 on the Bills(-7.5) at 1.91 (-110)


These guys are Backing the Bills and the amounts and odds are placed up on the board.

So you will now be able to LAY the Bills for as MUCH AS $160.

Point HERE is that there are 3 people involved - its not always a 1:1 match. In fact it rarely is.

Thanks,

Rob

 

[Betfair.com]

Always Back High and Lay Low

Thought i would add another tip here since nobody's asked any questions yet...

YOU ALWAYS WANT TO BACK HIGH AND LAY LOW.

BACK HIGH

When you first look at a market - Pointspread, Over/under, Moneyline, future, prop...

You will see a bunch of numbers youve never seen before.

Just remember that the screen is divided in two sections.

On the left are the odds to BACK. The best odds to back are in BLUE. Obviously you want to BACK an outcome at the HIGHEST odds possible.

On the right are the odds to LAY. The best odds to LAY are in PINK. Obviously you want to LAY an outcome at the LOWEST odds possible.

That is you want to give someone the lowest odds.

The tip here is you can untick "Back and Lay" and the screen looks like any old bookie screen...the lay market is hidden.

(Use the odds converter to convert to US odds)

 

[SportSavant]

Lets keep this thread about "Understanding betfair", I have created another thread called "Exchanges, Commissions and the advantage of Exchanges vs Books" and moved some of the posts from this thread to that one.

Please see here:
http://www.therxforum.com/showthread.php?t=691786

thanks

SS

 

[Betfair.com]

How Betfair Works on YouTube

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[acw]

BetFair.com,

Can you please comment on this:
http://forum.sbrforum.com/players-talk/223399-betfair-why-did-you-take-my-money-video.html

 

[Betfair.com]

Comments for acw

Hi acw:

Apologies for getting to this soooo late. I was actually away for 3 weeks on my wedding/honeymoon so I only checked posts here late last week. I am getting to the bottom of the story and our legal team are also on top of this.

Here's the deal...

I can't comment on specifics right now but I think everyone is getting a little bent out of shape for nothing on this one.

First, everyone in this industry knows that there are some unsavoury characters in certain European countries that simply try everything to money-launder or to commit fraud on any Western-based internet site they can.

I'm not saying that this is the case here but if it WERE the case, I'm not sure that these types of people have the right to complain to SBR to try and get money back from a fraudulent transaction.

I'm also dissapointed that SBR would go ahead and post that video. My personal opinion is that they should know better and it was a little bit irresponsible to post that without considering who we are and how we work. I think that SBR is so used to working with unlicensed and rogue books based in unregulated places like the Carribean and in CR, that they don't even realize that there ARE legitimate betting operations that actually take integrity very, very seriously. (betfair, BWIN, Ladbrokes, Willian Hill, etc)

I will follow up with this as soon as I find out more about what we can and can't say about this. My guess is that our Fraud and Anti-money laundering team have flagged this up and are working with the authorities. Again, this is just a guess and I will follow up as soon as I know more.

Thanks,

Rob
Canada Country Manager
canadamanager@betfair.com