The Big Bash League has created a fast paced, adrenalin filled alternative for the average cricket enthusiast to experience. It has also created a similar alternative for the average punter with in-play betting offering a rollercoaster ride of odds and opportunities. If you have a solid understanding of game situations during live games and can gauge the switches of momentum, there is huge potential to make relatively common sense profit without having to take major risks.
Unlike Test cricket where a good session or day is required to greatly change the possible odds or outcome of a match, T20 cricket can see momentum swing from an over or even in some circumstances just one delivery. One thing that we’ve noticed during the BBL02, is that certain occurrences are being exaggerated resulting in occasional odds changing dramatically. The Round 2, December 13 encounter between the Adelaide Strikers and Brisbane Heat at the Adelaide Oval is one of the best examples. With only 4 minutes to go before the final ball was bowled, the Heat were matched at a game play-in high of $13 due to a brilliantly bowled over from Kane Richardson. The Strikers then had a play-in low of $1.03 only seconds before Chris Hartley hit the required winning boundary from the final allocated delivery of the game. Favouritism changed four times in the last 20 minutes of the match, despite attractive odds still being available throughout the same period of time. It was a large differential of change in odds over a short time span. While the game certainly offered many quick momentum changes, some of the big price spikes due to over analysed extremes like dot balls/boundaries were not in context to the game situation and is where the smart punters made some nice profits. These opportunities are becoming more apparent in T20 matches and are certainly worth keeping an eye out for if you want to make a quick buck.
A great method of using the in-play Big Bash betting to your advantage is by laying off stake. By lay betting and backing the loser, there can be great opportunities available by having a free hit at profit or saving your original stake, without losing a cent. I’ll again use the Adelaide vs Brisbane game as a subject of interest. Hypothetically, you place $100.00 on Adelaide to win at their starting price of $1.84. During the Luke Pomersbach and Joe Burns partnership, you feel that Brisbane are beginning to take control and notice that Adelaide are still paying $1.30 in-play. This is a great opportunity to lay your original stake of $100.00. It creates the below possibilities:
The original $100.00 stake on Adelaide to win at $1.84:
ADELAIDE WIN: + $184.00
BRISBANE WIN: – $100.00
Lay off the original $100.00 stake on Adelaide to lose at $1.31 (including commissions):
ADELAIDE WIN: – $131.00
BRISBANE WIN: + $100.00
It means that you either make $53.00 profit if Adelaide win or breakeven if Brisbane get the points. In the case of the example, Brisbane as we know won which meant that the original $100.00 stake would have been saved and no money lost or won. You need to ensure that you have the right timing when laying off stake as there is no point wasting away the profit of your original stake, especially when your backed team is in a strong position.
The Big Bash in-play betting options have certainly opened up great possibilities to make profit. There will be value on offer, it is just a matter of keeping an understanding of the match situations at hand and waiting for the right betting opportunity to come.
It is important to remember that Betfair allows you to place a bet at a much lower price than the current market trading price (for example the $1.31 mentioned above) before the match starts. You can cancel this unmatched bet at any time via the online system before it is matched (while if you were to put this on in-play, as an Australian, you have to call up). Please note that you will have to ask for the bet to remain in-play.
Please Note:
All of the above are the opinions of the author and are not recommendations or advice. Bet at your own risk.
All of our information is provided free. Thanks.
Please Gamble Responsibly!
