Matched, unmatched and the ladder

On an exchange, placing a bet means making an offer. The offer becomes a bet only when someone takes the other side of it. Until then you have an unmatched bet: a line in your bet slip, money reserved, but no risk and no possible win. Understanding the difference saves people a lot of confusion, and a few expensive surprises.

Matched

If you back at the price in the blue cell, or lay at the price in the pink cell, and there is enough money at that price, your bet is matched immediately. It now exists, the liability is set aside, and it will be settled when the market closes. A matched bet cannot be cancelled.

Unmatched

If you ask for a better price than the one on offer, or there is not enough money at the price you took, the bet (or the rest of it) waits in the market, unmatched. It is visible to everyone as part of the money available at that price. Three things can happen to it:

• The market moves to your price and someone matches it, in full or in part.
• You cancel it, which you can do at any moment.
• The market closes or is turned in play, and the exchange cancels it, or keeps it, according to its rules.

An unmatched bet is harmless while it waits. The danger is forgetting it. A back bet left at a high price before a match can be matched in play after a wicket, at a moment when you would never have placed it. Many exchanges have a setting to keep or cancel unmatched bets when a market goes in play; know which yours is set to.

Partial matching

If you want to back ₹5,000 at 1.85 and only ₹3,000 is available there, ₹3,000 is matched and ₹2,000 stays unmatched at 1.85. Your bet slip shows both parts. If you had chosen to take the next price as well, the remaining ₹2,000 might have been matched at 1.84 instead. Large stakes are often matched across several prices; the average is what you actually got.

The queue

At every price there is a queue. Money that arrived first is matched first. If ₹10,000 is waiting to back at 2.00 and you add ₹500 to back at 2.00, you are at the back of that queue and are matched only after the ₹10,000 ahead of you, if the market ever gets that far. Traders care about queue position; everyone else should simply understand why an unmatched bet at a price with a lot of money already there may never be matched.

The ladder

The normal market view shows the best three back prices and the best three lay prices for each selection. The ladder shows one selection as a vertical list of every price, with the money waiting to back on one side and the money waiting to lay on the other. Reading down it you can see where the money is clustered, how big the gap between back and lay is, and how far a price would have to move to reach your offer. The example card on the home page is a simplified version.

Try it

Next time you look at any market, find one unmatched offer and watch what happens to it as the price moves. Then go on to the lesson on the law, which completes the beginner level, and after that the intermediate lessons on in-play markets and cash out.

Information only, 18+. Real-money online gaming is restricted in India.