Betting Exchanges 1
Betting Exchanges have altered the betting landscape forever and for those of you who have yet to embrace this relatively new but now hugely successful and popular concept the message is simple: you don't know what you're missing!!
I know several people who declare no interest in ever getting involved in exchange betting, their reasons varying from a general distrust of betting by computer, to not wanting to get picked off by the shrewdies, to the 'I'd much rather take the money from a bookmaker' mentality.
All these standpoints are complete nonsense and serve only to ensure that punters swerving the exchanges are at a disadvantage to the rest of us. Those not prepared to take the risk of putting their bank details into a PC are the same people who for years have been happy to stick their bank cards into a computer in the middle of a high street to withdraw cash.
The preference for winning money from a mainstream bookmaker is almost too stupid for words. For while contempt for the high street layers is all very well, you are in fact trying to take on people who have spent their lives in market-making and, unless you are extremely good (in which case you risk having your account closed down or your bet size limited), you are going to lose in the long run, no matter how much pleasure you get from the occasional pick-up.
The theory about being picked off by those who are more knowledgeable than you has been given some weight by Betfair, the largest exchange, who early in 2004 adopted the rather daft slogan Sharp Minds Betfair. The implication is that you need to be a pretty cute operator to be an exchange punter.
And though Betfair probably won't be worried about getting the odd thing wrong during their spectacular transformation from tiny internet start-up to giant of the betting world, the suggestion could not be more ridiculous. Yes, there are users out there who have made vast sums out of exchange betting, but they do so only because they are betting against a large number of punters who adopt the same flawed characteristics (poor judgement and lack of discipline) that made them losers with the high street firms.
For people to win, others must lose, and while a figure of 15 per cent winners to 85 per cent losers has been bandied about, I would not be surprised if the losers made up an even bigger proportion.
One of the biggest advantages of exchange punting is that you sometimes find yourself betting against mugs that otherwise would have no option but to lose their money to bookmakers. Obviously an exchange doesn't want to advertise the fact that the majority of its users are losers, but it is true all the same -as it is with all bookmakers.
Examples of stupidity and greed reveal themselves every day and now we can exploit them like the traditional bookmakers have done for decades.
There really is no argument for not becoming an exchange player and once you start to become a more sophisticated user, the numerous advantages will soon make themselves clear.