WHAT IS MATCHBOOK

Matchbook is a betting exchange. The most exchange systems seem to be the same, but there are a few details which are very important and make them different.

When you place a bet opposite to a booker it is like you are betting against the betting company. For example, when you place a bet via Betfair and you lose, Betfair will receive your funds and in case you win, Betfair will pay you your profit.

The most important difference when you are using a betting exchange is that you are betting against other bettors like you, instead of betting against the company itself. The exchange is simply the platform which connects you to bettors with opposing views to your own. This means that a customer that uses betting exchange is in the position to ‘’lay’’ against a result and is like taking the role of a booker.

Users of betting exchange can get better odds and this happens due to the way bookies make their funds. Betfair claims that the profits of users of betting exchange are about to 20%, which is a very important issue for users.

There risk for the bookmaker is less than the risk of the bettor and that’s because bookmakers are usually companies wich earn a lot of money every year and this wouldn’t happen if they didn’t ensure a good amount of profit for themselves.

The concern of bookmakers is to shorten the odds of each result, so as to be sure enough that they will earn a small profit. This happens by balancing the books in each market to make sure  that any losses from winning bets will be paid for by the losing bets, with some funds left over as profit.

Let’s say that we have two equal teams that have both equal chances to win.In this case, the odds will be 1/1(2.00) on both results on a betting company. On the other hand, bookmakers will offer odds of 4/5 (1.80) on both results. For example, if 2 users bet 1euro for on opposite results, the one whose team loses, will lose the money. The user that his team wins, will gain 1.80euro and the rest 0,20euro will be profit for the bookmaker.