BETTING EXCHANGES v TRADITIONAL BOOKMAKERS

[MCLARKE]

There has been some debate, in particular from @bymatrix and @tonythepaint about whether bets should be placed on the exchanges or with the traditional odds bookmakers.

I think this is a crucial question and worthy of a thead of its own.

Personally I think the betting exchanges are the best thing to have happened to betting for many years and without them I think I would given up a long time ago.

I have been analysing my AW bets this year and these are the returns from the 112 winners that I have had. The SPs range from 2/7 to 18/1.

SP	471.50
Early prices	514.01
BOG	549.92
BSP	569.52

 

This indicates that betting on the exchanges is the logical option.

It will be interesting to hear the views of others.

 

 

[bymatrix]

The one thing i've a particularly strong view about is that you need BOTH bookmakers and exchanges with the reasons being fairly obvious if you're a multi-dimensional punter , so much so that if forced to give one up it'd be a seriously difficult choice for me personally.

Exchange needs are fairly self explanatory in that the odds are far superior for my double digit needs , my tennis & cricket low lays require an exchange and i'm fortunate to have chosen the two sports with the highest liquidity so there's never any matching issues , T20 cricket for example i'd say averages over £20 million matched with the IPL average matched over £50 million per game and there isn't another sport that gets within a decimal point near those figures.

Bookmakers are a necessity for me personal for a few reasons , firstly bookmakers are virtually compelled to stick rigidly to their general rules which means place terms are therefore set in stone , there's an abundance of races out there in which bookmakers cringe at the fact they have to pay 1/5th odds 1,2,3 in certain races when the mathematics would suggest it should be 1/10th 1,2,3 but as that's not operationally possible for them they're easy targets , that said you need to be smart enough to work out ways of placing those bet types such as friends accounts , shop visits on your travels or maybe  setting up a syndicate , those bad e/way singles and multiples are difficult if you're only lazy enough to just go online and place as normally so you need to think outside the box and stay under the radar so to speak.

A second reason for needing bookmakers is the fact  they're only human so they make errors and there are plenty of great opportunities with bookmakers to take advantage of that you just wouldn't get on the exchange with their 100% books practically governed by BOT's these days.

I honestly believe that punters not utilizing both exchanges and bookmakers must be too one-dimensional in their punting and just have to be missing out on opportunities , the low lays , higher win odds on the outsiders i crave for just aren't available with bookmakers whereas the fantastic value place terms in non handicaps aren't available on the exchanges , yes the exchanges have place betting and an e/way market but the races i'm talking about are poor value on the exchange because of the enforced place terms the bookmakers are forced to offer as stated earlier.

In summary you'd have to say the downside of the exchange  ( depending on what bet types you play ) is there are never any concessions due to the fact you're not punting with a bookmaker but probably some other punter like you living 200 miles away somewhere so Betfair naturally want their 2% so there's no room for any concessions whereas another advantage of bookmaker accounts is there's concessions galore these days , they may not be for you but for tenner punters there's some great value if selective like extra places , flash odds  etc which the exchange can't offer , plenty of examples on a Saturday when you get say even money for a 2/7 shot as a special concession which we know are for both loyalty but also to attract new customers , unfortunately all my accounts are restricted to pennies for stuff like that which is why i needed a syndicate but for tenner punters who can muster maybe 5 accounts there's loads of free money available everywhere these days so lay it off and take the lunch money if you don't fancy holding on to it , still plenty of punters not restricted so i'm sure they look forward to this stuff providing they know the opportunity exists.

In a nutshell i'd say in 350 betting days for me in a calendar year i'd need both bookmakers & exchanges in at least 330 of them during some part of a gambling day , i'm a strategic gambler that generally doesn't have to pick horses to fancy as the selections pick themselves so when opportunities arise be it mathematically or whatever reason i need both an exchange and bookmaker account open to take advantage because i've no idea where the next opportunity will appear.

Probably didn't need to type any of the above because it'll be like teaching granny to suck eggs to the majority but it's just my view  that to continue making money long term you will always need both Exchanges and Bookmakers.

 

Good luck all     .