We’ll be making a change to the way unmatched bets are displayed on Betfair next Tuesday 11th May. The change only affects the Betfair website. It does not affect the API which will remain unchanged, and we therefore do not envisage that any changes will be necessary to existing API applications.

Put simply, we’ll be bringing the display of unmatched bets on the exchange into line with how they are matched. This is probably best explained with a simple example:

If a customer looks to back Player A in a tennis match at 2.0 and the bet is unmatched, we currently only display one unmatched lay bet to other customers. They see that they can lay Player A at 2.0, with no unmatched back bet shown on his opponent. If they did attempt to back Player B at 2.0 or shorter, despite there being no available bet displayed, they would be matched at 2.0. From Tuesday an unmatched back bet on Player A at 2.0 will also be displayed to other customers as an unmatched lay bet on Player B at 2.0. In other words we’ll display all the available liquidity.

We will not be making any changes to bet matching. Bets will be matched as before. We will extend the range of markets covered by the improved matching process though, to cover all odds markets on Betfair, except those markets which may have non-runners (for example horse racing win and place markets), as well as markets which may have runners added (for example golf tournament winner markets, next manager markets etc.)

When we turn the functionality on it will be initially for the range of markets on which we currently match across selections:

Match Odds markets in Basketball, Boxing, Cricket, Ice Hockey, Rugby League, Rugby Union, Snooker, Tennis and Volleyball, Greyhounds win markets, Darts match odds, correct score and handicaps and Soccer match odds, HT/FT, correct score and unders/overs.