Live Betting

Live betting is one of the fastest and most exciting ways to bet online. It’s also one of the fastest growing markets with site such as Bet365 offering up over 100 live or in-play betting markets on Premier League football matches alone. It’s this sheer size and mass of markets that are on offer which make it so popular with an array of punters, each looking for something different from the other.

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What is live betting and how does it work?

Live betting is essentially betting on a market whilst a game is taking place with the odds in that market reacting to how the game is playing out. So instead of simply saying you think Manchester United will beat Chelsea before the start of the game and then that market closing as the game starts, a live market would allow you to bet on that market as the game takes place with odds reacting accordingly.

Each market will react very differently depending on what has occurred during that match. Let’s look at a quick example of two different markets in live betting.

Our two markets are going to be the outright winner market and the number of goals in the game market. For ease we will continue with our Manchester united v Chelsea game and say that the score is 0-0 after 80 minutes in the game.

In the outright winner market odds have changed on Manchester United to win from 2.50 before the game to 6.50 as the game currently stands with 10 minutes left. The draw has gone from 3.40 to 1.70 and Chelsea has gone from 3.00 to 8.00. If Manchester United were then to score then a live market would look something like Manchester United at 1.90, draw at 4.50 and Chelsea at 13.00, mainly because of the limited time in the game.

Using the same game and the same scenario of Manchester United scoring with 10 minutes left on the over 3.5 goals in the game market. Before the match to back the over on 3.5 goals were odds of 6.0, prior to scoring this had gone up to 20.00, and even after scoring the odds only changed to 15.00, again because of the limited time left and the fact that 3 more goals still needed to be scored.

Hopefully that will give you an understanding over how one event can affect one market more than the other when it comes to live betting.

Live Betting Markets

We mentioned briefly that some games have over 100 markets turn in-play for just one Premier League football match. Whilst we aren’t going to list all the markets we are going to list some of the more common ones and explain what they are about.

  • Match Result – Very straightforward and the most common market is simply selecting the result of the match; win, lose or draw.
  • 1st goal – The first goal market is one of many that will actually chop and change as the game progresses. To start with you can choose either team or neither team to score first. After the first goal goes in this market will then change to second goal, third goal, fourth goal and so on.
  • Match Goals – The bookmaker will often set a line for the total amount of goals from both teams in the match. It’s your job to then select the over or under for this line. Again as the game progresses markets will open and close depending on the number of goals thus far.
  • Draw no bet – The draw no bet market is an extension of the match result, except this market removes the draw from the equation. If the game does end in a draw then you will get your stake returned.

Momentum in-play live betting

We wanted to add a little on this article about momentum in live betting. Momentum is probably the single most important factor when choosing your live bets. Spotting which team has the momentum in a game or possible shifts in momentum can become extremely profitable. The best live bettors pick up on these things before the markets start to change and it’s here where the biggest profits are made.

A good tip for starting out in live betting is to stick with sports you are familiar with and then in turn, familiarise yourself with how the markets react to different events from that match, race or whatever. Then try and spot when the momentum shifts in a game for whatever reason before going back to your live market and seeing how, or even if, the odds have changed to reflect this.