Like everything in life, gambling changes and evolves. The advent of the Internet certainly streamlined the business of placing a bet albeit it was the US Supreme Court’s May 2018 decision to strike out the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) from 1992, which forbid states from authorizing betting on sports games, which changed sports gambling forever.
Before this move it was estimated the sports betting industry, albeit illegal, saw U.S. citizens spend $150 billion a year on sports wagering. Now more and more states are licencing sportsbooks and online bookmakers with the revenues they create seen as something of a new-age gold rush.
In turn operators are desperately trying to stand out from the crowd offering unique betting odds, unique markets and, in some cases, revolutionary ways of betting. Money lines, point spreads, parimutuel and pool betting have been around for years but spread betting has been rising in popularity and many believe that exchange betting will be the next big thing amongst Americans. But exactly what is a betting exchange?
An Exchange of Opinions
Recent converts have described an online betting exchange as “the most exciting of all ways to bet” but what is a betting exchange you may ask?
Put simply, a betting exchange is a place where gamblers can exchange their opinions on the outcome of sporting events and trade their opinions via odds and prices in a very similar way to how a stock-market operates.
Here bets can be bought and sold but unlike a conventional stock exchange, the commodity is prices or odds about the outcome of an event and not commodities such as precious metals and currencies. Betting exchanges allow you to play the role of bookmaker because you are backing your opinion. It could be your belief the favourite will not win the Kentucky Derby, the Democrats will win the next election, or that Tiger Woods will finish in the top-10 of the Masters.
You can do this by clicking on the odds alongside your selection in either the ‘Lay’ column or ‘Back’ column. Then simply type in the amount of money you wish to jeopardise and the odds you are looking for.
Game, Set & Matched!
Hopefully you will find someone who is happy to exchange their conflicting opinion with yours creating a ‘matched bet’. With bookmakers not taking out a profit margin for themselves you will often find considerably better odds on your selections ‘to back’ on a betting exchange.
Conversely, if you wish to oppose a team or runner in a race, you will probably have to offer a price way in excess of that on offer at a conventional sportsbook.
In either scenario, the prospect of ‘playing bookie’ and taking bets instead of placing them has a lot of appeal and betting exchanges may well prosper, as they have in the UK and Australia, as we proceed into the 2020’s.
