The basic home bettor set-up

First and foremost, a laptop or a desktop computer is mandatory – a bare minimum. Many traders also run several monitors from their computers, with a set up of four or more monitors not uncommon.

Some bookmakers who advertise a lot on television are very keen to promote the use of a phone or tablet device to trade from. However, it is not an ideal way to trade as refresh rates are slower and there are far fewer options than on the full website. Having said this, if your computer has an unforeseen issue, they are very useful for managing positions quickly in an emergency.

Furthermore, the use of API applications on phone or tablet devices is very limited. This third party software enables traders to automate their trades and various gadgets, such as the ability to set up a stop-loss figure, are available. In tennis trading, API software is particularly useful if you trade during service games, with quick refresh rates essential for getting trades matched in short time periods.

Live isn’t necessarily live

Something that new traders do not realise is that ‘live’ pictures – be they either from terrestrial television, satellite or live bookmaker streaming – may not necessarily be live. These pictures are subject to at least a 5 second delay, and even more than this isn’t uncommon. Whilst watching on a big-screen television is much easier on the eye than on a monitor, it’s worth noting that ‘live’ television is often even further behind than internet streams.

Court-siding – where traders (or traders representatives) are in the crowd – has been in the news lately, with an Englishman being arrested at the Australian Open. It goes without saying that these courtsiders have a big advantage in that they will know who has won the point 5-10 seconds prior to those watching on television or live streams. It is very important for traders to be aware that some people will almost certainly have access to information quicker than them.

Many matches are not available to watch live, and trading the non-live matches requires usage of a live scores website. These are plentiful and all have very similar refresh rates. Some are very different in terms of user-friendliness and layout so trying each one out to see which suits individual requirements is useful.

The importance of a back-up

As previously mentioned, it is highly useful to have a back-up plan if your computer, the internet or the bookmaker has reliability issues. It’s rare that – very differently to a pre-match bettor – an in-play trader wishes to expose their full stake, because they will almost certainly have an exit point, whether the trade has gone in a positive or negative way. Therefore it is necessary to have a back-up plan in case these issues, which whilst being rare, do occur.

Recommended back-up would be the following:-

• An iPad and iPhone in case of computer malfunction.
• A 3G connection on an iPhone (or similar) in case the internet fails. This can be used to monitor positions on a phone or tablet, or using a phone as a personal hotspot to provide internet access on a computer.
• Several exchange or bookmaker accounts in case the bookmaker or exchange of choice has problems.

Having all three of these is highly recommended in case of technological failure. As previously mentioned, with trading, often a trader’s stake is a lot bigger than their stop-loss figure, so a loss of a full stake can be disastrous. Having these back-up solutions will ensure that this disaster does not occur.

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Source: pinnacle.com