In-play betting on an exchange: suspensions, delays and moving prices

Before a match starts, an exchange market moves slowly and you have time to think. Once it is in play the same market becomes a different animal. Prices change with every ball, goal or point; the market freezes and unfreezes; and every bet you place is held for a moment before it is matched. None of this is hidden, but all of it is new, and it is where many people have their first costly surprise.

Suspension

When something happens that should change the price (a wicket, a goal, a break of serve) the exchange suspends the market. For a few seconds no new bets can be placed and existing unmatched bets cannot be matched. Then the market reopens at the new prices. The point is fairness: without suspension, someone watching a fast feed could bet on a result that was already known to them and not to you.

If you press "place bet" during a suspension, the bet is refused. If the market suspends after you pressed but before the bet was processed, it is usually refused too. Either way, the price you were looking at has gone, and when the market reopens you should look at the new one before doing anything.

The in-play delay

Every bet placed in play is held for a short time (a few seconds, set by the exchange and often different for different sports) before it enters the market. During that delay the price can move. The rule is simple and always in your favour on price: your bet is matched at the price you asked for or better, never worse. But it may not be matched at all. If you asked to back at 1.85 and the price has moved to 1.70 during the delay, your bet is left unmatched at 1.85. If it has moved to 2.00, you are matched at 2.00.

Unmatched bets from before the start

The most common in-play accident has nothing to do with in-play betting. A back bet placed before the match at a hopeful high price, forgotten, is matched in play after a bad moment for that team, at exactly the price you asked for and at exactly the moment you would least want it. Exchanges let you choose whether unmatched bets are kept or cancelled when a market is turned in play. Check the setting, and check your bet slip before the start.

The pictures are behind

Television and streaming pictures are seconds, sometimes tens of seconds, behind the event. The market is driven by the fastest information available to anyone, which is usually people at the ground or on official data feeds. By the time you see a goal on a stream, the market has suspended, reopened and settled at a new price. Betting on what you have just seen is betting on the past, and the delay plus the suspension exist precisely so that you cannot profit from it.

Sensible habits

• Watch one market through a whole match before you bet in play on anything. Learn the rhythm of suspensions.
• Decide your stake and your price before you reach for the button, not during the moment.
• Never increase a stake to make up for a bet that was refused or left unmatched. The refusal was the market protecting itself, not you missing out.
• Know your liability on every lay before the match starts. In play there is no time to work it out.

Next: cash out and greening up, which uses these moving prices to lock in a result.

Information only, 18+. Real-money online gaming is restricted in India: see the lesson on the law.