Find A Fact

Introduction to Betting Exchanges and Lay Betting
by: Martin Bailey
Why A Betting Exchange Can Offer You The Key To Successful Gambling…

--> Introduction

Too many gamblers are still living in the ‘dark ages’ and will only ever place a bet with a traditional bookmaker. They either can’t be bothered to learn how the exchanges work or simply don’t realise the features and value that can be had when betting within an exchange environment.

Believe me, using a betting exchange is very easy, and if you are not already using at least one exchange you should join one immediately after reading this article…

I'm not saying that a betting exchange should be used for all your betting. There will still be occasions when a traditional bookmaker will offer more desirable odds than those that are available on the exchanges. However, in the majority of cases you will find better value on the exchanges and additionally there are other VERY IMPORTANT features that only the betting exchanges offer. More on this later…

--> So What Is A Betting Exchange?

Put very simply, betting exchanges are a secure place where members of the betting public can exchange bets with each other anonymously, at odds that they specify themselves. The exchange companies simply act as the 'middleman' and match peoples bets.

As there are no bookie margins to factor in, prices are very often more desirable. The betting exchange companies make their money by taking a commission payment on your winning bets. This is usually in the region of 3 - 5%, but even taking this into account, it’s very common to find better prices on the exchange.

The cumulative effect of better prices when combined with a good staking plan, can make the difference between you generating a healthy profit or a bad loss. Using an exchange does not mean you will automatically win more frequently! You still have to find good value winning bets yourself or via a professional tipster but it’s the effect of getting a better return on your winning bets that will boost your betting bank and protect you during losing streaks.

Most people use the betting exchanges on the internet, but you can also place bets on the telephone.

--> Betting Exchange Advantages

As well as regularly finding better prices when backing a selection, exchanges also give the gambler some other very important advantages over traditional bookmakers.

--> Some of the key advantages are:

The ability to LAY a selection if you think it will not win.
The ability to BACK or LAY a selection to be PLACED. (This is very different to the well know Each Way bet offered by bookies and can be very powerful).
Betting IN RUNNING on many events INCLUDING HORSE RACING. This can give you many advantages and opens the door to new methods that may secure you more profits.
If you are very successful, you will not have the exchange company threatening to shut your account down. A very important point !
The ability to TRADE on price movements in betting events to guarantee yourself a profit regardless of the result.
Arbitrage Opportunities. Bookie and exchange price discrepancies often allow you to take a NO RISK bet.
Those are some of the key benefits of using a betting exchange and I will dig deeper into these and explain how you can use them to your advantage in future betting articles.

For the remainder of this article, lets concentrate on point 1 above, LAYING a selection to Lose.

--> LAYING A Selection to Lose – A Major Advantage Of The Betting Exchanges

Probably the most important feature of a betting exchange is the ability to LAY a selection. But what does laying a selection mean?

Laying a selection is often referred to as 'Playing the role of a bookmaker'. Like a bookie, you offer a price against a selection / event happening (eg. a certain horse to win a race or a football match ending as a draw). You only do this if in your opinion there is a great chance that the horse won't win or the football match will not end as a draw. The betting exchanges simply match your lay bets with other customers who think the opposite of you (eg they think the horse will win or the match will end as a draw).

--> Lay Liabilities

The odds that you offer determine how much money you will need to 'pay out' if the selection actually wins (just like the bookie does when you have a winning bet with them). So if you were to place a lay bet of £10 at 5.0 (4/1) against a selection, you would be liable to pay out £40 from your account if that selection won (The other punter gets their £10 back plus £40 profit). If however, the selection does lose you get to keep the £10 staked by the other punter (just like the bookies have done with all your losing bets all these years!). It's as simple as that.

Now, you might be thinking 'great, I'll simply lay all the rank outsiders and clean up'. STOP! Don't even go down this route. If you keep placing lay bets on selections trading with very high odds (eg 50/1), you will win regularly but when 1 of them comes first you will probably wipe out all your winnings and more! A single £10 lay bet at 50/1 would see you liable for paying out £500 should the selection win!

Therefore, I strongly recommend that you decide upon a sensible upper limit for lay odds and stick to it no matter what. Just think about how many favourites get turned over in horse races every day of the year that are perhaps available to lay at very short odds like 1.5 (1/2). Your liability on a £10 lay bet at these odds is only £5, or £50 on a £100 lay bet. I like to keep my lay bets at odds below 4.0 (3/1) but that's just my own personal choice but it gives you something to go on.

--> Flexible Odds / Placing an Order

The odds you offer obviously need to be realistic in order to be matched, but if you are not happy with the current price being requested by other punters you can simply place an 'order' in the exchange at your odds and hope that somebody eventually accepts your offer. (eg you may feel that the current price of 3.0 (2/1) is too high a price to lay a certain selection, so offer a lay bet at 2.75 (7/4) instead). If your lucky the price may well be matched. If the event starts without your lay bet being matched, your bet is simply cancelled so you gain/lose nothing.

--> Summary

Lay Betting might sound very confusing to the exchange newbie, but believe me it soon becomes very straightforward and you will find yourself laying selections much more frequently than you think. Let's be honest, it must be easier to pick a horse you feel will definitely lose in a average 12 runner race, than find the single winner!

Well that's it for part 1 of my betting exchange articles and all that's left for me to say now is that if you don't already have at least one betting exchange account, please open one right now. It will only take you five minutes and you'll soon be thinking 'How did I ever bet without using an exchange'?

In part 2, I will be explaining the Betting Exchange Place markets and how you can benefit from them.

About the author:
Visit http://www.the-secret-system.comnow for more free betting and gambling related information by Martin.

Making Careful Sports Betting Decisions
by: Ryan D.

There are some many online sportsbooks out there that its hard as a recreational bettor to make a decision where you can bet in the knowledge that you won't be come another person ripped off by a rogue sportsbook. The fact is that there are less dodgy operators around than, say, 2 years ago. However, this does not mean you don't have to do your homework when deciding where to bet. Here are some simple things to look out for when selecting an online sports betting operator:

Licensing - not enough can be said about this. There are some very questionable places in the world that grant "gambling licenses". As far as we are concerned, the only places that offer valid licenses are first world countries, Costa Rica and Antigua. Steer clear from anything else.

Margin - every sportsbook takes some sort of margin on each bet, although it varies greatly. If either you can not find information about the margin, or it seems excessively high, move on.

Bonuses and Promotions - If a sportsbook offers a huge sign up bonus, it is often reason for suspicion. Why would anyone increase your odds by giving you tons of free cash. Bonuses have their place, but its a sweetener and no more.

Payout procedures - Are these clearly published on the website? Even if its is, send them en email to confirm their process and turnaround time.

Blacklisted? - You'd be amazed what pops up if you search for "Sportsbook name" + blacklisted in Google.

Customer Service - Phone the toll free number listed on the site before making a deposit. Ask them a simple question like what is their minimum deposit. If you don't get a concise answer, in proper English, it's time to leave.

Track record - How long have they been in business, or better yet, can you even establish this from their website.

There are many other things to look out for like ownership and awards won. At the end of the day, you should trust your gut instincts and do enough research to make you comfortable. Sports betting should be a fun activity and free of the stresses of wondering if your money is safe.

About the author:
Ryan is the editor of http://www.bonus-sports-betting.com,a leading online sports betting portal.

Boost Your Income With Financial Spread Betting
by: Gary Anderson

About 6 years ago I started to notice that certain friends of mine had quit their jobs but continued to live very luxurious lifestyles - seemingly without doing very much. I thought they must just be using up their savings until I discovered they were all making a fantastic living by spending just a few hours a week doing something I had never heard of before - ï¿½financial spread bettingï¿½

More and more people are now becoming familiar with the phrase ï¿½financial spread bettingï¿½. Once, the sole preserve of City Whiz kids or sophisticated gamblers, financial spread betting is now gaining in popularity as a great way to earn a very sizeable tax-free income without the risk of losing the shirt off your back!

So why is financial spread betting becoming so popular. Well, with a bit of understanding and practice, ordinary people, with no prior experience, can earn enormous sums whilst controlling their risks and limiting their losses. You do not even need a stockbroker or a city dealing account to do get involved. An on-line account is very simple to open and anyone with web access can do it.

Spread betting, aka futures trading, is easy to understand if you stick to a simple index like the FTSE 100 or the DOW JONES.

In basic terms, this is how it works:

When you buy a ï¿½futureï¿½ you take a position on what you think the index (e.g. the FTSE 100, or the DOW ) will be at some future date - e.g. June 2005. Letï¿½s say the FTSE is currently at 5200 and you think it will rise over the next three months as ï¿½terrorist feverï¿½ abates. You would buy the June FTSE at (say) ï¿½10 per point. For every point it rises, you make ï¿½10. If it goes up 100 points, you make ï¿½1000. Of course, if you get it wrong and the index falls by fifty points (say), you lose ï¿½500.00.

You need of course to be very aware of the risks before you get involved. As with any investment or business, you can lose money. If, by nature, you are a timid, cautious person, then it is definitely not for you. But if you have some money to play with, and arenï¿½t risk adverse, then financial spread betting is the one of the best possible ways you can make a great deal of money completely tax freeï¿½ and there are clever ways of limiting your losses so you never lose more than you can afford.

Unlike most businesses, it is possible to get involved with an absolute minimal outlay and take a position without buying a single thing. You do have to ï¿½backï¿½ your position with a certain amount of cash, but this is ï¿½insuranceï¿½ money, NOT stake money.

The best thing is you can try it for free without any risk at all. You can ï¿½dry tradeï¿½ with ï¿½monopolyï¿½ money until you get a feel for how it works and are confident enough to start using real money.

Financial spread betting has become so popular primarily because of the relationship between risk and capital. It is highly leveraged and you can make huge profits with only a limited amount of capital and risk. The fact that there is (unlike with most investments) no stamp duty or tax also helps make it extremely attractive.

So if you are of the right temperament, spread betting can be a very lucrative way of making an amazing income in your spare time. But be warned, if used recklessly or without the correct knowledge it can result in large losses.
About the author:

Gary Anderson.
http://www.spreadbettingsecrets.com

Gary Anderson is the author of ï¿½Betting On A Fortuneï¿½
the best selling book on how to make money from financial
spread betting.

To get a FREE COPY of Garyï¿½s course ï¿½7 Steps To Successful
Spread Bettingï¿½, visit http://www.spreadbettingsecrets.com

How To Win At Sports Betting
by: Ellison Mansfield

If you've read any of my articles before, you know I always emphasize the fact that there are many viable systems for any type of gambling. Sports betting is no exclusion. I've tested and found success with several sports betting systems (see http://www.insidersystem.com/sports.html), several of which would allow someone to quit their job and make a full time living at it. Here is just one simple system for you to test for yourself...

Take your fixed odds coupon and decide on one of the following three numbers - 13 - 32 - 38. For this example we will choose number 32. Once you have made your choice place the score of 1-1 in the correct score section next to the teams that are playing at number 32 on the coupon for that week.

We simply back this number every week until we have a win. The three numbers I gave you have proved themselves to be quite consistent at attracting the score of 1-1 (One all).

With this bet you will need to increase your stake after a few weeks if you haven’t won by then. The following is recommended;

- Weeks 1 to 5 use a 1 point stake.
- Weeks 6 to 8 use a 2 point stake.
- Weeks 9 to 10 use a 3 point stake.
- Week 11 - 4 points
- Week 12 - 5 points
- Week 13 - 6 points
- Week 14 - 7 points
- Week 15 - 8 points
- Week 16 - 10 points
- Week 17 - 12 points and so on....

A point can be anything, £1 or £2 etc. If we assume that we have a win on week 6 we would have placed a 2 points bet here. This would win us back 11 points at odds of 11/2, plus our 2 points stake, making 13 points. During the previous 5 weeks we lost 5 lots of 1 points, so all in all we’ve made 8 points profit.

As you can see, this system played consistently over the long term can bring you regular winnings. Until next time, please bet responsibly, and continue to educate yourself to master your skills and gain the edge over the casino, the bookie, or whoever you're playing against!

Tips For Football Betting
by: Rob Mellor

How depressingly gray would be a world where everything is governed by a set of universal rules rigorously shaping everything? Isn’t it better if we strike back with a chance to confound the tweed coated straight laced brigade and weave a little exotic odds into life that are not really approved of. It is precisely this change that inspires even the most sober of us to risk a couple of quid. But the art of a successful competition is to not only create a game that has a real chance of success for the entry stake, but allows us to lose that stake without significant damage to our ongoing lifestyle. Placing bets on football matches using various tips and tactics helps us achieve this motive.

In this article we shall thus discuss about the major tips and tactics that help us make the best of our money. Football betting is not like the other traditional casino games. Those games are games of chance where the house always has a built-in edge. Football betting is different in that you can choose which games to wager on and which games to pass on. By only betting on games that have a positive expected return and passing on games that have negative expected return, the football betting enthusiast can thus turn the tables on the sports book and put himself in the position to always have the edge.

Basic knowledge of sports handicapping is required

Football betting requires a basic knowledge of sports handicapping. You need to understand what goes into determining the spread and how to arrive at an educated guess at the game outcome. Football handicapping is part science and part art. The best football handicappers not only know how to analyze the statistics, they also have an instinct gained from years of experience. To acquire these skills and instincts the punter needs to do handicapping for him self using picks and recommendations from other bettors as simply a starting point.

Handicapping is all about acquiring and using the right information

Handicapping is all about acquiring and using the right information. You are attempting to predict the future. You do that by looking at what has happened in the past, which is where statistics are useful, and by looking at the current situation, which is where the latest news is critical.

However one should always remember that even the best handicappers are rarely right more than 58% of the time. Our goal should be to win more than 50% of the bets.