In-play betting — or in-running betting, as many players love to call it — is a form of betting where you can place your wagers while the event is ongoing.
For example, whenever you place a bet on an ongoing football match or ice hockey match that’s currently on, you’re placing an in-play bet. As long as the event is live when you’re wagering your money, you’re participating in in-play betting.
Even though in-play betting appears with various betting forms, it typically revolves around sports betting. Nowadays, in-play bets are placed mostly online, as a large number of platforms offer this kind of betting — if not all, then certainly the best ones.
Naturally, you can also place in-play bets in a physical betting shop, but, as you can imagine, it’s much easier to do it online. You don’t have to rush to the bookie to place the bet, as online sportsbooks have all you need. Furthermore, the odds are changed every second if necessary, to reflect the changes on the field.
Betfair is one of the pioneers of in-play betting. In fact, it was on this platform precisely that this kind of betting got its name.
All in all, in-play betting is fairly simple and self-explanatory, but there are still many things you need to know if you want to become good at it and if you want to make your move at the right moment to win a major wager.
How In-Play Betting Looks — An Example
Here’s an example that could illustrate why in-play betting is so great.
Let’s say you want to bet on a horse race. The race is on, you’re following everything carefully, and then you notice that one of the horses is slow off the mark. However, you are fairly sure that it will storm ahead in the closing straight. Still, the odds are already set, and it would make sense for them to be much higher because the horse is currently losing. After all, you would want them to be higher, as that would enable you to win more on your bet.
This isn’t possible with regular betting, but it certainly is with in-play betting, where the odds are constantly changing based on what’s happening in the race.
If you pay attention to the live betting offering on the sportsbook you’re using, you’ll see the odds go up the longer the horse is in the back. You can now wait for the odds to rise enough so that you can place a bet on the horse using these odds.
If your predictions are accurate, your horse will storm ahead, and you’ll win a lot of money. Of course, if it weren’t for in-play betting, you wouldn’t have been able to place such a lucrative bet in the first place.
That’s precisely why in-play betting is so lucrative. Naturally, you can use it with almost every sport out there, except those that end quickly — when it comes to them, in-play betting is simply pointless.
Still, bear in mind that in-play betting requires a lot of practice and knowledge of the sport you’re betting on. Otherwise, you’re likely to lose most wagers, as you won’t have enough time to strategise and think of the most likely outcomes.
Advantages of In-Play Betting
You can probably already see how advantageous in-play betting can be in horse racing, tennis, football, and many other sports.
The main thing that in-play betting allows you are to do is to assess the situation on the field before you place bets. No other form of sports betting can help you with this, as you always have to rely on your knowledge of previous matches to determine what could happen in the next game you want to bet on.
But with in-play betting, you don’t have to place bets before you see the situation on the field. Instead, you can make your assessment before you place bets on any game, which puts you in a much better position, and, as a result, helps you increase your winnings significantly.
Besides that, in-play betting also lets you trade your position over time, so you can win on more outcomes in a single match. You can even win all of them if you do everything right. Once again, this can significantly increase your winnings.
Consider the Odds When Placing In-Play Bets
Even though it’s advantageous, you need to be careful with in-play betting.
Most notably, it would be best if you considered the odds and their volatility. As time passes in any sports game, specific outcomes can become a lot more probable or a lot less probable, so the odds will change accordingly. You will rarely run into an occasion where an event or outcome becomes highly probable without the odds immediately becoming much lower — practically unusable.
If you want to get easy wins, you won’t be able to earn much or anything at all. However, you shouldn’t opt for incredibly risky bets either. The key is always somewhere in the middle, and that’s the only way to truly win with in-play betting.
Are All Events and Betting Options Available for In-Play Betting?
It always depends on the sportsbook in question. However, a wide range of other factors are at play as well, including what the sportsbook finds profitable.
The in-play bets you’ll get to place also depend on the sport. For example, the winner of the match, over/under goals, and correct score bets are almost always available in football in-play betting. Naturally, you will always be able to bet on the winner using live bets, no matter the sport.
In the end, the availability of specific live bets also depends on when you’re betting. For example, if the game is near the end, many in-play betting options will be closed.
Tips and Strategies to Use in In-Play Betting
Most people bet to have fun, which is completely fine. They do it casually, by betting on their favourite team, for example, without analysing the game and the opponent carefully. However, if you want to place in-play bets, you will have to plan and strategise.
First of all, you need to understand the sport you want to bet on. Avoid betting on the sports you know very little about.
After that, you need to keep an eye on the odds in order to understand what’s going on and to predict the outcome more easily.
Naturally, you will also have to practice. The more you bet, the better you’ll get. Of course, even though you have to be ready for the possibility of losing some money, you can avoid losing too much by sticking to lower stakes at first — at least until you have improved.
Once you get better, you can bet more. But don’t get greedy and don’t go about chasing your losses as you are bound to lose even more that way. So, bet smartly and make sure to always keep an eye on your bankroll. This is the advice you need to employ with all forms of gambling, not just in-play sports betting.
In the end, the most important advice we can give you is to always watch the game you’re betting on. There is no point in merely following the odds, as they don’t mean much without the context of the game. You need to pay attention to both, as they complement each other and allow you to make better predictions.
The Bottom Line
As you can see, in-play betting is very simple to understand. You can place in-play bets on most sports betting sites, but you have to have sufficient knowledge of the sport if you want to be successful.
The advice you’ve found in this piece will be more than enough to get you started, but if you want to become truly successful with in-play betting, you’ll need to practice and learn a lot more. Good luck, and remember to always bet responsibly!
