Live betting sites

Two books, same game, same second

The test I'd run first costs nothing. Open the same game at two books during play and look at the live total at the same moment. Pre-game, the numbers at two books are usually close, because the market has had days to agree. Live, they can sit a point or more apart, and the price beside them can be -110 at one and -120 at the other. A book that is regularly the wider of the two will be wider all season.

How live lines are made, and why the price is worse than before the game, is on the live betting page. This page is about telling the books apart.

The delay and the suspensions

Most books hold a live bet for a few seconds before they accept it. Some hold it longer than others, and some reject far more bets at the end of that wait. You find out by betting small amounts for a week and counting: how many went through at the price you clicked, how many came back with a new price, and how many were refused.

The same goes for suspensions. A market that closes at every whistle is a book protecting itself, which is fair (I'd have done it), but if it is closed half the time you want it, it isn't much use to you.

Cash out is a price too

Most live betting sites offer to buy your bet back during the game. That offer is a bet in reverse, and the book puts its margin on it like any other.

Say you bet $100 on a team at +150 before the game, so a win returns $250. Late in the game your team is -200 live and the other side is +170, and the book offers you $150 to cash out, a $50 profit. Now work out the hedge yourself. Bet $92.59 on the other side at +170. If your team wins, you collect $250 and lose the hedge, which leaves $57.41 profit. If the other team wins, the hedge returns $250 and your first bet loses, and the profit is again $57.41.

Choice	Profit whatever happens
Take the $150 cash out	$50.00
Hedge at +170	$57.41

The gap is $7.41 here, and it changes with every offer. I'd do that sum before pressing the button every time. The method is on the hedging page.

Which sports, how deep

Live betting on football and basketball is everywhere. The difference shows on everything else: whether a book has live markets on a midweek tennis match or a second-division soccer game, or only the main line. Depth matters more than the number of sports on the menu, and the live limits on the small markets tell you how much the book trusts its own model there. Usually not much.

Your side of it

The better a live site is, the easier it makes the next bet, and that is the risk in it. I'd set a figure for the game before it starts and stop at it, and I'd keep each live bet to the same 1 or 2 percent of the bankroll as any other bet. The next line will be there in four seconds. So will the one after it.