Sports Trading Terms

Betfair Interface

Betfair is the most popular sports betting exchange and is most likely where you will start your trading adventure, so there is a Betfair interface explained below.

Legend:

1. RED – The best current odds and amount of money for back bets and lay bets.
2. YELLOW – Next best price to back and amount available at each price. 
3. BLUE – The next best lay odds and the amount of money waiting to be matched.

The advantage of the exchange is that you don’t have to set any Betfair odds alert to place a bet at the desired odds. Instead, you have to select a lay bet or back bet and then put your desired odds in the betting slip.

As you can see, the current odds to back Liverpool are 1.6. You will be shown your bet on the right-hand side if you click on these odds.

You can adjust and set the odds you want and place your bet there. If the odds are available, the bet will automatically be matched.

Betfair Trading vs Financial Trading

Sports and financial trading are based on buying and selling on the exchange.

The difference is that, as the name suggests, sports trading involves exchanging and trading the odds in the markets of various sports such as football, tennis, horse racing, basketball and others.

Financial trading is based on the exchange of a security (stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies, derivatives or any financial instrument).

Laying The Draw (LTD)

The name of this strategy speaks for itself and is one of the most well-known trading techniques.

The basic idea behind it is that we first bet against the draw, confident that if a goal is scored in football, the price on the draw will increase, and we’ll be able to trade our bet out by betting on the draw.

This would necessitate the scoring of a goal. Because when one team wins, the market considers the draw to be less likely, and hence the price rises.

After a successful transaction, you will be able to lock in a profit regardless of who wins the match.

• The first bet was a LAY the draw at odds of 4.0 for £100 and a £300 liability.
• The second bet was a BACK the draw at odds of 20 for £20.
• The result was a profit of £80.

Here is you can check individual cases of using this strategy:

• What is the difference between Lay the Draw with and without insurance?
• Lay the Draw Exit systems
• Laying the Draw and Backing 1-1 in practice!
• Laying the Draw and Backing 0-0 at a half time strategy!

The only thing you must keep in mind is that you need to be in a market where you can make a profit from the odds movement on a draw after a goal is scored.

Laying Correct Score Markets

In this strategy, our job is to place lay bets on correct scores, which we don’t think will happen. It is perfect for teams that tend to like scoring goals in the second half.

You may also lay bet several scorelines in the correct score market at halftime if you believe the game will go in a specific direction.

If you lay a few correct score markets, you will have a lot more green scorelines than if you were backing.

Especially for our readers: In-depth guide to correct score trading

However, you will most likely prefer to favour scorelines with lower odds since they are generally the most likely.

In this case, we placed a LAY bet on the following events:

• Score 0-0
• Score 0-3
• Score 1-0

The match ended 0-1, as we expected.

We were able to earn £57 by choosing the right football match.

Laying Big Favourites or Underdogs

This method is primarily suitable for those who don’t have a sizeable budget.

However, this strategy will always be a good choice if a few important conditions are met.

Laying big favourites makes sense because of several factors. So let’s check them out.

First of all, there is only a minimal risk when placing lay bets at very low odds; we are talking about prices below 1.30.

The lower the odds are, the lesser our liability will be.

Secondly, laying favourites makes sense when we expect a match in which the underdog will bravely face our favourites.

This, of course, includes matches where we expect a ‘Both Teams To Score’ bet.

Without question, it’s worth considering the team’s current position, not only financially but also in terms of staff as well as looking at recent matches.

Thirdly, such a trade can be withdrawn with a profit if we expect a draw at halftime.

As you know, the odds for the favourites to win after the break will increase significantly.

This means that the profit from laying favourites will be greater, and you’ll be able to make money at the halftime point before the event is even finished.

For example, we’ll check out the AC Milan vs Salernitana match above, in which I expect a goal from the visitors, as well as a fight from their side.

I’ll be back here as soon as the match is live 🙂

When else should you use the technique of laying big favourites? We have an exclusive bonus tip for you, which you can find on our Telegram channel.

So, get in the know by joining our community and check it out right now!

Scalping Pre-Race

It’s safe to say you are well aware that the odds before the start of a race can change dramatically in horse racing.

And this is the perfect time and place for all scalpers. Just take a look, and we assure you we took the first better race to present an example.

Think of what the differences would be with in-depth research. Here the difference between the lowest and highest price is 1.03

Ok, but let’s get back to basics first – let’s explain what scalping is. Scalping is a Betfair trading strategy that involves making money on small movements of prices, for example, from 1.9 to 2.0.

The fact that we presented an example in which the difference reaches over 1.0 is an excellent illustration of how much profit can be made if only we correctly predict the behaviour of prices and it goes in the direction we expect.

Some websites proclaim that scalping is best during the last 10 minutes before the race starts. NOT IN THIS CASE!

Why?

Because you make money on odds differences, and 10 minutes before the start of the race is simply a much more popular market, plus more money flows through it, which means that there aren’t massive changes in odds.

That’s how it is when you have no experience in scalping and you replicate information from other websites.

You may also like another ways of Betfair trading pre-race which we’ve reviewed in this article.

Laying front runners

This strategy is based on in-depth research. Why’s that?

The better and more thoroughly you can check the statistics and previous races of the horses you choose, the higher the chances of your success.

You need to look for horses and jockeys that have a very good start in a race.

Let’s say that the odds of your horse winning the race are estimated at 3.0. Then, after a successful start, the odds drop to around ~2.3 if your horse is in front.

This is when you should use LAY bets. 

In this technique, reaction speed is extremely important. Remember that this is live, real-time Betfair trading: odds can change significantly in a matter of seconds.

Don’t hesitate to leave the market with a minimal profit; it is better to have something than lose everything.

Laying the favourite

You might think that this scenario is the same as in football trading strategy, but it’s not at all :)!

Although the name is exactly the same, it’s something completely different. After all, you don’t expect both teams to score in horse racing, do you?

Enough with the jokes; let’s get down to business. What is it all about?

The biggest profits in this kind of Betfair trading come from as many races as possible in which you can exit the market with even the smallest gain.

You have to look for horses that are big favourites, BUT they don’t have the best start.

This way, you can exit the market with a profit after just a few dozen metres of racing.

The lower the odds are on the favourite, the bigger the profit after a few metres of the race.

Following strategies are:

• Second favourite horse racing system
• Laying 3rd favourites on lay system
• Betfair place market strategy
• Laying the field system
• Laying Horses Strategy Explained

Trading the course

To trade golf successfully, you simply have to love the sport. Without a basic knowledge of the players and major events, you won’t be able to make a profit.

PGATour.com is an incredible resource with a variety of fantastic statistics, and studying them might help you.

By the way, in case you didn’t know, the US PGA Tour is one of the most popular golf events!

The odds in golf can change dramatically; see for yourself in the above screenshot from the Hero World Challenge.

What can make the odds change?

• Player disposition
• Weather conditions
• Media releases

It should be noted that course trading looks slightly different in golf than in other sports, as it can be divided into several parts or lots, depending on the tournament.

Moreover, the exchange can offer different markets, and you need to be sure that you are trading in the right one.

Trading shots

It’s not hard to guess that this trading strategy is an in-play technique, so reaction time and decision-making are key.

Our goal is to profit from large price fluctuations that can occur in a single shot, especially when the market has already built in assumptions about what is likely to happen.

The single-shot technique can be used in various situations, including when players are ready to hit a difficult shot.

The idea is to spot areas where a significant price change is possible, but the market has not yet predicted it.

It takes practice to execute this kind of trade. To run it efficiently, you must have excellent liquidity so that you’re not caught short and unable to trade out your position.

On the other hand, you could take a look at a really talented putter who has just hit an approach shot into a green.

The market typically assumes they will two-putt from there, and if they do, the market is unlikely to react significantly.

However, if they hole the putt, their price might considerably decrease, offering you an excellent risk/reward ratio on the transaction.

Backing the server

When service games run as planned, i.e., the server wins the game, you will see that the odds for both players shift somewhat between the start and finish of the game.

These are the modest price fluctuations that we hope to capitalize on using this method.

When you back the server before they serve and lay them at the end of their service game, you’ll have earned a modest profit. You’ll continue generating minor profits that may build up to a nice sum after a few games.

If you notice any problems with a serving player, that will be the first sign that tells you to exit the trade at that point.

Remember, better a smaller loss than… you know how it goes!

So, what should you keep in mind when using this trading strategy?

In order for it to be profitable, you must choose tennis players who win games with their serves.

Ideally, the percentage efficiency should be above 70%.

Laying low prices

A lot of people love laying low prices because of the low risk.

And that’s what this trading strategy is. Even small shifts in odds can result in big profits when laying low prices.

The best time to trade this way is when the player is winning, for example, 2-0. Subsequently, their odds to win are much lower, and thus the lay odds are much better for us.

Then the tennis players have a psychological advantage over the opponent, and they can relax at this moment and lose a few points/games in a row. This will allow us to make money.

One of the most crucial factors to consider when laying at low odds is player personality attributes. You have to ask yourself which players are capable of losing the advantage they have built up.

On the other hand, which players have high deficit recovery stats? If you watch enough tennis matches, you’ll begin to see which players are mentally weaker than others in particular scenarios and are more prone to fold under pressure.

High Expectations

Don’t meddle with things that are way over your head. If your budget is only £20, don’t expect to make £1000 in two days.

That’s not what Betfair trading is about. If it were that easy, everyone would be using Betfair trading strategies, but in reality, it isn’t.

Overtrading

Overtrading is another fundamental mistake that coincides with a series of failures, after which you want to make up for lost money and fall into a loop, and thereafter end up with nothing in your account.

A lack of strategy goes hand in hand with this. Pick one or two events per day and focus only on them, and if you fail, get some rest and come back the next day with a clear head and lessons learned from the previous day.

Poor staking

The main rule you need to remember: a single trade should not exceed 5% of your budget, full stop. Never exceed this limit, no matter how confident you are in your profits, and you will thank us later.

If you surpass this threshold, it means that you don’t have the necessary self-discipline and, furthermore, that you are misplacing your trades, which will lead to a series of failures.

Whatever you do, don’t even think about progressive betting where you increase the stakes after each loss! Jeez, now we regret mentioning this, just promise you won’t do it 😊