Every Betfair Horse Racing Market, Explained

Market Overview — What's Listed on a Typical Race

For a Saturday Class 2 handicap at Newmarket, you'll typically see these markets listed on Betfair Exchange around 09:00 on race day:

• Win — back/lay each horse to win (the flagship market).
• Place — back/lay each horse to finish in the official place positions.
• To Be Placed — Betfair's own placing market with similar rules to Place.
• Forecast — predict the 1st and 2nd in correct order.
• Reverse Forecast — predict the 1st and 2nd in any order.
• Match Bets (sometimes) — head-to-head between two specific horses regardless of overall result.
• Without the Favourite (sometimes) — Win market with the favourite removed.

For Cheltenham Festival or Royal Ascot, expect 9-15 markets on a single race, including 50%/100% Place lines, Show, Stewards' Decision, and various combination bets.

For a midweek 14:25 Class 5 race at Wolverhampton (4-runner all-weather), you might see only Win and To Be Placed listed, both with very limited liquidity.

The Win Market

The flagship horse racing market on Betfair Exchange. One selection per horse, plus "The Field" in some markets that bundles longshots. You're betting whether the named horse wins (back) or doesn't win (lay).

• Settlement: at the moment the official result is declared. Stewards' inquiries delay settlement until they conclude.
• Commission base rate: 2% on UK and Irish racing. 5% on most other racing jurisdictions.
• Liquidity profile: Heavy — typically £400k-£2m matched in the 30 minutes before the off on top UK racing. Cheltenham Festival races match £4-£8m+ in the same window.
• Best for: Pre-race scalping (1-3 ticks of price movement on liquid favourites), swing trading (5-15 ticks on news flow), in-running fades (large swings on momentum changes during the race itself).

The Win market continues trading after the off — that's the In-Running phase, treated separately below.

Place Market

Pays out if the horse finishes in the official place positions. Place rules:

Place market dynamics differ from Win:

• Prices are tighter — a 4.0 Win price might be 1.80 Place. Tighter prices = smaller tick value, less to gain per scalp.
• Liquidity is lower — typically 20-35% of the Win market matched on the same race.
• Place prices are more sensitive to early-running indicators than Win — a horse leading in the early stages can have its Place price collapse to 1.40 within seconds while Win is still 4.50.
• Place markets settle slightly later than Win because all placing positions need confirmation.

For traders specifically interested in placing strategies, see Laying Horses on Betfair for the lay-the-favourite-to-place setup.

To Be Placed

Betfair's own version of the Place market, settled per Betfair's market rules. In most races the rules align with Place, so the markets trade similarly. The To Be Placed market is generally the more heavily traded of the two on the exchange — it's the default the Betfair website displays and most software defaults to.

Practical effect: if you're trading "place" on Betfair, you're almost always trading To Be Placed. The two markets have separate Betfair market IDs and separate liquidity pools — don't try to lay one and back the other expecting a hedge to work cleanly. They're not perfectly fungible.

Betfair Starting Price (BSP)

BSP is calculated when the market goes in-play. It's a single price per horse, designed to reflect the true balance of supply and demand at the moment of the off. Detailed treatment of BSP in our BSP guide — summary here:

• BSP applies only to selected markets (most major Win and Place markets carry BSP).
• You can place a back or lay at BSP from up to 30 minutes before the off — the bet executes at the calculated BSP at the off, not at the price you see when you submit.
• BSP for backs is typically slightly better than SP at high-street bookmakers because it doesn't include bookmaker margin.
• BSP for lays carries a guaranteed-execution benefit — your lay will fill at BSP regardless of pre-race price moves.

When to use BSP

• Yes: backing a fancied runner where you don't have a strong opinion on price direction. The execution guarantee is worth the small price uncertainty.
• Yes: trading systems that need volume in/volume out and don't have time to manage manual entry.
• No: strategies that depend on specific entry prices — BSP doesn't let you choose.
• No: liquidity-light races where BSP can be wildly different from the prices you saw earlier.

The In-Running Market

The Win market continues trading after the off. This in-running phase is the most volatile market on Betfair Exchange. A horse that hits the front in a 3m chase can see its Win price drop from 4.0 to 1.50 in 8 seconds. A favourite that gets boxed in can drift from 2.5 to 12.0 in the same window.

Operational realities:

• 8-second betting delay applies to all bets entered in-running. Bets are queued and only matched after the delay window.
• Liquidity is high but volatile. A typical Saturday Group race might see £2-5m matched in-running across the field, but individual horses' liquidity ebbs and floods within seconds.
• Settlement uses the official result. Photo finishes don't settle until the result is declared.
• The market can void in unusual situations — false starts, major incidents, race abandoned. Be aware of how Betfair settles these scenarios per their rules.

Forecast and Reverse Forecast

Predict the first two finishers in either correct order (Forecast) or any order (Reverse Forecast). Betfair lists these markets for most fixtures with 8+ runners.

• Forecast prices are products of the implied probabilities of the two horses both finishing top-2 plus the order of finish — typically priced 25-150+ depending on the favourite/runner mix.
• Liquidity is thin — usually 5-12% of the Win market.
• Practical use: niche strategies betting on specific 1-2 patterns. Most general traders don't use these markets.

The thin liquidity makes Forecast/Reverse Forecast unsuitable for size. They're useful only for specific narrative bets where you have a strong view on the 1-2 finish order.

Match Bets

Head-to-head between two specific horses, typically two prominently-traded runners or two stable mates. The market settles based on which of the two finishes ahead, regardless of where they place overall.

• Available on Group 1 fixtures and Cheltenham Festival races.
• Liquidity is typically modest — £20k-£100k matched depending on race profile.
• Practical use: traders who have a stronger view on relative performance than absolute (e.g. "Horse A is undervalued vs Horse B" without a strong view on the overall result).

Match Bets settle on the same official result as Win, so a non-finisher (refused, fell, pulled-up) loses against any horse that completes the course.

Without the Favourite

Listed for some larger handicaps and major fixtures. The market is the Win market with the favourite removed — you're betting on which horse wins among the rest of the field if the favourite is excluded.

• Useful when you think the favourite is a "false favourite" that won't actually run their race.
• Liquidity is thin — typically 5-15% of the Win market.
• Settlement: if the named favourite wins, the market is voided (your stakes are returned). If the favourite doesn't win, settlement follows the Win market position of the remaining runners.

Liquidity by Market and Race

Approximate matched volumes during the 30-minute pre-off window for different fixture grades:

The practical effect: only the top tiers carry the liquidity needed for serious size. A trader putting £500 backer's stakes through the Win market won't move prices at Cheltenham. The same £500 at a Wolverhampton Class 5 will move the price 4-8 ticks against them.

Commission and Market Base Rates

Different markets carry different commission base rates:

UK and Irish racing's 2% commission is the lowest on the exchange — that's the structural reason horse racing is the most-traded sport on Betfair. Trading the same edge on a 5% commission market gives away 60% more of the gross profit. For full detail on how commission is calculated, see Betfair Commission Explained.

Which Market to Trade

Match the market to your strategy:

Pre-race scalping

Win market on top UK/IE racing. Liquidity is the deciding factor — without £400k+ matched in the pre-off window, you can't enter and exit cleanly at meaningful size. See Scalping on Betfair.

Trading the favourite

Win market or To Be Placed depending on whether your view is on overall winner or placing. The trading the favourite playbook works on both, with Place markets typically being less volatile.

Lay-the-favourite

Win market for the standard lay-the-fav-to-not-win strategy. Place market for the more conservative lay-the-fav-to-not-place setup. See Laying Horses on Betfair.

In-running fades

Win market only — the In-Running phase. Requires fast software, defined exits, and acceptance of the 8-second delay. Higher risk than pre-race; reserve for after you've mastered pre-race trading.

Set-and-forget

BSP for guaranteed-execution backs and lays. No price-watching required. Suitable for systems that need volume without time investment. Pair with the bankroll management rules to avoid over-staking.

Niche strategies

Forecast, Match Bets, Without the Favourite for specific opinions. All have thin liquidity — keep stakes small, don't expect the same edge structure as Win/Place trading.