Glossary
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P
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Persistence
The persistence is the way an unmatched bet is treated if the market turns Suspended or In-Play. There are three kinds of bet persistence on BetFair:
- Cancel (default): the bet will be cancelled if the market turns Suspended or In-Play;
- Keep: the bet will be kept (unchanged);
- Take SP: the bet will be matched at whatever starting price the selection has after the off. Note that this kind of persistence may be unavailable in some sports.
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Profit
The profit is the net amount you will earn if your bet wins minus the exchange commission (if any).
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P/L
Profit/Loss. The amount you will win or lose from all settled bets on this selection. In Win markets, the selection’s P/L is affected by bets placed on other selections, e.g. if you back on the first favourite, the P/Ls of all other horses in a race will be offset against the sum of this bet, so if the first favourite wins, the P/Ls of other selections will be negative and vice versa.
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Place market
A Place market is a market where more than one selection can win, and so the number of your winning/losing bets will be variable.
For example, if you back three horses and two of them came first and second, your P/L will consist of the profit from the two bets and a loss from the third one.
In Place markets, the P/L of each selection is displayed as a pair of two numbers: the left number is how much you will win if the selection takes one of the winning places, and the right market is how much you will lose if the selection does not come among the top winners.
The number of winning places is always mentioned in the name of the market.
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Payout
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Price
The price is the measure of your profit or loss from a particular bet. With backing, the higher the price, the greater are your potential winnings.
With laying, higher prices mean higher liabilities and greater risks.
BetFair uses digital prices vs fractional prices used by most bookies.
A fractional price can be converted into a digital price using this formula:
Digital price = fractional price + 1So if a fractional price is 1/3, you get the digital price of 1/3 + 1 = 1.33.
Prices are sometimes called odds. However, unlike in everyday situations, higher odds do not mean that the selection has better chances to win, it’s quite the opposite actually!
The higher the selection’s price, the less likely it is to win in the eyes of bettors.
BetFair offers back and lay prices for backing and laying respectively.
Either back prices are always lower than lay prices, or both back prices and lay prices are zero (normally in low-liquidity markets and at the end of an event).
The minimum non-zero price is 1.01, the maximum is 1000.
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