Back in 2000, Betfair decided to create a new way of placing bets, allowing players to take on the role of the bookmaker by offering their own odds on sporting events.
Thus was born the Betting Exchange.
If the term is new to you, don’t worry: in this Betting Exchange guide you will find everything you need to start betting in back-to-back mode in Italy on the best sport betting website.
What is Punta e Banca
Betting Exchange bets were born in 2000 at the hands of Betfair. The extraordinary idea behind their birth was that the odds were not to be decided by bookmakers alone.
For Betfair, bettors needed to have more freedom, including the ability to offer odds on a sporting event. In this way the players can take on the function of bookmaker and the odds are generated by the meeting of supply and demand, therefore by the law of the market, just like in a financial stock exchange instead of being determined by professional bookmakers.
Since the beginning, the Betting Exchange is also known by the name of Back and Lay bets, which in Italian take the name of Punta e Banca. To fully understand the back-and-forth betting method, let’s start with the glossary of the few fundamental terms:
- Bet (or Back) : very similar to the traditional bet, the player selects the odds on the sporting event he prefers from a column (usually in blue or light blue) and bets a sum of money, betting on the possibility that that event occur.
- Bank (or Lay) : the player assumes the role of bookmaker. From a column (usually in pink or orange) he selects the odds he wishes to offer for a particular sporting event, effectively betting against the eventuality of that event occurring.
- Cash Out : literally means to collect, it is a method that allows you to close the bet or the bank at any time, even before the end of the sporting event, thus collecting the winnings early or limiting the losses.
- Liquidity : is the amount of money in a Betting Exchange market. Basically it is the sum of the betting proposals (stakes and bankings) for each odds, waiting to be matched. Ample liquidity means there is a lot of money per share. In this way there will be more options for whoever bets and who banks and the odds will be very similar. Poor liquidity results in a narrow range of odds that are very distant from each other. The greater the liquidity, i. e. the amount of money that players have decided to bet on the opposite bet to ours, the more the odds offered in the market will approach their fair value .
- Commissions : this is a percentage of back and bank bets withheld by the Betting Exchange platforms, as compensation for offering the brokerage service.
Let’s take a practical example of how the tip and bank works: Mario wants to bet on Inter’s victory in the Milan derby. He goes to a Betting Exchange platform and chooses the odds that he considers best among those offered, in this case 2.00, and bets € 20. If Inter wins at the final whistle, Mario will collect € 40 (20×2.00), making a net profit of € 20 (€ 40 won – € 20 played). If, on the other hand, AC Milan wins, he will lose the bet amount (€ 20).
Paolo, on the other hand, is convinced that, given the great form shown by Milan in the last few matches, it is more likely that the Rossoneri will be the ones to take home the Madonnina derby. He then opens a Betting Exchange platform and decides to bank € 20 on Inter’s victory (offer the odds) at 2.00, which is equivalent to betting against the Nerazzurri’s victory.
It is in fact a double chance bet: the player who banks wins both in the event that Inter lose and in the event of a tie. But be careful: when you bank you take on a responsibility: once Inter’s win with odds 2.00 is banked € 20, if Inter wins they will lose € 40 (€ 20 x2.00).
Differences between Betting Exchange and betting
To clarify the ideas, let’s summarize the salient points that differentiate tip and bank from traditional bets:
- Traditional betting – there is a bookmaker who offers a quote on the probability of the sporting event occurring, and a bettor who, by predicting that sporting event will occur, bets money. If the prediction comes true, the bettor wins, otherwise he loses his stake.
- In the Betfair Exchange – a bettor can decide to take on the role of the bookmaker, or the dealer. In this case, the player proposes his own odds for a sporting event, effectively betting against the possibility of that particular event taking place. The other players who decide to take on the “traditional” role simply choose the odds offered by a player acting as dealer and bet the amount of money they want.
In this way, the bets of the classic bettors are combined with the odds proposed by the players who act as bankers. The combination of bets and bankings is the meeting of supply and demand within the odds market on the Betting Exchange.
Attention: since this is a real market, in which it is practically like trading on bets, if the odds are exaggerated or the money circulating in the market of that specific event (i. e. liquidity) is few, it is more likely that the banks no bets will be matched.
At the end of the sporting event, the money from the bet will be credited to the winner (pointer or banker), after deducting a commission charged to the Betting Exchange platform for the service offered.
Betting Exchange Strategy
Once we understand the difference between back-and-forth betting and traditional betting, it’s time to venture into the various Betting Exchange strategies. We must premise that they often resemble financial trading strategies more than those on classic bets. Precisely for this reason, Betting Exchange strategies require more experience.
It is therefore very important to consult all match statistics in depth, in order to then be able to grasp the right moment in which to bet or bank to make the most of the fluctuation of the Betting Exchange market shares, possibly with the help of a tip and bank calculator. 중계사이트