Tom Haylock: How did get into punting?
Matt Taylor: Playing cricket, a lot of your mates’ sort of have a bet, so got interested there. Obviously, I had a lot of time on the sidelines in cricket so spare time [and] from there wanted to sort of pursue it. Eventually worked in some corporate bookmaking and then worked for some places that sold some tips and stuff like that and just slowly kept getting better myself. And yeah, decided to take a punt myself and that was, I don’t know, seven or eight years ago.
I got myself aligned with Marc Lambourne and Glen at Racing Rant and they’re well known in the industry. Mark, he’s done a lot of stuff on Betfair before and yeah, Mark sort of has great theories on racing that sort of a little bit think outside the square. So yeah, that was sort of my last sort of final bit of grounding. I guess. I tried to lay a really good foundation for myself to go pro and like a lot of people at home, you want to go pro…
Tom Haylock: How long have you been using Betfair?
Matt Taylor: I guess probably over 10 years, I’d say yeah, over 10 years. It’s always, you know, when you getting into the game, you sort of hear about it and you don’t really sort of play and it wasn’t a big thing when I first started, but yeah, as you sort of mature, you’re punting and as we’ll talk about today, the way I punt sort of relies on Betfair a lot know to sort of give me some insight. So for me, it’s invaluable.
Tom Haylock: Price advantage, is quite common on the exchange. Is that what you find?
Matt Taylor: 100%. So, the markets on Betfair, especially late, you know, they get really pure, between 100 and 103%. So, that’s sort of like, for me, that’s a great guide and you don’t have to put, the corporates, they have a lot of lot of cushion, lot of buffer.
Tom Haylock: What does it mean when Corporate bookmakers have markets that are 150%?
Matt Taylor: Well, it means that bookies have a lot in their favour. They’ve got a lot of margin up their sleeves. So, you know, a horse that, you know, is a real sort of a $6 chance they might be betting sort of $4.50 or something like that, or whatever price they get, $4.60 these days, but yeah, so they have a lot of margin and for you to make a profit you have – like with 40% against you, you need to find a lot of value in that market. So it’s really tough early.
Tom Haylock: One of the advantages on the Betfair Exchange, something you can’t do elsewhere, is Lay betting. Is it something you do? Or, what are the advantages of Lay betting as well mate?
Matt Taylor: Well, the advantages are, you may dislike a favourite in a race and you’ll get yourself a little team of horses that you want to beat the favourite, and you might have 2, 3, 4 runners to beat it, and sometimes that fifth, some fifth or sixth horse is the one that knocks you off. So maybe you look back in hindsight and say, you know what, the right bet right there was to Lay the favourite and not have to find the winner.
Tom Haylock: Do you use Third Party tools like Gruss and Bet Angel?
Matt Taylor: Gruss is something that I’ve used a lot and do use and Betfair live as well, I do keep an eye on that. But I like to feel the markets by using grass, so I’ll have my money up on Betfair grass or the Betfair website itself and just put some lays up and some backs up and just keep an eye on which way the money’s going
Tom Haylock: What is trading?
Matt Taylor: So basically, just trading in general, if you think that the price available to Lay a horse right now is a good one, you could sort of build a little bank and, say it’s $2, you can Lay that at $2, have $1000 at $2, and you’ve got a deficit there. What you’re trying to think, is that in a minute or so, that price might be $2.40 now to back, or $2.50, and then you can have a bet on the backside. All of a sudden, you have that same $1,000 on, you’ve got a little bit of a profit there, a horse running for you for nothing, and that’s because you’ve predicted the market trends.
Tom Haylock: What’s your advice for punters out there?
Matt Taylor: I think set some good groundwork [and] get a good foundation. Like I did, I got myself in a bookmaker, I saw the way good punters bet and I saw the way bad punters bet, so that was really good. Hanging out with some pros. Get on Betfair, the hub and all of that sort of stuff and listen to the great educational pieces and record your bets is another big one and work out where you’re winning and where you’re losing.