Did you know that using a sportsbook is not the only way you can enjoy sports betting? Many savvy punters are now realising that a betting exchange can offer them a far greater flexibility when looking to back or lay bets.
However, if you are uninitiated into the ways of betting on the exchanges, it can be a little confusing when compared to the options found on a traditional betting site.
So, in this ultimate guide to using betting exchanges, we are going to explore a little more about the process of matched betting. Including what the key difference is between a back bet and a lay bet.
We’ll also look at how you can calculate winnings based on the different options available to you at a betting exchange and of course, we’ll give you our verdict on which are the best betting exchange sites available to you as a bettor.
How Does A Betting Exchange Work?
It can seem complicated when you investigate how to use a betting exchange. However, it is not as tricky as it appears, and it is worth learning because they offer you a very good chance to get the best possible odds on a typical sports event.
The key thing to understand is that with a bookmaker, you are betting against the betting site. On a betting exchange, you are betting against other exchange users.
What does that difference mean? Well in any bet, there must be someone that wants to place a bet (back) and there has to be someone willing to accept (lay) the wager. On a betting exchange, it is not the exchange provider that lays the wager, it is other punters. Let’s look at the two types of bet you can place on a betting exchange.
Back Bet
A back bet is when you back a selection in a particular market. It is effectively the same as betting with a bookmaker, only this time, the odds are set by and the winnings paid out, by other exchange users.
What happens is that a bettor wants to place a £100 bet on, for example, England to win the World Cup at odds of 8/1 and is looking for another user to accept that bet.
Another user on the exchange is offering odds of 8/1 for England to win the World Cup. Your bets are then matched (hence matched betting), you complete the bet slip and the bet placed.
If your bet wins, then the other betting exchange user pays you out. If it does not win, then the exchange user claims your stake.
Many people back bet at a betting exchange because other users will often offer much better prices for markets than you will find with online bookmakers. That can make placing the bet on an exchange more profitable than betting with a bookmaker offering traditional online betting.
Back odds are usually shown in the left-hand column of the two columns next to the betting options on site and at Betfair Exchange, these are shown in blue.
Lay Bet
This is where betting exchanges get slightly more complicated, but don’t worry, a lay bet is simply a bet against a stated outcome. What do we mean by that? Let’s use a simple example of a football match between Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid and it is a game that you feel Atletico Madrid will win.
When you Lay a bet here, you are not betting on Atletico to win, you are laying a bet instead on Real Madrid not to win. On a betting exchange, you will see two colour coded columns. We’ve already said the Blue column shows the odds when you want to back that selection. The pink column shows the odds available if you want to Lay the bet.
How do I Lay a bet?
The process to Lay a bet is easy. Simply click on the Lay odds you are interested in and then you are invited to type in the stake. All match odds shown when placing bets on an exchange are shown as decimal odds.
This stake is not what you are putting on this event to happen. Instead, you have now become the bookmaker. The stake is the figure that you are willing to accept as a bet. It is, therefore, how much you will win if the bet does not win. However, you will also notice that when you click on the odds to lay a bet, there is a button that states “Liability”.
What is my Liability?
Liability is how much you will need to pay out if your lay bet loses. Your liability is based on the odds of the Lay bet in question and how much was wagered as the stake.
For example, if a Lay Bet offers odds of 2.38 on under 2.5 goals being scored in a game and you are happy to accept a Lay Bet of up to £10, then your Liability would be £13.80. That’s because a £10 bet would see the Back bettor win £23.80, £10 of which would be their stake back and the other £13.80 is your liability. This is what you would pay out on top of returning the winning bettor their stake.
The important thing to note here is that you usually must have covered your Liability with the amount of money you have in your exchange account. If you don’t, then your lay bet will usually not be accepted.
Additionally, when you offer a Lay Bet, it must be accepted by another punter in order to proceed. If your Lay Bet is not matched with another exchange user (or users) who want to place bets at those odds, then your bet may be unmatched, or just partially matched.
Commission On Lay Bet Winnings
Another thing to note here is that if you do generate a return with a Lay bet, then you will pay a small commission on your winnings, usually between 2% and 5%.
Savvy punters will factor in these commissions on their winnings to ensure that they still make a profit when matching bets on a betting exchange.
Can I Place Bets Like an Accumulator or Yankee Bet on a Betting Exchange?
Not usually no. Because an accumulator or Yankee bet offers a low chance of a very high payout, there are usually not enough users with enough liquidity in their finances to offer these kinds of bets.
Similarly, you won’t find users offering free bets to other users, although sometimes when you sign up with a site, you can earn yourself a welcome bonus some of which come with free bets for new customers.
Can I Bet In Play on Betting Exchanges?
Yes, similar to standard online betting sites, the best betting exchanges will offer extensive In Play betting on which you can back and lay bets.
What is the best of all the Betting Exchange sites for all bettors?
There are several betting exchanges available online, but there is no doubt that the Betfair Exchange is easily the most popular and accessible for bettors in the UK. If you open an account with Betfair, you not only access their standard betting site, but you also gain access to the Betfair Exchange, which allows you to back and lay bets.
However, what makes Betfair so popular is the breadth of markets on offer. As one of the most popular exchanges in the world, Betfair exchange has thousands of users, offering a wide variety of markets, complete with their own odds. So many users mean more odds and markets on offer for fixtures and that lessens the chance of issues such as unmatched bets or partially matched bets.
Another good reason to use a site like Betfair exchange is their wide range of promotions, as well as extensive In Play betting options.
We hope that our betting exchange guide has helped you gain more confidence both in terms of making back and lay bets, as well as using an exchange. There is no doubt that a novice bettors first betting exchange experience can be exciting and confusing. However, we hope that you will now be confident to bet on an exchange and explore what some of the biggest betting exchanges in the world have to offer.
What you should take at the very least from our beginner’s guide to betting exchanges, is that there are alternatives to online bookmakers. Furthermore, you can be successful betting on the exchanges like Betfair, with and against other exchange users, as you can when you place a bet with a traditional betting site.
