If you’re reading this article then you more than likely want the answers to some, if not all of these questions, namely;
- What is Betfair?
- How is Betfair different from other betting sites?
- How is trading different from traditional forms of betting?
- How can I make money on Betfair?
- How do I get started on Betfair?
- Is Betdaq the same as Betfair?
What is Betfair?
Put simply Betfair is a betting exchange whereby the users of the exchange trade bets with each other; as opposed to the more traditional betting sites or high street bookmakers whereby users bet against the company that owns the site.
How is Betfair different from other betting sites?
On traditional betting sites you can only buy a bet, more traditionally known as ‘backing’. When you back a bet you are hoping for a positive outcome, in other words you want the thing you’re betting on to happen.
For example if you are backing Chelsea to beat ManchesterCity, then quite simply you want Chelsea to win in order for you to win your bet.
How is sport trading different from other forms of betting?
Sport trading is different from traditional forms of betting because you can also back the negative outcome, otherwise known as ‘laying’, when you lay a bet (sometimes called backing against) you are saying you don’t want something to happen.
In the example below a £19 lay has been placed on Fiorentina in their match against AC Milan
Note: This is not the same as backing Milan as then you would have only one chance to win and two chances (the draw and Fiorentina win) to lose.
The main advantages to laying a bet are that you are giving yourself more than one chance to win. In the example above you are giving yourself two chances; if Milan win or the game ends in a draw. However if you are laying an individual in an event with multiple contestants like a horse race or golf tournament, then a lay will give you many chances to win.
The second advantage is that if the starting price gets bigger, in the above scenario if Milan scored a goal, you can then back the bet and give yourself an all round profit.
A Back bet at higher odds can be made after Milan score a goal.
This concept can be a little hard to grasp if you have never placed a lay bet on Betfair or any other betting exchange, but it is simple and Betfair have made it very easy to follow as on your screen, you will see red numbers next to outcomes which will lose you money and green numbers next to outcomes that will win you money.
The 2 things to remember with lay betting are:
1.By laying a bet you are boiling any sporting event down to two outcomes; it will either happen or it won’t. So by placing a lay bet on a golfer in a golf tournament you win if anyone else wins and lose if the golfer you placed the lay on win’s.
2.When you’re placing a lay bet the number you enter into the box is how much you want to make from the bet, unlike a back bet whereby you enter how much you want to risk in the bet. How much you lose in a lay bet will depend on your liability.
An easy way to think about this is imagine Betfair is one big room and by placing a lay bet of £20 at odds of 3 you have just shouted out that you will take someone’s money and you will give them twice their money back if they win.
If your lay wins, you lose and you’ll have to pay the loser €40 so it goes without saying unless you’ve got the money in your account or you have a winning back bet for more than the value of your liability, then you won’t be able to place the bet.
For a more detailed explanation of lay trading please click here.
How do I make money on Betfair?
There are a few ways to make money on Betfair they are; lay trading, lay/back trading, back/lay trading, arbitrage betting (otherwise known as arb betting) click the links for a more detailed description of each, I’ll give a brief account of each type.
Lay trading
is essentially what the online and high street bookmakers do all the time with all their bets, that is to say they offer you the chance to back a bet, the beauty of Betfair is that you can also be like a bookmaker and offer your fellow Betfair users a chance to back a bet, so every time you lay a bet, for example lay Manchester City to win, that means that you’ve offered someone the chance to back Manchester City if City lose you win, if City win you lose and have to pay out at the odds set by the Betfair odds machine at the time you placed your lay.
Lay/back trading
is when you first say something is not going to happen by laying it and then later on you say it is going to happen by backing it, this isn’t always possible but to use the above example whereby Fiorentina are playing AC Milan, at the beginning of the game you lay Fiorentina, so in other words you need AC Milan to win or the game to end in a draw in order to win to win your bet.
The game starts and AC Milan score after 15 minutes, in this scenario Fiorentina’s odds will rise sufficiently enough that you can now back them at the higher price and you will have a scenario whereby whether Fiorentina win or lose or the game is a draw you will make money; this is known as greening up or having a green book, click here for a more detailed explanation of lay back trading.
Back/lay trading
is just as above but in reverse, so this time you back Chelsea to win and then when they go 1-0 up you then lay them at a smaller price and you’re left in the same scenario of making money whatever happens, for a more detailed explanation of back lay trading click here.
Arbitage (Arb) Betting
Arbitrage betting takes advantage of differing odds between bookmakers, so you may find that Bet365 are offering Chelsea at considerably higher odds than are available on Betfair, in this case you may back Chelsea to win with Bet365 and then immediately lay them on Betfair leaving you a small profit whatever happens, this is different from lay/back or back/lay trading as you don’t need to wait for a goal to get an odds shift in your favour. This can be a great way to leverage free bets from other betting sites.
How do I get started on Betfair?
That’s the easy bit, first click on this link it will take you to the Betfair signup page where you’ll be taken through a few steps to put in your details and then you’ll be able to get started.
Once you’ve signed up and you want to start putting some of my Betfair trading tips into action make sure that you press the ‘exchange’ tab in the top left of the page as opposed to the ‘sportsbook’ tab which will give you a more traditional ‘back only’ option.
