Betfair for Horse Racing

Betfair is the largest betting exchange in the world. Although you can trade on all manner of sports, here we focus on the horse racing side of the Betfair empire. To find out more about what a betting exchange is visit our horse racing terms.

About Betfair
Using Betfair
Charges
Free Bet Offer
Personalised Betfair/Exchange Calculations

About Betfair

Created by Andrew Black and Edward Wray, Betfair was launched in June 2000 offering gamblers the opportunity to bet against each other rather than the traditional method of versus a bookmakers odds. Punters are able to decide whether they wish to oppose (lay) or back each horse and at what price they are willing to trade. If matched by an opposing punter(s) the outcome of the race will then determine how the money held by Betfair on the punters behalf is then split.

Using Betfair

Incredibly easy to navigate round Betfair sets up links to each of the days horse races. By finding the horse race you are interested in you will then be presented with a list of the competing horses. Beside each horse are the options to back or lay. When doing so you can either take the price that is shown (the requested price) or alternatively request a price - of course requesting a ridiculous price way above what is on offer is unlikely to be matched! A more recent introduction is Betfair SP, this is particularly useful if you are unable to sit at the screen all day following the market.

Charges

Betfair charge a commission for each winning selection you place with them. Starting at 5% you can reduce the commission paid as part of their Betfair Points scheme - effectively this means that the more you are trading, the less commission you will pay.

Free Bet

Thanks to our relationship with Betfair, you can avail of a Ł25 free bet when joining.

Personalised Betfair/Exchange Calculations

An extremely common request from our members was to show what the return would be if following a horse racing system using a betting exchange such as Betfair. In order to do this we investigated many different methods of delivering this data - ultimately our research pointed to the clear facts there are so many opinions around, if we did offer up a figure it was likely to upset someone. This is because of the nature of betting exchanges and how they operate with the prices available to back/lay fluctuating dramatically dependent on movement in the market and several other factors. Another option was to use the Betfair SP, but discussions both internally and with members led us again to the conclusion this would not satisfy all with many finding the figures unsatisfactory for their purposes and the backdating of Betfair SP in line with how far back our database goes would be nigh on impossible. Also the varying commission rates paid by members should be taken into account.

It seemed the only way to deliver an option to satisfy all was to offer the option for members to set their own figures. To do so, we can use the SP (official starting price used as horse racing industry standard) and then deduct/add a percentage dependent on the price range of the horse. For example if you believe horses at odds on are approximately 5% better in price to back on Betfair, you can apply this setting appropriately.

Setting up your calculations

Please note in order for the Exchange Calculations to display within the System Builder you must activate the function within the Calculations Displayed section of your My Settings area. If you do not make any amendments to the figures a standard set compiled by HorseRacebase will be used.

To create your own betting exchange calculation settings you can use both/either of the Betfair Backing/Laying Calculations options within the My Settings area by following the simple instructions.

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