Placing a Bet
Placing a bet at Matchbook is no different than at a regular sportsbook-just click on the blue box showing the best odds available, enter your stake, and press submit. The dollar value in the blue box shows the current amount available at that price.
SmartBalance
SmartBalance keeps track of your total position and reserves funds based on your largest potential loss. If you've bet $1,000 on each side of a game at even money, SmartBalance will realize that you have no potential loss, and it won't tie up any of your funds. Thanks to SmartBalance, you can trade both sides of a game continually without eating into your account balance. You can also "cash out" of your position on Team A at any time by buying Team B, thus increasing your available funds.
Live Betting
A
icon indicates that a market will be kept open for live betting (the icon will light up once the game starts). During live betting, Matchbook imposes a 3-second countdown to ensure that everyone is betting based on the same information. Remember, you can trade back and forth as much as you like during the game: SmartBalance will only reserve funds based on your net exposure, and there is no per-trade commission fee.
Commissions
After the market has settled, Matchbook applies a razor thin 2% commission to your net profits only. We do not charge commission on a per-bet basis, and the size of your bets doesn't matter either. Furthermore, if you show no profit in a market, there is no commission charge at all, so it's possible to generate tens of thousands of dollars in trading activity with no charge at all.
Once you've mastered placing a bet, it's easy to start posting requests for better odds, a larger stake, or both.
Requesting Better Odds
If you'd like odds of +110 on Boston -7.5 instead of +105, change the odds in your Order Pad and press submit:
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD style="PADDING-RIGHT: 8px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top; COLOR: red">
Note!</TD><TD>If you ask for odds of +110 on Boston -7.5, the opposite side of your request will appear in the market (in this case, as $275 on Sacramento +7.5 at -110). As soon as someone accepts this offer, your request for Boston -7.5 +110 will be automatically processed.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Requesting Larger Stakes
If you'd like to bet $500 on Boston -7.5 at +105, and only $100 is available, enter $500 in your stake amount and submit. The first $100 will be matched, while the remaining request of $400 to win $420 will appear in the market as:
As soon as someone bets $420 on Sacramento +7.5 at odds of -105, your request for the extra $400 on Boston will be automatically processed.
Managing Your Bet Requests
All bet requests that haven't been matched yet appear in your Unmatched Bet panel. From here, you can edit, pause, or cancel your order.
Cancel
You can cancel all your unmatched bets at once using the
button or you can cancel bets one at a time using the individual
buttons.
Edit
When you change the odds or stake of a bet request, the numbers will turn red, indicating that you must now submit the offer for the changes to take effect.
Pause
You can pause all your offers and then resubmit them by pressing the
button. You can also edit your paused offers before submitting them
Undo
If you start to edit your offers and then change your mind, just press the
button, and your offers will go back to where they started.
MarketMaker
This powerful feature makes it easy to trade both sides of a game and to adjust your odds on the fly. To activate MarketMaker, simply click the MarketMaker link and select either side of a blue best-odds box. Enter your base value (say +100) for the top runner along with your desired vig, and MarketMaker will create offers for both sides of the market.
In this example, MarketMaker will enter a request for Boston -7.5 at odds of +106 and another for Sacramento +7.5 at +106. (Remember, these offers will appear in the market at -106 by -106, so that other people can match up against your requests.) If you get balanced action on these offers, you will lock in a profit of 2.5%, equal to your selected vig.
Autostake
While in MarketMaker mode, you can use Autostake to automatically fill in the stake amounts for all your offers. For example, if your bet requests are +110 and -140 and you enter an Autostake value of $100, your stake amounts will be $100 to win $110, and $140 to win $100.
Compact View
If you have a low-resolution monitor, select Compact View at the top of the page. This view allows you to see all the prices in the market while also keeping your Order Pad and Unmatched Bet panel in full view. Deselect Compact View in order to use the Events Menu at the far left.
Refresh Rate
If you have a high-speed Internet service, then you can get slightly faster updates by selecting the "high" refresh rate found in My Settings.
Bet Log
Select Bet Log in your Matched Bets panel to watch your unmatched bets get filled in real time.