Let's be clear from the start. I'm not saying the Betfair cricket tie rule is beyond belief. But rather that people's knowledge, or lack of it, is. Look at this...
No need to rub your eyes. Yes, that really is the first ever Betfair market I've seen where people are trying to back 1.01 on both results of a two runner event at the same time. There's £307 trying to back "Yes" the tie at 1.01 in last night's India v Pakistan match. And £997 trying to back "No" the tie at 1.01. The mind boggles.... and one suspects more than a few people have done their proverbials.
Making the screenshot even more ridiculous is the fact that there is more money trying to back "No" than "Yes" when the market was quite rightly settled as "Yes"!! So how has this happened? Well it's perfectly simple. People are betting large sums of money an events without having a scooby about the rules.
These are no doubt the same people who then clog the Betfair cricket forum up after market settlement with endless moaning threads calling Betfair "jokers", talking about "a sad day for Betfair" and threatening legal action. Quite why people feel the need to draw attention to their own stupidity in this way I have no idea. But a read through all the threads this morning should raise a smile through even the heaviest hangover! It may seem harsh but it isn't. It's perfectly simple. If you are stupid enough to bet large sums of money without having the faintest of ideas about how your bets will be settled you deserve to lose every penny. Look on it as an expensive education. And learn from it.
The same happened on the match market. With Pakistan needing one run to win off the last ball there were thousands of pounds trying to lay them at 1.04. Some people were getting matched at 1.08! What??! At this stage Pakistan cannot lose the game. It's already a tie. They either win or tie. The price should be 1.01. I always say there's no such thing as free money but this has got to come pretty close. Get that 1.08 and you have a shot at 8% profit in the space of one ball. If Pakistan score a run you collect. If they don't you get your stake back. What's more you could get the same price when Pakistan needed 1 run off two balls!!
Of course, it's this Match Odds market that causes the biggest fallout as several million has been matched on it. People stand to win or lose a lot of money. They want the market settled "their" way. So enough incredulity. What are the rules that these markets were settled on? Again it's perfectly simple. And there in black and white next to the market...
"If the official result is a Tied Match in any Test, County or Limited Overs Match then all bets on the Match Odds markets will be void."
But wait I hear people say. The official result wasn't a tie! Well, even if the official result isn't a tie (and it is) this rule comes into play...
"In the event of a match being decided by a bowl-off or toss of the coin all bets will be void, except for those on markets that have been unconditionally determined."
Now I really think that is very clear. The market was settled correctly. It takes less than 2 minutes to read the cricket rules. Surely time well spent for those regularly investing thousands into cricket markets?
Even for those too lazy to bother reading the rules the answers were there infront of them. The issue had been discussed on a match thread the day before. I know as I took part in the discussion and explained how it worked. Ok, that was hidden in a match thread. But there is also a separate dedicated thread on the issue in the cricket forum with clarification from Betfair itself on the issue! And if that isn't enough then feck me - why is there a tie market if the match can't end in a tie?!!
As it is the game went to a bowl off, similar to a penalty shoot out in football, to determine the winner. And I think an analogy with football is the best way of looking at the situation. In football a match can finish in a draw, is settled as draw, and then a team wins on the penalty shootout. Well, in cricket a match can end in a tie, be settled as a tie, and then have a team win on a bowl out.
Anyway, overlooking the carnage and meltdowns what it all means is yet again we had another cracking day of cricket. In amongst it we had a world record Twenty20 score of 260 from Sri Lanka - that unfortunately I was unable to watch - a tie and bowl off! Unfortunately the tie cost me money as I hadn't taken insurance this time. But these things balance out. The tie has also saved me money in the past. As for my profit for the day, well that came from the Australia v England game. My early opposition of Australia cost me a larger win but still happy to make the profit.
2 comments:
Essential article on the tied game. I was not trading on this one thankfully. I am glad as there were a lot of people confused on what was happening.
Good summary and I agree with your remarks on people not reading the rules, but surely it would be clearer for everyone if the tie was part of the match odds market and not a separate market, which just to confuse things further is split to four options yes/no / back/lay when two would cover all possibilities (either it will or won't be a tie. To take your analogy with football, it's like not having the draw as an option on the match odds market.
Post a Comment