• Betting Exchange Strategies
• Betting Exchange Usa

In a world where football is getting more and more exposure to the world through channels such as television deals and streaming services it’s only natural that the betting markets follow. That doesn’t mean all the money is flowing into the traditional bookies pockets though with exchanges seeing considerable growth. Here we look at the top 5 betting exchanges.

1. Smarkets

A betting exchange allows members to bet against each other rather than a bookmaker. Customers can offer odds to, or request odds from, fellow bettors. Check out our guide to the Betfair Exchange. Why take a Betting Exchange course. Doing a Betting Exchange course is a direct investment in yourself with the aim of growing professionally and humanly by learning a profession and drastically. What is a Betting Exchange? Betting exchanges give you the chance to bet against other customers rather than the house. You can choose to play the role of punter and “back” selections as you would do. Betting Exchanges, on the other hand, make money by charging winning bets a commission – the actual rate varies by exchange but is usually around 5%. Betfair vs Betdaq. Betfair was the first betting exchange. But by coming to a betting exchange you can also lay a bet which means that you could bet on a particular team not to win the tournament. By winning your bets you would be paid out by the losing.

Commission: 2% Liquidity: High PunditFeed Rating: 5/5

When it comes to betting exchanges there is one that stands clear of the competition; that’s Smarkets. The big boys of the exchange world can be hard to separate when looking at factors such as the depth of sports and markets available because they all offer more than you’ll ever likely need. Liquidity i.e. the coverage of money in the platform is a similar story for the top end exchanges with only the most obscure bets not necessarily matched in a reasonable time frame. Why then do Smarkets top our list?

Well, they’re simply better than the competition. Their team seem to acknowledge that market penetration can’t really extend any further than it has to change the experience for individual punters so they’ve focussed energy on providing customers value and an excellent service. For starters, their 2% commission is as generous as we’ve seen (you can get 1% but it relies on huge stakes to be placed) and they’ve been offering it at that level for years. You’ll find others with a 2% commission but they’ve generally had their hand forced.

On top of that, their website and mobile apps are super easy to use. They look good, they’re simple to move around and the Smarkets app side even allows users to vary the colour theme. It’s a small detail but shows how much they think about their end user, which is a rarity in this niche. Finally, you’ve got a slick engine behind the scenes that provides useful graphics and manages price fluctuations for you when placing bets in extremely fluid markets such as in-play events.

Once the bonus is credited to your account, losses will be refunded up to the bonus amount. You must deposit at least the qualifying deposit of £20 (or currency equivalent) in a single amount with your first deposit to be eligible for the rebate.

2. Betdaq

Commission: 2% Liquidity: Medium/High PunditFeed Rating: 4/5

Betdaq is far from a newcomer to the world of betting exchanges with 20 years of trading under their belts. It’s no surprise that they’ve built up a reasonable customer base over that time with their website easy to navigate and also mobile friendly; their app is decent too. Like most exchanges, they offer all the major betting markets and have plenty of liquidity within them, which enables punters to wager as they so wish.

Unfortunately, as the company strive to offer markets on less mainstream sports and events that flexibility can be reduced. This occasionally makes finding matches for your bets more difficult. Their in-play betting is very strong although football is a market where they need to improve that aspect; live streams and improved statistics would be a solid step but it’s not the end of the world with other resources available to delve into online. It shouldn’t be seen as a deal breaker.

Despite having a couple of areas for improvement, Betdaq is still one of the better exchanges out there and is worth considering – particularly as a secondary option. Standard commission is 2% with the occasional offer running to give 0% for limited periods of time. The company falls under the Ladbrokes Coral group as of a 2017 takeover and as such you have plenty of protection whilst depositing and withdrawing funds is an absolute doddle.

3. Betfair

Commission: 5% Liquidity: High PunditFeed Rating: 3.5/5

If anyone comes close to matching Smarkets in a pure gambling respect then it is Betfair. The company, who have been going for 21 years, are arguably the biggest name in exchange betting so it’s little surprise that they have plenty of users backing and laying bets at all hours of the day. We’re not suggesting you blindly follow the crowd but the fact Betfair, like Smarkets, have strong loyalty from their respective customer bases means you’ll rarely find events where you can’t pair your bets off – that’s critical to the success of a betting exchange.

The platform is well marketed, comes with an associated sportsbook and you can get your bets on with your eyes closed such is the way the website is structured. Betfair exchange, supported by its traditional betting site, pushes plenty of offers your way. These can be an extra boost with betting strategies like matched betting but you do need to factor in a 5% commission to ensure you’re satisfied with the overall levels on offer; if you’re keen to tap into the live betting markets then it’s possible you’ll see past a few percent because Betfair underpin their in-play bets with better streams than the other exchanges.

If, however, the 5% commission is putting you off giving them a go then this is something that can be reduced to 2%, however, in order to get this deal you do have to forfeit special offers – namely the best odds guaranteed on their sportsbook. The other thing to consider is the customer service angle, which is an area Betfair could look to improve particularly with Smarkets being excellent in this area.

4. Matchbook

Commission: 2% Liquidity: Medium PunditFeed Rating: 3/5

In straight up betting exchange terms, Matchbook can consider themselves hard done by to sit further down on our list. Unfortunately, we’re a football site and the dominant markets on Matchbook are the American sports such as NFL, NBA and MLB. That doesn’t mean it is redundant to the beautiful game though; far from it in fact.

For starters their commission is just 2% making it competitive with the cheapest exchanges out there and their depth of markets is pretty impressive with bet matching rarely a problem on the bigger sporting events. When it comes to the user experience, Matchbook stacks up pretty well too. The website is straightforward to interpret even for a new user and their mobile apps follow a similar pattern; they’re not revolutionary but won’t cause any problems either.

Like pretty much all online bookmakers, whether they’re traditional bookies or exchanges, Matchbook offer a sign up bonus and will allow you to deposit or withdraw through a plethora of methods. It’s worth noting their direct to bank withdrawals have a pretty hefty minimum at £500 but it doesn’t seem to bother their customers too much with a strong rating on trust pilot.

5. Ladbrokes

Commission: 5% Liquidity: Medium/High PunditFeed Rating: 3/5

We’ve already touched on Betdaq falling under the Ladbrokes Coral umbrella. Here we look at the Ladbrokes side of things, which comes with the huge perk of having the name of a high street name ‘on the tin’. The two platforms – Betdaq and Ladbrokes – are actually linked so regardless of where bets are wagered the funds go to the same place. This aids the liquidity for both.

If you’ve read our recommended betting platforms for 2021 then you’ll know our thoughts on the Ladbrokes website being pretty smooth and the exchange side is much the same. The venture into exchange betting is a fairly new one in comparison to the other sites listed but it does mean their mobile app has been purpose built as opposed to having been developed as a secondary thought as technology has developed. The app is very good.

Despite all the positive noises we’re making about the Ladbrokes exchange, there are a couple of reasons it ranks fifth compared to its partner, Betdaq, who we rank second. Firstly, although the two platforms are very similar, Betdaq provides a better all-round experience with a major difference the fact plug-in tools can be linked to improve market insight. This isn’t unique to Betdaq but is a notable absence on the Ladbrokes platform. The last big factor to consider is the commission. You can achieve 2% commission on Ladbrokes but it’s all relative to the amount of money you risk. With smaller bets, you’ll pay a higher rate of 5%.

At a Betting Exchange, the bets you place are against other punters rather than the bookmaker. This results in two key benefits – the ability to bet against something (eg: a specific horse not winning a race – known as a ‘lay bet’) and odds which are often better than those offered by a traditional bookie. The following table lists the leading betting exchanges for UK bettors.

List of Betting Exchanges

* Betdaq do not need to offer a commission based rewards program as they have it set at 2% for everybody.

Betting Exchanges Explained

The principle of how a betting exchange works is relatively simple. Each exchanged bet requires two or more customers who wish to place opposite bets. For example, one punter wants to bet that Arsenal will win the Champions League and one wants to bet that they wont.

When placing a bet with a traditional bookmaker the odds are set by the bookie, and you have no other choice but to accept the odds on offer or go elsewhere. At a betting exchange you are able to set your own odds – if the opposing bet is already available at the odds you have selected the bet is instantly ‘matched’ and good to go. However, if you decide to hold out for better odds your bet will remain ‘unmatched’ until somebody accepts those odds.

One of the most appealing features of a betting exchange is the ability to guarantee yourself a profit by hedging your original bet when the odds move in your favour. For example, lets say you place a bet on Manchester United to win the Premier League at the start of the season at 10/1. If they win their first 3 games and shoot to the top of the table, these odds will drop as the likelihood of them winning the league increase. You can now lay (bet against) Manchester United winning the premier league at the lower odds to lock-in a profit.

How Do Betting Exchanges Make Money?

Betting Exchange Strategies

A traditional sports betting site generates its revenue by working a margin into the odds they offer. So if you were to place proportional bets on every outcome of an event (eg: bet on every horse in a race), the money won would be less than your total stake.

Betting Exchanges, on the other hand, make money by charging winning bets a commission – the actual rate varies by exchange but is usually around 5%.

Betfair vs Betdaq

Betfair was the first betting exchange, and to this day remains the largest. However its biggest competitor, Betdaq, has been gaining ground recently thanks to its lower commission rate. In this next section, we’ll compare these betting exchanges on liquidity, odds, features & promotions.

Liquidity & Odds

As the larger of the two exchanges, Betfair definitely has the highest liquidity – although Betdaq continues to narrow the gap between the exchanges. In terms of odds, for the most part both Betfair and Betdaq are comparable although Betfair definitely has the edge on less popular markets.

This is, of course, before you take the betting exchange’s commission into account. Betdaq have recently introduced a 2% flat rate commission for all sports and markets, compared to Betfairs 5%. Therefore a winning bet at Betdaq would yield a slightly higher return than the same bet at the same odds at Betfair.

In the image below you can see a direct comparison between Betdaq (above) and Betfair (below) just before the start of a race.

Features

• Mobile Betting: As you would probably expect, both exchanges offer mobile apps for various smartphones and tablets – including iPhone, iPad, Android and Blackberry devices.
• Live Streaming: Betfair and Betdaq both offer live horse racing streams provided by ATR and RUK which you can watch for free provided you have placed a bet on the market. Betfair also offers live streams of various non-racing events such as soccer, tennis and basketball.
• Multiples: One type of bet which cannot be placed via an exchange platform is a multiple or accumulator bet. However, Betdaq and Betfair also offer customers traditional bookmaker style beting – where the bets are placed against the site rather than another customer.

History

A betting exchange allows punters to bet peer-to-peer. This means that instead of betting against a bookmaker, you actually bet against a fellow punter. The exchange allows you to lay a result, basically meaning you’re backing against a result.

The first exchange was set up by a site called Flutter.com in May 2000. A couple of months later the more familiar brand of Betfair was launched and the two eventually merged. Betfair were the first company to offer a full betting exchange experience by actually offering laying options on all their markets. The company has since gone from strength to strength and now reportedly controls over 90% of the betting exchange marketplace.

Betting Exchange Usa

Betfair was founded by Andrew Black and Edward Wray who were amongst the first people in the world to apply a betting exchange to the online betting market. For their efforts both Black and Wray went on to win many prestigious awards for innovation, most notably the Ernst and Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year award. The company went on to win the Queen’s award for Enterprise making them just one of 50 companies to have done so at the time.

Over the years the company continued to expand, not only in terms of the number of markets offered, but also the number of countries in which they operated. As it stands, Betfair currently accept major credit cards from over 40 countries in 10 different currencies.

The major pull a betting exchange such as Betfair has is that you often find yourself receiving inflated odds compared to what you would find at a bookmakers. This is mainly down to the fact that you bet with other punters rather than taking a price with a margin worked in to make it profitable for the bookmaker. Betfair make their money by taking a 5% commission on all matched bets. This is taken directly from the punter rather than the lines or odds set on their site.

As the company has continued to grow it’s of little surprise to see the market coverage and development of markets grow also. Every major sport from football to futsal, golf to Gaelic games and even mixed martial arts to motor sports can be found on Betfair, and the array of markets for each is vast. It’s much easier for a company such as Betfair to offer more markets than most bookmakers because they don’t need to research lines, set bets or anything like that as the punters do it themselves. The bookie simply open the market and lets the punter do the work.