This article will be very long... In general, the betting industry is in many people's eyes so bad that it seems incredible that you could find a place for something fair and genuine. Betting gangs affecting sporting events, bribery, fraud, money laundering, ruined lives because of addiction to gambling. It all happens in this business.

I would however, correct some of these misconceptions in this article. And leave it to you to form your own opinion about trading on the betting exchanges.

Is it gambling?

For some it's gambling, for some it is not. Why?

Gambling can be anything - any action if you do not know how to do it correctly. If you set up a business without doing market research or preparing a good business plan, you are gambling. If you want to jump from the roof of 5-storey house and survive, you are gambling. If you are going to play roulette or slots, you are gambling.

Gamblers always lose. They may win in the short term, but in the long term they always lose in whatever gambling activities they decided to do.

On this site we like to be 100% honest, and only if you are prepared to put in many hours of hard work, and have the correct mindset are you likely to succeed in trading on the betting exchanges. Trading on Betfair & Betdaq is not easy, and anyone who says that it is easy is probably not a professional trader. Sure the principle is easy, as it is the same principle as buying and selling anything in business. However as with any other activity it is necessary to systematically and regularly train in order to succeed. Think of it like running - any healthy person can run, but 5 or 10 km in row you can run only if you regularly exercise. Yes, someone will be more talented for this distance than others, but sooner or later you can run this distance as well. To run you need a healthy body - legs, spine, and will to train. For trading you only need one finger, one eye and determination to properly train.

Everybody on the betting exchanges wants to win, and subsequently everyone will want your money. A lot of successful people, including myself have been trading on the betting exchanges successfully for many years. They have much more experience than you have and from day 1, it will be hard for you to compete with these people. On the other hand, if you persevere, learn from your mistakes and continually improve, you too could be earning good money from the exchanges.

As I already mentioned, without training and knowledge, gambling is all you are doing. So if you are trading on the betting exchanges and you study, learn and improve, it will evolve from gambling into work. But if you are not prepared to put in the time, want to earn money quickly because you think it's easy, you are probably going to lose. You will therefore gamble and your loss will be profit for other traders.

Which raises another question - how many traders on the betting exchange are profitable in the long term? Exact numbers will only be known by Betfair or Betdaq, but one number stated by Betfair in a financial quarter was that 25% of people were in profit in that quarter. Betfair takes a large piece of customer losses in fees. So based on the above figure, for you to make money on the exchanges, 3 people have to lose. People who earn their living from trading, will be even less.

Frauds

This industry has a high percentage of charlatans and cheaters too.  It is awash with people who try to sell you guaranteed winning tips, guaranteed returns on investments in gambling, guaranteed strategies or offering overpriced seminars. The list goes on, however you should remember one thing - if anyone has a guaranteed way of making money from betting or trading, why are they wasting time selling it on the internet and not taking all the value in the marketplace and making the money themselves? The answer is they wouldn’t!

How to become a successful trader?

There is no miracle formula that says, "Click here, then there, make money!" Trading is a very complex activity and the success in it depends on things that a beginner would probably not even thought of. Let's start with the fact that it is always up to you to make decisions. Nobody else sits behind the computer, so you cannot blame your failures on someone else. You make the decisions!

Perseverance

The path to long-term profitable trading or fulltime trading is often long and probably you will experience a lot of frustrating and de-motivating moments in which you want to give up. You'll be crying on the spot, losing money because of beginner mistakes, you will feel that trading is just a coincidence, etc. But if you want to be a profitable trader, you must handle these moments and never give up. Endurance is one of the key characteristics of a successful trader. It is possible for anyone to become a profitable trader as anyone who has one eye, one finger and a functioning brain. However, only perseverance in their efforts decides who really becomes a profitable trader and who does not. You cannot learn to play guitar in one day... and know that professional traders have also gone through bad periods. 

Discipline

In trading, you are your own boss. You will be responsible for your attendance at work and for respecting the rules. You have to monitor yourself to ensure you do things correctly. Although it seems simple, a lot of people struggle with self-control and self-discipline. If you learn to control yourself, your emotions and especially your states in difficult situations, you will be the king of the market.

If you define a trading strategy, you will have to abide this strategy in every single second of your trading. The boundaries between profit and loss are extremely thin on the betting exchange and any deviation from the plan you know that works, is very risky. 

Fear and greed

Fear awakens in a man when he is approaching danger. On the betting exchange losing is that danger. People are not used to losing money - they are used to being paid every month for their time, so losing money for them is unnatural. In fear, people make irrational decisions, losing even more money and it becomes a vicious circle.

Losses on the betting exchange are completely natural thing and everyone will have them. Even the best trader in the world will have losses at times. It is often said - “you will become a profitable trader, when you learn to accept losses" and I can only agree with that.

Greed is contrary desire for abundance and awakens in a man, especially in the moments when you see green numbers on the screen. They want more... and more and more, and if they do not control their greed, again they will end badly. Greed as well as fear affects your judgment and a calm and clear judgment is really needed on the betting exchange.

Conquer your fear and greed! 

Emotions and mind

During trading, you will experience a lot of different situations. The moment you create a big loss you can fall into depression and vice versa for a larger profit you can feel a sense of euphoria. However, both conditions are extreme and affect your judgment in the future. In the case of depression and frustration a person stops to believe in himself and starts to be overly cautious, but in euphoria a person will feel invincible and can take unnecessarily risky. In this context, I like to use the quote: “Aequam memento rebus in arduis servare mentem - remember to keep a clear head in difficult times" and I just want to add that peace of mind is good also in moments of luck.

Our mind is a good servant but a bad master. It should serve us as a tool to achieve the goal. As a computer mouse - if we have it under control, everything is fine, but if the mouse cursor is broken and it would uncontrollably jump on the monitor, it would be impossible to trade.

Likewise, our thoughts - if we have our thoughts in control and if we focus them on solving the problem, everything is fine. But if they run somewhere else - either to guilt because of a loss or to the thinking about the car we will buy for money we have won - your mind will not be focused to solve the problem (trading) and trading will become much more difficult. 

The Holy Grail

Lots of people expect that they will find a way that will always ensure a certain profit from trading. In other words, there really is no magical formula "click here, there and take the profit". It is good to know about this now, because you can save a lot of money and nerves on your journey.

Some people are always looking for guaranteed instructions, and end up buying a variety of e-books or attend expensive seminars. But they are missing a very important point: No matter how good or bad the strategy or guide somebody provides for you, it is you who have to decide where & when to click. As previously mentioned, you can be affected by various factors - emotion, fear, mindset, and greed.

Two people in the same situation and with the same strategy can maintain completely different - one with a calm head, can close his bad position for a small loss, but the second man under the weight of emotion starts to behave irrationally and subsequently flushes his betting banks down the toilet.

So to be 100% clear, the only holy grail of trading that you can find is in yourself. Learn to control your fear, greed, emotions and mind and you will have the ideal characteristics to become a fulltime trader. No wonder it is said that success in trading consists of the following components - 70% mental, 20% money management, 10% strategy. You can see these percentages differently, but probably every professional trader will confirm these 3 key elements.

Initial Capital

If you are still reading, you probably understand that becoming a successful trader is not easy. It means that it is unnecessary from the start in this business to invest a lot of money, because every beginner risks losing it completely. The minimum deposit on Betfair is 10 GBP and Geeks Toy has the option to trade in the training mode, so why risk more?

Deposit to Betfair or Betdaq the minimum amount, and only use money that you can afford to lose. Start to explore how Betfair & Betdaq trading works. If you can earn money, you can deposit more in the future, or ideally you can build your bankroll from this initial minimum investment. 

Conclusion

I have tried to write this tutorial for a complete beginner to help in the early days of trading. Even so, I’m sure there may still be some questions. So if you have any further questions, you can ask in the comments. Before that, however, try to use our search engine - is it possible that someone solved the problem before you and you can quickly find the answer.

Good luck on your journey!