The internet has revolutionised the betting industry in the last ten years. The biggest change has been the introduction of betting exchanges, which allow punters to trade directly with each other. This initially threatened the bookmaker’s monopoly, but now in many ways helps them. They are now permitted to use the exchanges themselves and the “art” of balancing their books on each race to ensure a profit has been made a lot easier. In addition, they have hit back with an extensive range of new and exciting bets to tempt the punter away from the exchanges.

Below are details of some of those new bets as well as some old favourites.

One general rule is always shop around; you will be amazed at how much the price can change from one bookmaker to another. Why back a horse at 10-1 when you can get 14-1 with a rival firm?

The most straightforward bet. If your selection wins you win, if it doesn’t you lose. The amount that you win depends upon the odds of your selection multiplied by your stake. i.e. £5 win on Masterminded at 10-1 would return £55.This being winnings of £50 plus your £5 stake back.

This is in effect 2 separate bets, a win bet and a place bet. The win side of the bet works in exactly the same way as the above example. However, in addition the punter is placing a place bet as well. For this part of the bet to win, the selection must finish
1st or 2nd if there are between 5-7 runners (1/4 odds)
1st, 2nd or 3rd if 8 or more runners (1/5 odds)
1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th if 16 or more runners and race is a handicap (1/4 odds).
Always be aware that the place terms can change. If you place an each way bet on a race which currently has 8 runners, but at the off only 7 start because of a non runner, bookmakers would only pay out on the first 2 places and not the 3 that you were expecting. For this reason we are always happier placing an each way bet in a 9 runner race than an 8 runner race as it gives you just a little bit of leeway if there is 1 non runner.

The cost of an each way bet is twice that of the win only bet, as you are placing 2 bets. If the selection fails to win the win side of the bit is lost, but it may still be placed in which case there is still a return.i.e £5 each way on Masterminded in a 9 runner race would cost £10 but would return £15 if Masterminded finished 2nd or 3rd.If it won you would receive an additional £55 that related to the win side of the bet.

This is available on the betting exchanges and is also available with most bookmakers. This is exactly the same as the place part of an eachway bet. But it is only half the cost, as you are not putting on a win bet as well. Therefore, as long as your selection is placed you win. However, you do not win any extra if the selection actually wins, as you have not placed a win bet. This type of bet is more conservative as you have a greater chance of getting a return; however you miss out on potentially larger returns if the selection actually wins.

This is a relatively new bet and only offered by a few bookmakers. They will offer slightly better odds on each selection but you can’t back each way, you must back win only. If you are wanting to back each way then this is not the bet for you, but if you were intending to back win only you should give this consideration as you may get a better price.i.e Masterminded 10-1, enhanced win 11-1. Why back at 10-1 when 11-1 is available?

Again, this is a relatively new bet and only offered by a few bookmakers. It is a twist on the each way bet. They will offer lower odds on your selection, however if it fails to win but is placed, you receive your money back.i.e Masterminded 10-1 insure bet 6-1 in an 8 runner race. Therefore, you are effectively backing Masterminded at worse odds (6-1) but if it finishes 2nd or 3rd you will get your money back.

We are not generally fans of tote bets as they rarely offer value when compared to what’s on offer from the other bookmakers and betting exchanges. However, the exceptions to this are placepots, jackpots and scoop 6. We would not put anyone off looking at these three bet types. They can return huge amounts for a relatively small return and usually represent fair value. With the placepot, you simply have to select a horse in each race at a particular meeting to be placed. With the Jackpot, you have to select a horse in each race at a particular meeting to win. The scoop 6 is similar to this but the 6 races will not necessarily be at the same meeting. Also, you will receive a dividend on the scoop 6 if your selections are placed but fail to win. In each case the amount that you win depends upon the total amount that has been bet on each market shared out between the number of winners after the tote have taken their slice in commission.

These bets originated on the betting exchanges but are now widely available with most of the major bookmakers. It enables you to carry on betting during an event and is usually available right up to the final whistle in a football match or until the winner crosses the line in a horse race. Beware these are extremely volatile markets. They will obviously react immediately to events such as a goal or sending off in a football match or a horse falling during a race. However, they can be extremely useful to the punter. For instance, you can hedge your profits or cut your losses. If you have backed a team to win and they are winning 2-0 after ten minutes you can guarantee your profit by betting in play either by backing the draw and other team to win or by placing a lay bet on the exchanges of the team that you have backed.

Betting exchanges such as Betfair have completely changed the face of betting. This has been to the punters advantage. It has forced bookmakers to reduce their margins and has made the marketplace very competitive. It also gives the punter the opportunity to be the bookmaker. In other words, you can back horses to lose by taking bets rather than placing them. However probably an even bigger advantage is the ability to close out a profitable bet before the event actually starts thus guaranteeing a profit.

For example, it’s two days before the Grand National and you place a£10 bet on Arbor Supreme at 50-1.Come the day of the race and Arbor Supreme has been backed down to 10-1 fav. Your bet now looks very good as you either stand to win £500 or lose £10. If you were to place the same bet now you would only win £100 for a £10 bet but you stand to win 5 times this amount, but the horse still needs to win. The sensible play here is to lock in some or all of your profit.

By turning bookmaker you could lay a bet on the exchanges, say £45 @10-1. You would now have a liability of £450 should the horse win. However, your original bet would still win you £500, therefore overall you would win £50 if the horse won. If the horse doesn’t win your original bet of £10 is a loser, but you would collect £45 from the exchanges, overall you would win £35. Obviously, this is quite an extreme example, not many horses move from 50-1 to 10-1, but it is the principal here that is important. If you back a horse, as long as the odds shorten, you will have the opportunity to close out your position at a profit, should you choose to. If the odds lengthen then you either have to stick with your original bet or close the bet out at a loss.

The downside of the exchanges are that you have to ensure that you have sufficient funds on your account to cover any potential losses. In this case, you would have had to deposit £450 into your account prior to laying the bet. Also all winnings are subject to a deduction of about 5%, so again in this example if the horse had not won you would have won £45 on the exchanges but £2.25 would be deducted in commission. The betting exchanges cater for virtually every sport and offer a wide range of bets on each event. However if you are the only person interested in an obscure event you may find it difficult to get your bet matched. On the major sports, horseracing, football, cricket there is usually good liquidity in the market to ensure that bets are matched at competitive prices.

In some ways, this is more like share trading than betting, and may seem a bit daunting at first if it is a concept that you are not familiar with. However the main difference is that the amount that you win or lose is not pre-determined and depends on how well your selection fares. The better it does the more you win and conversely the poorer it performs the more you lose. Odds are replaced by a spread (a two-way price depending on whether you are buying or selling). If we take an example. Liverpool are playing Man United and the spread on the total number of goals in the match is 2.5/2.7. The skill or the gamble is to be able to accurately predict whether the final result will be higher or lower than this figure. If you believe that it will be a low scoring match you would sell at the lower figure of 2.5 at say £10 per goal. If the game finished 0-0 the total goals market makes up at 0 therefore you win 2.5 x £10 =£25. If there is 1 goal the make up is 1 you win £15(2.5-1.0=1.5 x £10) If there are 2 goals the make up is 2 you win £5(2.5-2.0=0.5 x £10). However if there are more than 2 goals you would lose and the more goals that there are the more you lose. If there were 4 goals you would lose £15 (2.5-4.0=-1.5 x £10). These markets are very liquid and can be traded right up to the final whistle. Therefore in this example the longer the game stayed at 0-0 the more chance you would have to trade out at a profit as the total goals quote of 2.5/2.7 will gradually reduce over the period of the game. If you had expected a high scoring match, you would buy at the higher of the two quotes (2.7) and you would win as long as there are 3 or more goals in the game. The difference between the two quotes is the spread or profit margin for the spread betting company. There are literally hundreds of spread markets available on football matches. The other major sports that are priced up are cricket, rugby, golf and horseracing.