UKC

I'm looking into trying to dabble a little on the Betfair exchange. I'm still at the stage of understanding what I'm doing and setting things up so that it can trade itself on my given settings/preferences throughout the day, but I'm interested if anyone else is doing this, or has looked into it before?
Opinions/experiences?

In reply to Dominicandave:

My tip would be: pop down to your nearest bookies, and count how many people are taking money away and how many are putting money in for a couple of hours.

In reply to Dominicandave:

Have a search online for matched betting. It is possible to guarantee profits through exploiting bookmakers' promotions and offers (it's not technically betting, as you guarantee a positive outcome). You have to know what you're doing, but there are sites that explain the process very clearly.

And yes, if you just want to gamble you're almost certainly going to lose in the long term.

In reply to Dominicandave:

E trade give a 28 day dummy trial on a live L2 platform

In reply to Andy Hardy:


That is exactly what made me think about giving it a go, bookies are the winners and if I can profit off that then....................

In reply to Durkules:

I know several people who make long-term profits gambling. Odds setters are not infallible and if you research effectively and know your chosen field well (that is, have superior information) it is always possible to find instances where the bookies' odds are not a true reflection of the probability of an outcome. Remember bookmakers have to offer odds for every event, gamblers have the luxury of being able to chose their bets. It's hard work though - hours spent every night following form-lines and watching videos for evidence that, say, horses are better than the numbers on their records suggest. Frankly most of the people I know who do it, would probably earn more spending the time doing overtime but they enjoy the mental exercise for its own sake.

In reply to thebigfriendlymoose:

The big attraction for me is being able to make lays, If you understand form well then laying dogs or horses should be rather easy, but with the lay the risk of your payout is huge. If all the dogs fall over and that three legged mongrel you made your lay comes in a £5 lay can mean you have to pay out Hundreds. I study greyhound form pretty well and so know picking losers has got to easier than winners.
Other than the liability I'm trying to figure out where the catch is. I feel like I could tell you one of 6 dogs that would lose regularly and so I am suspicious that I do not quite understand exactly how this works. I'm pretty sure it is as I think and when it comes down to it laying a dog over £100 will be just as difficult as playing it for £100 to win. In theory it seems much easier than betting to win. My research continues.

In reply to Dominicandave:


therein lies the rub... it's not a matter of understanding form "well", it's if you understand the form better than the market.

I am not into the dogs, but by reputation, I would be wary. The prize money is a pittance for most dogs races, so from what I have heard the only money to be made for trainers is by betting. So, there is an incentive for trainers to have their dogs run poorly for a few races to drive up the odds for a future gamble. I have heard a lot of disquieting stuff about the prevalence of doping in dog racing - trainers giving dogs tranquilizers etc (the traditional method was supposedly sponge cake soaked in lemonade to bloat them!). My family are more into horses and I know these days that my Dad tends to stick to high grade races - as they have the most trustworthy form-lines (although, the penalty is that the information is more widely known so it is harder to gain an edge on the market).