Can a bookmaker change odds for your bet?

This text is based on our personal experiences and represents our opinions.
There is usually some debate as to when is the right time to take odds on sporting event. The earlier you make a bet (an ante post bet) the more likely you are going to be able to pick up longer and better odds. If you wait to the last minute, the more money that is going on a particular team in a football match for example, the shorter the price on that team will be made by the bookmakers. But what if you place a nice early bet and the next day you see the price has shortened at the bookmaker? Can the bookmaker change odds for your bet, after you have placed it? The answer to this is no, they cannot. Whatever price you took when you filled out and completed your betting slip online, will be the price that the bookmaker has to stick with. If this was not the case, there would be a whole mess of complications and distrust going on. While the bookmaker cannot change your odds, that is not to say that the odds on your market selection cannot change. They just won’t affect your bet. After you have placed your bet, the price may drift out, or it may shorten, but it will not make any difference to the betting slip you have submitted. What you take is what you get in fixed odds betting.

One grey area which new punters may have some confusion over, is in the sport of horse racing. You see prices changing all the time there, right up until the posting of the horses at the gate. With horse racing, you are able to take a “Starting Price” on a selection as an ante post bet. What this means, is that when you place your stake, you are telling the bookmaker that you are happy to let your stake ride on whatever happens to that horse’s price until the books close on that race. So, for example, if you took Starting Price on a horse which was 12/1 at the time of asking, you may decide to chance that it will drift further out, say to 14/1 by the time the race starts. Of course, the odds could shorten and you could lose potential profit, but that is the risk. Because you haven’t taken set odds, then the price of your bet will change until the official starting price is named. That will be your choice of betting option though. What most online bookmakers do, is offer guaranteed best prices on horse racing, and this means, that if you take an early market price, and its starting price is greater than the odds you took, the bookie will honour the greater starting price for you. This is something to be aware of, and most bookies run this promotion.

But on the whole, no, the odds at which you place your bet will not change. You have entered into a binding agreement with the bookmaker, and the goalposts cannot suddenly be moved. As a punter, you decide when to take the odds that you feel are right, that is your responsibility. If the odds change to become more favourable for example, the only way to take advantage of that would be to place a second bet at that better price. The bookmaker is not going to go and change the odds on a selection you have made, whether it is a fixed outright, or even in live betting. In live betting, prices are updated constantly, but again, as soon as you make your selection, that is it. That is the deal. The price on screen may keep changing, but it will not have any bearing on the price at which you placed your bet.





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