Moving up from Matched Betting to Betfair Trading
When I began my Betfair trading career, I didn’t jump straight into sports trading or gambling. Instead, I explored something akin to matched betting, though not quite like today’s version. This experience propelled me into Betfair trading, where I discovered that while opportunities with bookmakers were limited, the potential for profit on Betfair seemed almost limitless!
What I did before Betfair trading
Imagine stepping into a time machine and witnessing my very first bets on a betting exchange—they were strikingly similar to matched betting. Back then, this strategy was the obvious choice in the industry.
Betfair was brand new, dismissed by many as just another internet fad that few understood or cared about. Online sportsbooks were virtually nonexistent, and the internet itself was still in its infancy. Traditional bookmakers ruled the scene, and punters were just gamblers looking for an easy win. Nobody paid much attention.
My first ever Betfair trading strategy
My first Betfair trading strategy was essentially arbing between betting exchanges and bookies, which were fewer back then. I’d get good odds from a bookmaker, often an obscure one, and hedge my position on the exchange, much like matched betting today.
Bookmakers didn’t offer many promotions then, so I had to find pricing errors or inefficiencies. When the exchange first launched, people were posting odds everywhere, often without realising the true value. It was easy to find opportunities where you could back at bookmaker prices on the exchange and lock in profits.
However, it wasn’t scalable—profits were small, just a few quid here and there. As more people caught on, the easy arbing opportunities quickly disappeared. That was how I started trading on exchanges.
Low hanging fruit
As the easy opportunities disappeared, competition grew, so I adapted my strategy. Instead of just arbing, I started backing bets at good odds with bookmakers and then offering positions on the exchange at a price I wanted. This was the beginning of trading for me, though I didn’t realise it at the time.
I’d back at 15.0, lay lower on the exchange, and factor in commission. If the price wasn’t available, I’d request it, and as the market shifted, my order would eventually get filled. I moved away from simple arbing (or what’s now called matched betting) to offering prices on the exchange and became a liquidity provider.
While I still scoured high street bookies for opportunities, this approach taught me a lot about Betfair trading. Unlike today’s matched betting, which revolves around offers, my focus was on pure arbitrage, squeezing every bit of profit from the market.
The problems with matched betting and Arbitrage
Matched betting relies on betting companies offering promotions, but these bonuses are a cost for bookmakers. They aim to attract new customers with offers but can’t keep offering them to existing ones, making it unsustainable long-term. Bookmakers can add terms like qualifying bets, but ultimately, it’s expensive if customers only exploit the offers and never bet again. That’s why matched betting doesn’t encourage much core betting.
Recently, free bet offers have also caught the attention of regulators, concerned about gambling addiction. The lure of tax-free cash is tempting but raises risks.
Even in my line of work, I encountered issues. In pursuit of better odds, I discovered the ‘palpable error’ rule. For example, I once backed a correct score at 125/1, only to find it widely available at 120/1 elsewhere. That small margin seemed beneficial until the error rule came into play.
How I ended up at the gaming and vice squad
An outsider won, and I thought I’d secured a massive profit—until the bookmaker refused to pay out, claiming it was an “error.” This wasn’t true, and I was entitled to my winnings, especially since I had a loss to cover on the exchange. It was a nerve-wracking moment, as the lay liability on the exchange was a huge chunk of the money I’d earned so far.
Despite my persistent calls and messages, the bookie kept making excuses. So, I set up a webpage to raise awareness and found that many others had faced the same issue. It seemed more like fraud than a simple mistake. Eventually, I took the case to the Vice and Gaming squad at the Metropolitan Police, who then involved the Serious Fraud Office.
Oddly enough, while legislation didn’t help us much, I developed a good relationship with the Met Police. This led to some in-depth conversations about the betting industry and exchanges, where I shared insights that helped shape their understanding.
An unusual resolution
Frustrated with the lack of progress, I decided to take bold action. Early one morning, I went to the bookmaker’s head office and slipped in as the first employees arrived. I made my way to the managing director’s office, and since he wasn’t there, I sat in his chair and waited.
When he finally arrived, he was shocked to find me in his seat. Realising I wasn’t just any punter, we had a “nice chat,” and a few days later, my cheque arrived.
Why I switched to trading on Betfair
My arbing strategy was hitting a wall. It wasn’t sustainable, and I knew it couldn’t scale to the level I wanted. Then one morning, I had an idea: why not place both bets on the exchange?
At first, it seemed too simple. I thought, “Why would anyone back at a worse price than they could lay, or vice versa?” It didn’t make sense. But I tried it anyway—placing one order at higher odds than the lay order—and just waited. To my surprise, both positions got matched.
That was my lightbulb moment. I realised I could do more than just arbing; I could start trading properly. From that point on, things escalated. What started as a hobby suddenly became something bigger, and I began pushing boundaries to see how far I could take it. Trading, for me, was born as a natural evolution from arbing, and I refined the strategy from there.
Betfair trading and match betting – Key differences
When I started, trading was as simple as placing two positions in the market. Now, it’s much more complex. Scaling up requires thinking creatively and finding ways to push more money through the market. There are many strategies to explore, and each trade demands careful thought.
I recently received a message from someone interested in trading, concerned about the risk compared to the risk-free nature of matched betting. That’s the key difference: matched betting is nearly risk-free, while Betfair trading involves risk, balancing potential profits with potential losses.
In the early days, I was essentially matched betting, but to grow and handle larger sums, I had to start taking positions ahead of time, which is the essence of trading. You place a position, predict where the odds will go, and then close your position at a more favourable point. This introduces risk, but it’s necessary for growth.
The biggest challenge for traders is finding the right balance between taking too little or too much risk. Successful Betfair trading comes down to ensuring your profits consistently outweigh your losses by fitting your strategy to the market and predicting price movements.
Unlike matched betting, which offers near-certain outcomes, trading requires you to anticipate where odds will go to profit without excessive downside. While Betfair trading and matched betting share similar goals, they achieve results in different ways—trading involves more risk but offers greater potential for reward.
It’s all a question of scale
I can’t go back to arbing or even modern matched betting—I’ve burned all my bridges with bookmakers long ago. My goodwill ran out nearly two decades back, and things have changed for me since.
What drew me to trading was the sheer scale. Working with bookmakers made it hard to operate on a large scale, but the Betfair exchange handles billions each year. When I saw horse racing markets on Betfair turning over around £10 billion a year, I knew I had to learn how to trade those markets. Each market is different, with its own challenges and opportunities, and there are plenty of them.
Hopefully, this gives you some insight into my journey from matched betting and arbing to Betfair trading. I suspect many others have followed a similar path. The main difference is that with Betfair trading, you have to take on some risk and accept losses in order to trade profitably. That’s often a shock for people when they first realise it.
But now you have a clearer picture of the path and the key differences between matched betting and Betfair trading.