It is estimated that Sporting Index control over 70% of the worldwide Spread Betting market. Customers can place bets and keep up to date with all the action through a variety of options including telephone, sky interactive and of course online. Sporting Index was the first to introduce ‘Bet on the move’, allowing punters to place bets, close bets, deposit and withdraw money through java enabled software on their phone. A true pioneer, Sporting Index is constantly pushing the boundaries of what is achievable.

Largest Range of Markets

They have one of the largest range of markets and bets available anywhere, with UK, European and US sports all featuring on the site. Horse racing is not really featured at Sporting Index, but there is major coverage of ball sports. Customers can select an account that controls their spending. By choosing a ‘Stop Loss/Win’ account, players can bet within their limits and avoid big potential losses.

There are bags of features on the Sporting Index for all levels of player. Beginners can benefit from the ‘play for fun’ option, allowing you to gain some understanding and get used to some of the highs and lows of spreads. The Bet maker is a great feature allowing punters to create their own portfolio of bets and make requests for new ones.

Welcome Bonus

Welcome bonuses for customers joining Sporting Index vary quite regularly. There are usually a variety of options to choose from and they are normally very large bonuses. This is partly because the first deposit is quite big though, so being aware of this is important. Bets start from as little as 1p on selected sports, which can be a bit of fun, especially when you’re starting out.

• Apply for an account, place 5 bets (each with a risk of £20 or more) and Sporting Index will give you £100 cash paid straight into your account.
• Check out the latest offers from Sporting Index by clicking here.

As there are not many alternatives to Sporting Index, their spreads can seem a little unfavourable at times. However if your willing to spend a bit of time checking out some of the markets you can find something that you can get some good value from.

A whole host of deposit options are available including, debit/credit card, money transfer and personal cheque. The minimum deposit is £150 when you open an account and £10 thereafter. This may seem steep, but if you know anything about spread betting it will seem quite acceptable. Withdrawals are straightforward, and you will usually receive payment onto your selected card within 3 days. Cheques are usually sent within 2 days of request.

All Sporting Index’s financial dealings are monitored by the FSA (Financial Service Authority) to protect customers and make sure they get a fair deal.

A company that realises the importance of top rate customer support, Sporting Index offer a variety of options to solve your enquiries. An ‘in-house’ customer service team are on hand between 9am – 8pm everyday of the week to answer queries either through their free phone service or by email. My calls were answered quickly with little waiting, even at busy times. The 1 hour email response policy between 9am-8pm at Sporting Index was justified when we made a number of enquiries, usually getting a solution in 30 minutes. A good all round service that you would expect from the Spread Betting market leader.

Spread betting challenges your skill, judgement and knowledge of your chosen area. The spread betting bookmaker makes predictions on various aspects of sporting or topical events. You then decide whether that prediction has been pitched too high or too low. Signup now for an account with Sporting Index.

Small punters get better prices out of it. If the market is 100.5%, then they’re getting a fair price on their money.

Using market information is what every bookmaker does every day of the week in virtually every market he prices up. Momentum traders are doing nothing else.

You can’t expect to get the same price on a betting exchange as you do at the bookies on every selection. That applies to every sport not just horse racing.

Many have noticed the lack of early priced horse racing turnover has nothing to do with momentum traders. The market has evolved and reached it’s equilibrium. People have found out that sticking larger offers up across the board costs them money overall, so they have curtailed the amounts to fit in with demand at that point in time. Horse racing suffers more than most because it’s harder to determine the correct price and because of the genuine fear of inside information. You’ll also find that most successful traders are not momentum traders and are very opinionated.

Traders are very keen on the economics of movement towards the market equilibrium, but what about the economics of giving away something for nothing? Informed tissue-makers (if they want an early bet in size) have in effect to give away their pricing for scant chance of being matched.

Of course, traders either drip-feed or have to wait until closer to the off. Is the same amount of money matched in effectively the only market as it would be in early/evolving, than late markets? Not necessarily; often, the price has moved past the point where the opinion players want to play. The winners in the fight for the late money may be predominantly technically oriented, rather than judgment-based gamblers.

Technical traders winning is equally merited and their strategy equally legitimate. But what about a style-neutral interface? Momentum / WOM bots can take from losers as they do at the moment (typically by some sleight that involves putting up a worse offer than is likely to be immediately available), and tissue-makers can take from losers in having them blunder into out-of-line bets? Why should penny-size traders be able to play in the early markets to the exclusion of traditional big winners?

The answer may be it’s the market we operate in. Late money is found to be the most accurate prediction of true outcome probabilities and the greater the late odds movement in an entrant, the higher its probability of winning. Simply, bet late and bet often.

Well, that’s it from me today. Stay safe, wherever you are and good luck to you all as always.

My first guest is Jon over at TalkBet who made “…a major balls up of global proportions mid August 2007 when he deleted his blog in a flouncy hissy fit.” It’s a shame really because he had some great content there. But it has now built up again. If you want to ask Jon any questions then just Skype them in to me when the show’s live. Add WhenUBetToday to your contacts now so you’ll be ready if you want to.

We’ll be chatting about his Powerstats which are up and down a bit in terms of profit. He’ll also be telling us about his background in the markets and how he makes a profit using Betting Exchanges. We’ll also find out if he’s back from the brink of disaster with his in play football application which has managed to get shafted for over £700 in the last 2 days! And lots, lots more. It promises to be a great show. And I’ll also be calling out BetbotPRO’s adventures as well. Will the bank blow live? Tune in and find out.

There are loads more live radio shows lined up as well. Future guests will include the legendary blogger Leon of Don’t Give Up Your Day Job and Klaus, the author of BetDruid who has created two applications for trading either in Betdaq or Betfair. Both applications are free and he writes “they will be a community driven development and will remain free.” Good on you Klaus!

There are more guests lined up as well and if you fancy chatting to me live or in a podcast for later broadcast on WUBT Betting Exchange Radio just Skype me or telephone +44 (0) 1273 782696 or use the contact form.

Ladies and gents, have a great day’s racing and a fantastic weekend.

Currently during in running your bets will be placed with a delay if there are bets in the market to match you or else your bets will be placed immediately with no delay. This will be confusing to people moving over from Betfair. This allows a bot that is currently being run in certain markets during in running Betdaq matches to compare the price you offer versus the prices in Betfair and checks if it can offer a slightly better price than you yet lower than Betfair’s. There may be many bots appearing soon on Betdaq because bets can be immediately placed during in running at certain prices.

There is also currently no keep bets facility on Betdaq for manual players. You have to re submit your bets when the race is turned in-play. But you can perform a Betfair type ‘keep bet’ if you use the API. Interestingly, you can use expiry time as well, so if you use the API you can keep a bet for the first 30 seconds of the race.

Liquidity on in running for most markets isn’t great right now, but Betdaq’s matching delay for non bot clients isn’t helping much. I’ll do my little bit to help shortly. A bot? Of course!

On a final note you can now see the liquidity increasing pre race in the example above. Great news.

Ladies and gents, have a great day and good luck to you, as always.

Results 25 Oct 08

So fill or kill orders go in simultaneously on both exchanges. The bot sees what is matched and aims to balance for a risk free profit of £20. I’ve allowed for a commission of 5% in both exchanges. A yield of 2.85% in a second. And no risk – assuming you’re matched in both places. I’ll write more on this at another time. And if ever there was a good time to have an account with both Betdaq and Betfair it is now. But it will not last for long!