How long have you been in the Horse racing and betting industry and what experience do you have using the Betting Exchanges?

I have been involved in the racing industry loosely to start with from around 1986 I had my first involvement as a racehorse owner involved with a small syndicate of friends and then the love affair blossomed so to speak.

I learned an awful lot about racing from my grandfather and he had the ability to be able to think about angles that other people had not attacked form from so he taught me a lot and it was a shame he didn’t live long enough to try the Betting exchanges as I am sure he would have cleaned up!

In 1990 that was the first year I can honestly say I made a good profit from racing I was betting based on my form study and this was the year I made a real impact when under the influence of my grandfather I made nearly double the amount I had made from my business interests away from racing.

I won’t go into figures but let me just say I was regularly betting to mid 4 figures stakes and was hitting a strike rate of 36%. Not brilliant but very respectable and very profitable. It was at that time that when “on course” I used to employ a technique unknown to me at the time was a method called “Dutching” were I would oppose a favourite by backing the whole field in proportionate stakes against it and all of a sudden my strike rate improved dramatically to around 70%, now of course I would simply Lay the horse in question.

So when the betting exchanges started I must admit I was not really one for change and thought it would be a “fad” that would soon pass over like so many other people seemed to.

I was used to chatting in forums and on message boards and I kept noticing a name who was very honest with his help and more importantly knew what he was talking about. That was my introduction to my now business partner and the other great influence on my betting Nessie. It was Nessie who said “why don’t you have a look at Betfair?” So with his recommendation I did and I have never looked back since.

Nessie is a full time professional investor and has used the exchanges since day 1 and his drive and enthusiasm for finding betting angles to exploit is truly amazing! I thought I knew a bit about racing until I met Nessie. I on the other hand have only used the exchanges from about 2002.

Can you explain the best way to benefit from the Bet-IE software?

The thing with the Bet-IE software is it is used every day by Nessie and myself so it performs very well, it has to or we would be back with 9-5 jobs! One of the main advantages is its flexibility I will sit down in the morning with the Racing Post and mark the days cards with potential Dutching races and then races to Trade/Hedge in also I will study the early markets for potential VHF arbitrage opportunities.

With the software comes a built in help guide and if people take the time to read through it and follow the guidelines I am sure it won’t be long until they start turning their betting fortunes around.

There are a number of different strategies with Bet-IE Dutching, Trading, Hedging, Laying, being an old fashioned investor I feel most comfortable using the Dutching and Hedging functions although I am enjoying using the new Trading function as are our clients. (Take a look at our online video's)

How much money on average can people who use your software expect to make per week if used correctly?

That really depends on the users imagination! Nearly every market on Betfair is backable with Bet-IE depending on which technique you employ for which event. That is without the highly profitable arbitrage bets of the VHF software. With Dutching the average profits range from between 25-55% depending on whether you utilise the enhancement features, so coupled with the high strike rate we achieve the Dutching method is extremely profitable.

Hedging I tend to Hedge a race to a fixed profit this can be set within the software’s confines and all the calculations are done for you leaving you to press a couple of buttons to place the bets, hopefully the odds will move in your favour if they don’t however we have 3 “stoploss” methods that can be utilised to limit your liability and protect your betting bank very important.

Trading is difficult to place exact profits too as I am sure you can appreciate but I will normally set in my mind an amount I am wishing to achieve and once the target is met I look to move on to the next investment.

The arbitrage bets that present themselves using the VHF software would range from a minimum of 4% ROI and I have regularly had profits of 10-20% ROI I find the best piece of advice when using VHF is to look at the markets during the last 15 minutes before the off there is enough liquidity to cater for quite large stakes.

One thing I can honestly say to your clients is if they set a profit figure they would like to achieve then work around the days racing cards to achieve the profit from the techniques in the Guides. So for example if this was me I would look how many potential Dutching races I could see and start from there followed by Hedging opportunities and so on.

There will be losers there has to be in this business but a losing bet only moves you closer to your next winner and with the staking you employ and the strike rate you should be back in profit and moving along in the right direction in no time.

What are the best and most profitable settings for Betty?

Well with the Dutching function I always start by highlighting the basic Dutch I then enhance the profits using ratios mainly to achieve my goal. So I may decide that if the favourite looks worth opposing I want to Lay the favourite to a small amount of my total stake so if I was staking £1000 on the Dutch and my profit was 25% I may make the favourite -£100 this means if the favourite wins the race I will return £900 (because I layed it to lose £100 from my total stake) the point is the profit margins then on the Dutch increases tremendously it could increase to above 50% just by this simple adjustment.

Or if the “head of the market” looked particularly strong I may Lay amounts on the longer odds horses included in the Dutch to maximise my return should the “head of the market” horse win. I cannot begin to explain how powerful the Individual Profit Targeting is. You don’t have to Lay a horse you can 0 the profit and if that selection won you would return your full stake (less Betfair commission) you could ratio the selected horses so 0,10,20,30,40 etc the possibilities are endless.

When Hedging there is a fine balance to getting the size of spread correct to achieve your profit target a spread in the range of 20-50% will be matched most of the time without trouble. The spread needs to be good enough so as to keep the size of the stake down and also give the odds chance to drift to your required figure before the stoploss triggers.

Can you offer any advice, tips or secrets to making money on the betting exchanges and using the Bet-Ie /VHF software.

Try and stay disciplined in your betting approach and don’t become greedy with the targets you set. Once you have achieved your target turn the computer off and relax. There is an excellent way of crossing over the two sets of software Bet-IE and VHF with quite devastating accuracy but if I released that info here I think I would be mad. If your clients would like details of the crossover technique they can email me and ask.

They would need both software’s to carry this technique out though, “no put that bundle of fifties away!”

Seriously there is one more feature I would like to mention and that is in the new trading function of Bet-IE the “Learning Mode” it enables you to use the trading application without the need to put money on so it has all the functions of the normal trading application it even prompts you as to which way the trade is likely to move so when you are ready to take your first tentative steps into trading you have had a good teacher, you can even leave the prompts on when you trade in “real time”

Can you tell me a little about the new stop loss and tick spread feature?

Ssshhh! nobody is supposed to know about the new trader application yet! It does have an automatic offset of tick values that are user definable. It also features a stoploss and we are working on an idea of an improvement to this as we chat as you know we are always looking to improve our products and we encourage user feedback.

The way it works at the moment is you set the auto refresh rate (at 0.25 sec increments) and set a “tick” offset value so whichever side of the trade is placed first the software automatically places the opposing side so if I Back at odds of 5.6 the software set to a 1 tick value would submit an instant Lay request of 5.5. You can then set a “tick” value for the stoploss so maybe 2 ticks and check the Lay box as that is the side of the trade the stoploss would be needed on and if the odds move against you the stoploss triggers automatically at 6.

Once the trade is complete you can start again. It is amazing with this auto offset how many times your opposing trade bet is matched instantly without the odds ever showing on Betfair!

What is the best and most used feature of the software and why?

I would say Dutching is very popular because it so easy to follow, although the new trading feature seems to have captured everyone’s imagination. Especially with the introduction of the “Learning Mode”

Are there any specific staking plans you would advise using?

The staking area is personal preference there are a number of different staking ideas that are used but the old fashioned 5% of the bank total works as well as anything. You could use a technical 1% compounding bank staking or retrieval staking due to the nature and accuracy of the method but like I say the 5% works fine and your bank will not be taking big hits especially if you keep your discipline and follow the guides. The profits will soon start to add up and your bank will become a lot healthier.

Do you have any further developments in the pipeline?

Yes as you know we are always developing different avenues for our clients to explore and one thing that has been voiced to us time and time again is how our customers are getting fed up with the unreliability of Betfair, so we have listened to that and we are very close to releasing a Betdaq version of Bet-IE.

This exchange is Betfair's only main rival and is a valid alternative for exchange backers to exploit. The markets for trading are not quite strong enough yet (the gap prices are too great) but the more users it has the stronger the market becomes and I can see this becoming a real alternative to Betfair if the problems there continue.

To develop that exchange alternative we are looking to introduce a dedicated arbing program between the two exchanges only for all events not just racing, so that is an exciting but time consuming project. Also we are developing dedicated software’s for each individual Bet-IE operation so if a client wants to develop his Dutching to a more professional footing then we will be able to help him with a dedicated Dutching software aimed at a more professional approach.

So exciting times ahead for us and that is without the User Forum attached to the website and finding time to back ourselves! Finally I would like to thank you for your time, and best wishes to all your clients in their betting whatever path they take.

For more Information on Bet-IE and Value Horse Finder (VHF)

Article Published with permission from Bet Placement