Betfair Exchange Guide

Betfair are the biggest betting exchange out there. With over 4 million registered users, they’re one of the biggest online gambling organisations in the world. They’ve built their reputation on being incredibly reliable and offering markets for just about every sport you can think of.

In this guide, I’ll take you through the sign up process and show you how to lay a bet on the Betfair Exchange.

Betfair commission rates

Before we get started, I’ll briefly explain how Betfair make their money on exchange bets.

Betting exchanges make their money by charging us commission, which is usually a small percentage of our winnings.

Betfair have a base commission rate of 5%, but there is a cheaper option. You can opt in to Betfair’s Basic rewards package and pay just 2% on your net winnings.

Betfair Sign Up Offer

Betfair are currently offering new customers a £20.00 risk-free bet. Simply place your first bet on the Betfair Exchange and if it loses, Betfair will refund your stake in cash up to £20.00.

Click here to get this offer and you should be taken to a page that looks like this…

Simply hit ‘Join Now‘ and you’ll see the following registration form…

The ‘VAL225‘ promotional code should already be entered as shown. Once you’ve completed the form, click the button at the bottom and you’re all set!

Depositing funds

Depositing funds with Betfair is pretty much the same as any other bookmaker.

Simply click the ‘Deposit‘ button in the top right hand corner if you’re using the desktop version of the site. If you’re using the mobile site or app, you just need to click your balance in the top right corner and select ‘Deposit‘.

You’ll see a number of payment methods available, including debit card, Apple Pay, PayPal and bank transfer.

Betfair Exchange homepage

The Betfair Exchange is easy to use and finding your way around should be pretty straightforward.

It’s important to point out that Betfair also run a Sportsbook, so if you’re using the desktop site, you need to make sure the Exchange tab is selected on the main menu.

All available sports are listed down the left-hand side, and if you’re looking for a particular event, you can also use the search box at the top of the page.

The most popular events are listed in the centre of the homepage for ease of access. For example, if you wanted to take a look at the Freiburg v Leverkusen markets, you could select it here.

Betfair Exchange markets

Once you’ve selected an event, you’ll see a page that looks something like this…

The Match Odds market is clearly displayed, which we’ll take a closer look at in just a moment.

The available markets are listed down the left-hand side of the desktop site for quick reference, or you can scroll down to see them in more detail.

Betfair Exchange explained

All markets are split into two halves; a blue half and a pink half. The blue column displays the best available back odds for each selection, whilst the pink column displays the best available lay odds.

Matched betting is all about placing lay bets that match our bookmaker bets, so it’s the pink column we’re interested in.

The monetary values underneath the odds show us how much is available to back or lay at those particular odds. This is known in the matched betting world as ‘liquidity‘.

How to lay a bet on Betfair

Laying a bet on the Betfair Exchange is really straightforward.

We simply find the selection we want to lay and click the corresponding pink button. So, if we wanted to lay Leverkusen, we would click the 1.77 button…

Once the selection has been applied to our betslip, we just need to enter the amount we wish to lay in the ‘Backer’s stake‘ box and click ‘Place bets‘…

I’ve entered a lay stake of £10.00. As soon as you enter your lay stake, your potential profit or loss for the possible outcomes are displayed on the left-hand side…

As you can see, our liability for this lay bet is £7.70.

So, just to clarify here… we are betting against Leverkusen.

If Leverkusen win, we’ll lose £7.70 to the backer.
If Leverkusen draw or lose, we’ll win the backer’s stake of £10.00.

Final words

That’s pretty much all you need to know about the Betfair Exchange. It really is a fantastic platform for placing your lay bets.

Don’t worry if you’re still a little unsure of things. Betting exchanges can take a bit of time to get your head around. That’s perfectly normal.

Everything should click into place once you get started and complete your first couple of offers.