Getting the best price about your selection as a statement is probably the most obvious thing you could hear from millions of punters the world over. In its simplicity if one bookie is offering 2/1 about a horse why take 7/4 about it elsewhere?
Of course, as with anything in life, we always look for the best deal, price or money saving option we can. It still surprises me then when I often come across people that only have one or two bookmaking accounts. Why I ask them?
Whilst on the high street shopping for new clothes you tend to visit the many shops available to you in order to find the best bargain or deal. It should be no different when betting. My advice is that you should have an account with every single bookmaker you can.
It is often touted that the exchanges offer better prices. However, looking at the markets in the morning is where the value lies and looking at the two images below will highlight this.
Looking at Short Takes, the current favourite, we can see that on the exchanges after commission this would be just under a 6/4 shot but by going to Bet365 we can get 15/8. Also worthy of noting here is that of course the liquidity isn’t in place yet so there is only £47 available to bet with the exchange and yet by even going with the next best on price we are getting better value by spreading our bets around.
The consideration here is that this horse is well fancied and by looking at the following graphs we can see that all the bets are coming in for this horse.
So, if this horse meets our requirements from a form perspective or otherwise, by having accounts with all the bookmakers we can immediately lock in our value by not only getting on early, but also spreading our bets around. With 15/8 and plenty of 6/4 around we can spread our stakes about before the price collapses and secure our value.
It’s also important to recognise that of with the majority of bookmakers offering best odds guaranteed, should the price drift we have nothing to worry about as we’ll get the better price.
By using this simple strategy we can also lay off some of our stake should the selection shorten up before the off. This protects our betting banks further. and is something I shall look at in another article. Right now you should be opening as many bookmaker accounts as you possibly can to get the best prices available.
All fine in theory, try only betting with a bookie when they are the best price about a horse and you get limited or closed very quickly. I have had 16 accounts rendered basically useless in this way. That is why people only have one or two ‘useable’ accounts and have to rely on the exchanges to get decent bets on.