Betting Exchange v Bookmakers: Who Wins?
Since the betting exchanges came to life around 10-15 years ago, many big gamblers have moved onto them, leaving the traditional bookmakers behind in favour of this new betting platform. The exchanges have a lot to offer, especially for big gamblers who win frequently, but are they as good as many people would have you believe? Are there any cons to using the betting exchanges compared to traditional bookmakers? Lastly, what is the ideal strategy to use? Don’t worry boss, we got this covered.
The Pros of Betting Exchanges
There are many advantages to using the betting exchanges and that is why a lot of people have moved onto them. The two big advantages for big punters are these; the first is you can bet as much as you like without being restricted, providing there is enough cash laid on the selection you want to back. The second is that you can win as much as you like, again without being restricted. If you won £1000 per week from the bookmakers it wouldn’t take long until they were restricting your bets, this doesn’t happen on the exchanges.
The other draw to betting exchanges, something which helps all punters is that the prices on offer are usually better than those offered by bookmakers. You have to pay commission on any winnings you receive on the exchanges, but even taking this into account the prices on offer on the exchanges are generally better than those offered by bookmakers. This is because people laying on the exchanges have to tempt people to bet with them, instead of using bookmakers and offering better prices is how they do that.
The Pros of Traditional Bookmakers
Although many people are abandoning the traditional bookmakers they once had in favour if the betting exchanges, there are still many pros to betting with a traditional bookmaker. The main two are the ability to use many different bet types and the ability to take advantage of the many promotions they run, whereas the betting exchanges run nothing like that.
Traditional bookmakers accept a wide variety of bet types, in fact they pretty much accept every single bet type. When you bet on the exchanges you use this, you are limited mainly to win and place bets on single markets. With traditional bookmakers you can place many different multiple bets, each way bets and a whole host of other things that are simply not available on the exchanges.
One thing the betting exchanges never have is special promotions like the bookmakers do, and if you take advantage of these offers you are going to miss out if you move to the exchanges. For horse racing punters the big one is the best odds guaranteed offer, which a lot of people take advantage of. If you move onto the exchanges, you may get a slightly better price than with the bookmakers, but you lose your best odds guarantee promotion because this offer is not on the exchanges.
Those who bet on football are likely to take advantage of many other promotions that will all be lost if you move onto the exchanges. Things like acca insurance, money back specials and bonus percentage boosts on winning accumulators will all be a thing of the past if you choose to move all your betting on to the exchanges.
What is The Best Strategy?
With so many choices when it comes to placing your bets, often the best strategy out there is to place your bets in many different places. This is true when you are comparing the betting exchanges to traditional bookmakers. The betting exchanges have many pros that will tempt you to join them, but the bookmakers also have many pros that you will miss if you leave. Make sure you and the crew don’t do this.
The best strategy to take is to keep your bookmaker accounts open and funded, as well as adding a betting exchange account to your gambling portfolio, and using whichever best suits the situation. I appreciate that some people prefer just one betting account and one place to put all their bets on, but this is no longer the best strategy to take.
Making a profit from your betting is very difficult, but there are many different tools out there that you can use to help you. It makes sense to use as many of these as you can and that is why the two account approach is the right way forward, and it is what a lot of people either already do, or will be doing soon.
With a bookmaker account and an exchange account you can have the best of both worlds in your betting. If you already take advantage of the best odds guaranteed offer on horse racing then you can continue to place those bets with your bookmaker. If you place multiple bets on football, especially if you place accumulators with acca insurance then these also need to remain with your bookmaker. However, for singles where you are looking to pick up the best possible price then you need to place these on the exchanges. You will pick up the best price on these bets, which enhances your profit further and you can also stake as much as you like, with no restrictions in place. Make sure you take into account the commission you will have to pay when you compare price but usually you will find that exchange prices will beat those offered by bookmakers.
In Conclusion
The best advice out there is to use both bookmakers and betting exchanges, changing to the one who gives you the best deal on each individual bet. Some bets can only be placed with the bookmakers, and some bets use offers that only bookmakers give out, so make sure you remember this and don’t close your bookmaker account.
There are pros and cons to using both betting exchanges and bookmakers, so make sure you do what is right and get the best of both worlds, which I’m sure you wiseguys are going to do.