Betdaq v Smarkets As a Betfair Alternative

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Following on from a post @darri made yesterday, I am probably looking at setting up an account on either Betdaq or Smarkets as and when I have the funds available in the next few weeks.

The main reason for doing this is to follow the excellent set and forgets such as Keith's U1.5 or Stuart's LTD amongst others as hopefully a bank building exercise and to leave the funds in Betfair for my normal trading.

For those who have experience of Betdaq or Smarkets, is there much difference between the two, I am interested in the following areas: -

Range of Markets available
Customer Service
Functionality
Ease of Depositing/Withdrawing
Liquidity - I'm assuming there both not great
Potential for using automation at some point in the future

I have no opinion on this and alongside my own research am interested in the thoughts of others.

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@dan-mackinnon Betangel have a betdaq solution but not sure about the site themselves

Dan MacKinnon

Am I right in saying Betdaq have free trading software? Could you use the Bots created on here for Betdaq?

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I have used Smarkets an awful lot for matched betting but for trading purposes i have the same opinion as Stuart, its just ok. You cant really trade on it but for set and forgets it should be fine for most popular markets. Sometimes the money in the market is actually higher than BF but this tends to be on match odds for popular games, in fact you can often get a better price on smarkets

If you end up using it a lot and pay more than £15 p/m commission then its worth signing up to a matched betting site (such as oddsmonkey) paying £15 subscription and getting free commission

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I use betdaq for stuarts LTD there maybe the odd time dont have the league so will use betfair for the odd games

matchbook for keith u1.5 never had issue with them

i have smarkets but i match bet and thats just for that no trading. personally i prefer smarkets interface to betfair

Matt Wood

@chris-osborne I actually preferred the UI on Smarkets but there just generally seems to be more choice on the Betdaq platform which tipped it for me.

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@matt-wood I’m leaning towards Betdaq also

Matt Wood

After some research and the comments here, I have gone with Betdaq.

I have a question to users though, is there a cash out button? If so how do you access it, on PC this is.

Ryan

I have betdaq and Smarkets - both been ok for me, most of my trading is done via desktop though.

Stuart Capstick

I use Smarkets for set and forgets.

You can queue a price ( provided you select the Time in force option) pre match.
Inplay, Smarkets has a tendency to void bets as it halts at the slightest incident.
There are some strange league choices and certain leagues don't feature. So, you can trade Venezuela but not Paraguay.

It's not great, but better than nothing.

Akiva Anderson

I have Betdaq and Betfair. I had Smarkets, but they deleted my account for inactivity.

I use Betdaq for Darris LTD and Stuarts LTD and my Under 1.5 potentials. These are set and forget strategies so liquidity isn't really an issue for me. I request a price and if it isn't matched, it isn't matched. No real big deal.

My Betfair account is my own stuff.

I trade on my mobile. The Betdaq app is terrible. It's always logging me out or has a fault.

Matt Wood

I would be very interested in people's experiences as well. Thinking of doing a similar type of thing to Chris here, if only to have a back up account in case of BF screwing around too much.