Every Sport and Market You Can Reach on the Exchanges
It is Tuesday evening, the match you fancy is in a league you had to look up, and the screen lists it anyway. Whether anyone will take the other side of your bet is another question.
An exchange lists far more than football. Betfair's rule pages name football, tennis, cricket, horse racing, greyhounds, golf, basketball, baseball, darts, snooker, rugby, motor sport and esports; anything else is a special bet, and politics markets are listed too. Market types include match odds, to qualify, Asian handicap, over/under, player markets, and each-way and place. Listed is not the same as deep. Depth is the money waiting to be matched, and it differs enormously by event: Betfair's newsletters put one 2025 IPL match at £230m, while we found no official figure for an ordinary tennis match or horse race. Look at the size waiting at your price before you stake, and check that exchange betting is allowed where you live.
Sport by sport: what the rules list, and how deep it gets
Each row is a sport family with an official rule page, or a group that shares one answer.
| Sport or family | Market types the rules name | Depth, from Betfair's own posts |
|---|---|---|
| Football | Match odds, Asian handicap, over/under and total goals, player markets (player to score, shots on target). | For one month of 2025, Betfair's newsletters give Portuguese Primeira Liga £27.8m, Dutch Eredivisie £23.3m and Belgian First Division A £19.2m, and £75m across all markets for the Euro 2024 final. |
| Cricket | Match odds; its rule page lists the rest. | Betfair's top exchange sport by matched money in 2023; figures below. |
| Tennis | Match odds; its rule page lists the rest. | No official depth figure found. The tennis items we read concern the in-play bet delay. |
| Horse racing and greyhounds | Each-way, place and Betfair SP (starting price), which the rules name without tying them to a sport. | No official depth figure found. Betfair explains how SP is set, not how much is matched. |
| Team sports: basketball, baseball, American football, ice hockey, rugby, Australian rules | Match odds; each rule page lists the rest. | Nothing official found. |
| Golf, darts, snooker and pool | Each has its own rule page. | Nothing official found. |
| Motor sport, esports, boxing and MMA, athletics, cycling, swimming, rowing, winter sports | Listed on each rule page. | Nothing official found. |
| Politics and special bets | Special bets cover anything without a rule page (beach volleyball is the rules' example). Politics markets sit on Flutter's data page beside sports and racing. | Betfair's single-market record is an election; figures below. |
Seven market types, in plain words
The same few shapes repeat across sports. Each is named in Betfair's rules; the examples are mine.
- Match odds. Back or lay each outcome of one match, the draw included where there is one. The rules also call these match bets.
- To qualify. Who goes through a tie or a round, so a draw is not a result.
- Asian handicap. The rules call it a form of football betting very popular in Asia. Back a side at -1 and it must win by two goals; a one-goal win returns your stake. The Asian books' own markets price the same idea their own way.
- Over/under and total goals. A line such as 2.5: over wins with three goals or more, under with two or fewer.
- Player markets. A bet on one player, not the result; player to score and shots on target are the rules' examples.
- Each-way and place. A place market pays if the runner finishes in the places; the rules add reduction factors.
- Special bets. Anything the sport pages do not cover, handled under the General Rules.
The screen lists it. Nobody has to answer.
How deep is it? What Betfair actually publishes
Betfair defines liquidity as the money waiting to be matched on a market, and says the bigger the sport and the event, the more there is. That is a rule of thumb, not a table. We skip third-party tables, which are unsourced estimates.
Cricket is where the newsletters are most generous. Betfair says it was the top exchange sport in 2023, with over £35bn matched, but a total hides the spread. Betfair counted 2,605 cricket matches in the twelve months before the 2023 World Cup, and 49% of them matched over £1m (about 1,276 matches, from 2,605 × 0.49), 30% passed £10m (about 782) and 2% passed £100m (about 52), which leaves roughly 1,329 matches, more than half, that did not reach £1m at all.
Larger figures exist. Betfair's newsletters say IPL 2025 matched £11.6bn, the largest ever, and another IPL match £201m in the match odds market alone. Politics can run larger than any match figure here: the 2020 winner market matched £1.7bn, which Betfair calls its all-time volume in one market, while the £122m for the 2024 US election was a count taken before the vote, a snapshot and not a total.
Horse racing and tennis? We found nothing official.
What "matched" means, and why a listed price is not yet a bet, is walked through in how matching works, step by step.
What an exchange does not do
Listing a market promises no match. Betfair's terms let it add money to thin markets occasionally, which is no promise either.
Other exchanges, and the sports each one lists
The others publish their own lists, and none gives depth by sport in the pages we read. Betdaq's help text names greyhounds, horse racing and football as its most popular sports, at 2% or 5% exchange commission by residence, with a short accepted-country list. Smarkets lists football, horse racing, tennis, cricket, American football and politics, at a 2% standard tier and 1% and 3% tiers with their own conditions; it now brands itself around prediction markets, so check its live site.
Matchbook names football, NFL, NBA, MLB and, more recently, horse racing, at 2% or 4% exchange commission by residence, and it also brands prediction products. Orbit's archived navigation lists 27 entries; it states no flat rate, it is sold through agents and brokers, and we could not confirm its operator. Rates and country lists change, so check the current terms; the exchange guide sets out what each one charges and where it stops.
Prediction markets are a different product
Some platforms now list elections and sports as yes/no contracts that normally pay $1 or nothing. Kalshi and Polymarket are the names you will meet. They are not classic betting exchanges: the fee is charged per contract, a cancelled event can settle at a fixed fraction such as 50-50 or at the last fair price, and each platform sets its own rules on who may trade. Kalshi's member agreement carries a list of restricted jurisdictions that has changed between versions, and Kalshi says it is your own responsibility to check that your use is permitted. Polymarket runs two separate products, and its API docs and Help Centre carry lists that disagree. Check your country.
Which door reaches these markets
These figures are Betfair's own; we found nothing confirming that a broker's exchange tool shows the same depth, and no door makes a thin market deep. A broker's exchange tool is a commercial arrangement, not a Betfair account in your name. It does not lift Betfair's country list: the broker's own list and your local law still apply, and identity verification is required before you withdraw. The broker comparison sets the four side by side, the route finder narrows them to your answers, and the guides to getting into Betfair set out the routes in order.
Depth is not the only limit. Some operators cap payouts, and the caps can differ by sport: payout caps by sport has the detail, and what is real and what is marketing in limit claims covers the rest. Then price: comparing prices across venues is a sum, not a feeling. Anyone who trades in and out of positions needs depth on both sides, and the methods that need depth come with limits of their own.
The counts in this list come from the site owner's coverage list, not from the brokers' own pages. Each broker has limits too: in their terms BetInAsia and MadMarket exclude the UK and USA, Sportmarket the UK, USA and France, and AsianConnect's help centre lists the USA among its restricted countries, though its sign-up form disagrees on some others. Check the current terms.
Questions people ask
What sports can you bet on at a betting exchange?
Betfair's Exchange has rule pages for more than twenty groups, from football, tennis and horse racing to darts, snooker and esports; anything else is a special bet. Which ones you can use depends on your country: check the operator's list and local law.
Which market should a beginner start with?
One where you can see money waiting on both sides. Match odds on a big televised event is a sensible first choice; over/under or a handicap can follow. Leave player markets and special bets until last: they may be thinner, so check the size.
What happens when a market is thin?
Your bet may match only in part. The rest stays as an open offer until you cancel it or the market goes in-play or suspends, and it may never be taken. Compare the amount shown at your price with your stake before you bet.
Do other exchanges list the same sports and markets?
Not necessarily. Each sets its own list, exchange commission and country list, and Smarkets and Matchbook now brand prediction-market products too. Check the current terms first.