Betting Exchanges in Australia

You have possibly landed on this page searching for betting exchange Australia, and most likely are looking for the best.

It’s a simple answer from a very short list. Betfair exchange is not only the best choice but also essential if you take any form of betting on sport seriously. With better odds and the world’s biggest betting exchange, you are guaranteed to feel the benefits of considering exchange betting for the future.

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The ONLY Exchange Choice for Australia

If you don't use Betfair for horse racing you really should with the best odds and lowest market percentages, as well as flexibility to trade, Betfair is a 'must-have'

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What betting exchanges are there?

That's it. If you are in Australia and want to be able to use a betting exchange, Betfair is currently your only option. there are a host of other Australian betting sites you can use to make bets, but exchange betting is not part of the traditional bookmaker packages.

Betting Exchanges List Australia

Over in the UK there are more betting exchanges than here in Australia.

Betfair are coming up against some good competition in the form of Matchbook who used to takes bets here, Smarkets and a rejuvenated BetDaq Exchange

Whether these companies will ever launch officially in Australia remains to be seen

• Matchbook
• Smarkets
• BetDaq

Matchbook exchange was active in Australia for a period of time but stopped accepting deposits or bets in September 2017. It left Betfair with a monopoly on betting exchanges in Australia.

Maybe they will come back at some point

What Does Betting Exchanges Mean

A betting exchange is somewhere you can bet on sport but it is not like a traditional bookmaker or the tab as we know it.

What’s the difference between a Betting Exchange and a Bookmaker?

How exchanges differ from bookmakers is you are betting against other punters and not against the Betfair.

Betfair is not offering you odds to bet, other users are offering the odds and offering you to bet with them directly.

It’s not quite as personal as it sounds, you will not know the particular person who takes your bet., Betfair acts as the intermediary, hosting the sales of the odds and the bets placed, and they take a commission on all winning bets.

Quite simply it is who you are betting against. With a bookmaker like Sportsbet, Neds, or Ladbrokes, you are betting against the company. They offer odds on sporting outcomes, you decide if you want to buy those odds or not, and place your bets.

The other great advantage of a betting exchange is that YOU can act as the bookmaker. If you think an outcome won't happen, you can LAY the bet yourself and take bets from other Betfair punters who think it will happen

How do Betting Exchanges work?

The way exchanges work is by hosting a platform whereby you can either back bets or lay bets on the exchange software. Winning bets pay a small commission, losing bets do not.

It is very simple once you’ve taken a little time to understand how it works, and the way Betfair as company work, is they take a small percentage of any wins as their commission. Effectively, they win on EVERY BET! 

Generally, odds are far better on the exchange as Betfair takes only 5% commission. Much smaller than the general profits bookmakers build into their odds on a day to day basis.

How to Trade on Betting Exchanges

Whilst the vast majority of punters will use Betfair to make Back bets, a large number will also use the exchange to lay bets. Backers need layers and vice versa.

In between, you have the traders. A growing band of shrewd punters backing and paying at the same time, often at a furious pace taking advantage of small, and large market movements that occur constantly on the exchange.

They will perhaps back at a price whilst it is moving in and getting shorter, and then, as Betfair offers many more fractions of prices than bookmakers, the traders can strike when the price moves fractionally in and lay at a lower price, thus locking in a profit, and removing any stake liability.

Trading on the Betfair exchange can be fun and exciting, not to mention profitable for those with much practice and skill under their belt.

It is not quite as easy as it sounds, so I would recommend, reading up, learning and practising with small stakes before trying to trade on a betting exchange.

Betfair Exchange Commission

I’ve mentioned the commission above.

This is how Betfair makes it’s money and is essential for the exchange to maintain its profitability and therefore offer a service to us the punters.

The good thing with Betfair is that they take commission only on winning bets. So if you were to act as the bookmaker and lay a bet and lose, you wouldn't have to pay any extra commission.

By the same token, if you backed a horse to win, and it didn’t that's it, your lost stake is all you can lose.

How much is the commission rate on betfair in Australia?

This will depend on which state you are located, or indeed which sport you are betting on. Rates can differ relating to these variables, so make sure you check the rates on the Betfair site to understand what they are before betting.

However, if you have a winning bet, then you will have to pay a % of your net profit as commission to the exchange. It is important to factor this in when making your bets..

Betfair generally offers better prices than normal bookmakers, but at the lower end of the prices, with say strong favourite at home in the footy, or very short favourites in horse racing, actor in that 5% commission just to make sure you are getting a better price after the commission is considered.

Matched Betting and Exchanges

Matched betting is becoming more and more popular in Australia and the reason is that it is possible, if you are very careful, to make a small profit consistently by betting with both a bookmaker and an exchange at the same time on the same event.

In most cases, it is arbitrage betting in its purest form, although it can get a bit more technical than that.

Either way, a betting exchange is key in the armoury of a matched bettor.

Betting Exchanges Related Questions