2 Questions From A Newbie

Hi mighty
With Smarkets, you need to wait until there is enough cash in the lay pot.
With the free bets, you have to find long odds (around 7.0+) before you’re going to hit an 80% return – that might be inplay betting on a football score, or betting on a horse just 5 mins before a race starts. Also handy to use oddsmonkey and filter by bookie.
Good luck!

1 – yes, that’s correct. If there is £10 under lay odds of 2.0 and then £15 to the right at 2.1, and then there are betting odds of 1.9 with £30, and then say you put down £45 lay at 2.0, then you’ll take the £10 at 2.0, and then the green box on the left, rather than saying 1.9, it will say 2.0 with £35. You’re effectively then offering someone else better betting odds than the 1.9. You then have to wait for someone to accept it.

Not sure I follow completely on the other question. I think the % rating takes into account the % commission you pay, so assuming the odds are accurate, you can tell the % you would profit/lose on a stake-returned bet. This is not the case for free bets, where you need the longer odds – but you can filter this on oddsmonkey.

The ratings on Oddsmonkey is a good indication, but you also need odds of 3.5+

Generally nearer the event the exchange odds get better, so you will find better matches. Ffor horse racing in the 10 mins before you can see big odds changes, and therefore find good matches.

If there’s not enough money (liquidity) then your bet will be unmatched, you may so more funds available at worse odds. You can cross check with betfair too.

In play odds tend to be poor, ~70% is perhaps more realistic. Depends on the current score, if it were 0-0 and approaching HT I go for “over 3.5” and correct score markets for decent liquidity and odds of 6+.

Keep a close eye on things for a few minutes to get a feel for the changing odds. Don’t get too hung up on achieving close odds, 0.5 difference is often as good as it gets. Better to be quick/decisive rather than spend forever dithering.