I've kept the letters. Three of them, from three bookmakers, over about four years. They're polite. They thank me for my custom. They say my account has been reviewed, and that going forward my maximum stake will be, and then a figure that wouldn't buy a sandwich. The third one just closed the account.
None of them say why, and none of them need to. I'd been winning. Not spectacularly, nothing you'd notice from the outside, but steadily, on favourites, for long enough that someone in a risk department noticed. So that was that.
I'm telling you this at the start of the year because it's the reason every bet in my book is on the exchange and will be for as long as I keep one. On Betfair you're not betting against the house. You're betting against other punters, and the house takes its 2% of your winnings and otherwise doesn't care whether you win or lose. There's nobody to send the letter. Three years on, my stakes there are exactly what I choose them to be.
People ask whether the prices are worse. They're better, mostly. A horse at 7/4 in the shop is usually 2.9 or 3.0 on the exchange, and even after commission that's more money back. The shop price has the bookie's margin built in. The exchange price has 2% taken off the end, and 2% of your winnings is a lot less than what's hidden in 7/4.
The one thing the exchange asks of you is a bit of patience. Prices move, the market can be thin early, and on a quiet Monday a horse can drift and come back three times before the off. That's why every one of my bets is at the starting price. I don't chase a number at nine in the morning. I let the market settle, the bet goes on at whatever the SP turns out to be, and that's the price in the book. Everyone who follows the list gets the same one.
So, the letters. I keep them in the drawer under the book. Now and again I look at them, on a good month usually, and I'm grateful. They're the reason I had to get better at this.
Lee
PS: if you've had one, you'll know. If you haven't yet, keep winning and you will.
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