The reason behind this is that if you sit in a tennis court and watch the game, you’re ahead of all the betting markets both on bookies and Betfair. So if you, say, have a laptop or some other gadget with an Internet connection, you can place a bet on a player as he scores. Then, when the market reacts, you can close the trade with a profit.

Oh boy, that would be my dream! However, the truth is that laptops have been long banned from tennis courts and the tournament organizers are always on check to make sure no-one can exploit the fact that they’re on the court.

So when you’re watching a tennis match on TV, you’re not behind the rest of the market participants. If your TV connection is fast enough and you don’t use firewall on your PC or laptop, you are able to place a bet on a player as he scores and then close the trade when the odds have moved one way or another.

Then what advantage would being in court give to you? Well, you would be able to place the bets without having to stress out whether the bet will be taken or not, as it often happens when scalping. You’d be able to use good thousands as stakes and leave the court having made a small fortune in your Betfair account!

But don’t worry – those pro gamblers won’t even sneak into the courts disguised as journalists – it’s all been thought about. The Madrid Masters, for example, have special security guards in place to make sure no bets are placed on the court!

Talk to you soon,

Paddy

But even if you don’t use these scalping methods and trade long term – it’s always useful to see the match live and get into the “feel” of the game.

By seeing the actual players in action – even if you’re not too much into tennis – will give you the edge over those who approach the tennis trading as a numbers game.

The odds move may tell you that the market is moving against you and you’ve already prepared the mouse for trading out with a loss. But what actually may be happening in court – the under-dog is going to serve in the next game and in this case he’s got an advantage over the favourite with an opportunity to score as he serves – as top players often do.

Have a look at the ATPTennis.com website and you will see the statistics for the first and second serve points won. Do you see how often the serving players score?

Of course – you can have a very good idea of who’s serving and who’s receiving just by following live score updates. But seeing the actual match live will allow you to blend into the market and breathe in the same rhythm!

Of course – it would be so nice to earn ₤100 – ₤200 by placing just two bets but my experience tells me in a long term you can’t expect big returns with this.

At the beginning of my Betfair career I was trying different betting and trading strategies and was particularly impressed by the idea of spotting good value bets and backing them early in the morning. Then, as the race approached, I would lay them off with profit.

However, way too often I had to choose between accepting a loss or transferring the negative balance to the opposite party. You know, it really takes a great deal of discipline and organization to follow the plan and put up with occasional losses. Well – you’ve got to be really, really organized to stick with it and profit in a long term.

I better prefer to stay on the safe side and trade on short term odds fluctuations caused by the scoring of the tennis players. The beauty of the in-play tennis trading is – I don’t have to accept losing trades too often. Even when it happens – it’s a very rare occurrence. Why is that?

In in-play tennis trading you don’t have to monitor the money flow and follow it. You’re actually ahead of it by watching the match on TV and seeing the points scored!