In 2016, the Betfair Starting Price (BSP or Betfair SP) was born. This revolutionary product allows back and lay punters to have their bets matched on The Exchange as a horse, harness or greyhound race starts and gives them the Best Odds. As you’ll see from the Betfair SP vs Best Tote Odds Comparison table below, the product provides exceptional value to all users.
For the latest Horse, Harness and Greyhound Results to compare the BSP with the Best Tote, head to our Results Page.
To illustrate the advantage of using the BSP we’ve taken a simple $1 back bet from all winners since September 2016 to calculate the BSP and Best Tote winnings.
Note: Based on ALL Australian thoroughbred metro & provincial races for that period.
Price comparison removes Betfair commission charges.
Traditionally in Australia, the Starting Price for any horse in any race has been determined by the most common prevailing price available in the bookmakers ring at the meet in question. Betfair’s Starting Price is different.
It’s based on bets placed by both backers and layers in any market. At the start of an event it looks at the relationship between the amount of money requested at SP by opposing customers and any unmatched Exchange bets.
There’s no margin for profit built in – and that’s why we think it will give you much better value, even after taking account of commission paid on your net winnings.
Australia – All thoroughbred win markets and all place markets. All harness win markets and all place markets, except for NSW meetings and any meetings predominantly on Sky 2. Sky 2 meetings are win market only. All greyhound win markets and all place markets, except for Darwin greyhounds, which is win markets only.
New Zealand – All thoroughbred win markets. All greyhound win markets.
International – All thoroughbred win markets across selected racing around the world.
Firstly, you need to have the ‘Betfair Starting Price’ box ticked within Settings. This will bring up a new column in the market view allowing you to Back or Lay at SP.
Full SP Betting – you can place the full stake of your wager down on the SP by clicking on the Back or Lay SP button.
Unmatched SP Betting – you can take a price at the Back or Lay odds and if your bet is partially matched, you are prompted to ‘Take SP’ for the unmatched amount. By clicking ‘Take SP’ and updating your bet, when the event turns in-play, any unmatched amounts will automatically be matched at the SP price. This also applies to bets that may be fully unmatched when the event turns in-play – the SP provides convenience ensuring you get your stake matched.
Below is a plot to show how “accurate” the Betfair Starting Price (BSP) is.
The data in the graph and table below shows the BSP in win markets across all racing codes on all ANZ racing events from the beginning of 2015 through July 2020.
Included in the data is 381,776 races, entailing 3,235,630 runners.
As you can see, the BSP’s implied chance of winning (to the nearest percentage point) is very accurate when compared against the actual chance.
| BSP | Implied Chance | Wins | Runners | Actual Chance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10.00 | 10% | 10832 | 111143 | 9.75% |
| $5.00 | 20% | 9817 | 49888 | 19.68% |
| $4.00 | 25% | 7839 | 31867 | 24.60% |
| $3.03 | 33% | 5904 | 17734 | 33.29% |
| $2.50 | 40% | 4137 | 10132 | 40.83% |
| $2.00 | 50% | 3435 | 6939 | 49.50% |
| $1.25 | 80% | 435 | 538 | 80.86% |
Have you got other questions about the Betfair Starting Price? Check out the Betfair SP FAQs page.
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