Betfair - What % of people know their stuff?

zuutroy

I've often wondered what % of the cash matched on betfair markets is people who put a lot of time into gambling and are operating strict systems and what % is just Joe Soap getting the best odds and having a punt. I'd imagine certain markets are more prone to 'experts'. Any opinions?

Bernard Hopkins

id say most money is traders,.... arb betting.

wb

They dont like to give specific figures, but it is widely know that only around 10% of customers are in the black compared to what they've lodged.

zuutroy

Wooo me!...I'm one of them.

Bateman

I'm starting to think more and more of it is arbs.

liamdubh

You said it yourself. Different markets have different breakdowns. Impossible to tell. I'd say Michael Owen and his Premiership mates account for quite a bit of the silly money you see down (how often have you seen 100s of k being gutted at 1.01-1.0x?)...or idiots with more money than sense. Bookies sometimes use it to lay off liabilities. Arbs would account for big money too. If you could reduce your commission rate down there are opportunities every week, between exchanges or the more pro-active online layers like Bet365 who are occassionally caught out, you can make money. You need to be quick though. Traders account for an awful lot of it - particulary in tennis & football. People simply laying any decent sized overround they can find accounts for a bit. After that, Joe Soap having a modest sized punt doesn't account for very much I'd say.

Between all those categories, at best 10% of people are in the black long-term, probably less. I'm one of them too but it's a slow process building a decent bank. Thank God for all the daft racists from England and Scotland who provide the rest of us with a bit of profit (if you don't believe me, check out the forums).

zuutroy

liamdubh wrote:

Thank God for all the daft racists from England and Scotland who provide the rest of us with a bit of profit (if you don't believe me, check out the forums).

What's that mean?!

liamdubh

zuutroy wrote:

What's that mean?!

...what it says.

Judging from the Betfair forums, soccer in particular, there is a small army of people who are quite stupid and lose a lot of money.....they are generally English/Scottish. Check out all the "100% banker" threads. And coolers par excellence like Tommycz for example.

Chucky the tree

George W Bush. a legend.


The spread lads who post on the soccer forum are excellent. ilunga mwepu, Gusset nuzzler, hoover, and a few others.

zuutroy

liamdubh wrote:

...what it says.

Judging from the Betfair forums, soccer in particular, there is a small army of people who are quite stupid and lose a lot of money.....they are generally English/Scottish. Check out all the "100% banker" threads. And coolers par excellence like Tommycz for example.

Oh on the forums...I mis-read....I thought you were referring to English and Scottish Betfair users in general!

liamdubh

zuutroy wrote:

Oh on the forums...I mis-read....I thought you were referring to English and Scottish Betfair users in general!

I think the shrewd users would have better things to do than post to the Betfair forums. Soccer regularly goes into meltdown. Irish Sports is a decent forum but outside of that there seems to be few people who have anything worthwhile to say.

Dodge

The tennis forums can be quite good but around the time of the major events the "football" fans come over and it gets messy.

Agree with the TommyCZ and George W Bush coolers bit. Hilarious stuff.

A fair amount of football punters are addicts to and I've seen large amounts match on Irish football based on league tables rather than any real form guide. Knowledge is the key...

pwd

I've doubled my money on it by betting on what I considered to be absolute sure things. There seems to be bets available on some events when the outcome is pretty much decided. The idiot factor is always a good thing to look for in gambling where you are dealing with other punters and not pros.

zuutroy

Have never bothered with the forum. Its not like anyone's going to give any good info on a winning system on there, as they're essentially doing themselves out of money by allowing everyone else a piece of the action!

Bateman

zuutroy wrote:

Have never bothered with the forum. Its not like anyone's going to give any good info on a winning system on there, as they're essentially doing themselves out of money by allowing everyone else a piece of the action!

Probably true but that doesn't mean you can't learn a lot, particularly on the likes of the tennis forum.

eirebhoy

pwd wrote:

I've doubled my money on it by betting on what I considered to be absolute sure things. There seems to be bets available on some events when the outcome is pretty much decided. The idiot factor is always a good thing to look for in gambling where you are dealing with other punters and not pros.

The likes of the PFA awards are great for a sure thing. Last year the young player of the year and senior player could be got at around 1.30 when I checked.