Another crazy day at Betfair! Trials of a rookie market maker...

My first week on Betfair's horse racing website continues to be a wild ride, and yesterday was definitely a good day. I was up about $250 during the day and gave back about $100 or so in the evening, playing USA night races and Australian afternoon racetracks.

Here are some highlights of yesterday's horse race wagering:

- I expected to find about $7 in the account and knew it would be an uphill climb from there, so was pleasantly surprised when I noticed $57 in there. What happened was the day before I had crossed the $100CDN wagered threshold, and became eligible for the $50 CASHBACK BONUS. If you would like to receive this same offer for joining Betfair, click here for Betfair Cashback Bonus Offer.

- Early in the day I was playing Saratoga and got some partial fills in the first race at high odds but they didn't come in. In the 2nd, I hit on Italian Wedding at 7.4-1 (North American = 6.4-1), even though the entry went off at 2-1 local odds. One wonderful aspect of Betfair is you can take the 1 without the 1A and vice versa, and even more fun, you can short the 1 to pay for your bet on the 1A!!!


- In Race 2 at Woodbine, I backed Silent Running for $6 at 19-1, even though the horse went off at 9-1 in Toronto. In similar fashion before race 4 at Saratoga, I backed Take Down Two at 36-1, nice price on a horse going postward at 15-1.


- My big score of the day (and biggest win so far on Betfair.com) was in the 5th at Saratoga where I had $6 riding on the 9, Loyal Shadow, at 34-1 (versus 14-1 on Tote). I collected $198 on that bet plus another $15 as I had shorted ("Lay" or bet against) the #5 Bretton Woods for $8, and the #7 Ouchy Night for $7. That's $213 from one race, which is great as this is only my fourth or fifth day, still in training.


- In Saratoga's 8th race, I made $60 on Chernobyl's Hero, getting 10-1 versus 6-1 on Tote.

- After that it was all downhill; I lost about $60 on an input error, where I had 2 unmatched bets, and I accidentally raised the odds on the Lay bet rather than the Back bet; someone hit it and of course the horse won...

- Lost another $80AUS or so late last night, but learned a few things about the Aussie Betfair market. If you like playing longshots, you will LOVE betting Australian horse races on Betfair.com. Here are some odds I went into races with:

120-1 on Redonthe (18-1 on Canadian Tote)

170-1 on Slash (19-1 on Canadian Tote, about 25-1 on Aussie Tote)




On my very first day on Betfair I got a partial fill at 350-1 on a horse that went off at 60-1, so I knew there would be some fun days ahead, and as the song says, we've only just begun!


Peace 2 All, Godspeed,


Joe