Horse Racing Betting Strategy: How to scalp on the Betfair Exchange

• Peter's guide to learning to scalp

• Quickly make small profits that soon add up

• Ascot this weekend should be super for scalping

Betfair scalping is a popular trading strategy among those interested in horse-racing markets but, for the uninitiated at least, it needs to be explained before you can get the most out of it.

What is scalping?

Scalping can be defined in many ways. But when I think of Betfair markets, scalping is a strategy that is typically defined as just going for a very small profit by nipping in and out of the market quickly.

The key to Scalping is that you're just going for a one-tick profit, where a 'tick' is just one movement in the betting odds. Once you go beyond the bounds of going for a one-tick profit, you're trying to predict a direction, and that's a whole different ball game.

Learning to scalp

When scalping on a betting market, you put two orders with a fixed stake at different odds. It's easy to do this on Betfair as you are presented with the opportunity to back or lay.

Let's say the price of the favourite in the market is priced at 6.05/1 to back and 6.25/1 to lay. One of the significant advantages of the Betfair Exchange is that you can 'offer' a price to the market, which helps us perform some scalping.

A simple 'trick' with this strategy is to simply to back at the current lay price and lay at the current back price. If we did this with a stake of £100, when both those orders matched, we would net a £20 profit on this trade.

We will have no loss in the market, and a profit if the horse goes on to win. We can also win whoever wins the race if we cash out that profit.

This was achieved without any particular insight into the market. We simply benefited from the way the Betfair Exchange works, which is a crucial benefit of this strategy.

Key objective in scalping

While Scalping may sound straightforward, traders must understand its true objective. Scalping is not about predicting the direction of price movement. Instead, the real aim is to ensure high percentage success rates on individual trades.

In simple terms, the frequency of successful trades should be significantly higher than unsuccessful ones, given that the profit per trade is small. This will ensure you achieve profitability in the long term.

Where to find scalping opportunities

Choosing the right market is crucial for successful scalping. Markets with narrow traded ranges and slow-moving prices are typically more suitable. These markets are more likely to maintain high success rates when scalping and keep potential losing trades relatively low.

Races with large competitive races and significant prize money often have slower-moving markets. They offer abundant money on the Betfair Exchange, meaning that the odds are less likely to move as quickly. This keeps the price activity within a tightly traded range, making them excellent for Scalping.

Ideally, we would want a very competitive handicap race, but another great example is this weekend's feature race on Saturday at Ascot which, at the time of writing, is very competitive and will attract significant betting volume.

At the other end of the scale, unraced horses in a low-quality maiden with a red-hot favourite are the worst places to deploy this strategy. Nobody can be sure what the price of the favourite should be, and the odds are likely to move significantly before the start of the race. It is precisely the thing you don't want for Scalping.

High-quality meetings with lots of money in competitive races are the markets you are looking for. You should find some at Ascot's King George meeting this weekend.

Using Bet Angel to Scalp

You can do many clever things to become effective at Scalping. But using Betfair trading software is one of the critical elements. If you are starting out, Bet Angel has a useful 'make market' button which simplifies the process.

To place your first trade, set a stake, find a suitable market and selection, and click the make market button. This button will offer bets to the market, so anybody backing or laying from now on will take your money.

If both orders get matched, you will have a profit and can go again. If they don't, you can cash out for a loss.

It's that easy to get started. If you are still uncertain, use practice mode so there is no risk to your money while you learn.

Scalping summary

Scalping is an effective strategy when Betfair trading. Using the make market button is an excellent way to understand what you are doing and your objective.

Scalping in this manner works because we offer money to the market and profit from the spread between the back and lay price.

Selecting appropriate markets and managing orders increases your chances of profiting and getting a successful trade. It's a great way to start trading on Betfair.

Read Tony Calvin's Ante-post Tips: 25/1 Tacarib Bay is worth backing at Ascot