Bet Angel hints and tips – The ‘Make Market’ button

22/04/2013 | By Tim | Reply More

When trying to get a trade placed into the exchange then usually it is a good idea when placing a bet to ask for a better price than the one currently on offer. What do we mean by that?

GETTING A BETTER PRICE

For example, if a football team has a current back price of 5.1 then it makes sense to try and get better value and submit a BACK bet at 5.2 and vice-versa. Taking the current value of 5.2 for a LAY bet will give me a higher liability than asking for a price of 5.1, so it makes sense to try and get a lower liability.

Market in Betfair

Look at the above market. If I accept the current back price on Rep of Ireland to win of 7.8 using a stake of £100 my potential profit is £680 if they win:

Back bet at the current price

But if I back them at 8.0 my potential profit is £700:

Back bet at a better price

If I put in the opposing trade by placing a LAY bet now at 7.8 my liability is only £680:

Opposing LAY bet completing the trade

Simply asking for a BACK bet at the current LAY price is a good tactic but, if you think about it in trading terms, if your do these bets at the same time and both these orders get matched you can make a profit. If we submit both these bets then the bet slip will look like this:

Combined bets

The potential P&L in the market looks like this:

The P&L showing the potential profit

If the Rep. of Ireland win then I win £20. If they lose or the match is drawn I will lose nothing.

How can Bet Angel help?

In financial markets you will often find a person called a market maker. Their job is to create market liquidity by offering buy and sells orders on an ‘instrument’ perhaps a listed company. Market markers profit from the price difference or spread. Using Bet Angel you can do a similar thing in the sports markets by using the ‘Make market’ button on the one click screen.

Here is the same game now in Bet Angel:

The same Betfair market now in Bet Angel

You can see the ‘Make Market’ buttons over on the right hand side.

If I click the button associated with the Rep. of Ireland then Bet Angel will submit two bets with a single click. Not only that, the bets are priced on either side of the book and will return a profit should both get matched. It’s a neat little button and an often overlooked trading tool.

See the following video for more detail on how to use the make market button: –