Betting exchange sites appear similar to traditional betting sites at first glance. You sign up, deposit, place bets at the day’s odds and get paid if your predictions are correct. Betting exchanges are marked by one key difference: you bet against other customers rather than against the bookmaker.

Exchange betting sites also don’t limit your wagers if you are a “sharp” that wins frequently. Punters often find significantly better prices at a betting exchange site. This is the case because the free market sets the odds, not professional oddsmakers. So far, there’s no difference between using a betting exchange and using a traditional betting site. Keep in mind, though, we’re not actually placing our wager with a betting site here, or even directly with the exchange. The exchange is just the middleman. We’re placing our wager with someone who has already chosen to lay the Miami Dolphins. Nov 12, 2020 Betfair is the world's largest betting exchange.It was formed in 2000 and, although being based in Hammersmith, West London, it operates under a Gibraltar licence. From 2 February 2016, the company has been listed on the London Stock Exchange as Paddy Power Betfair. Betfair won a 'Queen's Award for Enterprise' in April 2008.

Peer-to-peer betting sites offer a number of advantages over traditional wagering. The matchmaking system between punters leaves the host site with no stake in the outcome of any individual wager. Online betting exchanges earns a commission regardless of which side wins or loses. Exchange betting sites also don’t limit your wagers if you are a “sharp” that wins frequently.

Punters often find significantly better prices at a betting exchange site. This is the case because the free market sets the odds, not professional oddsmakers. Exchange bets aren’t always better-priced than traditional wagers, but it happens often enough.

There are not many online betting exchanges in operation but there is one that is very well known and reputable. BetFair.com is the most popular exchange if you’d like to give peer-to-peer betting a shot. US players not accepted but most other countries are.

Best Exchange Betting Sites

How Betfair Works

To put it simply, Betfair is a betting matchmaking service. At a traditional sportsbook, the customer takes one side of each bet while the bookmaker takes the opposite. If you bet that Team A will win, then the bookmaker is essentially betting that Team A will lose.

Betfair replaces that model by allowing matching customers on each side of every bet. At Betfair, the person who is betting that an outcome will happen is said to “back” that selection. The person who bets that an outcome will NOT happen is said to “lay” that selection.

Best Betting Exchange Sites. Each online betting exchange site we review is internationally-regulated and licensed by well known and reputable jurisdictions ensuring that they are regularly tested for fairness. Simply, the players visit the betting exchange site by using their standard smartphone web browser. Of course, we don’t say that there’s no site with a designated betting exchange app. If the app is launched.

Betfair Betting Exchange Systems

Every wager at Betfair requires at least one person to back and one person to lay. When you want to back or lay an outcome (such as Team A winning), you log in to Betfair and get matched up with someone who thinks that outcome won’t happen. Essentially, what you’re doing is trading binary options contracts.

A potential downside to using betting exchange websites is the risk of your bet not being matched with another bettor. Small markets (such as those for very niche sports) tend to interest fewer people. If you want to back or lay a bet but nobody else is interested, you won’t get any action. The good news is that Betfair is the worlds largest exchange betting site with millions of active users.

Why You Should Try Exchange Betting Sites

Online betting exchanges have revolutionized the betting marketplace. While the traditional model of placing a bet with an online bookmaker remains commonplace, the exchange betting sites have opened up a host of new opportunities for punters all over the world. The ability to take both sides of any wager makes for more potentially profitable opportunities than what you would traditional find with a bookmaker.

Odds at online betting exchanges fluctuate more often. By carefully studying the markets and the movements (at both regular bookmakers and betting exchanges) it is possible to lay an outcome at a price than to back it at another and guarantee a profit. This is not easy to do, but it is possible with the right commitment and dedication.

The advantages of betting exchange sites are numerous. Not only do you get the ability to play either side of any wager, but you can also choose the odds you want and determine how much risk you’re willing to take when you lay a bet. The reduced commissions offered by the exchange model will save you a lot of money over time.

Like many online betting sites, exchanges allow you to bet during the course of an event. The savvy punter can use a combination of sports knowledge and fluctuating prices to maximise the values of their bets. Live betting presents its own unique set of advantages.

Online betting exchanges offer everything you would expect to see at a regular operator with better odds and a greater variety of options. You can pick your own price, pay less commission, and choose either side of a bet.

At a Betting Exchange, the bets you place are against other punters rather than the bookmaker. This results in two key benefits – the ability to bet against something (eg: a specific horse not winning a race – known as a ‘lay bet’) and odds which are often better than those offered by a traditional bookie. The following table lists the leading betting exchanges for UK bettors.

List of Betting Exchanges

* Betdaq do not need to offer a commission based rewards program as they have it set at 2% for everybody.

Betting Exchanges Explained

The principle of how a betting exchange works is relatively simple. Each exchanged bet requires two or more customers who wish to place opposite bets. For example, one punter wants to bet that Arsenal will win the Champions League and one wants to bet that they wont.

When placing a bet with a traditional bookmaker the odds are set by the bookie, and you have no other choice but to accept the odds on offer or go elsewhere. At a betting exchange you are able to set your own odds – if the opposing bet is already available at the odds you have selected the bet is instantly ‘matched’ and good to go. However, if you decide to hold out for better odds your bet will remain ‘unmatched’ until somebody accepts those odds.

One of the most appealing features of a betting exchange is the ability to guarantee yourself a profit by hedging your original bet when the odds move in your favour. For example, lets say you place a bet on Manchester United to win the Premier League at the start of the season at 10/1. If they win their first 3 games and shoot to the top of the table, these odds will drop as the likelihood of them winning the league increase. You can now lay (bet against) Manchester United winning the premier league at the lower odds to lock-in a profit.

How Do Betting Exchanges Make Money?

A traditional sports betting site generates its revenue by working a margin into the odds they offer. So if you were to place proportional bets on every outcome of an event (eg: bet on every horse in a race), the money won would be less than your total stake.

Betting Exchanges, on the other hand, make money by charging winning bets a commission – the actual rate varies by exchange but is usually around 5%.

Betfair vs Betdaq

Matchbook Betting Exchange

Betfair was the first betting exchange, and to this day remains the largest. However its biggest competitor, Betdaq, has been gaining ground recently thanks to its lower commission rate. In this next section, we’ll compare these betting exchanges on liquidity, odds, features & promotions.

Liquidity & Odds

As the larger of the two exchanges, Betfair definitely has the highest liquidity – although Betdaq continues to narrow the gap between the exchanges. In terms of odds, for the most part both Betfair and Betdaq are comparable although Betfair definitely has the edge on less popular markets.

Betting Exchange Sites Near Me

This is, of course, before you take the betting exchange’s commission into account. Betdaq have recently introduced a 2% flat rate commission for all sports and markets, compared to Betfairs 5%. Therefore a winning bet at Betdaq would yield a slightly higher return than the same bet at the same odds at Betfair.

In the image below you can see a direct comparison between Betdaq (above) and Betfair (below) just before the start of a race.

Features

• Mobile Betting: As you would probably expect, both exchanges offer mobile apps for various smartphones and tablets – including iPhone, iPad, Android and Blackberry devices.
• Live Streaming: Betfair and Betdaq both offer live horse racing streams provided by ATR and RUK which you can watch for free provided you have placed a bet on the market. Betfair also offers live streams of various non-racing events such as soccer, tennis and basketball.
• Multiples: One type of bet which cannot be placed via an exchange platform is a multiple or accumulator bet. However, Betdaq and Betfair also offer customers traditional bookmaker style beting – where the bets are placed against the site rather than another customer.

History

A betting exchange allows punters to bet peer-to-peer. This means that instead of betting against a bookmaker, you actually bet against a fellow punter. The exchange allows you to lay a result, basically meaning you’re backing against a result.

The first exchange was set up by a site called Flutter.com in May 2000. A couple of months later the more familiar brand of Betfair was launched and the two eventually merged. Betfair were the first company to offer a full betting exchange experience by actually offering laying options on all their markets. The company has since gone from strength to strength and now reportedly controls over 90% of the betting exchange marketplace.

Betfair was founded by Andrew Black and Edward Wray who were amongst the first people in the world to apply a betting exchange to the online betting market. For their efforts both Black and Wray went on to win many prestigious awards for innovation, most notably the Ernst and Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year award. The company went on to win the Queen’s award for Enterprise making them just one of 50 companies to have done so at the time.

Over the years the company continued to expand, not only in terms of the number of markets offered, but also the number of countries in which they operated. As it stands, Betfair currently accept major credit cards from over 40 countries in 10 different currencies.

The major pull a betting exchange such as Betfair has is that you often find yourself receiving inflated odds compared to what you would find at a bookmakers. This is mainly down to the fact that you bet with other punters rather than taking a price with a margin worked in to make it profitable for the bookmaker. Betfair make their money by taking a 5% commission on all matched bets. This is taken directly from the punter rather than the lines or odds set on their site.

As the company has continued to grow it’s of little surprise to see the market coverage and development of markets grow also. Every major sport from football to futsal, golf to Gaelic games and even mixed martial arts to motor sports can be found on Betfair, and the array of markets for each is vast. It’s much easier for a company such as Betfair to offer more markets than most bookmakers because they don’t need to research lines, set bets or anything like that as the punters do it themselves. The bookie simply open the market and lets the punter do the work.