Betting companies are always looking for new ways to stand out in what is, an amazingly crowded marketing, particular yin the online sector when there are more choices and options than anyone can ever want, or to be honest, need.
When betting was confined to real physical shops, bookmakers didn’t’ have to do much in order to gain and keep customers. If they were in small towns, then people basically were stuck with one or maybe two choices meaning that there was no need to push the boat out of to do anything special, if you wanted to keep customers you might do a quick special offer or perhaps give away free hot drinks inside the store, but the market was small and it was easy to retain customers.
Of course, with the internet, suddenly betting companies had a huge amount competition to deal with as customers could just change their betting provider with a click of a mouse. There was no need to worry about actually finding a new physical brick and mortar place to bet, you could just google a new place and set up an account very quickly. This meant that companies had to be innovative, they need to come up with new ideas to keep people using their services. They had to find something that would make them stand out and have people say, ok well this betting company offer me something special so I will stick it out with them.
There have been many interesting ideas ranging from cash out, to setting your own odds, to requesting a bet that companies have used. One of the most interesting is betting exchanges which create a strong sense of community and allow you and other betters to influence what is happening. Suddenly, you see on your screen aren’t set by a couple of guys sitting in an office, it’s done by the community.
In essence, a betting exchange is like the stock market. The big players like Betfair, Betdaq and Smarkets give you a baseline price on whether an event will happen or not. Then people either lay or back a bet. In essence that means you can back it to happen or lay against it not happening. As more people choose to do one the other options odds go up. If a lot of people back an event to happen then the odds go up on it not happening. The crowd help to set the price and you can buy and sell your bets. It is most commonly done on big sporting events but can be done on other events.
If you are looking for a new and exciting way to be then, it might make sense to try out one of these exchanges. If you are a little unsure about why prices are what they are, if you want to work together with a community, and if you are more interesting in betting against or with something happening, then a betting exchange might be perfect for you. It is well worth trying one out and seeing if it works for you.
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