Over the last few months, it’s no secret that someone has been quite blatantly manipulating the horse racing markets. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that this has always existed. There are some clever people out there running bots across the entire market, manipulating prices for their own benefit. Trying to understand it can really give you a headache, as I have experienced many times before, probably because its behaviour changes depending on its own liabilities.
However, recently there has been a very large ‘spoofer’ popping in and out of the market, playing with the price action. If you’ve been trading, you will have seen this at one time or another, even if you didn’t realise what it was. I suspect it’s catching a lot of Betfair scalpers out.
Initially, this individual started to show their hand more and more back in September, as I recall. You’d expect them to have been swallowed up by now, offering such risk by some that are in the know, although it doesn’t appear to be the case. Are they the biggest in the markets? Possibly.
The most I’ve seen this ‘spoofer’ put up for liability is well over £200,000, so it’s probably not best to take them on regularly, as they have the ability to hold and push pretty hard with that kind of balance! So, at the end of last year, I set about recording a few markets where they were active for the Video Pack. In the screenshot above, you can see they’ve temporarily thrown in a £14,000 stake. As I’ve said, manipulation can be hard to fathom, although with such blatant behaviour, it’s quite possible to make a fair few quid off the back of this, as shown in the recordings (now available on the login portal).
How long will this individual be around? Who knows, but if it’s a long time, it’s probably best to cater for additional trading strategies to build around them, allowing them to take the risk while we take the profits! It’s best to ‘make hay while the sun shines’ and all that. Having just got back from my recent adventure to Andorra, I see they are still active, so keep aware and don’t let them screw you into a bad position! Other than making money off the back of them, half the battle is not letting them push you into a horrible loss.