Secondary Market for Sports Betting

[JD426]

Why is there no real secondary market for sports betting? It seems to me like a book who offered to purchase back futures bets at a certain price, or one that provided a method for "selling" your futures bet to another party (and taking a little juice) would have success. For example if I were to put a $1,000 bet on the Red Sox to win 90 games this year, and they get off to a hot start and go 15-5, my futures bet has increased in value from $1,000 to maybe $1,250. However, there is no way to realize that value. I know that there are hedging options, but one of the main problems with futures bets is that in most cases you're tying your money up for at least 4-6 months. Hedging only compounds that problem by tying up more money.

I think there should be a place where you can treat futures bets almost like call options. As you come closer to meeting the criteria of the option, the value of your asset increases and you can offload it. Also, if the odds of reaching that criteria becomes smaller, you are able to sell the asset, but at a loss. It would solve the problem of having your money tied up, would give books a chance to juice people for a second or third time on the same bet, and it would make following your bet a lot more interesting because every trade, injury, etc. would drastically swing the value of your investment.

I'm not fully aware of the intricacies of gambling laws, so maybe this is illegal and that is why books haven't done it? Or is there just not a market for it? Would you guys choose to use a book who offered this option over one who didn't?

[RonPaul2008]

WSEX has this.... but sadly they are not a place you wan't to have your money these days.
InTrade has this for non-sports bets.

[filipinho]

Sounds like idea that all books should implement, at least for the super long term bets.And I think it is easy doable and would attract a lot more money on that bet types.But who knows, maybe books love to tie players money for a year or so...

[JD426]

Thanks RonPaul, WSEX's format is pretty interesting. Very similar to what I was talking about. Why do you say it's not a place you'd want to have your money? Not a trustworthy book?

I agree filip, the books probably do like to tie up peoples' money because I'm sure they invest it and earn a return. I think attracting more interest in futures and charging people some juice to sell their bets could make up for that though.

[tommygun]

Thanks RonPaul, WSEX's format is pretty interesting. Very similar to what I was talking about. Why do you say it's not a place you'd want to have your money? Not a trustworthy book? I agree filip, the books probably do like to tie up peoples' money because I'm sure they invest it and earn a return. I think attracting more interest in futures and charging people some juice to sell their bets could make up for that though.

u been living under a rock?
been slow paying ppl for years now.

[Arilou]

Like most things that would be cool to have, the issue is that demand for this is low and annoyance level of implementation is high; they'd need software for it and to constantly price the thing. If a book was sufficiently large and on the ball, it would make sense.

[filipinho]

Arilou, small bookie Tipico have this for all tickets, you can "sell bet" if odds moved since you placed them.So every book that update their long-term/outrights odds constantly through season, can implement this easily.

[JD426]

Like most things that would be cool to have, the issue is that demand for this is low

Yea, that could be true. I just think that if a big book implemented it well that it would be popular. I don't think the calculations would be very difficult. Especially if they just facilitated sales between members because then they don't really care what people are paying.

[durito]

matchbook has left season win markets up all season before if i remember right. liquidity was mostly non existant.

[byronbb]

partybets actually does this.