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Betting Exchanges - Sports Betting Exchanges

Betting Exchanges

When you place bets on a betting exchange you bet against other punters, not against a bookmaker. You can choose to be either a bookmaker (offering odds on an event for others to bet on), or to bet as an ordinary punter (you place bets on an event where others have offered the odds). In order to do this effectively, you need a place to gather all punters and "bookmakers" in one marketplace, the betting exchange. This works just like a stock exchange (a meeting place for traders). Actually the bet exchange works very much the same way. The betting exchange web sites have software which will keep all the "lays" and "backs" in order.
The common terminology is "lay" and "back" (or, to make it easier: "sell" and "back"). If you decide to act like a bookmaker, you will "lay" an offer out on the bet exchange for others to bet on. This is the way bookmakers normally do it. They "lay" bets out on their websites, for others to bet on (or "back").

As you would expect, the betting exchange web sites will charge a certain percentage in return for their services. This percentage can vary, but a well known, and excellent bet exchange like Betfair charges only 5% on the winning amount (winners must pay 5% off their winnings). This is still considerably lower than the average bookmaker, who operates with a 10-20% profit margin.

Betfair is a new and exciting place to bet, where you'll find the odds are on average 20% better than of a traditional bookmaker. It's a market place where you can bet against other punters, not against a bookie, so the odds are almost always better as there is no bookmaker adding in their profit margin. Betfair is now the World's No.1 online betting site with 500,000 bets matched daily