How would you like to trade a market where you get large regular price swings every 10 minutes in the afternoon, seven days a week. A
market where all prices are set purely by supply and demand, few transaction costs, no middle men and you only pay commission if you win? Where you can freely act as a market maker and where you have direct market access and where you can create a spread for others to take?

Betfair has revolutionised the betting market and created an open platform for exchanging risk on sports events. This market is now viewed much more like a traditional financial risk market than an old fashioned betting market. Smart users have realised that there are huge opportunities on Betfair because they can buy and sell risk in much the same way they would in a normal financial market but without the burden of cost or the restricted access that is usually associated with traditional financial markets.

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" ... refuse to pay you!" !!!

this on top of Hodgin's account of his problems with Times PC.

Well they got it below last night's close for the 9.00, didn't they :-)

I must excercise discipline
I must excercise discipline
I must excercise discipline
I must excercise discipline
I must excercise discipline
I must excercise discipline...................

Oh dear

Johns writing lines - must have had another bad day

give us a call


Scrip

Sorry not been in contact - been busy with the move - will try and give you a call

Scrip,

I've spent all evening studying betfair screen captures and think I've worked out one of the strategies. If I'm right, with a bit of insurance against a particular rare occurance, a big lay and a back will often turn a profit.

Can't wait to try it out.

"I must excercise discipline"

Managing your entry is one thing, your exit another!!

TPO if you are going to experiment only use the minimun stake else it is bound to bite you in the bum. You would be surprised who often rare occurances occur. Last two live footy matches threw up a near 1000-1 shot between them. Enough to wipe out many.

scrip, interested to know how was 1000-1 computed? Thanks.

Actually I got it wrong is was nearer to 10,000-1. I was looking at the goal in the last minute scenario on both live matches this week. Unfortunately only looking!!!

Scrip, how does the statistics compare between first minute and last minute goals
in both halves?

Scrip, yes I'm only going to use small amounts for the next few weeks as I need to gain more experience in managing the position. From what I've worked out, there's the rare occurance that you can afford to insure against, but there are also going to be less than perfect situations that'll need careful management. While playing the other night, I moved all the profit to ManU only to have Fulham equalise near the end. Ended break-even.

What's worse was my wife, who was actually watching the game, said that Fulham were starting to look dangerous.... there was a told-you-so moment in the 87th minute!

So far so good, applied the strategy to the UEFA cup match Grazer AK v AZ Alkm (whoever they are!) and thanks to a one team going 2-0 up I didn't have to green up until late in the match. I had 1-1 covered just in case.
Nice percentage profit, though the 5% Betfair commission takes the edge off it a bit.

Scrip, you've probably worked out which strategy I'm using with the football matches. I was just wondering... is this strategy going to decay over time if too many people start using it ? The odds offered on the exchange are based on supply and demand, but also on the underlying probability of a win / draw.

Might the pricing become so efficient one day that there is no opportunity to make money, or is this strategy likely to work all the time football matches are offered on the exchange 'in-play' ?

I sure have, we discussed it at the course. It is discussed a lot on the Betfair forums and is a source of constant debate. Any strategy you use you should be looking at the failure point as that defines the whole system.

The implications of your strategy is that because lots of people are doing it it is distorting the market and presenting opportunties elsewhere.

In general the market is efficient and each time it is pushed out arbs move in to bring it back to balance. It would appear though that because the majority of Betfair users generally aim for the obvious it is creating a value gap in some markets. But of course you need to know that it exists and how to take advantage of it.

Incidentally if any body is attending the course on the 23rd in London and would like me to test a theory on the soccer markets I will be happy to back test it or at least make comment on it if I have seen it in use before.

Same applies to prior course attendees if you are mulling over something.

I've just booked a place on the course, so I'll take you up on that offer once the order goes through.

Nice 1.02 reversal again on the 9.00 intraday. Oh what a beautiful day :-)

If anyone is up to speed on the FTSE on Betfair there may well be some cracking opportunities during the expiry, 10-11 and possibly either side.

Thanks for the tip-off Kayak. And congratulations on catching that reversal!

Great fun here piptrader. Another 1.01 reversal on the 9-10!