Tips For Betting On The Internet
the betting exchange play121.com, went dot gone. Financial difficulties forced them to shut the site, allegedly leaving thousands of pounds owed to punters.Also this week traditional 'bookie' betting site Netbetsports had to shut up shop. Unless a new buyer can be found they will be forced into liquidation.What can be done to prevent this from happening? How do you know your money is safe with all types internet bookies? What other pitfalls are there for the novice punter?Ten Tips for Betting on the Internet (Bookies And Exchanges)1. Never leave all of your bank in their accountMany punters like to have a 'betting bank'. From this bank they may decide to stake say 1-2 of the bank. As the bank grows, their stake grows. You don't have to have the full bank invested with the bookie or exchange. Keep the money in your bank and let it earn interest.As long as you do not pay charges for debits and withdrawals you may as well sweep out your internet account each night. Just leave enough in there to cover your stakes for the next days trading.Keep track of your true betting bank in a spreadsheet, not by looking at your balance on your internet account.2. Shop aroundDon't just open one account and stick with them. Unless your bookie offers prices higher than the others, or your bookie has a loyalty scheme (this will be the next big thing with bookies to keep customers on board) then open up accounts with different bookmakers or exchanges. You should do this anyway to ensure that you don't get knocked back by placing too many big bets.Shopping around allows you to make arbitrage bets. Whilst prices can vary between bookies, exchange prices can vary widely too. Open up a couple of screens and watch what is happening on Betfair, Betdaq and GGBET. 3. Don't wait until the off to place your betsThis applies mostly to hedging bets. If you have spotted a good hedge but you are waiting for a price to drift or shorten then be very careful if you are betting right at the off. You could find that the race starts and betting is suspended. This can leave you with a big liability in which you are unable to claw back.4. Never bet 'in running'In running betting is too risky. It is a facility to squeeze a few more quid out of gambling addicts. If you haven't made your selection by the off then forget it. Move onto the next race. Do not bet just for the sake of it.Betting in running is very dangerous because of the time lag between the real time of the race and the time in which you get to watch or hear the race. If you are using the Attheraces live video feed, you can be well over 1 minute behind real time (the low bandwidth seems to have a 10 second lag, hi bandwidth 30 seconds, adsl broadband about 60 seconds). Even internet radio such as William Hill can be delayed due to buffering.Note that it is perfectly acceptable to place in running system bets or trades as soon as an event goes "in running". What should not be performed is the placing of bets whilst watching a race. There will always be someone with a faster internet connection, and faster more real time race information than you. With the growth of 3G technology you should be particularily aware that some punters are now at the course placing near instant bets on the exchanges. They are spotting fallers, strugglers, fast finishers and placing bets many seconds ahead of everyone else. 4. Beware of exchange 'cheats'Every so often some punters think they can be clever by posting up ridiculous prices. You will often see bets offered for 1.01 at £2,000. What this means is someone is offering you the chance to back a horse at 1-100. You get to risk £2000 to win £20.The way this happens is with big gambles. Say a horse is being backed off the bookies boards from 16-1 down to 4-1. On the exchanges, the layers will want to cancel their bets so that they don't' get stung on a downward market. The odds on layer is the only bet left on the board. If you spot a gamble going off and click the 'back' button you may think you'll be getting the 10.5, 6.2 etc. but as those layers have cancelled their bets you will end up taking the cheaters not so generous odds of 1-100. In the heat of the moment you may not notice this and end up having 1-100 on a 4-1 chance. It does happen. If you spot it happening complain immediately to the exchanges customer services.Note that this excludes in running betting. Many punters put up 1.01 bets whilst an event is in play as there are some profitable angles for doing this. There is nothing wrong with 1.01 bets placed in running. 1.01 bets are only wrong before the event where cheats try to catch punters out by offering 1/99 for odds of 9/1 etc.6. Never bet on a drifting antepost hotpotThis scam works by connections laying their fancied horse. The horse is a big drifter and his price is not in line with the bookies prices.A few days before race day, the horse is pulled out. Connections scoop up all the stake money that they took on their horse.This happens often on the exchanges. Connections need to be caught red handed and banned for life.7. Beware of non runners This is similar to 6. You place bets on a horse, then another horse in the race becomes a non runner. All prices in the race are adjusted in accordance with the 'reduction factor'. In some cases punters find that they are left holding bets much worse than they would have with bookies. When the proper trading starts, they are unable to hedge and claw back some of that built in loss.Responding to the criticism some of the exchanges have changed their procedures for handling Rule 4 deductions.8. Watch out for allegedly 'bent races'This year has seen quite a few races with prices on favourites that are way out of line with the bookies market. A favourite may shorten with the bookies, but drift on the exchanges. The weight of money willing to lay the horse far exceeds the weight willing to back the horse. It is as if the exchange layers know the horse will not win.You can spot these races by monitoring the sporting life live shows. Any fancied horse who is shortening quite rapidly with the bookies, but drifting right out on the exchanges has to be suspect. You will see backers take a fair chunk of exchange money, only for other layers to weigh in and offer more stake at higher odds.Take a look at the charts which some exchanges offer. On Betfair there is a blue box 'information' icon which you can click on to see a graph of traded bets, and prospective bets. Click on the box next to the horse in question and roughly sum up the amount of blue 'to back' figures, and pink 'to lay' figures. Most of the time you will see a fairly balanced market. But if the amount of 'to back' money vastly out weighs the 'to lay' money then you can be sure that the exchange punters are most certain the horse will lose.9. Don't just take the best price you can getIf you have set yourself a minimum price, stick to it. Too many punters take any price they can get because they have selected the horse and they want to be on it. This contradicts value betting. If you can't get the price you want, leave the race and move onto the next one.10. Always check your returnsCheck your statement each day to ensure that there are no errors. Mistakes are easily made.Last year Corals internet betting site had a 'fault' which caused straight forecast bets to be returned incorrectly: punters found that they had winning bets which were listed as losers. Some punters were light by a few thousand pounds.Good luck!Amazing Lay ProfitsLearn how to make a lot of money using Betfair/Betting Exchanges! http://www.amazing-lay-profits.co.uk
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