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.

Click here to learn more

Don't forget that some match results might be fixed!!!!

Strange offerings from Betfair on the football. Yesterday (Sat) they had two UK games in play and two foreign. Today they have one UK game and six foreign.

Why the apparent bias to foreign football? I would have thought the Arsenal v Stoke game would have been ideal yet they seem to prefer to offer other insignificant foreign games.

Backed Celtic today at odds of 3 in the second half when it was 1-1. Greened up at 2-1.

98M

Harlosh, I know, I can't figure out the criteria they use. Very little of interest on offer this weekend. I know they need decent feeds to make a market in play but there were some good opportunities that they didn't offer.

Just noticed Villa Real and Barca was in play so nipped in for a few quid.

Does anyone know what the bloomberg ftse stamp was for the 09:00 intraday market? I managed to lay it at 1.03 and was confident it was under the mark, obviously not.

Scrip, I shall be signing up for the course in feb. Great thread as well guys, very interesting reading so thanks

Sorry fade, wasn't in the market this morning. Looking at my client software I have a price 15 secs either side of the hour and it was 4854.5 then 4853.5

fade - according to my FutureSource feed, which so far has always agreed with Betfair/Bloomberg, the first price after 9 was 4854.50. On this occasion, that also happened to be the last price before 9.

You can get the same info from Betfair's next hourly event, because they use the settlement price of the previous hour as the new above/below price for the current hour.

Only four guesses so far on the total volume of matched bets in November (All markets).

Harlosh - 290m
Fundamentalist - 180m
Jeffmack - 98m
Chartist 2004 - 25m

Any more guesses? I'll give you the exact figure on Tuesday morning.

thanks guys

my guess would be 500m

Scrip -

I am enjoying this thread so much so that I've booked a place on your course. Look forward to meeting you all.

ps: I know nothing about betting exchanges and look forward to learning something new.

Diego

I'll go for a high number.... 900m.

Diego

from someone who went on the course, you will get a lot more out of it if you open a betfair account prior to going, put a small pot in say 50 and use it in 2 stakes, just to understand the mechanics of the site - this will make the course far easier and you will pick up the more complex strategies rather than worrying about what is a back or a lay etc

Thanks Fundamentalist I will do that, although I'm a bit worried I don't know what I'm doing. Is there a dummy account?

Diego

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.