The number of events that you can wager on with the betting exchanges is also staggering and because of the online nature of betting exchanges, the action is constant and is 24/7. Just because the last race has finished at Beverley and the evening football match between Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal has come to an end, that may not be the end of your punting day.

There may be race meetings in the United States or Australia that catch your eye or maybe there is a big fight in Las Vegas or a big Golf tournament drawing to a conclusion in the Far East. This kind of betting activity would be beyond the capability of a normal high street bookmaker. But perhaps the greatest advantage lies in the area of obtaining better prices on the whole.

This makes earning a living or winning money on a consistent basis from exchange betting a real possibility. For those who are good enough to obtain a consistent profit from the betting exchanges comes anther more subtle advantage.

Any punter who demonstrates skill and consistent success with a high street bookmaker is in considerable danger of having their action stopped…not so with the betting exchanges. You can bet and win as often as you like and the exchanges don’t care because they earn money from your action anyway through their commissions which typically start at 5% and go down on a sliding scale depending on your action.

Of course there is nothing like hands on experience to learn how best to do something but reading theory and primers like this one is still a great way forward if you are relatively inexperienced with betting exchanges. But as you begin to place bets then you will become aware of the fact that money is pooled together at certain prices.

For example, let us say that Roger Federer is trading at 1.25 to win his match against Lleyton Hewitt in the third round match at the French Open and that there is a total of £3700 to be potentially matched at that price. This £3700 is highly likely to not have come from one individual but a cluster of people who have been willing to take the opposite view and be willing to LAY Roger Federer at that price.

So this means that the figure of £3700 is in reality made up of numerous smaller amounts that have been pooled together. You could of course take that entire £3700 at 1.25 if you thought that Federer simply could not lose this match and you had enough funds in your account to make the bet. Or you could take a much smaller amount and just take say £50 of it for example.

But let us also say for example that there was only £80 on Roger Federer at 1.25 and you wanted to back him at that price for £200. If you clicked on the BACK button and entered in the details of your bet then the remaining £120 would be held in the system until someone wanted to match it at that price. You could also if you wanted CANCEL that remaining £120 and this is another great feature of betting exchanges.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson
Come and bet live at bwin live betting

Unlike the more traditional methods of betting, the exchanges allow the punter to bet in a totally unique way and actually match bets with other punters. In fact another name for it is “matched betting” which sums it up entirely because that is exactly what it is. Of course the reality of the situation is that you are not placing and taking bets with other individuals directly as your stake and winnings will tend to come from “pools” of other punters money rather than just from one individual.

The purpose of these articles is to essentially introduce you to this new exciting high tech betting world and to show you that rather than something to be avoided and feared that it is actually an avenue that is a lot more simple to go down than many people imagine. It is the sheer act of being able to “lay” someone else’s bet that attracts an awful lot of people to the betting exchanges. The thought of acting and operating almost like a high street bookmaker appeals to many people.

Another objective of this series will be to help the punter to avoid many of the common traps that new users and novices fall into when using the exchanges for the very first time.

With the much better average prices and the new found ability for the punter to back and lay, a whole new breed of professional punters sprung to the fore who started to earn a living from the betting exchanges who previously would not have had the opportunity in which to do it.

Once you have downloaded the software in the same way that you would download any other piece of software and opened an account then you really are ready to rock and roll so to speak. But as it has already been stated, when you place a bet then you are not placing that bet with a bookmaker or even with the exchange itself but with another punter or group of punters.

So for instance if you went onto the exchange and saw that Liverpool were priced at 2.0 (Evens) to beat Arsenal in a Premier League game at Anfield and you wanted to wager £50 on Liverpool to win then someone somewhere is willing to lay Liverpool at that price to lose to Arsenal.

One thing that needs to be pointed out before we go any further is how the site operates with regards stating what the prices are. The betting exchange sites use what are called “decimal odds” instead of the more conventional and traditional fractional odds that we in England have been used to since betting began. So for instance a traditional price of 4-1 would be shown as 5.0 (the four and the one combined) and 11-2 would be shown as 6.5 as 11-2 is 5 ½ -1 and 5 ½ + 1 would equate to 6 ½ or 6.5.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson
Come and bet live with bwin.com live betting and streaming

Take a quick look at the online sports betting odds available to bet on and you wonder when the compilers ever get to sleep! When these mistakes result in a bet priced for a larger return to the punter this is known as value and as it is in the punters favour when this happens it makes sense to bet on the outcome whilst the odds are good.

An example of a value bet would be as follows. A snooker match-up is available to bet on and each player has a 50% chance of winning. The odds would therefore be 2.00 on each player. (Forget about bookmakers pricing at 1.85 for each runner for now). If one player was 2.20 and the other 1.80 then you would be getting value by betting on the player priced at 2.20. Value betting means that as a punter if you bet on this match everyday then you would be profitable. If each player does win 50% of the time you would profit overall because you are getting 2.20 for a 2.00 bet. As you can see sports betting value is often difficult to find as the bookies work hard to avoid offering punters lots of value.

Value betting is possible in sports betting because odds compiling is based on statistics and opinions. Both the interpretation of statistics and opinion are subjective so it is almost impossible to collate the odds perfectly every time and this is why odds compilers are so sought after when they can exhibit profitable and stable results over many years.

An acute knowledge of your sport may enable you to understand some factors that have a bearing on a result better than bookmaker’s odds compilers can so you can find value in odds that are considered well priced.

Another difficulty in finding value bets is that the odds compiler for the bookmakers can look at the prices offered by other companies covering the same sports event. If they are out of line at 2.50 when everyone else is 2.20 they can change the price immediately. This is why value is often found early in the day on horse betting and sports betting before the bookmakers have a chance to review and amend the prices in accordance with the rest of the market. Using betting odds comparison sites are a great way to find out who is offering the best price, and therefore best value, for the bet which you want to place.

It is an easy trap to fall in to by justifying a bet you wish to place by saying it is a value bet. Sometimes it is just a bet you wish to place. A bet that you think is a good price may just be your opinion. It is very difficult to know what is a value bet actually is. You should consider yourself what your preferred return is on your bets and then search for bets you think will return your preferred profit amount. The value bet for you will be the choice you make regarding bets within that price range. If there are six options to bet on at 2.00 which is your preferred return, picking the best of those six is your own personal value bet, but it may not be considered value by any other punter.

Sports betting is a personal decision but you should keep an eye out for good tips on bets that are incorrectly priced as taking a bit of the value is profitable in sports betting. Value bets can be found in any sport that odds are offered on so scour the markets in your search for them. The more often you can make value bets, the more profitable your sports betting will be.

By Malcolm Clarke

This professional gambler probably had top rated information on gambles that were primed possibly months in advance. I’m no expert on horse racing but I imagine that this is the only real method where big profits can be made. Sports betting does provide more secure ways of punting but knowledge of a “gamble” does not really exist in sports. We have seen attempts in Snooker for example to manipulate odds, but on the whole Sports betting is quite straight forward in the matches playing themselves out quite fairly.

This means it is generally easier to calculate odds as a compiler making it really hard for punters to beat the over rounds and make sports betting profitable long term. Many have tried and few have managed to do it. So what does it take to win, is it even possible?

Neil “Bad Beat” Channing is a profitable staker of poker players these days and he tells of a time when he basically locked himself away in his bedroom everyday and made a living for two years paying off various debts by betting on sports. He says that he made £5000 per week and sent £4500 to his creditors and kept £500 for himself. Alas he did not go into detail about his methods to those profits, but it shows winning long term and winning well is certainly possible. As a reputable member of the gambling community, he was candid about his losses in other forms of gambling so we can assume he is honest about his wins.

You must have a keen eye for value. This is the key to good sports betting. Picking winners is fine but without value you are picking the winners out at the price favourable to the bookmakers. For instance, betting constantly on a heavy favourite in order to show a profit you need a long winning streak and the bookmakers have a knack of pricing the odds in their favour. Value allows you to win more than you should from the bet, giving you that winning edge over time. A talented sports bettor can spot value a mile away.

Spotting this value means considering all factors that contribute to pricing. This needs a solid understanding of the key components of the sport they are assessing and correct weighting of these factors against the odds of the outcome. For example, a football match involving Liverpool without Gerrard or Torres is a large factor in determining value. If Gerrard and Torres play, but Lucas is injured, their chances of winning probably remain the same as Lucas does not have the same impact on each game as the star players. This is an obvious example but the talented sports bettor will spot value based on far more subtle factors in a variety of sports.

True sports betting success means selecting a certain bet and knowing how value allows a profit over time. They will be able to handle the emotion of wins and losses and know that over time they are proven winners. Not many can, but big profits are on offer for those that learn and master the techniques. The talented sports bettor will know and utilise the betting exchanges, the bookmakers on the high street and be a keen statistician and follower of sports. Then they turn that into healthy profit. The encouraging thing for everyone is that all the information is out there, how it is used separates the winners from the losers and the big winners from the break even punters.

By Malcolm Clarke