Royal Ascot Betting Ring Thursday

Cricky O Reilly

The bookmaker hedging knew all about fractions when he called £10,000 – £650 Blue Brother, 15/2 with the bits.

I hope the firm didn't lay him that!

I'll put it down to a long day in the sun.

Being serious for a minute, I'm not sure that the tactic of just making sure you're always laying at a shorter price than on the exchange, and assuming that in the long term you will therefore win, is going to work any longer. Twenty years ago, or even ten or five years ago, sure. The markets on here were deep and the prices deadly accurate. These days the markets on Betfair are way shallower and no longer represent the perfect tissue imo.

The exchange prices are still a useful guide, but I think the game may be returning to the days when you have to at least try to make a proper book around those prices. Boring, but perhaps there's a reason why you're seeing hedging money from other bookmakers these days. Firstly, obviously, because the money simply isn't available to hedge on here any longer; but secondly, and more crucially, those bookmakers have realised that simply laying at under the exchange prices and holding the bet is no longer a foolproof way to turn a long-term profit, and they do actually need to hedge bets taken at under those prices.