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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2bn

221m.

Punter success hits William Hill

Joy for punters has spelt misery for the bookies
A winning streak by punters betting on football and horseracing is set to trim profits at bookmaker William Hill.
In a trading update, William Hill said the second half of 2004 saw it "adversely affected" by unfavourable horseracing and football results.

But it said income from the fixed-odds gambling machines in its betting shops would help to offset falls elsewhere.

The firm is predicting an annual profit of about 232m ($435m) for 2004, a 15% increase on 2003's figure.

William Hill operates 1,600 betting shops and also offers telephone and internet gambling.

Stability

Last week, Stanley Leisure reported that it had also been having a tough time in the past few months in horseracing and football betting.




See William Hill's share price

William Hill said it had been hit by "less favourable" horseracing results compared with the first half of the year, and "significantly poorer results in respect of domestic and international football since the start of the current season".

However, the growth in the number of fixed-odds betting machines in its shops has helped to stabilise income, William Hill said.

"Roughly a third of the group's gross win is now derived from 5,500 fixed odds betting terminals in the retail estate, online casino, poker and arcade sites, and virtual and traditional numbers products," it said.

William Hill shares were up 4.5 pence at 550p in morning trading.

Diego

there isnt a dummy account option and minimum bets are 2 - but if you arent reckless it shouldnt cost too much to get a feel for it - it will be a few quid well spent

Anybody on the last race at Wolverhampton. Very weird price movement and a winner at 490-1!!

Scrip,

I don't like Wolverhampton. They very often have weird price movements especially when the other courses have finished for the day.

Diego,

Without giving too much away and spoiling Scrip's course, you just really need to concentrate on the relationship between back and lay. If you can get an understanding of that, things will become a lot clearer. Read the online instructions on Betfair. When you have done the course, if you still don't understand, you will find Scrip very very helpful. Others here will also help you out.

I'll be on the Tranmere vs Bristol City match this evening. No pre match plan but will wait and see what unfolds.

Can't play tonight Scrip. Other half wants to go out. I think it's a definate wait and see though. Bristol beat Tranmere 4-0 at home in November.

Grabbed a few quid on it but nothing special. Match wasn't in an ideal scenario so just nipped in and out a few times.

I got some profit by using Next Goal, 0-2, 1-1 and over 2.5 goals together, but it got far too complicated and I was exposed for a while. Glad I was only playing with tiny values.... won't try that one again.

When nipping in and out, will you take a hit if a goal is scored when you're in, or can you afford to use Next Goal as insurance ?

"I got some profit by using Next Goal, 0-2, 1-1 and over 2.5 goals together, but it got far too complicated and I was exposed for a while. Glad I was only playing with tiny values.... won't try that one again."

It gets too complicated if you start looking beyond basic strategies. I am only looking for a positive expectancy in the long term so I only stick to strategies that will produce that.

I was talking to somebody today that was on the Southampton vs Fulham match the other day. Couldn't cover after the first goal went in so laid the 3-3 to try and get even. Of course the 3-3 came in and his loss was significantly worse than if he had just taken the hit.

Fundamentalist, Harlosh many thanks. Looked @ Betfair's site last night I think the 50 idea is a good one and will try that on the weekend footies.

Diego

Total matched bets for November 2004

Ok the guesses were: -

Dil - 2b
TPO - 900m
Fade - 500m
Harlosh - 290m
Piptrader - 221m
Fundamentalist - 180m
Jeffmack - 98m
Chartist 2004 - 25m

And the winner is...................

TPO! Well done TPO!

Total matched bets were 1,021,594,181

Top five sports: -

Horses 511,699,389
Soccer 281,237,672
Tennis 73,113,226
Snooker 27,702,002
Cricket 24,396,451

So taking a hundred quid a day out of the market isn't a tall order when there is over one billion on the table!!

Diego

If you haven't opened an account already you can get a sign up bonus (one I saw was 20), just do a search on google there are plenty

Thanks fade, opened account with link from 'free-money.co.uk'. 20 free bet.

Diego

Good luck, I have signed up for the feb course so see you there