Check this mistake out.......

[BJ]

For those of you that are interested.....

Check out the betting information for Randwick Race 1 on Betfair.....
Some clown has layed the field at odds of 1,000 to 1 @$12.....

I hope it was noone from here, but there is a very happy person out there, and 1 very unhappy person......

[Sportz]

What does that mean???

[BJ]

It means that somebody put an offer to back every horse in the race. He put $12 on each at odds of 1000 - 1. Somebody matched his bets, all of them......

I think there were 8 horses in the races. It cost him $96. No matter which horse wins, he will receive $12,000 in his pocket.....

[Sportz]

I'm afraid I still don't quite understand. How could someone get 1000-1? Please forgive me, but I don't really have much of a clue about this laying thing.

I myself thought there were only 2 possible chances in the race (1 & 2) and I thought 1 was a pretty good thing.

[BJ]

On Betfair you can get odds of 1.01 up to 1000.

Imagine going to a bookie and saying I want to put $12 on every horse in the race and I want you to give me the odds of 1000 to 1. And then imagine him accepting your bets at those odds.....

That is what happened....

The 2 favourites were paying about $2.50 on the tote..... This guy backed them at 1000 to 1......

[Sportz]

Well, the guy that accepted those odds was probably like me and didn't know what the heck he was doing. I think there should be some way of protecting people from making mistakes like that.

[Filante]

Well, the guy that accepted those odds was probably like me and didn't know what the heck he was doing. I think there should be some way of protecting people from making mistakes like that.

Sportz,

The usual protection is that Betfair won't let you offer a bet unless you have sufficient funds in your account.

So, for instance, if I hold only $500 in my account, Betfair will only let me back or lay to a total of $500 to lose. Because the minimum wager is $6, my maximum price to lay with that balance would be $83. If I tried to lay a horse at 100/1 or 1000/1 Betfair would immediately reject the bet without anyone else seeing it or having the opportunity to take it.

The offeror of the bet BJ mentioned must have had at least $12,000 in his/her account.

Anyone with $12,000 sitting in a non-interest-bearing account must be a fairly lively punter, and should not need any protection.

Cheers,

Filante

[Mark]

BJ

All is not always as it may seem.

Clowns match their own bets at ridiculously high (1000) & ridiculously low (1.01) odds. What it does is muck up the graphs for matched bets. Why they would want to do this is beyond me, but so is the writing & spreading of viruses.

On the other hand some poor bugger could be well out of pocket. We all make mistakes & when Betfair becoms "legit" here, there will be a lot of newcomers & possibly a lot of mistakes made.

[AssumeTheCrown]

probably someone swapping funds between betfair accounts ($12,000).
I do it myself sometimes.

[BJ]

probably someone swapping funds between betfair accounts ($12,000).
I do it myself sometimes.


Probably a ridiculously expensive way of transferring funds. A credit card card deposit will cost 1.5%, yet a transfer that you describe could cost up to 5%.....
Surely it would be easier and more cost effective to withdraw from 1 account and deposit into the other......

And Mark, I agree that some poor buggar could be now out of pocket. Some poor buggar with at least 12,000 dollars in their betfair account.

My personal opinion is that this mistake was made by a serious punter that was so used to the procedure that they had turned off the verification process, and made a mistake. Albeit a costly one..

People ask why there are people out there that lay horses at 1.01 and people that back at 1000.... This is why.........

[Chrome Prince]

Mistake?

I don't think so, I've seen this practice before.
This guy has way more than $12,000 in his account believe me.

Offering 1000/1 the field gives him a chance to have thousands and thousands of punters offer longer odds than they would normally on say a $2.50 shot.

He can then lose up to $12,000, but incrementally match much larger wagers than the total cost of his lays.

Laying the field at those odds disguises his intention to plonk on one or two particular horses with much larger sums. It pulls the price up by that many points it doesn't matter.

I'll bet this was a hgh interest race with a lot of turnover generally.

[Sportz]

Chrome, there were basically only two chances in the race - number 1 which was the original favourite and number 2 which became the eventual favourite. Number 1 won.

[BJ]

Mistake?

I don't think so, I've seen this practice before.
This guy has way more than $12,000 in his account believe me.

Offering 1000/1 the field gives him a chance to have thousands and thousands of punters offer longer odds than they would normally on say a $2.50 shot.

He can then lose up to $12,000, but incrementally match much larger wagers than the total cost of his lays.

Laying the field at those odds disguises his intention to plonk on one or two particular horses with much larger sums. It pulls the price up by that many points it doesn't matter.

I'll bet this was a hgh interest race with a lot of turnover generally.

I don't understand why thousands and thousands of punters would offer greater odds because somebody layed the field at 1000 to 1..? Are you suggesting that people would look at previous odds given and then think that all horses should be treated as 1000 to 1..?

Wouldn't it be a better strategy to lay $4000 @$3 and try to get people to offer better odds than that so you can quickly grab them, knowing that it would start at $2.50?

And he can't lose up to $12,000, he guaranteed losing $12,000 as all bets were immediately matched.
This is alot of money to make up when less than $100,000 gets matched on the event....

[Mark]

Must be getting slow in my old age.

Assume the Crown & Chrome Prince....you've both lost me.

[La Mer]

Must be getting slow in my old age.

Assume the Crown & Chrome Prince....you've both lost me.

Phew, I'm glad you stated that Mark, I thought for a moment I might be suffering from Alzheimer’s or something, still not quite sure what point Chrome is attempting to make, but to my way of thinking, don't think that the liquidity is there in most of the Aussie markets on Betfair for such a strategy to work.

[Chrome Prince]

I don't understand why thousands and thousands of punters would offer greater odds because somebody layed the field at 1000 to 1..? Are you suggesting that people would look at previous odds given and then think that all horses should be treated as 1000 to 1..?

Wouldn't it be a better strategy to lay $4000 @$3 and try to get people to offer better odds than that so you can quickly grab them, knowing that it would start at $2.50?

And he can't lose up to $12,000, he guaranteed losing $12,000 as all bets were immediately matched.
This is alot of money to make up when less than $100,000 gets matched on the event....

O.K. let me state it a bit better as I was rushed last night.

I don't understand why thousands and thousands of punters would offer greater odds because somebody layed the field at 1000 to 1..? Are you suggesting that people would look at previous odds given and then think that all horses should be treated as 1000 to 1..?

Not at all, the fact is that if someone else wants to lay any of the horses, their lay odds go into a queue, if they offer less than 1000/1, unless the 1000/1 is matched immediately. Therefore the higher the odds offered to lay the horse, the greater chance of it being the NEXT matched bet.

I don't know all the details of when the 1000/1 was offered, or how quickly they got matched, but nobody is going to offer a lay price of $2.50 when 1000/1 is on offer, they have to make it attractive to the bettor. I'm not saying anyone's going to offer 1000/1 or even 10/1, but many would offer say 3/1 instead of 2/1 - or 6/1 instead of 4/1, therfore making his big plonk well worth it.

And he can't lose up to $12,000, he guaranteed losing $12,000 as all bets were immediately matched.
This is alot of money to make up when less than $100,000 gets matched on the event

True he is guaranteed losing $12,000 in LAYS, but not in total wagers on the race. Yes, the liquidity would scare me, and I think it's a very dangerous practice, because there are too many unknowns, but all he has to do is wager $5,000 and get two points over what he would have gotten without the lay bets and he's well in front.

I note Sportz's comment about the change in favorites and prices in the race.

I'm sure the punter got a much better price than he otherwise would have secured.

But I wouldn't do it.

There are guys doing really weird and dumb things on BF frequently, such as offering 1000/1 in running (in the UK) before the horses even get to the home turn and 10/1 on an evens favourite, just because it's running 4th at the turn.
This guy's method is not appealing to the savvy punters like Mark, but those who really don't know what's going on and follow the crowd.

[BJ]

I still don't understand....

Personally if I wanted to lay the field, and somebody was offering 1000 to 1, I would first gobble up the odds the other guy was offering and then forget about the race and go and shout the pub a round......

[Chrome Prince]

Of course, but others don't think that way, and continued to lay the horses in the field at varied odds.

As I said, it's certainly something I wouldn't do, there are easier ways to make a dollar.