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Pricing and margins
Every price on the sportsbook is the book's own: a fair chance from one model of the match, plus the margin you set. This page explains where the fair chance comes from, which margin applies to a market when several are set, and how long a live bet waits before it is taken.
Where the fair chance comes from
For each match the book reads the main prices from the market, in this order of preference:
- the sharpest bookmaker that prices the match, whose prices move first and carry the least margin;
- a betting exchange, where prices are set by bettors against each other;
- a large retail bookmaker.
It removes that source's margin, fits a model of the match to what is left, and prices every market from that model: the 1X2, goals, handicaps, halves, corners, cards, player markets, the next goal and the time of the first goal. A market none of the sources offers can still be on the board, as long as the model can price it. Markets and prices works one match through with numbers.
In play, the model is run again from the score and the time left whenever the feed reports a change. While the market itself has a match closed (a goal under review, a penalty), or disagrees sharply with the model, the board closes and reopens once they agree again.
What a margin is
A margin of 5% means the prices of a market add up to a 105% book: for every 100 staked across all outcomes in proportion to their chances, the book keeps about 5. With fair chances of home 52%, draw 25%, away 23%:
| Margin | Home | Draw | Away |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0% (fair) | 1.92 | 4.00 | 4.35 |
| 3.5% | 1.87 | 3.84 | 4.16 |
| 5% | 1.85 | 3.77 | 4.09 |
| 8% | 1.81 | 3.64 | 3.95 |
The margin is taken more from the outsiders than from the favourite, which is where a book is actually attacked, so a strong favourite is not shortened into a price below its worth.
Each level of margin has two numbers:
- main: the match's main market (1X2, money line or match winner);
- derived: every other market of the match.
Each can have an in-play value of its own; without one, the pre-match value applies in play. A margin is from 0% to 30%.
Which margin wins
Margins are set at several levels. Each level overrides the one before it, and only for what it sets: a level that sets only a main margin leaves the derived margin to the levels before it.
| Order | Level | Where it is set | Example use |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Book default | Margins page, Pre-match and In play | Everything starts here |
| 2 | Sport | Margins page, per sport | Tennis tighter than table tennis |
| 3 | Margin profile | Margins page, Margin profiles | "Top leagues" 4% for 20 leagues at once |
| 4 | League | Margins page, or a match card's Margin box ("Every … match") | One league of its own |
| 5 | Market | Margins page, per market | Correct score higher everywhere |
| 6 | Match | A match card's Margin box ("This match") | A derby, a final |
In play, each level's in-play margin comes right after its own: sport, then sport in play, then the profile, then the profile in play, and so on.
A match margin wins over everything, market margins included: when a match has a margin of its own, every market of that match is priced at it.
Example
Football is set to 5%, the "Top leagues" profile (Premier League and La Liga) to 4%, and the Premier League itself to 3.5%:
| Match | Margin | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Arsenal – Chelsea (Premier League) | 3.5% | The league's own beats the profile |
| Real Madrid – Sevilla (La Liga) | 4% | In the profile, no margin of its own |
| Ajax – PSV (Eredivisie) | 5% | Neither: the sport's |
| Villa – City with a match margin of 6% | 6% | The match beats everything |
If a market margin of 12% is set on correct score, correct score is at 12% in the first three matches and at 6% in the fourth.
Margin profiles
A profile is one set of margins (main, derived, and their in-play values) under a name, given to many leagues at once, instead of setting each league by hand. Create it under Margin profiles on the Margins page, pick its leagues from the list, save. A league in more than one profile takes the first in the list. Changing the profile reprices all its leagues.
When a change applies
Prices reprice within about 30 seconds of saving. Bets already taken keep the price they were taken at.
A brand's own margins
A brand can be priced at margins of its own, agreed with us and set by us for that brand. Its players see the same boards re-priced from the same fair chances at the brand's margins, so two brands differ only in margin, never in the model. A market the brand's margins say nothing about keeps the book's price. A bet is always checked against the price the player was shown.
Live bet delay
A bet with a leg in play is held for a few seconds before it is taken, then checked again: if the price moved or the market closed meanwhile, it is refused or offered at the new price according to the player's odds-change setting. The delay protects the book from bets placed on events the player saw before the feed did.
| Setting | Where | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Book default | Set by us | 5 seconds |
| Brand | Limits page (the brand picked), Live betting → Bet delay in play | 0 to 30 seconds |
| Brand, per sport | Same place, a sport and its seconds | 0 to 30 seconds |
A bet with legs from several live sports waits for the longest of their delays. Pre-match legs are not delayed. A bet builder on a live match waits the same way.