Betdaq Advantage
Betdaq were launched in September 2001 and have been a reliable alternative to Betfair ever since.
One of the world’s leading betting exchanges. BETDAQ offers betting markets on a wide range of international sporting and other events. It provides a service to its customers which has been described by one commentator as a ‘punting paradise, the like of which previous generations could only dream of".
BETDAQ strikes in excess of £50 million worth of bets every week. Its customer base is drawn from more than 100 countries around the world.
As with most betting exchanges with Betdaq you can:
- bet that an outcome will happen (back) or that it won't happen (lay).
- choose the odds at which you want to play.
- bet whilst the game is in play.
Liquidity on Betdaq
One of the main properties of a tradable market is high liquidity. Betdaq have suffered from low liquidity markets when compared to Betfair and this has been the main reason why Betfair remains popular with traders.
However, in recent years the liquidity is increasing as more people turn to Betdaq as an alternative to Betfair. Especially those alienated by the Premium charges imposed by Betfair.
Minimum Bet
Another reasons Betdaq have struggled to lift up to the same level as Betfair is their policy regarding minimum bet size, or more specifically, bet queuing system. This has deterred beginners from using the exchange and once these 'beginners' have been with Betfair for a while it will be hard to win them back. Betdaq make their exchange less attractive to beginners and this could be detrimental to Betdaq's business and hope of increasing liquidity.
Let's imaging you place a £2 bet with either Betfair or Betdaq. This bet joins the queue of unmatched bets and will get matched when it arrives at the front of the queue. Now let's say we increase the bet to £2.43. We may want to tidy a book or place a greening bet or any number of reasons. So we adjust the stake on the unmatched bet to £2.43.
On Betfair, the bet is split into two. There will be one unmatched bet of £2 still in the queue where we left it. And a new bet of £0.43. We can now cancel either of these bets if we wish (this is how we get around the minimum bet size on Betfair.
On Betdaq, the entire stake is increased and the bet remains as one bet. BUT YOUR PLACE IN THE QUEUE IS LOST AND THE ADJUSTED BET ENTERS THE EXCHANGE AT THE BACK OF THE QUEUE. This means we cannot enter a bet less than the minimum amount.
Now to be fair, Betfair frown upon the practice of placing hundreds of small bets. And I have heard of people being banned from the exchange because of this. However, if you do not abuse the system then they have no problem in allowing this to happen. This is good news for beginners and even non-beginners as small bets are sometimes required when trading hundreds of markets week in, week out.
Betdaq's current stance means they are losing a much needed source of liquidity and new customers.
So what's the advantage?
The advantage for traders is that having a 'backup' exchange is imperitive. It is vital. I cannot stress the importance of this.
Betfair has downtime. It can happen when you least expect it. It can happen at 2.55pm on a Saturday afternoon or 9.09pm on a Tuesday evening. When this happens, if you have unclosed positions then you could be staring at an eye-watering liability that will really ruin your day. Having Betdaq as a backup means you can close your position and reconcile later. OK, you will have to manually balance up the two accounts but overall you will be safer.
Also, you may wish to simply carry on trading. Betdaq now has enough liquidy to make trading possible most of the time.
And finally, there may be arbitrage opportunities, 'gap filling' opportunities and other opportunies to be had from having a Betdaq account.
