SCALPING – Betfair Exchange Trading
SCALPING – Betfair Exchange Trading
Scalping is one of the most used strategies for making money Betfair Exchange Trading.
Scalping is the process of backing a horse at a price and then laying it as soon as possible at a lower price, often one or two ticks lower.
What is a tick?
The chart below shows what a tick is worth at various Betfair Exchange prices:
| Price Range | Tick |
| 0 to 2.0 | 0.01 |
| 2.0 to 3.0 | 0.02 |
| 3.0 to 4.0 | 0.05 |
| 4.0 to 6.0 | 0.10 |
| 6.0 to 10 | 0.20 |
| 10 to 20 | 0.50 |
| 20 to 30 | 1 |
| 30 to 50 | 2 |
| 50 to 100 | 5 |
| 100 plus | 10 |
Scalping requires a trader to have a strict exit strategy because one large loss could eliminate the many small gains the trader worked to obtain.
How do I maximise my scalping profits?
| Maximising Scalping Returns | ||||||
| Range | Tick is | Stake | Value/tick | Cash out MAX | Cash out MIN | |
| 1.01 | 2 | 0.01 | £100 | £1 | £0.99 | £0.50 |
| 2 | 3 | 0.02 | £100 | £2 | £1.00 | £0.67 |
| 3 | 4 | 0.05 | £100 | £5 | £1.67 | £1.25 |
| 4 | 6 | 0.1 | £100 | £10 | £2.50 | £1.67 |
| 6 | 10 | 0.2 | £100 | £20 | £3.33 | £2.00 |
| 10 | 20 | 0.5 | £100 | £50 | £5.00 | £2.50 |
| 20 | 30 | 1 | £100 | £100 | £5.00 | £3.33 |
| 30 | 50 | 2 | £100 | £200 | £6.67 | £4.00 |
| 50 | 100 | 5 | £100 | £500 | £10.00 | £5.00 |
| 100 | 990 | 10 | £100 | £1,000 | £10.00 | £1.01 |
The chart above shows the return you could achieve from a £100 stake being matched for a 1 tick profit.
So in the range of 1.01 to 2 a tick is worth 0.01 which if £100 was matched for a one tick gain is worth £1 green for the selection and if cashed out would green up at 1.01 for 99p profit or at 2 for a 50p profit.
Clearly as the price of the horse goes out so the potential profit per tick goes up but then getting £100 matched at 110 and then again at 100 is rare because the liquidity also drops as the price goes out.
The sweet spot for scalping on Betfair
In large fields in high profile races the sweet spot for scalping is on the crossover at 10 to 10.5. This is because the total matched on a “normal” every day race is somewhere around £300K with 8 runners and the favourite around 3/1, whereas on say the Gold Cup or most races at the Cheltenham Festival or Royal Ascot can be as much as £5m with big fields being 20 or so and the favourite being around 8/1. In the latter race the Betfair price will be around 10 or 11 and the liquidity will also be high. Getting £100 matched is therefore entirely possible and cashing out each tick will give a 5% ROI which is pretty good.
Watch the video below for more details:
