The Free Betfair Bet: A Review of How Betfair Works
The free Betfair bet is one of the most popular free Playsbo within the online community, and with good reason too. With an average of 20% better odds than other websites it is one of the must-have accounts if you are interested in online gambling.
Betfair is the world’s largest internet betting exchange and was launched from their base in Hammersmith, West London, in June 2000. Since that point they have gained over 3 million customers and have a turnover of a reported £50m per week. They have become recognisable through their huge marketing campaign in the media, plus their sponsorship of sporting events and their presence on billboards across most English Premier League matches, especially the high-profile televised games!
The current free Betfair bet for all new customers stands at £25 and covers markets across all sports, and there are also great opportunities for those like casino gambling with new offers popping up for new customers regularly.
The great selling point for Betfair is also the fact that they have so many different markets on the go for each sporting event. For example a top-flight football match will typically have up to 30 different markets you can bet on, from correct score to the number of corners there would be, and the ability to bet on the outcome is also available during the event too (in-play).
How does Betfair work?
The difference in how Betfair works as opposed to other online bookmakers is that it gives you the chance to either bet on the outcome as per the normal procedure (known as to ‘back’) or actually bet against that outcome taking place (to ‘lay’).
Essentially Betfair is based on anyone being able to be the bookie, and anyone being the punter. While you are putting money on a horse to win a race at certain odds, the only reason this is possible is because another person out there has ‘laid’ the bet at the same odds.
As a further example, if you wanted to bet £20 on a horse called to win a race at odds of 5/1 (or 6.0 in decimal odds) then you would click on ‘Back’ at the odds you choose and you’d then await the race outcome. Your liability would be the £20 you have bet on the horse and no more.
Your winnings (if it won) would be £120 (5 x £20 plus stake back) minus a small commission – 5% – from Betfair, which they take from each bet – that’s how they make their money, and with inflated odds being available this shouldn’t be a problem.
The bet ‘liability’ will be shown when you lay it online so it doesn’t come as a shock to you after the outcome of the sporting event. And of course, you can only ‘lay’ a bet with a certain liability if you have that amount of money in your account just in case you were to lose the bet.
The company have also started to put online video tutorials and Help pages onto their site to explain further how the ‘back’ and ‘lay’ process works, so if you don’t want to commit any bets without seeing it in action first that would be a great place to start. The best way to get used to the system though is to put some bets on at the £2 minimum stake and see how you get on before taking advantage of the free deal.
