Unlike traditional bookmakers, Betfair makes its income from commission. For every bet settled, a small percentage will be taken from the net winnings. That percentage varies primarily according to what Betfair rewards package you have chosen, but could also be impacted by your discount rate based on Betfair Points you’ve earned by betting, and by what county you live in.

Why commission saves you money

Betfair Exchange customers in the UK and Ireland who don’t opt into My Betfair Rewards (and so are placed in the standard ‘Rewards’ package) will pay a maximum of 5% on their net winnings (there’s no commission paid on the returned stake). My Betfair Rewards has replaced the old Betfair Points calculation, meaning customers have more. Betfair is a betting exchange - an online marketplace for punters to bet against themselves on sporting and cultural events around the world. Customers bet against each other not against Betfair. There's no bookmaker telling you what odds you have to take. Think of it as like two mates in a pub with opposing views on a game and having a bet. Betfair is listed on the London stock Exchange and is a UK public limited company. Its has global outreach and its reputation is solid. Again this makes it a great choice because once your matched betting activity builds momentum, you’ll likely keep £100’s in your Betfair Exchange account. Betfair Exchange Review – Awesome The Betfair Exchange offers one of the most unique and extensive sports betting platforms in Australia right now. There is simply no denying this fact, as you would be hard-pressed to find an online bookmaker that has more sports and more markets than Betfair does. Betfair is a betting exchange. A betting exchange is a bookie which uses technology to make sure you get a better price. It does that by reducing its risk, which.

Charging customers a nominal commission means that the Betfair Exchange needn’t rely on profit margins to make its money. For most fixed-odds, ‘sportsbook’ bookmakers, it’s necessary to build a profit margin, or ‘over-round‘ on their prospective prices for each horse in a race*. By compiling their own books, this means the bookmakers can guarantee themselves a profit, regardless of the outcome – they have made their own green book.

The Betfair Exchange meanwhile relies on backers and layers being matched against each other, the perfect point where supply (layers) meets demand (backers) to create a ‘true’ price of an event happening. Because of this pure market place margins are kept very small, and the price you get is very often a better one – commonly over 90% of horses are best-priced on the Betfair Exchange. So, in most cases the added pay-out more than makes up for what you pay in commission.

*In practice, sportsbooks cannot truly reflect each horse’s chance of winning owing to multiple other considerations they must factor into a horse’s price. Concessions such as best odds guaranteed, each-way terms – and extra places if they decide to increase from the standard place terms - and any other headline promotions they might be running (for example Money Back if horse X wins). All of these additional ‘costs’ will likely be factored into a sportsbook price through added margin, meaning punters are not getting a true reflection of a horse’s chance of winning unlike on the Betfair Exchange, where the market place is stripped of all those sorts of additional considerations and merely reflects the true chance of a horse winning the race. The art of finding over-priced horses is known as value betting – which is exactly how our Jury and TV focus tips work.

How much commission do you pay on the Betfair Exchange?

Betfair Exchange customers in the UK and Ireland who don’t opt into My Betfair Rewards (and so are placed in the standard ‘Rewards’ package) will pay a maximum of 5% on their net winnings (there’s no commission paid on the returned stake). My Betfair Rewards has replaced the old Betfair Points calculation, meaning customers have more freedom to choose a commission level that suits their betting. This personalisation of the commission structure means customers have the choice to pay either 8%, 5% or 2% commission on Exchange winnings. The Rewards+, Rewards and Basic packages all comes with various add-ons to help tailor your Betfair experience to your preferred way of betting. You can fund full details of what’s included with all three packages here.

How is commission worked out?

In simple terms, it’s deducted from your winnings. Let’s say you’ve chosen the Rewards+ package on My Betfair Rewards and are paying 8% commission on your Exchange winnings.

At Cheltenham in March you place a £10 back bet on the winner of the Gold Cup at odds of 10.0 (9/1). That means you’ll win £90 + £10 stake = £100 before commission. Your 8% deduction is made off the £90, meaning you’ll actually win £82.80 + £10 stake = £92.80.

Over the last 10 years at Cheltenham the Betfair Exchange has been best priced on 94% of all runners, AFTER commission. So you’re still highly likely to be getting the best price in the market, even after you’ve paid commission.

If you decide to opt-in to the standard Rewards or Basic package and thus pay just 5% or 2% commission respectively, then in the above example you’ll end up like this;

Winning Horse Odds Winnings Pre-Commission (£10 stake) My Betfair Rewards Commission Deductions Winnings Post-Commission Total winnings (inc. £10 stake)

10.0 (9/1) £90 Rewards+ = 8% commission £7.20

= (90 ÷ 100) x8 (90 – 7.20) = £82.80 £92.80

10.0 (9/1) £90 Rewards = 5% commission £4.50

= (90 ÷ 100) x5 (90 – 4.50) = £85.50 £95.50

10.0 (9/1) £90 Basic = 2% commission £1.80

= (90 ÷ 100) x2 (90 – 1.80) = £88.20 £98.20

Can I change my chosen package?

Yes! At the start of each month, you can switch your My Betfair Rewards package, allowing you to move freely between Rewards+, Rewards and Basic. But remember, you can do this just once a month. Simply log in to your Betfair account, visit My Account and chose My Betfair Rewards from the Promotions & Rewards menu option.

So what are Betfair Points and do they still exist?

Betfair Points were the system that was used to calculate commission payments before the launch of My Betfair Rewards. While they no longer exist for the calculation of commission like you may be used they are still accrued as there are some areas where Betfair Points are still needed;

1. All UK and IRE customers will now be using My Betfair Rewards for their commission structure. Some international jurisdictions will also be taking advantage of My Betfair Rewards. However not all International territories are, and so in those areas the old Betfair Points system will still be in use.

2. Customers betting on events taking place in Australia – think Melbourne Cup, Australian Open tennis, Big Bash and Test Cricket, etc – will have Betfair Points used to calculate commission, regardless of if they’re using My Betfair Rewards day-to-day. More information about this can be found here.

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We’ve performed a full review of the Betfair Exchange Australia platform right here – read on and enjoy.

Betfair Exchange How-to: Sports and markets available

Contents

  • 1 Betfair Exchange How-to: Sports and markets available
  • 2 Betfair Exchange Review: Additional Features

The Betfair Exchange was one of the first of it’s kind to enter the Australian market, and sports bettors all over the nation have been reaping the benefits ever since. After you’ve created an account on the Betfair Exchange, you will immediately notice that they offer a ton of sports not only in Australia but on a global scale.

They cover more than 30 different sports as it currently stands, and this includes leagues from all over the world. Soccer is undoubtedly the most popular sport on the platform, but there is evidently a great following for other sports too. For example, sports including basketball, horse racing, cricket, tennis, rugby, and many others constantly serve up a range of betting markets.

Of course, the exchange operates a little differently than a regular online bookmaker, but this doesn’t mean that the markets are different. You can still place a variety of bets such as spread betting, in-play betting, moneyline, tournament outrights, and even specialist bets from within the Betfair Exchange.

The best part is since you are betting on an exchange, you are always presented with lay bets and back bets, which naturally gives you a greater variety of markets than online bookmakers.

Odds & Limits

You will typically find that the odds you see listed on the Betfair Exchange are very competitive compared to what’s on the market. The simple reason for this is that the odds will change based on the interests of users on the platform, and the activity of these users is what makes the odds go up and down. Generally speaking, when Betfair initially publishes the odds on the exchange, they tend to be slightly above the market average.

In our experience of using the platform, we found that the most competitive odds are usually seen for the most popular sports. This extends to a variety of different leagues such as high-profile European soccer and major horse races.

In terms of limits, the exchange again operates a little differently than the mainstream online bookmaker. You will only be allowed to place a bet if there is enough money in the market on the other side of the equation. This is because you are betting against other players rather than a bookmaker, so when you place a bet, there has to be someone betting against this so that your wager is accepted.

In theory, as long as there is enough liquidity in the market that you are betting on, the amount that you can win is uncapped. To make a qualifying bet on the exchange, however, you must make a wager of more than $1.

FAQ

What is different about an exchange vs. a bookmaker?

Betfair

With the Betting Exchange, you are betting against other players, rather than against a bookmaker.

What kind of sports does the exchange have?

The exchange has more than 30 different sports to bet on, with many popular Australian sports such as rugby, cricket, and Aussie rules.

Is there a solid range of payment methods?

Betfair offers more than enough payment methods on their platform, including major debit and credit cards as well as e-wallets.

Can I change how the odds are presented?

Yes, Betfair has three different options for you which are fractional, decimal, or American.

Can I live stream sports on Betfair Exchange?

Yes, and this is indicated by the little TV symbol that is shown next to the market, showing that you may stream this event.

Does the site also allow in-play bets?

Of course, but the odds are constantly changing so you have to be very quick to get the odds that you see.

Is it easy to sign up for the exchange?

You can open an account with the Betfair Exchange in just a couple of minutes, but do be warned, you will be asked to verify your details.

Are the odds competitive compared with bookmakers?

We believe that the odds were very competitive across the sportsbook, with the most appealing odds being found for the most popular events.

Betfair Exchange Review: Additional Features

User Experience

When we first started using the Betfair Exchange, everything seemed a little bit overwhelming. With so many sports and so many odds being shown on the screen at any one time, we almost felt like we didn’t quite know where to begin. However, once you have browsed the site for a short while, it becomes clear how to navigate through the various sports and place your first exchange bets.

Furthermore, Betfair has done a very good job of clearly displaying the odds for both back bets and lay bets, all thanks to the blue and pink color scheme. The only real suggestion that we would have is to somehow condense the enormous range of markets, as sometimes we had to click through many different pages to find the market that we were looking for.

In-play betting

How to place in-play bets

We’ve already mentioned that there are hundreds of in-play betting markets available on the Betfair Exchange. After further analysis, we also discovered that you can filter in-play events by sport, by whether they will be streamed or not, as well as when the event is taking place so that you can set a reminder.

To make an in-play bet, all you have to do is fund your account, to begin with. After doing this, simply click on the in-play link and browse through until you find a market that you would like to place a wager on. There is nothing more to it than that.

Live streaming

You’ll be pleased to know that live streaming is available directly from the Betfair Exchange site. When you are looking through the market, you will see a little TV symbol if that particular event is available for streaming. If you would like to see what events can be streamed directly however, you can just click the ‘sport on TV’ link on the left-hand side of the page.

Betfair is quite generous with its live stream offerings, for as long as you have money in your account, you have unrestricted access to live streaming services. To top things off, we found that the video streams for the vast majority of events were very high quality.

Mobile App

You have the option to download the Betfair Exchange app for both iOS and Android operating systems, and the app is optimized to suit a range of devices as well as tablets. On the whole, the app performs quite well, but it can be slow at times due to the masses of data that it must deal with.

With that being said, you still have the option to place in-play bets, as well as live stream many different events directly from the app, which is always a positive thing.

Best Features

  • Statistical analysis

If you’d like to receive a little extra guidance for any of the sports bets you are thinking of placing, Betfair has a statistics page available. This is where you can find details of the event participants, and it should help you to make a more informed bet.

  • Specialty bets

If you ever feel like taking a break from sports betting, it’s good to know that the exchange has many special events including financial markets and even politics.

  • Tips and predictions

The Betfair Exchange has a community of sports bettors that regularly provide tips and predictions completely free of charge. Of course, you do not need to take this advice, but it is readily available should you want to take it.

  • Scheduling of events

We don’t know about you, but it is a nightmare when you’ve been looking forward to a sports event only to realize that you’ve missed it the following day. Betfair has a schedule of sports events that are constantly updating on the site, so you should no longer need to suffer the frustration of missing an event.

  • Sport on TV

Betfair Exchange Election

This is the section where you can browse the list of events that are available for streaming, and let us tell you first-hand, there is plenty to go around!

Pros & Cons

Pros

Cons

Over 30 different sports

Odds quickly fluctuate, so you need to be quick

Bets are accepted instantly – no delay

Not many betting chances in lower-level sport

Live streaming options for many events

Can be very confusing to use at first

Hundreds of in-play markets on certain events

Lots of click-throughs needed to find certain markets

Betfair Exchange Review – Awesome

The Betfair Exchange offers one of the most unique and extensive sports betting platforms in Australia right now. There is simply no denying this fact, as you would be hard-pressed to find an online bookmaker that has more sports and more markets than Betfair does.

There were three key features of the platform that we really didn’t expect to see, which added to our already favorable impression of this site. We loved that they have live streaming options for a number of different events, the in-play markets were extensive, and they have a mobile app that you can download. We really would say that this is an awesome online betting platform.

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