Sports Trading: the £20 challenge

Yeah, it's the number 1 topic on many sports trading forums - I don't know how it can make long term business sense for Betfair.

Opening Balance: £184.13

Well, today is the last day of the Pistonheads £20 Challenge and I don't think there are any games I want to trade tonight. It's been a fairly straight-forward week with a couple of scares as the market suspended mid-trade but it was for injuries and such so no impact on my profit.

It's been both an adventure and an intellectual challenge, going from outright betting based on statistics and team research to pure trading, across several markets (match odds, under/over x.5 goals, total goals, to be placed etc) and several sports (horse racing, greyhound racing, tennis and football) as I tried to find one that worked for me. I estimate that I've taken over 8,000 bets in the six months.

Interestingly, it certainly looks like I have got this sports trading lark nailed and it could be a nice source of beer money and maybe a side income. I am trying to figure out ways of increasing profitability - in any given game, I am only taking a handful of ticks (what I consider the obvious ones) and I can see there is plenty more available from the price movement as traders go in and out. However, I know that I can continue to churn it and take my money, which I will do as it's like free money sitting on the table ('scuse the pun).

So, how did I do this week, and more importantly, what did my £20 turn into in the end?

*drum roll*







Total P&L: £56.15
Final Balance: £240.28

Hey Shadowninja.
I think that's pretty neat.
So your basically trading the order bnook much like one would when trading a futures contract from the DOM for example?
I find it all quite interesting, but honestly wouldn't know where to start. Do you just need a betfair account and that's it? Or do you also have other software?
Do you plan on explaining the 'trading' process a little more at some point, especially for people like me who really have no experience whatsoever with this type of 'betting'?
Would be quite well receieved i imagine.
All of my 'betting' so far has just been on FX etc. I always looking for other way to risk my money
cheers

Yes, I'll find a video that shows the kind of thing I do.

I use A Geek's Toy (free) which connects to the Betfair exchange. PM me if you want a free £25 bet as I have a code you can apply with.

As you can see, you get DOM with the odds and these odds move due to fundamental and technical reasons ie FA and TA. This is pre-race (horse racing), I think. I prefer to trade football as I already know the structure of the game. I also prefer to trade in-game but sometimes trade pre-kick off and during half time.

Thanks, SN.
I was just thinking, it's never occured to me before, but is there a way to 'demo' this type of sports trading, like one would with a simulated account through a spreabet firm for example?
cheers

AGT allows this BUT if you do it more than a handful of times, Betfair will invoice you for data and assume you're using it to trade with a rival company.

If anyone is interested, a video of my account:
Watch a screencast

I'm definitely doing this gambling thing all wrong. I am supposed to be losing money, right?