Looking into live betting part 4

Following on from part three then, what must be pointed out however is that when you want to make a bet then obviously you must have enough CLEARED funds in your account to make that bet. If you wish to back Arsenal at 2.4 for £200 then you must have £200 in your account to make that bet. You may say that this is rather obvious and you would be correct but what is not immediately obvious to many novice punters is that you cannot make a bet with money that you already have tied up with another bet.

Let me explain, let us say for example that you have just backed the 1.25 favourite in the 2.30 at Windsor and it has duly repaid you by romping to victory and your total win is £150 on that particular wager plus your stake back. But you had £122 left in your account after you made the bet on the favourite at Windsor. After seeing your horse win, the system takes several minutes to process the result and the money to go into your account.

Because of this, that now means that you cannot back anything with any more than the £122 that you currently have in your account. So if you want to back a mount in the imminent 2.35 at Southwell then your limit is £122 until your funds from the 2.30 at Windsor actually clear. It also means that you cannot LAY anything as well that would have a total liability of more than £122 until that money goes into your account.

Let me give you another example, let us say that you have exactly £1000 in your account and you think that England at 8-1 have little or no chance of winning the 2010 Football World Cup. The decimal online sports betting odds system that betting exchanges use would quote this as 9.0 meaning that you would return 9 x whatever your bet was.

So an 8-1 shot when you are BACKING your fancy would in fact be risking £100 to win £800 but you would collect £900 because of the fact that you would also be returning your original stake as well, meaning that you would be collecting 9 x whatever your bet was. But when you LAY a selection then you are in fact acting as the bookmaker so your total possible win is £100 if England do in fact fail to win the World Cup. But you have acted as bookmaker and have given odds of 9.0 (8-1) so if England do go on to lift the trophy then your loss will be £800 and not £100 as many new exchange punters think.

This means that as soon as you LAY England at 8-1 or 9.0 then you are tying up not £100 but £800 which means that you will only have £200 out of the £1000 that you originally had left inside your account as the prospect of you losing the bet is factored in by the system and your money will not be returned until England are eliminated from the competition and your total possible loss (£800) is returned plus your £100 winnings thus making your new balance £1100 (less commission) presuming of course that you have not placed any more action in the meantime.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson