Looking into the betting exchange Jungle part six

BETTING IN RUNNING

As an add on to talking about market speed then I think that it is only fair that we now discuss the dangers of betting in running and how market speed ties in with that. The amount of time that you will have to place your wager while an event is in progress is really dependent on the type of event. If you are watching the final round of the US Masters from the Augusta National for instance and Tiger Woods hits a 320 yard drive off the 15th tee in the closing stages to set up a possible birdie chance, then you have several minutes before he walks down the fairway and plays his next shot in which to place a bet.

Likewise in a game like Tennis for instance, there is a period where the players change ends where the action actually stops for a brief period. Cricket is another game where in running betting moves relatively slowly except in circumstances where it is drawing to the close of the match and a vital wicket or run could change everything.

So in short, you have a lot more time in which to operate when betting in running in certain sports over others. Sports like horse racing and football are very fast moving and the action is constant and especially in sports like horse racing. As soon as a horse race begins then the action is constant all the way until the finish line thus making the in running betting activity very frantic indeed and mistakes and misclicks are common place. Staying on the subject of mistakes for a minute, I feel that we really ought to touch on the subject of best price for a minute.

BEST PRICE

Before the betting exchanges came along, we as punters were really programmed to back horses or anything else for that matter to achieve a positive result. Be it either backing your fancy to win or to run into a place, we were still wagering money on the outcome of a result that had to be positive in order for us to win. But the betting exchanges changed all that. Now suddenly a negative event like a horse falling or a team losing could be a money earner for us.

Punters already were aware that getting the best price when backing something to win was highly advantageous. If you could get 10-1 when most other people were only getting 8-1 then you had a far better chance of being a successful punter in the long term than those that basically just took any old price. So when people go on the exchanges they are already programmed to try and get a better price when backing.

But here comes the snag and a pitfall that although may seem terribly obvious, many new exchange punters have fallen into numerous times. That trap is when it comes to actually LAYING. Whenever you are looking to lay something then you are looking to obtain the SHORTEST possible price and not the highest.

Remember, when you lay then you are accepting a bet from another punter or group of punters so you are in fact offering them odds on a particular event. Because you are offering someone else odds then it only stands to reason that you want to offer the skinniest price that you can possibly get away with. If you believed in your own mind that England had absolutely no chance of lifting the 2010 Football World Cup then you want to offer the shortest or to take the shortest price you can manage in the slim possibility that you are wrong.

If you could LAY England to win the World Cup (meaning that you were accepting other peoples bets who thought that they would win) at 2.0 (Even money) then this would be a tremendous result for you as England at Even money to win the World Cup before the event even started is far too short a price. Even if you lay them and you are wrong and they go on to lift the trophy then you are still only paying out even money.

But you should not LAY England at any price simply because you don’t expect them to win the competition. If you lay England at 100.0 (99-1) then you have offered odds of 99-1 to other punters who want to back England which is still grossly wrong but in the other direction and in a direction that can seriously hurt you I might add. So to recap then, when you are looking to back your fancy then you are looking for the best possible price which means the highest possible odds. But you are looking for the shortest possible lay price when you are opposing a selection.