Odds and prices
What is an online betting exchange?
An exchange puts you against other bettors rather than against a house. Somebody backs an outcome, somebody else lays it, and the platform matches them and takes a cut of the winnings.
Because nobody is building a margin into the price, exchange numbers are usually better than a bookmaker's. The commission is the cost instead.
Back and lay
Backing is the normal thing: you think it happens, you put money on it happening.
Laying is the other half. You take the other side, accepting the liability if it does happen. Lay a 4.00 shot for C$10 and you are risking C$30 to win C$10, which is exactly the position a bookmaker holds all day.
Being able to lay is the reason exchanges matter. It is what makes hedging, trading and the whole matched-betting idea possible in the first place.
Liquidity is the catch
An exchange price only exists if somebody is offering it. Big markets are deep and you get filled instantly. Small ones can sit there with C$40 available at a good price and nothing behind it.
Commission usually runs between 2% and 5% of net winnings on a market, and heavier users pay less. Work it into the price before you decide the exchange is cheaper, because on short favourites it often is not.
In Canada
Exchange access varies by province and by platform, and the Ontario registered market has its own list of what is available there. Check the app's own availability screen rather than a forum post.
None of the operators in our app board are exchanges. Everything we tear down is a bookmaker or a casino, so treat this page as background rather than a shortlist.