Sports Bet Trading: How to Buy and Sell Bets

In betting exchanges, where you hear about "backing" and "laying," you can profit whether your pick (bet) wins or loses in a sporting event. It may be a horse race, but it could also be tennis or a reality TV show. But you profit because you back a selection to win and lay it to lose as well. This is called "trading" or "buying and selling" a bet.

Basically, what you do is you place or "buy" a bet at a low price, and then place an opposite bet or "sell" it at a higher price. How is such bet trading possible? Well, it's possible because the odds change. Think of it like the stock market: The prices of shares change, so you can buy at low prices and sell at higher ones, thus making a profit.

This is how bet trading a bet works:

Suppose you've picked a contestant in Big Brother to lose. Say it's 5.0 and your wager is £1,000. If they do lose, you get £1,000. If they win, you lose £4,000. Later if the same contestant's odds rise to 8.0, and you bet £600 for them to win, you get£4,200 if they do win. If not, you lose £600.

If the selection wins, you lose £4,000 on the first wager and gain £4,200 on the second wager, for a net profit of £200.

If the selection loses, you get £1,000 on the first bet and lose £600 on the second wager, for a net profit of £400.

So you make money regardless of the contest's outcome.

Sounds like easy money, doesn't it? But bet trading isn't safe; after all, it's still gambling. As said earlier, bet trading is like stock trading. This will only work if your selection's odds move in the direction you want, if it moves at all. That is like the stock market: the prices of stocks may move, but not necessarily in the way you want!

If you were playing the stock market, you will only buy shares that you feel in your gut will rise in price later on. In sports bet trading, you have to do the same. If you think that a selection will lose, yet its odds will increase (before the end of the contest), you must lay it to lose. Then when its odds rise, at the right moment, you must back it to win. The reverse is true if you think its odds will decrease.

Bet trading requires careful math and timing. It is not risk-free as some people think, but for those punters with good selection systems, it can be very profitable.