NOTE: Race Your Profits, along with ChampWinnings and Final Serve are strategies from my original TTLS 2.0 Trading Course. They are still very relevant and can be used as specified. The videos are made using Bet Angel Trading Software, which I personally haven’t used for a while. I switched to Geeks Toy a while back. If you have technical questions about the use of Bet Angel, you will need to get in touch with them at https://www.betangel.com/bet-angel-professional/#
The following text makes reference to the video so you might need to use both together. In the video, there is clear demonstrations on how the strategies work.
I will update the strategies with more modern examples in the near future.
Race Your Profits System
Race Your Profits tennis trading system is designed for Betfair trading exchange and can be used in all tennis matches bar Grand Slam Men’s five-setters. The reason for this is the specific circumstances impacting the odds after the first set of a three set tennis match if the favourite player loses it; they simply don’t work in the five setters.
1. Odds
When choosing tennis matches for the Race Your Profits system, you need to make sure there’s a distinct favourite player of the match. For instance, if one of the players is trading at 1.5 and the other at 2.2 – it’s a qualifier. Just make sure the favourite is trading above 1.2 – if the favourite is very strong, let’s say, with odds of 1.13 even before the match has begun, there’s very little chance he’ll lose the first set. And even if he does, his odds won’t drift out by a big margin which won’t result in enough profit to meet this strategy’s requirements.
Also, if you see a match where the players are trading at close odds – don’t trade on them using this strategy as much depends on what’s happening to the favourite player’s price at the beginning of the second set. The more distinct the favourite player is, the better.
When talking about odds at the time of opening the trade – in case you didn’t get to see the beginning of the respective tennis match – you should be aiming for the odds ranging from 2 to 3. It will ensure the best profits and will still enable you to close the trade quite easily if the market goes the opposite way.
2. Liquidity
Picking qualifiers for the Race Your Profits strategy is a bit trickier than finding suitable matches for scalping, for instance. For this tennis trading strategy you need matches where at least 100 thousand pounds have been matched before the start of the match.
Why is it necessary to have such a volume matched? Well, there’s a very good reason for this – the higher liquidity is very important if things start going wrong. If the favourite player keeps on losing even during the first games of the second set, you will have to close the trade and minimize the losses. If you’ve chosen a tennis match with little money available, you can have difficulties with laying off the favourite and you’ll be exposed to much bigger losses than you can accept.
If you haven’t followed the match since the very beginning but only when the second set has ended, the matched amount of money you should be looking at is starting from around 200 to 250 thousand pounds. It’s hard to say a very precise figure as the matched money amounts will differ depending on how well the match is traded, but these figures are a basic guideline and will ensure you’ll be able to close the trade successfully if the market goes against you.
3. Stakes.
The biggest stake for the Race Your Profits strategy is a hundred pounds. At the beginning of your learning curve, of course, you have to use smaller stakes – as I’ve already told you a number of times you can’t start big, you need to practice and increase your stakes gradually as you master the strategy.
However, the maximum stake in this case shouldn’t exceed a hundred pounds and here’s why: The Race Your Profits strategy is based on trading on the favourite player if he loses the first set of the tennis match. If the things turn out well you won’t have big difficulties with greening out; however, if the favourite player loses a few more games at the beginning of the second set you’ll be in deep trouble having backed him at say, 300 pounds. The liquidity will be significantly affected and on many occasions you simply won’t be able to lay the favourite off at such high stakes.
So stick with smaller stakes and believe me – you still will be able to make enough profit as the odds fluctuations in the Race Your Profits will enable you to make up to 50% from your stake!
You don’t have to follow tennis matches throughout the first set. Action starts at the end of the set and what you have to do is the following.
If the favourite player loses the first set – back him. This is the first bet of the trade in order to exploit the price gap between the back and the lay sides.
The next action takes place in the second set. You have to wait on the favourite player’s price to drop and then place a lay bet to lock in guaranteed profit on both players. Your biggest advantage is you don’t have to wait on the favourite player to win the second set.
All that you need for greening out – the favourite player has to convert a break point. This will trigger the price drop and create a win-win situation.
There are many factors working in your favour and the possibility of the favourite player leading the beginning of the second set is very high. Especially if he is the one who serves first – it’s an advantage and poses difficulties for the under-dog. Ideally you will see the favourite convert a break point and then the price is going to drop right away. But on some occasions even the game point will ensure the needed odds shortening.
At first it may seem quite weird – why back favourite when he loses the first set? Is it not a clear indication he’ll possibly keep on losing?
In reality the opposite scenario takes place more often. On most occasions the favourite player wins the second set having lost the first one. But you don’t even need this! What you need is only see the favourite start leading the set for a while – just enough to ensure the necessary price drop!
There are several reasons why favourite players lose the first set. First of all, they’re just warming up and saving strength for the second set, but get caught out. Also, the opponent could be much weaker and gives it all in the first set. The favourite just wears the underdog down and then starts playing much better in the second set.
The second reason has more to do with a player’s mental state. If the favourite loses the first set, it gives him an additional motivation to focus, gather the strength and start performing better in the second set. And don’t forget – what we need is just to see the favourite lead at some stage – not to win the whole set!
But now let’s look at how you need to open the trade accordingly to the Race Your Profits system.
Opening the trade
You have to take action only when the favourite has lost the first set. What happens now is – the favourite’s odds drift out and you have to place a back bet on him. Depending on the player’s ranking and other factors – like performance during the first set and so on – the favourite’s odds after the first set may vary. If he’s a fairly strong favourite, even having lost the first set, his odds won’t drift out more than 2 to 2.5. If the favourite and the under-dog perform quite evenly, the odds may be as big as 5 and more.
However, you must be very careful when opening a trade at back odds greater than 5. You may have difficulties with implementing the exit strategy. So at the beginning of your trading career back the favourite if his odds are below 5, ideally – from 2 to 3.
So you place the back bet on the favourite using your chosen stake when the first set has ended. You’re interested in getting as high odds as possible – the bigger the gap between the back and the lay sides, the bigger the profit margin.
A good example is a tennis match between Dementieva and Razzano. The favourite player Dementieva was trading at odds of around 1.25 before the game which makes this match an ideal qualifier for the Race Your Profits system – we have a distinct favourite trading at odds of greater than 1.2. She was the top seed in the tournament, by the way, so no wonder the underdog’s odds were 4.4 before the match.
However, as it often happens in tennis, the favourite player lost the first set.
Make no mistake, though, the match is not decided, as favourites often make a nice comeback after a lost first set. But what we need in the Race Your Profits system is just a break point converted, nothing more, we even don’t care whether she wins the second set or loses the whole match!
So when Dementieva lost the first set, her odds drifted out well above 2; as I mentioned previously the best odds for opening a trade for the Race Your Profits system are around between 2 and 3. Now I’m going to open the trade and I’m clicking on the ladder next to the odds of 2.7. My bet gets matched at 2.92 which is even better considering I need to make the gap between the back and lay bets as big as possible if the favourite breaks. On the other hand, if she loses more game points I’ll be forced to exit the market with a loss and in this case the closing back odds have to be as close to the opening ones as possible.
Closing the trade
When the back bet has been placed, you have to wait on the odds to shorten as the second set starts and the favourite scores a game point or converts a break point.
But to make sure you’re on the safe side if things go wrong, and the under-dog scores a break point, you have to set the critical level of the lay odds.
It can be easily done by manually changing the odds in the window next to the ‘Manual Close’ button until the red figure reaches 30% from the stake you’re using (See video). Yes, the acceptable loss in the Race Your Profits system is about 30% from the stake – simply because the majority of the matches – around 75% of them – will result in profit and also if you set the critical odds level lower than that it can be reached even before the under-dog is facing a break point.
So, if the under-dog keeps on performing very well at the beginning of the second set and the favourite player’s lay odds reach the critical level, you have to place the lay bet and close the trade with a loss. Most likely it will be triggered by a break point converted by the underdog.
But what you’re waiting for is the favourite to win a game or a break point. The odds will then drop to a certain level to ensure a certain percent of profit from the stake. But remember – you have to earn 30% long term. You can’t just green out having a slight odds drop. Yes, you will profit from this trade in this particular tennis match. But what if you incur much bigger loss in the next one?
That’s why you have to close the trade having ensured a minimum profit of 30%.
Let’s have a look how the match between Dementieva and Razzano turned out.
Usually the first game of the second set is the crucial one for Race Your Profits system, especially if the former favourite player is the receiving player, as in this case. It’s a stick with two ends as the new favourite has all the advantage of winning the first set and starting the second one with serve, but the old favourite player, on the other hand, on most occasions will enable you to green out right after a break point has been converted.
Now I’m following the scoring in the first game of the second set and I’m prepared to close the trade at any given moment should one of the critical odds levels be reached.
When the new favourite player Razzano scores the second point and the result becomes 15 – 30, Dementieva’s odds lengthen to 3.25 and we can already see odds of 11 appear in the third lay odds box, which indicates that we’re not far away from exiting the trade. As you can imagine, we’d have big difficulties exiting the trade with an acceptable loss if the only available odds for the Dementieva will be in the region of 10 or higher!
Here I want to stress once more the importance of having good match’s liquidity and making sure at least 100 thousand pounds is matched at the beginning of the tennis match.
As Razzano scores another point and makes it to 15 – 40, Dementieva’s odds drift out to 3.75. If Razzano scores once more, I will have to close the trade with a loss, most likely, as then the new favourite will convert the game point and it would make Dementieva’s odds drift out dangerously beyond the critical level.
However, the receiving player scores the next point. And as she evens the score to 40 – 40, it instantaneously gives her odds a nice boost and the red figures from the greening area disappear. It means – if Dementieva converts the break point she’ll be facing soon, I’ll make my needed profit!
During the next few minutes both players score points in turn and I can only watch and wait on the final point to be scored. And there it is – Dementieva finally converts the break point and I can make even more profit than my needed 30% of the stake – I’m using the ‘Reverse Close’ button to go for a bit bigger profit than the ‘Current Close’ would avail of, and eventually my bet gets matched at the odds of 1.94 making more than 50 euro profit on both players!
Now you can see the power of the Race Your Profits strategy – it only took the former favourite player to convert one break point to enable me to make 50% profit from the stake.
Well, this result was exceptional because Dementieva was the top seed. Even though she lost all games in the first set, the backers’ confidence in her was so high that they started backing her heavily again.
However, even lower ranked favourite players will enable you to green out making at least 30% of the stake.
Overview
As you can see – Race Your Profits System is very simple and effective. You don’t have to know anything about tennis or tennis players. You simply have to back the favourite player if they lose the first set. As the second set progresses, you have to watch the development of the game and act accordingly.
If the under-dog converts a break point or scores a game point, you will close the trade resulting in loss. However, unless the critical level has been reached, don’t do anything. Even if the under-dog scores a break point, the favourite can start leading in the next game.
If the favourite player wins a game or a break point – you will close the trade with profit. This will happen more often than the first scenario and will ensure the necessary price drop for greening out.
Please note – whenever you feel that the favourite is unlikely to start leading the second set – close the trade with whatever profit or loss you can even if you’re well away from the critical odds.
You can have a situation when the favourite player wins a game, then the underdog wins his serves and now has a break point, for instance. On such occasion the favourite’s odds can change very rapidly from well within the critical level to well outside it. So don’t wait for the underdog to convert the break point – trade out while you still can.
You can also skip the rule of trading only on favourite’s whose odds are between 2 and 3 – as you can understand, if you can find a match where a very strong favourite player loses the first set, profit is going to be virtually guaranteed. It’s going to be much smaller though, than the average Race Your Profits profit, and that’s why I’m suggesting going for matches where the favourite player trades at least at 1.2 before the match.
Now it’s time for the final strategy in my Tennis Trading League pack – Final Serve