Ladbrokes Exchange: A Serious Contender? (Commission & Explanation)

Will Ladbrokes Exchange be a serious contender when it comes to betting exchanges?

Understanding each platform is important. This post should help you make a clear decision on whether Ladbrokes Exchange is worth using.

Within this post (click to jump ahead):

How Does Ladbrokes Exchange Work?

Ladbrokes Exchange is a platform where individuals can place a bets against each-other, much like any other betting exchange. Typically, you’ll get better odds than the Sportsbook, with added bonus of bet flexibility and more value for money.

If you’re new to the concept, there’s a different number of ways you can use Ladbrokes Exchange. The simplest is to place a BACK bet on something to win. However, being an exchange and not a bookmaker, you can do the complete opposite. Laying someone else’s bet, betting an outcome will not happen.

Also, with an exchange you have the power to select which odds you want to BACK or LAY at. The only catch is; when you place a bets on an exchange, the bet has to be matched by another user. For example; if you are placing a back bet, somebody needs to place the alternate lay bet at the same odds for both bets to be fulfilled. This is what is meant by the term ‘matching bets’.

But they have to make their money somehow, so Ladbrokes Exchange makes money by charging a small commission on all winning bets. At first this may not sound great, but remember – you’re getting better odds on the exchange.

Ladbrokes Exchange & BetDaq

One major thing to note about Ladbrokes Exchange is the strong relationship with BetDaq. In 2013 the red giant bought the purple exchange for 30m EUR.

So when you place a bet on Ladbrokes Exchange, your bet is actually fed into the BetDaq platform (and available on both exchanges). Whilst mildly deceiving, this does have its benefits. The merge helps to strengthen both exchanges (which are essentially the same exchange) and provide more liquidity overall.

Second to that, there are plenty of third party integrations to use on BetDaq such as the Geeks Toy software, mentioned shortly.

Placing a Bet on Ladbrokes Exchange:

How to place a bet on Ladbrokes exchange is shown in the video above. If you missed it, here’s a slower breakdown:

1. To place a back bet, click on the blue box next to the selection you want to back. This will open a betting slip as shown.
2. Enter the amount of stake you want to place and the odds. The slip will calculate the total return, should you win.
3. By clicking submit your bet will then be sent to the Ladbrokes Exchange. To which you will receive confirmation as to whether your bet had been matched.

1. To place a Lay bet, click on the pink box next to the selection you want to lay. Again, a slip will appear.
2. When it comes to laying a bet, you must enter the backers stake. The figure shown minus the commission, will be your potential profit.
3. You can also see your potential loss (liability), highlighted by the blue box on the image. If and when the bet is accepted this shows the outcome if the selection should win.
4. Once you click submit, the bet enters the market to be matched.

Ladbrokes Exchange Commission Rate:

Ladbrokes Exchange commission rate is set up so the more you bet, the lower the commission rate becomes.

Note: you do not pay any commission on any losing bets.

The basic commission rate a present is 5%, as said before you can bring this figure down to 2%, by increasing the amount of bets you place. Unfortunately to get a lower commission rate of 2% can be fairly difficult due to the following:

“One exchange commission point is earned for each £25 won or lost across exchange markets”

So to get to 2% commission you need to be hitting 12000 points, ooofff. Unless you’re a big time trader, you’re never going to get anywhere near these figures.

Calculating Commission Rates…

Based on the benchmark 5% Ladbrokes Exchange commission rate, I’m going to show you an example showing how this is calculated…

In the above example:

• You are backing 4 Music Society at odds of 4.4 for £10.
• 4 Music Society wins the race and you win your bet
• You will pay £1.70 in commission
• This is 5% of your profit £34.00

Ladbrokes Exchange App

This part is clear-cut, the Ladbrokes Exchange App does not differ from any other betting exchange app on the market. Its clean, user-friendly and ticks all the boxes needed when it comes to usability. The biggest pro to their App is live video. Having this feature makes the experience of placing a bet, on lets say a horse race, and following it through quite easy.

Currently the only downside I have found with the Ladbrokes Exchange App is; it can only be found on the iOS store (not the Android store). To get the Exchange App you’ll have to locate it via their website and download. Intially, this comes up as a non-trusted App because as it’s not been vetted by the play store. Like many others, once you go onto the app and select the Exchange it flicks you to the mobile friendly web page….

This is obviously in need of some work but still does the job. We’d assume it’s not been pushed into the mainstream market yet because of further development.

Ladbrokes Exchange Offers

The current Ladbrokes Exchange offer is a risk free lay bet up to £10. Offers may have changed by the time this article is released as they regularly update their welcome bonuses.

Although this is not the best offer available between the other exchanges, it’s worth signing up for that risk free bet and getting to grips with another exchange.

Another Ladbrokes Exchange welcome offer that floats around is, the first month commission free. Depending on the amount of trades you place, this is much higher value than the risk free £10.

Trading Software for Ladbrokes Exchange:

Ladbrokes Exchange itself does not have any third party trading software available.

However, as Ladbrokes Exchange feeds into the BetDaq markets, this means that you can use third party software’s for the purple exchange, trading the same markets.

Some notable mentions are Geeks Toy for BetDaq and Bet Angel for BetDaq, which are both entirely free to use and download. These applications will allow you to trade on BetDaq using trading ladders and other handy trading tools which are not available on the Ladbrokes Exchange website.

Ladbrokes Liquidity?

If you are new at placing bets on any exchange then the main things to note are that good liquidity in what ever event you are wanting to BACK or LAY on. This mean that when you come to place a bet you want to see money on the odds you want to place the bet on for example:

At the current odds, you can see above that on the blue back 2.9 odds, in the market theirs only £9 of matched money waiting to be met but with the pink lay 2.94 odds theirs £370 of money waiting to be matched.

Flicking to the image above you can see more money in the market. This is due to the time the screenshot was taken, it was closer to the start of the race. Ultimately you will find more liquidity in certain events, like football. Supposed to something like Greyhound racing. This raises an important point – patience pays off. Don’t be so tempted to bet early…

Conclusion:

It’s difficult to review Ladbrokes Exchange as an individual exchange,, because it’s a clone of BetDaq. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as being part of the Ladbrokes brand will arguably boost liquidity on the dual exchange overall. That can only be a good thing.

The main drawback of Ladbrokes Exchange is the commission. For a mirror of BetDaq, it seems odd that they have raised commission to 5% whereas you can get exactly the same markets on BetDaq at 2% commission. Perhaps there are plans to improve Ladbrokes Exchange in the future but currently, it doesn’t quite compete with the others.

It’s certainly worth opening an account if not for the new-account offer at the very least. Also, it may come in handy when the Betfair API breaks down during large events as it often does!

Next Read: Ladbrokes Exchange Explained in 3 Simple Steps!