A Brief History on Bookmakers And Their Poor Value Prices (Odds)
Bookmakers are always looking for new ways to entice people to place bets on their platform, after all, the more money that people bet with them the more money they will make. Because of the way that bookmakers run their businesses, the back bet odds they offer don’t represent the “true value” of price, their odds are always lower than what the true odds value really. For example, they might offer back odds for Manchester United to win a football match of 2.4 however the true back odds price would actually be 2.7.
Bookmakers do this on every single event that they take bets for, and by continually doing this they gain a mathematical edge over their customers who place bets on their website day in and day out. Poor value odds are what ultimately leads to online bookmakers earning so much money. Offering less than reasonable prices has always been the bookmaker’s business model as it has continued to work for them year after year, this is largely due to most of the general public having a poor understanding of how odds work.
So, this means that the lay odds on the betting exchange will almost always be higher than the back bet odds on the bookmaker website.
For example: if Manchester United had back odds of 2.4 with the bookmaker, the lay odds would likely be around the 2.8 mark on the betting exchange.
This situation is not profitable for us match bettors, we will only ever be able to make a profit from price boosts if the bookmaker back odds are higher than the exchange lay odds.
What Are Price Boosts
So, simply put, a price boost is where a bookmaker decides to temporarily boost the odds on a particular outcome on their website. For example, the bookmaker could decide to boost the odds on Manchester United to win a match from 2.4 up to 3.0. The bookmaker will generally put their price boosts out for a short period of time to entice more people to bet more money on their platform.
Example of a boosted price by the bookmaker
How to Profit From Price Boosts
When the bookmakers raise a price on their website this can create a potentially profitable opportunity for people looking to squeeze value out of them such as us matched bettors! To make a profit, we need to look out for a bookmaker’s price boost to have been boosted to a higher value than the exchange lay odds on the same outcome.
Example: Manchester United to win the match has now been boosted by the bookie from 2.4 up to 3.0.
The lay odds on Smarkets are still at 2.8.
Because the back odds are now 0.2 higher than the lay odds this has now become a situation in which we can squeeze a profit out of. Remember, as a rule of thumb, anytime the back odds are higher than the lay odds on a certain outcome there is a potential profit to be made. The bigger the difference between the boosted back odds than the exchange lay odds and the larger stake we use on our back bet, the more profit we will make.
In order to make a profit when an opportunity arises, load up the matched betting calculator and key in the information that you have on the price boost.
In the image below, I have keyed in the information from the fictional Manchester United boost that has been mentioned throughout this article.
Boosted back odds: 3.0
Smarkets lay odds: 2.8
The calculator lets us know the exact lay stake that is required for us to lock in a guaranteed profit from our lay bet.
Standard, Underlay And Overlay:
There are 3 different ways you can choose to lay off a bookmakers price boost, all of which will generate you a different amount of profit, they are explained below:
- Standard: Standard locks in a smaller guaranteed profit, by placing our back and lay bet using the boost, we will be in profit regardless of the back bet winning or the lay bet winning.
- Underlay: Underlaying gives you a free bet on the boosted outcome, this free bet will lock in more profit than using the standard method if, and only if, the boosted team wins the match. For example, if Manchester United wins the match we will make a nice profit into our bookmaker account. However, if they don’t win the match we will simply breakeven as we will lose our back stake with the bookie and win it straight back into our betting exchange balance.
- Overlay: The final option is to overlay, this is just the converse of the underlay, this time we will make our profit if the lay bet wins and breakeven if the back bet wins.
Underlay & overlay options can be found by selecting advanced mode on the calculator (displayed above).
Where to Find Price Boosts:
Bookmakers add new boosts each day without fail on their websites. However, I realise that most everybody simply doesn’t have the time to browse bookmaker’s websites for boosts and then check the exchange to see if the lay odds are lower than the boosted back odds.
Thankfully this is not necessary as Oddsmonkey has a forum in which price boosts are instantly added when bookmakers add them to their websites.
The forum is nice and easy to use, each post lets us know the bookmaker that the boost is with along with the boosted back odds, also, each post informs us of the exchange lay odds so that we are able to quickly back and lay the selection and make our profit without any messing around.
Here is the link to the price boost thread.
Note: You can get your mobile phone to send you a push notification alert every time a boost is added to the forum using an app called pushbullet.
Pushbullet set up instructions
Things to Know About Price Boosts:
Finally, to wrap up, I have listed 4 things to remember about the bookmaker’s price boosts.
Price Boosts Don’t Last Forever: The bookie will only boost the price for a short period of time, usually for up to 1 hour. After that, the odds will then be moved back down to the bookmaker’s initial poor value price.
Max Stake: Bookmakers usually select a maximum stake that is permitted for users to use when they bet on price boosts. This stake is normally specified on the bookie’s website and the OddsMonkey price boost forum.
The Lay Price is Slowly Likely to Rise: This is due to the large number of people who will start to lay the outcome due to the bookmaker giving away value on their boost. This is the natural way that betting exchange prices work. The more people lay an outcome, the further out the price will slowly move.
Always Place Your Back Bet First: Be sure that you always place your back bet before placing the lay bet! You may have a temptation to place your lay bet first with the knowledge that the lay price is slowly going to move upwards, however, you should refrain from doing this and be sure to place your back bet with the bookmaker first. This is a safety measure, imagine placing your lay bet first, only to find that the bookmaker has then taken down their price boost! If this was to happen you would then have to place a back bet on the now lower price and take a small loss. Always back the boosted outcome before laying it off!
Join OddsMonkey For Free And Lock In Your First £65
