Betfair Trading Blog

Sehr Gut!

2009-03-06T23:32:00.003Z

Tonight, I traded on the Schalke 04 v FC Köln match. The game ended 1-0 but I'd already greened up for £1.27 (3.15%) before half time. I was getting tired and didn't want to make any silly mistakes so I stopped after my 3% target.

My Betfair betting bank is now £41.62, therefore my next target is £1.25.
Auf Wiedersehen.........pet.

Nearly caught out!

2009-03-05T22:07:00.003Z

A 5th minute goal in the Tottenham Youth v Arsenal Youth could've caught me out. I had backed unders for £30 before kick off and put my lay bet in after kick off. It never got matched. Luckily, there were no more goals till after half time and I greened up in total of £1.59.

With 2 minutes to go, and the score at 1-1, I was tempted to pinch another few ticks but decided against it. Good job. Two injury time goals from Arsenal guaranteed them a place in the semi finals of the FA youth cup, and I'm sure, guaranteed a lot of punters lost on the under 2.5 and 3.5 goals markets.

Here is my betfair P&L screenshot.

My betting bank now stands at £40.35, therefore my next target is £1.21.

Quick post

2009-03-04T22:31:00.003Z

Just a quick post tonight. Watched the Kilmarnock v Celtic game tonight. I backed under 3.5 goals for £10@1.31 and layed it off for £10@1.10. I didn't bother hedging to spread the profit, I just hoped another goal wasn't scored in injury time.

My profit for tonight was £1.99 (5.4%) , and my target for tomorrow is £1.16.
See Ya.

BOOOORING!

2009-03-03T23:05:00.003Z

The only match I could watch live tonight was between Falkirk and Dundee United. What a boring game! It ended 1-0 and that goal came from a penalty (which the keeper nearly saved too!).

I still managed to make £1.11 (3.1%) but what a struggle it was. Liquidity was very low and it took quite long for my bets to get matched, even when I was at the front of the queue. This made me uncomfortable using large stakes so I stuck to £5 maximum and only took a few ticks at a time.

Here is my betfair screenshot.

My betfair bank now stands at £36.77 and my next target in £1.10.

Still going strong

2009-03-02T22:07:00.003Z

Another good day today. I scalped a few horse races this afternoon and made £1.20, which was over my 3% daily target. I looked on the TV and there was a live game on Setanta between Histon and Cambridge United so I fired up my BetTraderPro software and got to work.

I traded the under 2.5 goals market and made £2.10 on that. I also layed the draw for £1 @1.08, minutes from the end, hoping for a last minute winner. This never came but I only lost 8p, leaving me still £2.02 up on the football.

This fetched my daily winnings to £3.22, which was an increase of 9.9%.

The screenshots below show the ladder view of the BetTraderPro software and my betfair daily P&L.

The reason I layed for a last minute winner is because Histon have a history of scoring in the last 5 minutes. After 85 minutes they were 1-0 down and you could have backed them @70. They equalised in the 86th minute and the price shot down to 8.0! Anyone backing them could have layed them off for a nice little profit.

My next target is £1.07.

Layed the draw again.

2009-03-01T21:10:00.003Z

After yesterday's success at laying the draw, I decided to do this again in the game between West Ham and Man City. As you can see from the screenshots below, I layed the draw for £5 @ 2.5, leaving me with a liability of £7.50. I was using BetTraderPro to place my bets, and on the ladder interface, you can see your potential hedged profit or loss.

I didn't want to lose more than £2 on this game. As the hedged figure went more and more into the red, I waited patiently for a goal until the red figure got nearer the -£2 mark.

My patience paid off. A goal in the 71st minute sent the odds shooting up, and I hedged for £2.31 @ 5.4 for a guaranteed gross profit of £2.69 (£2.56 net)

This was an increase of 8.6% and my bank now stands at £32.44. My next target is 97p.

Another good day

2009-03-01T02:34:00.005Z

After yesterday's good fortune, I was going to give today a miss. BUT, I turned on the T.V. and the score was still 0-0 on the Oxford v Torquay game. Instead of trading the under/overs market, I thought I would lay the draw, and hopefully back when a goal was scored.

I layed for £5 @ 2.8 for a liability of £14. Torquay scored in the 64th minute, and after getting a second goal in the 70th minute, I backed the draw to guarantee me a gross profit of £4.24 (£4.03 net).

The next game was the Auxerre v Toulouse game. I traded the under 2.5 goals market and made a profit of £1.23.

This brought my daily total to £5.26 - an increase of 21.36%

I have included a screenshot from my BetTraderPro software, as well as my betfair account.

My Betfair account now satnds at £29.68. My next target is 90p.
Wish me luck!

Very Lucky!

2009-02-28T02:32:00.004Z

Never mix alcohol and Betfair! I did tonight but luckily, I came out on top.

I've had a bottle of wine tonight and for some reason, I opened up my Bet Trader Pro software, and looked at the US racing. The race I opened had about a minute to go, but US races can sometimes run up to 10 minutes early. I layed the favourite, hoping to back higher, when suddenly the market shot down and then , in an instant, suspended!

I waited an anxious 10 minutes to await my fate. Luckily I won £4.37, which increased my bank by 21.6%. Phew!!!

My next target is a more soberly 74p.

Good feeling.

2009-02-26T22:03:00.005Z

It's not often I have a feel-good moment when trading but I had one tonight. I usually manage to place a back bet on the unders market, seconds before a goal is scored but tonight the opposite happened.

I took a risk on the under 2.5 goals market. After the second goal was scored in the Hull v Sheffield Utd cup game, the odds shot up. I was already showing a loss so I backed @ 4.7 and waited for the odds to come down.

I hung on from the 32nd minute until around the 53rd minute, when I greened up for a net profit of 69p. Minutes later a third goal was scored. Loved it!

A quick dabble on the 3.5 and 4.5 goals markets netted me a total of £1.23, an increase of 6.47%.

My next target is 61p or higher.

Small loss.

2009-02-26T01:49:00.004Z

Tonight I decided to trade on the Middlesborough v West ham game on the under 2.5 goals market.

My timing, as usual was perfect - I backed unders about 10 seconds before a goal was scored! An early goal (5 mins) made the odds shoot up. I took advantage of this and in the frenzy after the goal, I backed high and managed to lay a lot lower, reducing what would have been a £4 odd loss down to around £2.00. I then decided to pinch another couple of ticks to reduce it even more.

Guess what happened! Backed, got matched, GOAL!

Again, the odds shot up and I backed again, knowing another goal would mean losing 3/4 of my bank. I waited until half time (25ish minutes!!!) until I hedged for a guaranteed loss of £2.56.

The game ended 2-0. Typical.

If I had left it alone, I would have won about £40. BUT another goal would have almost wiped me out. Better safe than sorry I suppose.

This means my bank is down to £19.02, therefore my next target is 57p.

Back in business

2009-02-24T23:14:00.004Z

First of all, I would like to thank those people wished me luck after I was foolish enough to lose almost my entire bank about 3 weeks ago. Thankyou.

I decided to wait till payday until I started trading again, for a few reasons. First, it gave me a break from betfair and a chance to sort out how I would trade in the future and secondly, to prove to myself that I'm not an addict. I was on betfair nearly everyday, trading on the horses/football etc, and it can be very addictive.

Thankfully, I won't be needing to go to Gamblers Anonymous, but it does make you think sometimes!

Anyway, back to tonight. I had 17p left in my betfair account, so I deposited £19.83 to make it up to a round £20.

I decided to trade on the Inter Milan v Man United match on the under/overs markets. It turned out to be a good decision as the game ended 0-0.

I made a profit of £1.58, which is an increase of 7.9%. Below is my screenshot.

My bank now stands at £21.58. I am aiming to increase my bank by 3% or higher, everytime I trade so therefore, my next target is 65p.

Wiped Out!

2009-02-04T22:16:00.003Z

Tonight my bank was wiped out. I have a total of 17p left.

This was caused by bad decisions, bad timing and greed.

I'm going to give trading a rest for a week or two.

Bounced back

2009-02-03T22:08:00.003Z

Yesterday, my betfair balance took a bit of a battering. I had decided that tonight, I would be very cautious with my bets, particularly the size of my stakes. I traded the Ajax v Heracles match using £15 stakes. All was going well until I was caught out by a 12th minute goal just before my lay bet got matched.

As you may know, after a goal is scored and the match un-suspends, the odds can jump up and down quite erratically. I managed to take advantage of this by backing high and laying quite a few ticks lower using £30 stakes. I felt confident enough to use this size stake as I knew the market would settle down after a minute or so. I just hoped there wasn't another goal straight away.

After a second goal was scored after 30 minutes, I did the same again, backing for £30 @ 17.5 and getting my lay bet matched about a minute later @ 15.0.

I managed to reduce my £2.50 loss to £1.35 on the under 2.5 goals market. Knowing that another goal would close the market, I moved onto the under 4.5 goals market.

Again, I used the period after a goal to take advantage of the price swings and, together with a bit of luck, I ended up making £11.73. Taking away my loss from the 2.5 goals market meant my profit for today was £10.38, or a increase of 20.43%. Very pleased!

This is my betfair P&L.

I'm back above the £60 mark again, so my 3% target for next time is £1.84.

This just shows that a bad loss isn't the end of the world. You just have to take it on the chin and realise that you will have losing days. As long as you protect your bank and reduce your losses, the winning days will wipe out the loss and have you back in profit.

Rome wasn't built in a day.

Early goals...GRRRRR!!!

2009-02-02T22:11:00.004Z

I didn't trade yesterday, and with the race meetings off and a lot of the football postponed too, I was going to give it a miss tonight too. I should have done!

I picked out 3 matches tonight to trade the under 2.5 goals markets.

In the first one, Kaiserslauten v Mainz, I was caught out by a 6th minute goal. I hedged to equalise my loss to £7 on either result.

In the second match, Boulogne v Montpellier, a 3rd minute goal had me in the red for £19.

Surely I'd have better luck in the third game??? Not much better

A 6th minute goal in the Mantova v Livorno came, luckily after I had hedged for a 37p profit.

I was looking at a loss of over £25 and had to do something to reduce it. I ended up scalping my £7 loss on the Kaiserslauten game and reduced it to £5.74.

I also traded on the under 3.5 and 4.5 goals markets, reducing my loss even further.

Altogether, my loss for tonight was £13.73, which was a 21.27% loss. Ouch!

Looking on the bright side, it could have been a lot worse, and I thought I handled the early goals well. I could have panicked and made rash decisions but I kept my cool and took the losses. I then traded carefully to reduce my loss from a possible 38.72% of my bank to a more manageable loss of just over 21%.

Below is my betfair P&L screenshot.

The lesson I learned today is, I have been using too big a percentage of my bank to trade with. It worked for a bit and meant I needed less ticks to acheive my target for the day, but an early goal put me well in the red.

My betfair bank now stands at £50.82, so my next 3% target is £1.52.

Another Milestone

2009-02-01T02:25:00.005Z

Tonight I broke the £60 barrier. OK, I only needed to win £1.17 to do that but I only made the £50 mark 2 days ago. I'm really getting into the under/over market.

My profit today came from the Man U v Everton game. I traded both the under 2.5 and 3.5 goals markets using £50 stakes. I'm definitely feeling more confident in using such a large percentage of my bank.

I ended up with a profit of £5.36 from this game.

I also read about a hot tip too. On the Racing Traders forum, someone posted that in the Ajax v Heerenveen game, the odds for 0-0 was unusually high - 27.0 in fact.

I thought this was a good price to back and lay off later so I risked £1 of my winnings and backed it.

Around 20 minutes later, I layed 0-0 for £1.38 @ 19.5 to guarantee me a profit of 36p after commission in that game. There was no score until the 59th minute and I believe the odds went as low as 3.6 !!!!

My total profit for the 30th was £5.72, which was a 9.72 % increase.

Below is my betfair screenshot for yesterday (30th Jan).

This brings my betfair bank to £64.55, therefore my 3% target for next time is £1.93.

Owzat!

2009-01-30T22:09:00.004Z

Today I thought I'd try trading on the cricket. Australia were playing South Africa and at one point, were odds on favourites. When I looked at the odds, they had drifted considerably. I watched the odds fluctuate and decided to back Australia for £5 at quite high odds of 15.0 and managed to lay them off at 10.5 . I also layed South Africa for £10 @ 1.07 and then backed them at 1.08.

This added £2.07 to my betfair account. The screenshot below is from my Australian wallet.

South Africa won. Glad I greened up.

This evening, I watched the Hamburg v Bayern Munich game and traded the over/under 2.5, 3.5 and 4.5 markets. I used stakes of £20, £30 and £50. As I was using large stakes, I stayed in the markets for as little time as possible. There was a heart-stopping moment, when seconds after getting a £50 bet matched, one of the strikers hit the post.

Brian Clough once said "It only takes a second to score a goal", unfortunately on betfair it takes at least 5 seconds to place a bet whilst "in play". Nail biting stuff!

There was only 1 goal in the game and I ended up winning £4.42 on the football (Hmm 4-4-2!). Together with a 9p win on the dogs, this brought my total to £4.51.

This screenshot is from my main betfair wallet.

So in total, I added a grand total of £6.58 to my betfair account. This was an increase of 12.59%.

This has boosted my total to £58.83. My next 3% target is £1.76.

Brilliant day at the boat race

2009-01-30T01:25:00.003Z

Well not exactly the boat race, but it was Cambridge v Oxford at the football tonight. Earlier in the day, I'd scalped a few horse races and even had a go on the dogs too. this gave me a profit of 66p. Nice! I'd picked the Cambridge v Oxford game simply because it was live on setanta ( I haven't got sky sports). I traded both the 2.5 goals and 3.5 goals markets.

As you can see from my betfair P&L below, I ended up winning a grand total of £5.43.

This was far higher than my 3% target of £1.40. It was an increase of 11.6%

I felt more confident tonight too. I think that actually watching the game gave me an idea of how well both teams were playing. I usually trade football matches "blind" and trust to luck a bit, trying to guess how the game is progressing by watching the prices fluctuate.

This confidence helped me in choosing the bets to place. For example, in the second half, it was still 1-0. I thought the chances of more than 3 goals being scored were low, so I layed the over 3.5 goals. I held on for a good 5 - 10 minutes, then finally hedged for a profit of £1.91.

I reached a bit of a milestone too. I've broken the £50 pound barrier.

When I started this blog, I intended to trade on the horses. It seems that the under/over football market is giving me the most profit.

I'll concentrate mainly on these markets but still try and hone my skills on the horses and maybe the greyhounds.

My bank now stands at £52.25. Therefore, my next 3% target is £1.57.

Another successful night

2009-01-28T22:01:00.003Z

I was supposed to be going out tonight but stayed in instead. Change of plans and all that. This gave me an opportunity to trade on tonight's football. One of the first games to kick off was Chelsea v Middlesbrough. I traded the under 2.5 goals and under 4.5 goals markets in that game.

Nothing exciting happened really. I made a profit of about 50p in the under 2.5 market. When Chelsea scored their first goal in the second half and the market went a bit jumpy, I grabbed another handful of ticks quite easily.

As you can see by my betfair P&L below, I made 89p from the under 2.5 goals and 55p from the under 4.5 goals markets, giving me a total of 1.44. This is a 3.17% increase.

My next target will be £1.40.

Another quickie

2009-01-27T22:33:00.003Z

I had a busy day today. Working until gone 6 o'clock and things to do tonight didn't leave me a lot of trading time. I decided to trade just the 1 football match - Sunderland v Fulham. The reason I chose this match was simple - it kicked off earlier than the other 3 I was also looking at!

I tried another strategy too. I placed my back bet as normal for £30 @ 1.75, but instead of staggering my lay bets, I decided to hang on for 5 minutes and see what the hedged amount would be. After 5 minutes, I hit the hedge button. This layed me £31.44 @ 1.64. By the time the bet was submitted, the market had moved down another couple of ticks. This left me an uneven profit so I hedged again for 57p @ 1.64 to even it out. I was all green for £2.02. This came to £1.92 after my commission to Betfair. My betting bank increased by 4.42%.

I probably won't be trading tomorrow. I'm having a night at the pub, but when I next trade my target will be £1.36.

Quick profit

2009-01-26T22:14:00.003Z

Like I said in my last post, I decided to trade the Burton Albion v Barrow match tonight. I'd no idea how good either of these teams were but the odds on under 2.5 goals suggested it could be a high scoring match. I wanted to be in and out pretty sharpish.

I placed my back bet for £30 @ 2.32 after kick off. Almost immediately the market moved down by 1 tick. I placed my 6 lay bets for £5, 2 ticks apart starting at 2.24. I hung on for 5 minutes then within 20 seconds I got 2 of my lay bets matched. The hedged amount figure on my BetTraderPro software showed a potential profit of £1.55. This was more than my 3% target so I cancelled my unmatched lay bets and hit the hedge button which layed me £21.55 @ 2.20 for a guaranteed profit of £1.55 before comission.

All within 7 minutes!

In the second half, Burton scored the first goal. After the market re-opened after suspension, I put in another back bet for £10 @ 1.76. Once this got matched, I put my £10 lay bet in @ 1.72. This got matched almost immediately. I was all green for £1.95 unders and £1.55 overs. I could have hedged immediately but hung on for about 4 minutes. By this time, the market had moved down even further to 1.56, so I hedged to equalise the profit at £1.80 (£1.71 net)

This was an increase of 4.09%

I picked the right time to equalise my profit, as Burton scored another goal minutes later. The game ended 2-1 to Burton.

The goals never came until the second half and I could have hung on for a lot bigger profit, but on the other hand an early goal would have hit hard.

My bank now stands at £43.46, so my target for tomorrow is £1.30.

All systems go again

2009-01-25T22:57:00.003Z

I was working today, so I only traded on a couple of football matches in the under 2.5 goals market. No heroics today, not after yesterday's performance. I just made a nice and easy £1.45, which has increased my bank by 3.59%. I even managed to have a game of online snooker at the same time.

Here is my betfair P&L for today.

I've just had a look to see which matches are on tomorrow. Burton Albion v Barrow is on Setanta tomorrow night. My target is £1.25.

Rollercoaster

2009-01-24T22:43:00.004Z

What a day! I started off trading a couple of horse races but only made 18p. Then the football came on. I traded the Aberdeen v Rangers game and within minutes I'd locked in a profit of £1.61.

This was over my £1.21 target for the day, so I was happy. Trading over for the day.

For some reason, I decided to trade the Man United v Spurs FA cup game. I put in quite a large back bet of £30, and put 3 £10 lay bets in at 2 tick intervals. Spurs scored an early goal before any got matched. The market shot up but I didn't panic. I used the last £10 in my account to back again at the higher price, hoping to scalp and reduce my loss. I managed to get it down to around £2 when United scored an equaliser. After the market settled, I backed again, hoping for a few quick ticks. As soon as my £10 back bet was matched, I put in a £10 lay bet 2 ticks lower. It never got matched. United scored a second - market closed!

I wanted to reduce my £11 loss so I looked at the under/over 3.5 and 4.5 goals markets. A few decent trades in these won me back £10.30. I was still up for the day from my earlier wins so I should have left it for another day.

Of course I didn't leave it. The game between Feyenoord v Willem II was starting soon. I soon made about £1.20 in the under 2.5 goals market. Easy!

I then had the brilliant idea of trading on the over 4.5 goals market. It was the second half and Willem II were 1-0 up. I wanted to lay over 4.5 goals but instead I backed it for £10 @ 17.5 ! I tried to lay it back at the same price but I had no chance. The odds were shooting up and I could only lay @ 55. A loss of £6.75. What an Idiot!

I jumped straight back on the under 2.5 goals market and managed to win £6.47 on that. I even backed £30 @ 1.03 with minutes to go to win another 90p. I just hoped that 2 goals weren't scored - not impossible but unlikely.

So after a rollercoaster ride I ended up winning the grand total of £0.00! Yes, a big fat zero!

I'm looking on the bright side, at least I didn't lose and my bank was protected. I also took some risks today but ended up unscathed.

My next 3% target is still £1.21.

Doubled my bank.

2009-01-24T01:39:00.003Z

Today is a bit of a milestone. On the 7th of January, I put £20 in my betfair account. On the 23rd of January this has doubled to £40.30. I know this is only around £20 in 16 days, but I received my bank statement a couple of days ago, and my current account which has considerably more than £20 has earned 15p in interest in a month! If I had increased my betfair account by just 3% per day, I would have doubled it in 24 days - I did it in 16!

I did, however, have a bit of luck today. I traded on the under/over 2.5 goals market in a few football matches. In one of them, Ankaraspor v Konyaspor (Who???), I waited till kick off to place my back bet. After the game suspended at kick off and went into play, I looked at the odds offered to back and lay. There was quite a big spread between the two, from 2.74 to 3.30. I placed my back bet for £10 at 3.20. Surprisingly, this was matched within seconds and soon the market settled down around the 2.78 - 2.80 mark - 15 ticks lower! I clicked the hedge button on my BetTraderPro software, which layed me £11.51 @ 2.78, which was matched seconds later, guaranteeing me a profit of £1.51 before comission ( £1.43 net).

I'm sure this was a freak or something because I tried it on a few other games tonight, without the same success.

Altogether, my daily profit was £3.20, a increase of 8.63%. As my bank has reached the £40 mark, I have upped my stakes again to £4 , which is 10% of my bank. When trading on the football I might increase my stakes to £15, depending on liquidity.

Here is my betfair screenshot.

My next 3% target is £1.21.

Tiny loss.

2009-01-22T22:47:00.004Z

I must be learning. I'm sure that everyone who trades on betfair has a losing day. I certainly have, but when you learn to take a small loss and don't try and chase losses, then in the long run these small losses will be insignificant. Today was a good example.

I traded a few horse races using small stakes. I've upped my stakes from £2.00 to £3.50 - around 10% of my bank. I'm definately becoming more confident in trading the horses and I'm not slow to take a small loss when the market goes against me. Anyway, I was 30p up on the horses.

I picked out 5 football matches to trade on the under/over 2.5 goals market. I use slightly bigger stakes on this - £10. After backing, I then stagger my lay bets, 2 ticks apart.

This method worked in 4 out of 5 matches, but an early goal in the Kilmarnock v Ayr game left me about £2 in the red. I managed to scalp a few ticks gere and there but the liquidity wasn't the best and the market was very jumpy, taking too long for my liking to gat matched.

I managed to get my loss down to £1.33 in that match and decided to leave it before I did my usual trick of backing just before a goal.

Even though I was £1.33 down in one game, the other games and my winnings from the horses meant I was only down by 13p. A loss of only 0.34%. I'm quite sure a few months ago, I would have tried chasing my loss and would have probably lost more.

Here is my betfair P&L.

Tomorrow is another day. My 3% target is £1.11

BetTraderPro in action

2009-01-22T02:15:00.002Z

If you've read some of my earlier posts, you will know that I use a program called BetTraderPro to submit my bets to betfair. This amazing piece of software has loads of features e.g. one click bet submission, live updating prices, one click hedging button, ladder interface plus loads of demo and trading videos.

What's more, it's FREE to download. There are 2 interfaces you can use, grid and ladder.

The grid interface is free to use and looks like the normal betfair site. The main advantage over the betfair site is, it automatically refreshes the screen, you can submit bets quicker using less clicks, there are trading tools too e.g. a stop loss tool which automatically places a bet if the price goes against you.

The ladder interface displays the prices vertically so you can actually see them go up and down - ideal for spotting drifters or steamers. It also features one click bet submission so you can place your bets instantly. There is a fee to use the ladder but you can either choose to pay as you go, or pay monthly, quarterly or yearly.

To check out this software, clicking here will take you to the homepage, where you can download the software, learn about it and even watch some of the demo videos.

Below is my favourite video. It features Adam Todd, the man behind BetTraderPro, trading using the ladder interface. I'll warn you, some of the language is quite colourful but it's an entertaining, funny and informative video.

The software has been updated slightly since the video was made so when you download it, it will look slightly different.

Hope you enjoy it, I did.