First week of the new NFL season and the evidence was irrefutable: the revolution that is exchange wagering on TradeSports has the potential to sweep all before it. It might have seemed like football was made for trading but to truly appreciate a marriage made in heaven you had to experience it.
St Louis at Denver Sunday. TradeSports offers two contracts on the Broncos against the Rams. First, the Rams minus 2.5 points. Second, the Rams without a handicap. You pay your money, take your choice. Here's how sports trading works, football style.
You happen to like Denver on the handicap contract. The Broncos won three out of four in preseason. The last time the teams met, the Broncos pushed the Rams all the way, on the road, in the 2000 season opener. That makes you a seller of the Rams minus 2.5 contract, which appears on the exchange as NFL.STL@DEN.STL-2.5.
Just like with trading stocks, the idea is to buy low and sell high. Each contract trades between 0 and 100. The lower you buy, the more money you make if your team wins. The lower you sell, the more you lose. If Team A, handicapped at minus 4.5, is leading 27-0 in the third quarter, the contract for Team will be trading well into the 90s. So if you buy at 95 and Team A wins, you make 5 ticks, a small profit relative to your stake. But if they lose, you drop 95 ticks - a crushing loss. The point about exchange wagering is that the party on the other side of that 95 ticks is not a bookie, it's another trader. He sold Team A at 95, hoping for a collapse and comfortable in the knowledge that his maximum loss is 5 ticks.
Back to Sunday's game on TradeSports. The St Louis minus 2.5 contract opens at 52 and you sell 100 contracts at that price. That means if the Rams lose, you win $520, or 10 bucks for every contract you own. Deducted from your winnings are modest. exchange fees. It's important to remember that TradeSports does not profit if you lose. It is not trading against you. It simply takes a $0.04 fee for every $10 bet traded over its exchange. If the Rams win by three or more, the Rams minus 2.5 contract settles at 100 and you drop 48 ticks (100 minus 52).
Game on. In the first quarter, Rod Smith takes a 7-yard pass from Brian Griese and scores a touchdown. Jason Elam's kick is good and the Broncos lead 7-0. The St Louis -2.5 contract falls to 38. You sold 100 contracts at 52 and already you have the chance to buy them back again for 14 ticks less, leaving you flat and in profit by $140 minus exchange fees.
But you think the Broncos are looking good so you hang in there and hope the St Louis contract falls even more. Even point it drops, you're making money. The game is great so far, but the action on Tradesports is even more compelling.
Elam and Jeff Wilkins of St Louis trade field goals in the second quarter but Elam kicks one more and Denver are leading 16-6. Now the Rams contract is at 22 and you decide it's time to lock in your profit. You sell, making 30 ticks - that's $300.
But just because you've make some money doesn't mean you've finished trading. The beauty about TradeSports is that you can trade in and out as many times as you like. All of a sudden, the Rams hit back in the third quarter. Marshall Faulk scores on a 3-yard draw to cut the Broncos' lead to 16-13. Next, St Louis have the ball at Denver's 9-yard line. They can easily tie it with a field goal, but they want more.
The Rams contract has soared. It's at 65. You decide to take up another position and once again you sell St Louis -2.5 for another 100 contracts. Midway through the fourth quarter, the Rams have another chance to tie it but Wilkins comes up short on a 39-yard field goal attempt. Now the Rams contract is falling again. You hang in there and then Ed McCaffrey takes a 23-yard pass from Griese and slides into the end zone on his back. The Rams contract nosedives. You're punching the air. It settles at zero and having sold it at 65 you are up another $650. How sweet it is.
That's the glory of football trading, an infinitely superior concept to straight wagering. To be part of the revolution, open an account with TradeSports. On the first Monday night game of the season it's Pittsburgh at New England. Click the trading icon and hey, you're on your way to being football trader!
Article by Alan English. TradeSports is a person-to-person (P2P) sports betting and trading exchange.
