Betfair Exchange or Betfair Sportsbook? They Are Not the Same Thing
You opened Betfair expecting a bookmaker's price and met a queue of offers, or wanted the queue and got a price Betfair had already set. Same brand, two products, and the gap changes who takes your bet.
On Betfair Exchange, customers bet against each other: one backs a result (bets that it happens), another lays it (bets that it does not), and Betfair matches the two and charges exchange commission on net winnings. Betfair is the brand, not the product: the Betfair Sportsbook is Betfair acting as the bookmaker, so you bet directly against it, at prices it sets, with no fee on winnings. The rulebooks differ, and in certain circumstances a bet can settle as a winner on one product and a loser on the other. This site covers the Exchange only.
Betfair Exchange and Betfair Sportsbook, row by row
Mostly from archived copies of Betfair's pages, so check the current terms.
| What differs | Betfair Exchange | Betfair Sportsbook |
|---|---|---|
| Who you bet against | Other customers, whose offers set the price. Betfair "acts as a facilitator and does not act as a counterparty" (T&C 18.2), with limited exceptions. | Betfair, which sets the price and carries the risk. |
| What you pay on a win | Exchange commission on net winnings in a market, none on a market you lose. The rate varies by region. | No fee on winnings, says Betfair's help page. |
| What the operator may do with a stake | The terms we read describe no power to scale a stake back. Betfair can still close an account on 14 days' notice (T&C 13.4). | May decline certain bets or scale stakes back, at its sole discretion (Sportsbook Rules). |
| Maximum bet | No fixed maximum found; the smaller of Available to Bet and Exposure Limit (T&C 18.16); whether a payout cap applies is unresolved. | Maximum stake not read. Its rules print payout caps, daily and per event (figures below). |
| Cash Out and in-play delay | Cash Out on some markets only, and may be unavailable at low liquidity. In-play delay usually 1 to 12 seconds. | We did not read the Sportsbook rules on either. |
| Company named in the terms | Provides the Exchange: TSE Malta LP for UK-registered customers, Betfair International Plc for customers outside the UK, Australia and New Zealand; not your counterparty (T&C 1.1 to 1.5, 18.2). | PPB Counterparty Services Limited, named as your counterparty (T&C 1.4). |
| Rulebook | Exchange Rules. An in-play Exchange market "does not necessarily mean" an equivalent in-play Sportsbook one. | Sportsbook Rules, a separate document. |
| Availability | Licence table (archived copy): an Exchange listed for the UK, Malta, Italy and Romania, none for Denmark, Sweden and Spain. Italy and Romania are both also on Betfair's Prohibited Territories list. | We found no country list per product. A licence is not a sign-up list. |
Which product suits which bettor
Sportsbook: Betfair's price, Betfair opposite, no fee on a win. Exchange: a queue of offers, another customer opposite, a fee on the net win.
Betfair Exchange
Someone who wants to back and lay, can wait for another customer to take a price, and accepts exchange commission on a win.
You want your whole stake filled at a price you name: an offer nobody takes stays unmatched, and in-play bets usually wait 1 to 12 seconds. Or you have never laid, and what laying is for someone used to bookmakers is the read first.
Betfair Sportsbook
Someone content to take a price Betfair sets, with no fee on winnings, and to live with Betfair's own rules on what it accepts from a stake.
You want other customers opposite you. The Sportsbook Rules print payout caps and allow stakes to be scaled back; the Exchange has ceilings of its own.
One brand, two counterparties.
What a win costs on each side
Betfair's help page claims that, on single bets, Exchange prices usually beat its Sportsbook's, before any exchange commission. A claim, not a promise: here is the sum, with invented prices.
The 2% is Betfair's own Basic package example, 6.5% a default Market Base Rate before any Discount Rate (archived help image) and 5% a round example; check the current terms for your rate. I would not accept "the Exchange is always better" from anyone, this page included: at these invented prices, past 4.4% the fee erases a 0.06 gap.
Try your own Exchange rate: run a price through the commission calculator. The same sum run backwards, from a bookmaker's price to the Exchange price that matches it, sits on the exchange side of this site.
What each product can do with your stake
On the Sportsbook, what Betfair may do with a stake is written into its rules, and which venues write a cap on winnings sets its payout caps beside other venues'.
On the Exchange the terms we read describe no comparable right, so depth decides a large bet: your stake can only meet offers other customers have already placed, and your Exposure Limit caps it too. How big a bet the Exchange can absorb has a page of its own.
Still, under clause 13.4 Betfair can end an account for any reason, giving no less than 14 days' written notice, and in a few limited cases it takes the other side itself, one of them tied to Sportsbook exposure on a big event. Who is on the other side of an exchange bet follows one bet from both ends. What the exchange charges instead of a margin has a guide of its own.
A forum note, not Betfair's: older posts say restricted Sportsbook customers are often pointed to the Exchange. It is customers' word, and it promises nothing about later treatment; limits at bookmakers and on exchanges weighs such claims and covers the Expert Fee that can apply to very profitable accounts.
Where each is available, and how to get in
Check where you stand before any price. Betfair's terms name Prohibited Territories for its services, and we found no list of the countries it serves, product by product. Do not infer beyond the licence table; the country page sets out what the country wording means when the Exchange is missing. I would settle that first: a better price you cannot open is a price behind glass.
If the Exchange will not open for you, the step-by-step guide takes the routes in order. Your options for getting onto the Exchange are ranked separately.
A broker's exchange tool is a commercial arrangement under the broker's own terms, not a Betfair account in your name, and it does not reopen Betfair's list. By each broker's own terms, the UK and the USA are out at BetInAsia, the USA and China at AsianConnect (per its help centre; the sign-up form disagrees on some countries), the UK, the USA and Australia at MadMarket, and the UK, the USA and France at Sportmarket. The broker comparison shows which brokers reach an exchange, and where each stops. Other exchanges keep country lists of their own, and which exchange suits which bettor compares them.
Questions people ask
Is Betfair Exchange the same thing as the Betfair Sportsbook?
No. On the Exchange customers bet against each other; on the Sportsbook, Betfair's terms say you bet directly with PPB Counterparty Services Limited. They have separate rulebooks, and in certain circumstances the same result can settle differently on each.
Are Exchange odds better once exchange commission is paid?
It depends on the two prices and your rate. At our invented prices, 2.36 on the Exchange beats 2.30 on the Sportsbook at a 2% fee and loses at 5%, breaking even near 4.4%. Check the current terms for your own rate.
Does Betfair restrict winning accounts?
The Sportsbook Rules let Betfair decline certain bets or scale back stakes, in wording that does not single out winners. On the Exchange the terms we read describe no such power, but an Expert Fee can apply to very profitable accounts and Betfair's terms let it close an account for any reason after notice.
Is the Exchange available wherever the Sportsbook is?
We cannot say, because we found no Betfair list of the countries where each product is offered. Check Betfair's licence table, its current terms and your local law.