Betfair scalping is a potential gold mine. Any successful betting exchange trader will tell you; 1-2 ticks consistently are a substantial income stream over the long term.
But is simply knowing this enough?
Unfortunately, it’s not.
To join the 5-9% of betting exchange users that win regularly, you’ll need to develop your scalping ability.
For every hour you invest in the markets, you need a return. The best returns come through knowledge, I can’t stress this enough. The trouble that most people face is that returns aren’t instant. Play the long game, be smart.
In this post we will cover the crucial aspects of a Betfair scalping strategy, covering :
- What scalping means for Betfair traders.
- How you can scalp a price on the Betfair Exchange.
- What are the best conditions to use Betfair scalping techniques.
- Betfair scalping strategy explained.
- How to limit your risk as a Betfair scalper.
Let’s start with my definition of scalping…
Scalping Betfair Consistently:
Scalping is a technique that relies on small, short-term price changes within any betting exchange market. Scalpers look to produce a profit from very small market moves.
To execute a profitable trade it’s always best to start with the end in mind. Considering the possible outcomes before a bet is even placed is the best way to do this.
This is essential to becoming a profitable Betfair trader. It’s about having a plan before something happens. That way we can react as quickly as possible. Markets move quickly and you don’t want to be sat on your hands not knowing what to do!
The image below shows a winning ‘scalp’ on Betfair in its simplest form.
While it may not look that appealing right now, think further ahead. When you start scalping Betfair with consistent returns it’s not that long until profits start to roll in. So long as your Betfair scalping strategy is efficient.
Just think if that small £3.03 profit was replicated in 30 races that day, one day a week. You’d have a cool £363.60 a month in the bank.
You might be thinking that’s not much?
How about you double the stakes and get busy scalping for two days a week? £360.60 just became £1,442.40 if you can keep up the consistency. I think my points are clear though, scalping can be lucrative once you’re consistent in application.
The best thing about scalping Betfair; you only need to be right for a very short period. Most of the time you don’t even need to predict a price will move.
Being right for a short period of time is crucial because markets can move very quickly. You want to get in and get out as quickly as possible while making your money, or trading successful “ticks.” If you get your money to the top of the queue on either side – you don’t even need the prices to move when scalping!
Placing Your Bets: A Betfair Scalping Tutorial Explained
The best way to explain Betfair scalping is with a video example!
To successfully complete your first scalp, all you need to do is place two opposing bets against each other. Usually one or two tick increments apart. Once they’re both fully matched we can use our betting software to lock in a profit, otherwise known as ‘hedging’. The key is to make sure they’re fully matched as fast as possible. More about that in a moment.
Play the Betfair scalping video to see a successful scalp in action:
See how quick it was? Magic.
It’s not as easy as it looks though, it’ll take time to perfect your scalping skills. More pointers in a moment…
If you’ve still not quite grasped how Betfair trading works there’s a longer explanation here.
It doesn’t matter which bet is placed first, the important factor is that they are both matched fully. Having a preference as to which way the price will move is helpful of course. If the price moves against you, it’s time to close out fast. It’s not going to be possible to win 100% of the time, but by getting your bets matched more often than not it’s possible to profit over the long term.
The business of placing your bets and managing your position is pretty important. There’s a whole section about it in the pre-race video pack.
How to Scalp A Price Successfully:
What factors should you look for when employing a Betfair scalping strategy?
The first thing to remember is; scalping requires very quick actions. For this reason alone it’s best to use betting exchange software, we want speed on our side. Personally, I use A GeeksToy Pro. The main benefits are one-click betting and the speed at which market information is displayed (milliseconds) as well as some fancy charts and indicators.
The second thing is; that you’re not the only person to be doing this!
Scalping Betfair requires a fair amount of discipline and self-control. When both of your bets haven’t been matched, you may need to ‘scratch’ or cancel the scalp by placing the exit bet at the same price as your opening bet.
Remember: scratching isn’t a losing bet.
Mentally scratching a bet may be tough. Especially if the prices moves after you do it (in the direction you wanted). But always remember to protect your bank at all times. There will always be more opportunities in the markets to scalp successfully.
Keep in mind that one of the most successful financial traders of all time Warren Buffets said this. A man who knows something about making a profit trading markets (Having made billions in profit).
Once you’re set up and ready to go it’s time to think about the actual execution of your trade. Always start with the end in mind.
What will you do if things don’t go to plan?
Not having a plan is a guaranteed route to losing. Successful trading is all about managing risk, when you do that correctly the profits will take care of themselves.
The best single tip I can give you when it comes to scalping Betfair is this; always offer a price when opening a scalp. When you think about it, you’re already at an advantage when the price hasn’t moved if you initially offered a price. In fact, in many cases, you won’t even require market movement. By offering a price at entry and exit of a scalp trade you can make money purely from the market turnover. Matching bets on both sides of the book (back and lay).
When is Best to Use a Betfair Scalping Strategy…
We know what a scalp is, how it works and what we need to execute it. But like everything in life, there’s a time and a place. So, when is a scalping technique best employed?
If you’re anything like me, you won’t like risk. It may limit when you can do it but, scalping is ideal for the risk-averse trader (in the right situations).
As I hinted above, market turnover can be of great assistance to Betfair scalpers. Exposure time is limited in higher liquidity situations, limiting our risk in the process. So it’s logical to make sure you’re only looking to attempt a scalp trade in the very best conditions. The better the conditions are, the larger bets you can use.
To find the best situations to employ this technique you’ll want to look for better-quality racing. The Sporting Life is a useful tool for this, it’ll show you the horse racing on offer that day, media coverage and other things that make for a good betting market like the number of horses within the race, prize money and race quality.
Betfair Scalping Strategies and Techniques:
Whilst scalping Betfair is very simple in execution, several scalping strategies work well – particularly if you’re scalping horse racing.
Aiming for the edges of a ranging price whilst getting low in the unmatched bets queue is an advantage. It gives us that little bit of extra time to mitigate risk and trade out on the alternate side of the ladder. Short-priced favourites are of particular interest. Having a very low, compressed price means that each tick increment is worth a larger percentage of the market mathematically…
By focusing on queue position and offering our lay bets first, the odds are often stacked in our favour. Large horse racing events like Cheltenham can be particularly lucrative, but watch out for the all-weather stuff (it can be a much more volatile trading environment).
The most important tip is to factor the trading volumes and fill rate into your Betfair scalping strategy. Failing to do this will likely to leave you over-exposed, as demonstrated in the next section of this article…
Limiting Your Risk With Scalp Trading:
Scalping Betfair appeals more than other methods because of the low risk involved. Even so, it’s important to know your limits.
Poor staking is the biggest problem for most. Adding to a scalp trade that’s going wrong is nearly always a bad idea. Unmatched money can disappear within the market at any point, although it’s a good idea to make sure you are staying in line with the market.
For example; the image below shows a £100 lay bet placed at 5.1 (seen in the centre column). The stake size is well out of proportion to this market if we were scalping. You can see in the image, the amounts above and below are much smaller.
Where-as you’d get away with significantly bigger stakes in this kind of situation. Purely because of the amount of unmatched money available.
Why is it important?
Remember we want to limit the downside. So if the trade should go against us in the first example and we had staked £100 we would have to match against money up to 5 ticks away, bringing a significant loss. Whereas if you’d used double the size stake in the second example, you’d only have to match your bet at the available back/lay price of 3.4. Despite double stakes, there is less risk in the second example.
Remember it’s not just about losing less either! If you’d placed a winning scalp, there’s less money passing through the market meaning it’d take longer to get your winning bet matched. And of course, the more time the trade is open, the more risk there is of something going wrong.
Funds Management When Scalping Betfair:
To be successful when scalping, you have to control your bet sizes. The bigger your bets, the greater your risk. You definitely don’t want to find yourself in a situation where your bet sizes are simply too big for the volume in the market.
In bigger markets, like say the Cheltenham Festival, you can of course increase your stakes. However, will that impact your decision-making ability?
Find the right stake size relative to your bank but, also relative to the market volume. This is bound to be the best long-term solution. Presuming the bank is growing; take money out. Spend it on yourself – you’ve worked hard for it! Don’t let your stakes become too big that the market volume can’t handle them.
Is Scalping On Betfair Still Profitable In 2024?
Scalping is a strategy that I am still using to profit from the horse racing markets on Betfair in 2024. Whilst markets do change and sometimes you have to adapt your strategy. The ideal scalping conditions that are pointed out throughout this article still remain in the markets in 2024.
If you want to start using Betfair scalping to bring in a tax-free income. The opportunity exists right now, There is still the liquidity to scalp the horse racing markets successfully and make a long-term profit.
Conclusion:
Scalping on Betfair is often as hard as you make it. Many people come into trading betting exchanges via matched betting or just plain punting. That’s fine but the urge is to have this compulsion to bet again and again without any real edge over the market. It doesn’t matter if you’re scalping or swing trading, you won’t get rich behaving like that.
Take your time, and check out the resources mentioned in this post and free videos on YouTube. Knowledge is paramount.
Once you’re comfortable with the markets and how they work your odds of success are dramatically increased. As the saying goes: the more you learn, the more you earn. Good luck!
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Find this article useful? Let us know in the discussion below.
43 thoughts on “Betfair Scalping A Beginners Guide 2024 | Video Tutorial”
Very interesting article.l’m new to trading so I’m still learning. I have some success with scalping but I’ve also had a few disasters where I’ve an unmatched bet in running because the price has drifted. I think I should take heed of your comment and employ an exit strategy more often then I wouldn’t end up in a vulnerable position. Keep all the info coming it’s really useful and encouraging. Thanks.
Hi Nigel, yes thats a great place to start. It’s often over-looked by newer traders. Keep at it!
Caan
Hi Caan,
I’ve spent a lot of time looking at your info and also that of a certain Mr. Peter W. 🙂
As a relative ‘newbie’ who now knows what a blown bank really is, I keep coming across this word ‘work’. Educators – like yourself – keep saying we need to put the work in. My question though, is this: Put the work in where/how?
Also – and please don’t take this personally – why are people such as yourself bothering to put all this info ‘out there’ if you can make so much money trading? I know, I know – I’m an old cynic – but after several times of being ‘shafted’ I’ve got quite a sore backside! lol
Still and all, I wish you well in all you do. Your educational content is really good. If you just want to mail me back to tell me B*******! Thats fine too!
All the best
George.
Hi George,
Of course, work on yourself too. I mean half the trading game is self control, and trading, like gambling is one of those things that carry a lot of impulsive behaviour. I think when Peter and I say such things we are just being aware we don’t want to lead people down the garden path into the believe that it’s a get rich quick scheme or something.
The course content question is one thats popped up elsewhere. But it’s another income stream, would be foolish to turn it down right? Also trading becomes quite solitary if you just do that. I did for the first couple of years and it’s like being a robot. The blog etc gives another level to the day, interaction etc.
Don’t worry about the sore back side… if you look back far enough I had one of those too at points!
Cheers,
Caan
Hi again, Caan. Many thanks for your reply. I see exactly what you mean and in fact, am working on another income ‘stream’ to bolster my trading bank. 🙂
All the best
George. 🙂
hello George ..I am a professional betfair trader and the way to learn is by constantly being in the markets and learning how they operate ..it took me years to achieve a 90% success rate but I got there in the end …keep trying and see what works and what doesn’t …good luck
Thanks for the article. Scalping is still an area of trading that I find difficult to profit from on a consistent basis. Sure I have winning scalps but I also have plenty of losing ones and the upshot is that I do struggle to win often enough to make a consistent profit from scalping. The biggest hurdle for me is when there is a sudden spike in price that turns the trade into a loser so that even when I hedge I end up with a small red. And then if I try to recover the red I just end up with a bigger red. I can make good profits from swing trading and Back to Lays but scalping remains the one area of trading that I just can’t quite crack yet. I’m hoping that enough demo trading on Geeks Toy will help it to sink in.
Why even bother if you’re making good profits from swing trading? They’re two completely separate skills to learn and at odds with each other when to play. It’s quite possible your trading brain is homing in on swingers why risk messing up a winning formula, there’s no need to be a jack of all trades in trading. Plenty of us concentrate on single sports like horses, not football etc avoiding scalping is no different.
If I can master scalping it will allow me to bet on more races and also take advantage of the bigger meetings and consequently make bigger profits. I don’t trade other sports – just focusing on horse racing. But I appreciate that learning to scalp will take time. As I have not cracked it yet I am only demo trading it as I don’t want to lose money if I can help it! With Back to Lay and swinging on the other hand I am using real money. Had a nice back to lay with Xebec earlier this evening.
A lot of successful scalping centres around the situation you do it. Not all situations suit it… also the tendency is to over-trade for many newbies learning to scalp Betfair.
Hi!
I made this trade at Worcester. Back Dry Olparty odds: 2,50 and lay 2,42,,, prerace.
Start time race: pm 4:50
Brilliant post Cann. I make about £3 a race on average now through scalping but find some places like dundalk will wipe me out for 3-4 races profit in one go. Do you know why this is?
Hi Steven
Good work on the £3 per race.
It could be that it’s a poor race choice. As Caan says, it’s best to scalp in steadier markets so Saturday meetings lend themselves to that better, particularly those that are on Channel 4.
I don’t do much scalping but if I do, I use a stop loss as well – gives some protection in event of the price flying away from you.
Yes, Dundalk is typically illiquid, making it harder to when scalping the betting markets. Not every situation is suited to this style of trading. Also, as I’ve said elsewhere – not all opportunities are created equal. It’s best to adapt to the situation at hand, while avoiding over-trading and opening positions for the sake of it. It’s fine to just sit back and watch sometimes too!
Caan,
Like most here am fairly new to trading. Have been learning the art of Scalping with some success. With relation to money management, what is the safe way to do it in terms of your overall bank size per trade? Ie. Do you use a set % of your bank per trade or what?? Still have not got that side sussed out properly yet.
Cheers
Hi James, I’d try to steer away from that % view. It seems to carry itself over from financial trading. Focus on the process rather than the outcome and things may change 😉
Possibly one of the most inspiring posts for any newbie to trading! I just started with the videos yesterday with no prior knowledge but I really appreciate the work and honesty you put into your teaching.
Kind words Julian. I appreciate it, thanks! Glad to know you find the videos insightful.
how can somebody get a rellieble betting system booklet from you at a very low cost
Just briliant tips for me who just start learning.. thanks a lot.
Great video Caan as always. i bought your videos a while back and was wondering if you ever taught classes a few times a year like The Blagger?
Thanks,
Steve
Hi Steve, I have, it’s just a matter of time to organise/set up at the moment with a lot going on. Cheers.
I was just wondering caan. How many scalping trades do you put through on each race that you trade on betfair? is 5 to many?
thank you
Gary
Hey Gary, it really can fluctuate. Starting out I’d advise a few simple scalps, limited to what you expect to be very good situations. Once experienced it’ll be far easier to know when you can push the boundaries. Typically it becomes easier to scalp as liquidity increases, giving you more chance to get more bets matched.
I have a question ?. If all the money is on the layside, is it best to back or join the layside ??
Cheers Jack
If only it were so simple Jack, I’d probably have retired by now in a Yacht in the middle of the med! WOM isn’t all that useful anymore.
In the ladder are LAYING at the back price and BACKING at the lay price?
Not sure I understood your question there, Robert. Can you explain a little more?
Hi Robert
(I think I understand your question)
The back & lay price is the same (current price) at any point in time.
I.e. If the price was currently 5.4 then clicking on lay & back (both at 5.4) would effectively cancel each other out.
The idea is to back higher than the lay. I.e. Lay at 5.4 & quickly back at say 5.5 or 5.6 in order to give you a small profit.
Hope this helps
Returning to your blog after freeing up some time, I am curious to learn if it is possible to find an edge as an individual that has a limited knowledge of sports however is prepared to study through the paid courses? Needing a profitable challenge since completing the Open University.
Hi Mike, I’d advise studying everything you can rather than just paid courses.
Caan
Hi Mike,
As someone who has purchased the Pre-Off Trading guide and trading for nearly 2 years, I hope my input is useful here.
Whilst courses are undoubtedly helpful, there is still a lot of value going through the YouTube videos as well. I know from when I started, my focus (incorrectly) was on ‘How can I make money here?’ whereas 21 months down the line, my focus now is risk management / money management / trading discipline / trading psychology.
With regards to the pre-off markets specifically, I believe that you need to go through a number of market cycles before you can say that you understand them. Sadly, there is not a quick fix for this but I can tell you now, that I’m at a stage where if I lose money, I can no longer blame ‘the market’ as after this long trading, I’ve learnt how different markets move.
And that takes us nicely back to what I was saying about risk management etc.
The best advice I can offer, is to spend as much time as possible in the market – I would only use practice mode to get familiar with the software and start using real money (albeit small stakes) as soon as possible.
The hard reality of trading is that you will always have losing trades – the critical factor is how you deal with their losses.
As an aside, Caan – how long did it take you from knowing nothing to getting to the stage where you were no longer plagued by poor discipline etc?
Best of luck with it, Mike.
Chris
@Caan and Chris. Cheers for the input. I have been messing around on Betfair for a while and it was only recently that I earned a nice 3 digit sum through the Tennis market using a swinging approach. Although I am happy to pacify the emotions when losing and have learnt to moved on, I can only feel the profit was a total 5 day fluke as I am recently been making losses. In saying that, I have learnt from previous mistakes and will be concentrating on videos and at one point, when educated purchase Berry Esq’s guides. Cheers to ya both, chin chin.
Please could you tell me what your definition of better quality racing is? Are you using race class for instance (perhaps just class 1 and 2 races), or is it the better class courses, or even the prize money?
Also, do you place your back and lay bets at the same time, or do you wait till your first bet is matched before placing the closing bet?
And (sorry for having three questions) can you give me some pointers on how to choose the right situations to do scalping. Two possibilities that come to mind are 1. When the odds are significantly different to the bookmaker odds, as it’s likely they will come back in line (or alternatively this could be an indication that the bookmaker prices will move, so your startegy could be flawed), and 2) when the chart is very steady showing only small fluctuations in price (though this could change at any time of course). I am quite happy to purchase a course or something if I need that to fully answer this last question.
Thank you.
Hi David,
This is discussed inside the scalping module here: https://caanberry.com/product/scalping-module/
Regards,
Support
I’ve been practising scalping the last couple of days on geeks toy practise mode and im finding it really difficult. Im nowhere near consistent enough to start using real money. Even in high liquidity races i find the price moves away from me. This is something i really want to learn. Do you only use geeks toy for scalping? Or do you use some type of bot?
Caan just one question when your scalping I see you manage to hedge up your possition but keep your stakes in the market when i do that it takes my stake out on geeks toy I understand if you scratch your position how that works but is there another hot key or setting you are using to complete this operation if this makes sense to you for example I see you appear to press the hedge position on your profits column but the stakes still remain in the que position? just wondering how you do that please ?
Hi Anthony, if you exit for the same stake as you entered it leaves this situation. You can press ‘N’ with the toy to hot key for net stake. Hope that helps your scalping! 🙂
Caan
Hi Caan thanks for the reply hope your well I don’t know if there is a issue but non of my hot keys work I should be able to just N as stated but non of my hot keys work on anything or Im I being completely silly any advice on this would be great ???do I have to press a another key with the N??Thanks again
Hi Anthony, no problem, you need to make sure they are enabled. Click the market navigator on right and it’s on one of those menus.
Please how do I start sports trading.
Caan, is there a number of rules (filters) you see as important when choosing races you think are ideal to scalp?
Thought I’d give this a go tonight on the US markets. Very very low stakes, just to get the hang of it.
Three races in, up 2.9% without any losses. Definitely works.