Betfair Exchange

betfair exchange

Betfair

Betfair exchange is the most popular betting exchange online. Formed in 2000, they have grown to become the name of online betting exchanges and claim to have over 4 million customers worldwide.

 

Betfair Exchange homepage

Betfair Exchange homepage

 

Click here to sign up to Betfair Exchange

 

It is important to note that Betfair has a sportsbook (a sportsbook is another name for a bookmaker) as well as an exchange. When placing lay bets you must do so on Betfair Exchange as the sportsbook does not allow lay bets. You can visit the exchange at https://www.betfair.com/exchange/ or by visiting https://www.betfair.com and clicking on ‘exchange’ in the navigation bar.

If you haven’t used a betting exchange before, it can be quite intimidating. There are a lot of options to choose from but once you’ve placed your first couple of bets you’ll see how easy it is.

When you land on the Betfair exchange homepage you’ll notice lots of blue and pink boxes with odds in them. These represent back and lay bets. The blue boxes are for back bets and the pink boxes for lay bets.

 

Betfair exchange back and lay bets

 

 

Betfair available fundsInside each blue and pink box you will see two things.

1 . The odds

2 . The available funds

 

There must be enough available funds on the selection you want to bet on to cover your bet. Using the example above, if you wanted to back Man City at odds of 1.97 for £150 then this would be fine as there is £163 available on that bet. However, if you wanted to lay Man City with a stake of £6500 then your bet wouldn’t be fulled matched as there is only £6242 available. What would happen in this instance is your bet would be partially matched and you would have £258 unmatched (£6500-£6242). The unmatched amount may be matched eventually if more funds become available and Betfair will do this automatically unless you decide to cancel you bet before it’s fully matched. When doing matched betting, you should always make sure there are enough funds available before placing your bet. Matched betting is all about guaranteeing a profit and if your bet isn’t guaranteed to be matched then you could lose money.

 

Placing lay bets on Betfair Exchange

You will be using Betfair Exchange to place lay bets rather than back bets so lets take a look at the process.

Once you have found the event you wish to bet on, check that the available funds are equal to or above your stake amount and that the odds on the event haven’t changed. If there are available funds and the odds are correct, then you’re good to go. Click on the pink box and you will notice that your bet will be added in the section on the right hand side of the page (see image below). Enter your lay stake into the box under ‘Backers stake’ and click the ‘Place bets’ button. You may then be required to confirm your bets if the associated check box is ticked.

how to place a lay bet on betfair

 

matched bet on Betfair ExchangeChecking your lay bet has been matched

Once your bet has been placed, you can check it has been fully matched by clicking on the ‘open bets’ tab.

You can also check if multiple bets have been matched by going to My Account > My Bets.

 

In-Play Bets

Bookmakers give a wide variety of betting offers to their customers, some of which include in-play offers. An example of a common in-play offer is :

‘Bet £10 in-play on Manchester City v Arsenal and receive a £10 free bet to use in-play on Liverpool v Everton’

Both bookmakers and betting exchanges allow you to place bets in-play which allows you to take advantage of these offers using matched betting. However, odds can change quickly in-play as events are happening fast and so you must place your back and lay bets quickly. It is recommended that when completing in-play offers you do so at half time (for football matches). Odds during half time usually don’t change as much as there is nothing happening in the game which will dramatically affect the odds.

 

Click here to sign up to Betfair Exchange

 

Betfair Mobile

Both Betfair Sportsbook and Betfair Exchange are available on mobile devices either in a web browser or as an app from the app store. Betfairs award-winning app is available for iPhone, Android and Blackberry phones. Betfair exchange mobile site is well laid out and placing bets isn’t very different to placing them on your PC. The colour schemes are the same as their web-based site meaning that back bets are still shown in blue and lay bets in pink.

Betfair exchange mobileBetfair exchange app

Betfair Exchange Mobile examples

 

 

Betfair Exchange Customer Support

Betfair offer support to their customer via email, telephone, help articles, social media and live chat. You can access all of the support methods by going to the Betfair Exchange homepage and clicking on the ‘Help’ button at the top of the page and then to ‘Contact Us’. Typical response times for emails are 2-4 hours while live chat and phone support is usually within 30s-1 minute. Below are links to Betfairs support pages.

[list]
[item icon=”fa-check” style=”color:red”]Email (click here)[/item]
[item icon=”fa-check” ]Forum (click here)[/item]
[item icon=”fa-check” ]Facebook (click here)[/item]
[/list]
[list]
[item icon=”fa-check” ]Twitter (click here)[/item]
[item icon=”fa-check” ]Live Chat (click here)[/item]
[item icon=”fa-check” ]Telephone (0344 871 0000 (Mon-Fri 7:30am-12:30am))[/item]
[/list]

 

Conclusion

Betfair are the main choice of betting exchange for most matched bettors. Mainly due to the fact that there is usually more availability on markets and so there are more choice of events to bet on where your stake will be matched. However, other exchanges do offer better value in that they charge a lower commission rate. All matched bettors should have a Betfair Exchange account but it is advisable to check if there are enough available funds on other exchanges which have lower commission rates before placing your lay bets in order to maximise profits. Thankfully, most matched betting sites show you which exchange to use in order to extract maximum profit from your bets.

 

Click here to sign up to Betfair Exchange