Learning The Trade

	I fell into the trap that I’m sure many newbie traders have fallen into. I got greedy. Big mistake.

Up until a couple of years ago, sports betting, to me, meant fixed-odds betting against the bookmakers – and that’s what I used to do. Usually betting on football, I’d choose my matches carefully, then place my bets with whichever of the bookies with whom I had an account was the best price. I’d never really given Betfair a serious try, usually because I liked doubling up matches to help improve my returns. Trading matches had never really been a serious consideration, usually because I’m usually either in the ground, or in the pub, when a match is in play.

However, the other month, after finding myself stuck indoors one Sunday afternoon, I decided I’d give it a bash, just to familiarise myself with the mechanics of trading. I tried the live Sky match on the Sunday, then followed it up with a couple of midweek matches. Using a simple system of trading the draw in matches with a clear home favourite, I managed to make a few quid – and it was easy, too. Using relatively small stakes (fivers and tenners), I managed to build my betting bank by a few quid in each game.

The following week, I decided to see how I fared with a different sport. You can bet in-running on tennis throughout the day on Betfair, so there were plenty of opportunities to give that a try. After making some more money on two matches, I fell into the trap that I’m sure many newbie traders have fallen into. I got greedy. Big mistake.

I laid Sharapova – what a disappointment!

I found Maria Sharapova’s first-round match against Anna-Lena Groenefeld in the Kremlin Cup was already in progress – and saw that despite having already lost the first set by a convincing margin, she was still available to lay at heavy odds-on. An opportunity well worth leaping on, I thought. I laid Sharapova – and things were going absolutely superbly. Groenefeld broke Sharapova’s serve and was 4-2 up with a break in the second set. Sharapova’s price had drifted above evens, and was heading towards 6.00. A perfect opportunity to back the Russian and lock in a fantastic profit. But I made a huge mistake, and one that I’ll never make again. I let the bet run.

Just five short minutes later, Groenefeld went over on her ankle and stayed down. With the match for the taking and the biggest scalp in her career there for the taking, it all went horribly wrong. Not just for her, for me too. As soon as she hit the deck, Sharapova’s price went through the floor. As the seconds passed and it became clear that Groenefeld was unable to continue, it dawned on me that I’d made a monumental error in not trading the price out. I’d have made a hefty profit on the match had I done so, but instead I was facing a hefty loss. It was due to a freak injury – so I guess you could consider that I was unlucky, but if you trade properly and get yourself into a good position and get an opportunity to close out, luck shouldn’t come into it, you should make a profit, end of story. I didn’t – and I lost out. My complacency, backed up by my greed for a bigger win, got the better of me. Trading’s not about big wins (not usually, anyway). It’s about chipping away and taking small profits where you can.

Know your onions

Of course, if you’re to be consistently successful when trading on sports you need two things. Good knowledge of the sport you’re trading, plus a system that produces consistent results. With football, I have both, but in other sports, I’m still a fair way off when it comes to findins a successful system. But that’s where InsideEdge’s expert tipsters come in. We still offer plenty of fixed-odds tips, but we all need to be aware of the possibilities of making profit by trading sporting events instead of betting on them. With England’s winter tour to Asia just around the corner, plus the trading potential of rugby and NFL games, we’ll be recommending you use betting exchanges to your advantage this winter. So if you’ve not yet got an account with a betting exchange, get onto Betfair or Betdaq and get registered. Hopefully a successful winter’s trading lies ahead…