For Betting Exchanges and Betting Exchange software
QUICK LINKS : A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z
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Auto (automatic) logging - See log
Auto (automatic) refresh - See refresh
Auto staking
Allows the software to automatically amend stake values in line with your target gain per tick in the market. Avoids any additional administration on the users behalf and therefore allows them to focus on the market.
Automation (Automatic or triggered betting)
Using automation you can get Bet Angel to fire an order into a market and any corresponding counter order at a predefined price. Its like saying, if the price of this horse goes above or below or is equal to this price then place an order in the market. All global settings such as offsetting and fill or kill apply to this feature if switched on.
Abbreviation of Application Program Interface, a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. A good API makes it easier to develop a program by providing all the building blocks. A programmer puts the blocks together.
Arbitrage
Taking advantage of a poorly priced market by creating a position that can not lose.
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The process of accepting an offer in a betting market. On viewing the market you will be offered prices to back or lay a selection. You would need to judge whether backing or laying the selection represents value and therefore place a bet by offering money to the market. This is the process of betting.
The list of odds available in a market. See also, making a book.
Book arbitrage
The process of correcting the over or under round on a book. All odds should add up to 100%. If they are below 100% then you could back the entire book and make a risk free profit. The chance of, for example, any horse winning a race or a football match ending in a win or draw for either team is always going to be 100%. There is a 100% probability that this will happen. If you can back below 100% of implied probability, the book is less than 100%, then you will make a profit. On the opposing side if you lay above 100% then you are accepting a reward of over 100% for a liability of only 100% and you will also make a sure fire profit.
Somebody who (generally) lays a list of odds (makes a book) for the betting market.
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Charting
The plotting of price movements on a graph so that you can see the medium and long term trend in prices.
Close position
The process of exiting a bet at the current price. If you have placed a bet in the market which has filled but the counter bet (which you have placed hoping to make a profit) is out of the money you may want to close your position. On Bet Angel clicking this button will exit your position instantly at the current market price.
Coming in
Describes the movement in odds when the odds shorten in price and the implied probability rises. A price is coming in if the digital odds move from 1.85 to 1.80. They have come in.
Confirm bet
When the confirm (or verify) bet option is ticked your order will not go directly into the market. It will ask for confirmation before entering the market. Most often used for large long term positions or to experiment or by new users wanting to test the water. Experienced users generally want their orders in the market as quickly as possible.
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The modern way of pricing a betting market. In the past odds used to be fractional but now they are often quoted, especially on exchanges, in digital odds.
Dutching
The process of equalising the bets placed on an event against their implied probability to ensure each selection is backed in proportion to their implied odds. Often people dutch in order to make a broad judgment on the race excluding horses that they 'know' stand little chance of winning. For example you would create a book to 75% and the difference between 75% and 100% a total of 25% is your profit. Of course therefore you need to ensure you can successfully 'Dutch' a book more than three out of four times on average. Often book arbitrage is often called dutching as well.
Delayed fill or kill
See fill or kill.
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An event is underlying sport that the betting is being placed on. In a horse race the Outright winner market on the 16:30 7f Maiden Stakes at Wolverhampton is the core event. In a football match the match odds between Chelsea and Manchester United is the core event. Or the correct score between those two teams would be the core event.
Expectancy
You can lose more often than you win or win more often than you lose if your total expectancy is positive. For example if you lost £100 nine times out of ten on your tenth trade you would need to win more than £900 to have an expectancy positive system. If your tenth trade made £1000 your 'system' is expectancy positive. Lots of systems are expectancy positive at some point but only by keeping good records and regularly assessing your winning and losing trades and your profit on each can you work out if you have an expectancy positive system.
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If you use fill or kill your order will be placed into the market. If the order is not filled it is immediately withdrawn from the market (killed). Using fill or kill ensures that if you need to place a bet that relies on an offset the bet is only placed on condition that the original position is taken. For example, you place a bet at £1000 but only £500 is filled at the price you requested. If your offset bet was placed in the market without taking into account only half your initial bet was matched you could find yourself in a loss making position. When fill or kill is used only the portion of the original bet that was matched will be offset in the market.
Delayed Fill or kill orders
In addition to standard fill or kill you can also used a delayed fill or kill. Set the delayed timer to zero to not use this feature. If you wish to use this feature put a figure measured in seconds or part seconds in box next to the fill or kill feature. When you place an order into the market this will 'hold' the order open for a period of time and will display the order in the unmatched bets area of the screen hoping for a further fill. When the time is up Bet Angel will pull the order from the market by canceling any unmatched portion of the bet. The matched portion will be offset and stops, trailing stops and any other functions will be applied to it.
A 'force open' position allows you to enter a position in the market anywhere on the screen. For example you can back at a lay price or lay at a back price anywhere in the market. Combining this with features such as delayed fill or kill this will allow you to hold open a position outside the current market price for a predefined period. If that order is filled the corresponding counter order can enter the market at your predefined offset, stop and stake values.
If you switch force open on to 'reverse' mode you will be able to back at the current lay price and lay at the current back price. If you use 'back' mode wherever you click on the screen you will place a back order into the market and it will back at the best available price. In 'lay' mode the opposite is true. If you click the screen in 'normal' mode you will back or lay at the current screen prices.
Force open changes the screen colours to ensure that you are aware what your click will do and what order type will enter the market.
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Greening up
The process of equalising the return on your bet across a series of runners in an event to ensure you win on that event regardless of the final outcome. Can be done discreetly or proportionally. If you had one selection in a two selection event which you had successfully traded for a profit of £100 you would only win that money if that selection went on to win the event. However you could 'green up' to transfer some of that value to all the other selections to ensure you won money whatever the outcome of the event.
Example:-
It is important to note that you need to complete a successful trade before you green up. Say for example back a horse at £100 at 4.40, then have laid it for £100 at 4.00. In this case you would have a profit of £40 on that horse and you have no profits or losses on any other selection.
The horse is now trading at 3.45 in the market. Press the green up button. Bet Angel will lay an amount on that horse to equalise that profit across the entire field. If you have a loss enter a negative figure and Bet Angel will equalise the loss. Is this particular example it will lay £11.59 on that selection meaning the entire field is green to the value of £11.59.
Bet Angel does not equalise all horses at the same time with green up button. If you have multiple profits and losses you would need to use the manual bet tab to enter partial amounts to green up with. This is a feature only available on Bet Angel Professional.
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Implied chance (probability)
Implied chance takes the odds offered by the market and converts them into a probability of winning which is said to be the implied chance of that selection. Some entity trading at digital odds of 2.04 has a 1/2.04 (or 49.02%) implied chance of happening.
In play
When an event is in-play it indicates that a sporting event has started. Markets can be traded whether they are in-play or not but the odds move more violently and erratically in play so the in-play mode is ensuring you are aware of the state of the market.
A point of reference to highlight or inform of a position or prospective position or information in the market.
If you are using a stop loss system the idea is to exit your position if the market suddenly turns. If a horse, for example, suddenly breaks free and is running loose but returns to the stalls before the off. You could find yourself in a seriously bad position. Using a stop helps avoid this scenario by exiting your position the instant it goes against you. If your stop places the order at market price your stop may be missed in a fast moving market. If your stop is placed well outside the money your stop may get executed at a vastly unfavorable price. An intelligent stop is set outside the normal market price but offset enough to ensure a good fill.
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Latency
Latency is the term used to describe the delay between sending a request or signal and receiving confirmation or a return signal from the destination. When you request something by pressing a button on your TV remote the latency is the time it takes for the TV to receive your signal and respond to your request.
Latency can cause potential issues with automatic trading software as the software often relies on a message from a server. By the time it has acted on this message the situation may have changed. This is why fully automating tasks often fails and human intervention is needed at most times.
Log
The log feature records your market activity. Every action you take in the market, whether it is placing, modifying, canceling or amending a bet is monitored. All other activity such as greening up is also monitored. This allows you to review an event after it has been traded to ensure you can maximise your potential by learning from your mistakes and taking better positions in future sessions.
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Making a book
When you make a book you are offering odds to the betting market. In order to make the book correctly you need to lay at less than 100% implied probability or back below 100%.
Make market order (button)
When you click the make market button the software automatically places an order in the market by backing at the current lay price and laying at the current back price. You are creating a market for layers and backers and taking a spread in return for this service.
Maximum liability
A fail-safe that stops you staking more money than you feel comfortable with. If you activate the maximum liability box by filling in a figure bets that expose you to more than this limit will not be allowed. A useful feature in the case of human error in stake amounts.
A statistical interpretation of the average of a price series over time. Moving averages help smooth out volatility in a market and present at a glance general trends of price movements in a market. Looking at just the price of a market can give an unfair picture, where as the moving average gives a better overall representation of the general price trend.
The process of multiple bettors and bookmakers offering prices for opposing parties to take up their offers. In the stock market people place open orders to buy and sell at different prices. In the betting markets, especially betting exchanges, the market is made in exactly the same way.
Match odds
Refers to the result of the underlying betting event. In Tennis, match odds represent the chance and odds of either Tennis player winning. In Football it would be either team winning or the match ending in a draw etc.
Matched bets
The orders you have placed into the market which have been matched (filled).
Maximum bet liability
This is a safety feature designed to stop you accidentally entering an stake amount or odds that are not realistic or an acceptable risk. Set this limit to a level at which you feel comfortable risking. There are some 'oddities' that people 'feel' due to the way exchanges work. For example: -
If you have a liability limit of £100 and place a bet into the market to back at 6.20 for £100 it will be accepted. However if you try and lay £100 at 6.20 it will not be accepted. This is because you are laying and accepting a risk of 5.20 times your stake, or £520! Well in excess of your liability.
Momentum - Pressure / Weight of money (indicator)
Momentum is the 'hidden' force that pushes prices in a freely traded market. It is commonly seen that in horse markets prices on horses coming in tends to lead to people backing the horse further as they think the market knows something they don't. People seeing a price drift or a price coming in will often 'follow the money'. Sometimes the momentum can be false and when the market looks like it will go in one direction it doesn't. There is often a lot of discussion about false money spoofing the market but it is difficult to see if this really has any effect especially during critical periods in very liquid markets. Momentum theory relies on the fact that prices are driven by sentiment and also the fact that prices are not independent in some respects.
New money can often arrive in the market without warning. Actual world events often dictate a drift in price or the price coming and momentum is the 'herd' following that. Sometimes the price movements occur simply due the amount of money in the market attempting to take one position or another. If money is arriving in roughly equal proportion on both sides of the book, money, or the lack of it, will force the price to move.
On Bet Angel you have a % figure in the middle of the main autobet screen. That figure represents the weight of money on either side of the book. If it below 50% there is a bias to the back side of the book. There is less money on this side than the lay side and you would expect the price to shorten. The opposing situation is also true a figure of greater than 50% indicates the price could lengthen. This % figure will change colour depending on where the bias is.
On Bet Angel professional as well as a 'cold' number you can user define how this figure is created and there is also a very useful graphing feature which explicitly shows the relationship between momentum, money entering the market and theoretical price movements. The software uses four graphs on each selection to highlight market opportunities.
Explanation of graphic from Bet Angel Professional
The jagged line on the top of the chart shows the movement in the price of odds. The smoother line shows the general trend and the upper and lower lines is marking the expected boundary of the movement. The lower chart is indicator where the money is coming for the selection. In this example you can clearly see that when the chart moves toward zero it is indicating that money is coming for the selection and forcing the price to coming in. When this pattern changes the momentum shifts in the other direction and the price drifts out.
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When you trade on an exchange you can use an offset bet to ensure you have a potentially profitable open position in the market. Bet Angel allows you to place this counter offsetting bet automatically saving you time and increasing your chance of a successful trade.
On Bet Angel you would place a trade into the market by either backing or laying. If the bet is matched Bet Angel would automatically place the corresponding offset trade in the opposing direction to ensure a potentially profitable positions is opened. In the event that your initial trade does not complete Bet Angel will not place an offsetting order but will leave the first trade in the market. You can cancel this quickly with the cancel button in the unmatched bets area.
In order to ensure the highest number of fills there is no reason why you can not place your trade 'Out of the money'. If the best odds are available at 2.72 click on 2.70 and the order will fill at the best available price and will offset from there. Either that or use the force open and / or the delayed fill or kill function to ensure the best balance between amount staked and best price.
On the traditional betting screen for Betfair or similar betting exchanges you needed to enter the odds value you wanted to bet at and the amount you want to bet. With one click betting you preset the amount you wish to back or lay at and then just use your mouse to click on the odds you would like to bet at. The order will enter the betting market and be filled at the best available odds.
Open order
An order that has been entered into the market but has not yet been filled by the market. In order for an open order to be filled you will need to move it to the current market price. When an offset bet is placed the offset position is usually an open order.
Overound
The difference in the price of the book if it is over 100%. When a book / market is priced above 100% it is over round and if you buy the book / market you are effectively buying an event that can only end up with a 100% probability for more than 100% ensuring a loss. See being the bookmaker
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The available odds available in the market. If a horse is 'priced' odds on. This is suggesting the digital odds on the horse is less than 2.00. Bookmakers 'price' a market.
Price predictor
An advanced function in Bet Angel Professional that maps out the expected range of odds movement in a market. This varies dramatically for all markets so the price predictor is best used for highly liquid volatile markets before they turn inplay. Most commonly used on the horse racing markets. See momentum.
The difference between the price at which you accepted liability and the price as which you took it up results in profit. If you back with a liability of £1000 but laid at a liability of only £990 you would have £10 profit.
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If you are using an Internet browser to look at prices on Betfair, your browser will only refresh once a minute. This is no good for trading and therefore you need a much faster refresh rate. When taking prices from an exchange your software calls the exchange for the latest prices at your predefined setting. A higher speed refresh rate calls prices from the exchange faster than normal and allows you to see and act on market prices quickly.
Reduction factor
See the fully detailed explanation by clicking on this link
Rule four
See the fully detailed explanation by clicking on this link
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Selection
The individual line that you are betting on in an event. In a football match in the match odds market your core event would be 'Match odds' - Chelsea vs Manchester Utd and the selection would be 'Chelsea', 'Manchester Utd' or the 'Draw'. Profit and loss on Betfair is settled by selection and NOT the event.
Stake
The amount of money that you place into the market. If you placed an order for £30 into the market you have 'staked' £30.
Stake all
Allows you to nominate a predefined stake value for all selections and instantly apply it to the whole market.
Stop at X ticks
Suspended
When a market is suspended it is not possible to place any more bets on the event. Market suspensions can occur for a number of reasons. In a horse race a horse withdrawing can cause a suspension, in a football match a goal. Sometimes the market can be suspended for variety of reasons but usually a suspension cancels all outstanding bets and the market is reopened if there is still time left to play or complete in the underlying event.
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Technical arbitrage
Taking advantage of a badly priced market by creating theoretical position that can not lose but which you do not take all positions.
Total matched bets
This figure is the total amount of bets matched in the market. A figure of £100 represents two £50 bets matched by somebody laying odds at £50 and somebody agreeing to take these odds with £50. Bet Angel can also work out the amount matched per refresh interval and also the moving average of matched bets per X intervals. Total matched bet volume is critical to ensuring you are trading or active in the market at the best possible time. Without taking advantage of this information you are likely to be in the market at an inappropriate moment.
Trading
Taking advantage of the movement in price of odds to create a profit regardless of the underlying selection, event or result. Trading is reported to account for up to 50% of the activity on exchanges.
Trailing stop loss
If you are looking to profit by taking a longer term position in the market you can open a position and put a trailing stop loss behind it. If your position never gets into profit but instead goes against you by your limit, your stop loss exits you from your position. If your position moves into profit the stop loss will get pulled up behind it. As your profit increases so does your stop loss till your open position is guaranteed to be profitable. Your trailing stop is highlighted and shown on your bet in the unmatched bet area.
Example:-
You place an order in the market to lay at 2.06 with a three tick stop. This means if the price ever goes to 2.00 or lower then your position will be automatically closed. However the odds now move to 2.08, because you have the trailing stop loss switched on your new stop limit is 2.02. If the price falls back to 2.02 you will be stopped out of your position. If the price moved to 2.20 your position would still be open, depending on the offset you have place in the market, but you stop loss would have been 'pulled' up to 2.14.
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Unmatched bets
Open orders you have in the market. Orders that you have placed but have not yet been matched (filled) by the market.
Underound / Overbroke
The difference in the price of the book if it is under 100%. When a book / market is priced under 100% it is under round and if you buy the book / market you are effectively buying an event that can only end up with a 100% probability for more less 100% to ensure a profit. See being the bookmaker. If the book is under 100% on the back side then is it profitable to back the entire book to make a risk free profit. If the book is over 100% on the lay side then it is profitable to lay the entire book to make a profit.
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The scale and degree of price movements which affect the movements in a market.
Volatility stop
Rather than using an unqualified stop level a volatility stop will watch the market and execute your stop loss when the market starts to behave outside the normal levels of volatility. The level of volatility that is deemed unusual can be modified by the user.
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Weight of money - See also momentum
An expression used to define the amount of money in a market on either side of the book. It is generally accepted that weight of money, the amount of money willing to back or lay a selection will, in certain circumstances, influence the future pricing of a market.
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