When on line gambling died and a new king was born, long live the new king, long live the on-line revelation swept the gambling world in June 2000 with the launch of the betting exchanges. . Essentially these sites have allowed us punters to become bookmakers and have introduced people to people betting thus doing away with the traditional bookmaker. But more they have given us the option of being able to trade our bets.

Why is this important? Well lets take the 2006 British Golf open ,this is a four day event with 156 players taking part. The favorite for this tournament was Tiger Woods. Now Tiger is being labelled as the best golfer the world has seen ,and if you studied his record you could not argue.

But from a betting prospective you are being asked to put your money down on 156 runner field that lasts over four days with Tigers odds at 6/1. So you go down to your local bookies or go on line and place your bet on Tiger then sit back to watch your golf and hope you have made the right bet. At the end of the first days golf the leaders score is 66 but there are 32 players all within three points of the leader and another 17 within four points so with three days still to play there are 50 players all within four points of one another. Within those 50 players there are some of the best golfers in the world including the best Tiger. Now if your bookmaker phoned you up at this stage in the tournament and offered to settle your bet at 30-40 or 50% of what you may win bearing in mind the above what would you do . Well as a trader this is the action I took.My bet was ?100 at 6.60 (betting exchanges work in decimals) this would give me a profit of ?560 + my ?100 stake if Tiger did win but if he lost I would lose my ?100.

Thanks to the betting exchanges allowing us to trade this does not have to be the case. At the end of the first days play Tigers odds had come down to 3.45 from his original 6.60 this would allow me to do a lay bet, in other words I was now going to bet against Tiger. Now I had a choice, I could make my bet for ?100 which meant that if Tiger lost then I would break even and win or lose nothing.If he did win my winnings would be ?315.

Or I could make my bet for ?150 then if Tiger lost I would win ?50 who ever won. If Tiger did win then I would win ?193 .Or I could leave the bet and gamble. Before the arrival of the betting exchanges I would only be able to let my gamble ride and would have had to agonize over the four days and hoped that Tiger could weave his magic and I would win my bet . I opted for the ?150 bet and sat back and watched three thrilling days of golf safe in the knowledge that who ever won I would be at least ?50 better off. As history will show Tiger did weave his magic and came through to win by two points I ended ?193 better off.

Yes I could have stuck to my original bet and have won ?367 but that would have been gambling. I do not gamble any more I am a trader. Long live the new king, long live the on-line trader.

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