"Should I Take a Bookie's Price or Bet on Betfair?"

Recorded July 2025 for How to Find Extra Value Bets Using TKZ Lays and Overlays. Any figures mentioned are from that time.

Picking the runner is only half the job. The other half is deciding where the bet goes. I run an odds screen that shows Betfair, best tote and the corporate bookmakers side by side on the same race, and the gaps between them are often bigger than people expect. My rule is simple. I only take a bookmaker's price when it lines up with the exchange. If it doesn't line up, I go somewhere else.

Set up a screen that shows everything at once

If you can, set up a dynamic odds screen so you can see every market for a race in one place. I'll pull up a meeting, say Eagle Farm race two, and look across the row for the runners I want. In that race, the best prices for numbers six and ten were on Betfair, at $13 and $27. So that is where the bet goes. There is no thinking involved once you can see it. The screen makes the decision for you.

You don't have to bet the exchange every time. Best tote is a genuine option, and if you have a best tote with SP account, that's a good thing to have. In that same race you could see a few of them kick out and pay overs, especially number eight. The point is that you can only take the best of it if you can see all of it.

When a bookie's price is fine and when it isn't

Corporate bookmakers are fine to use. Just make sure their price and the Betfair price align. In that Eagle Farm race, taking $5.50 about number five with a corporate was alright, because it was roughly the same as the exchange. Taking $7 about number three was not, because Betfair was betting $8.40. In that case I would rather put the bet on Betfair at $8.40, or take best tote, which paid $8.

That's the whole test. Not whether the price looks generous on its own, but whether it stacks up against what the exchange is saying at the same moment. A price that looks fine in isolation can be well under the market once you put it next to everything else.

The runners I don't worry about

When I scroll through a card I'll see plenty of lays. Warwick Farm race two had two of them, the ten and the nineteen, and the nineteen went on to win. But when I'm looking down a list of lays, the ones out at $10 and beyond don't concern me much. I'm interested in horses that are in the market, around the $5 mark or shorter. That's where the money is and that's where a price discrepancy actually matters.

Also worth saying plainly: this approach doesn't decide the result. In that Eagle Farm race the favourite got the cash and we did our money. Getting the best available price is about making sure that when you are right, you are paid properly for it.

So before you click, look across the whole market on the one screen. If the corporate matches the exchange, take it. If it doesn't, go to Betfair or best tote instead. It takes a few seconds and it costs you nothing to check.

Every race on the card, rated, with Kingsley's selections and the speed maps behind them. Your first day is free, no card needed.

More from Kingsley

• Where the Value Sits: Early Prices or Starting Price?
• "Why Is the Favourite Under the Odds?"
• Why Betfair SP Is Harder to Beat Than Bookmaker Prices

From the full video: How to Find Extra Value Bets Using TKZ Lays and Overlays | Pro Punting Strategy Explained

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