paidAffiliate disclosure. The partner link in the masthead and in the band beside the copy on this page is a sponsored link to a partner operator, and this site may be paid if you open an account through it, at no extra cost to you. It carries rel="sponsored noopener" and opens in a new tab. A desk about how a price is set for one account should not leave its own funding unsaid: one link funds the site, and no operator, product or price is named, rated or recommended anywhere on it.
Your Price / The chosen price
Pick a price, give up some size
The quote the reader chooses for themselves
The fourth mechanism is the only one the reader operates. A price is offered at several levels and each level has its own ceiling, so choosing a longer price buys a bigger multiple and gives up the right to stake the larger amount.
Desk spec
- prices offered
- 3
- maximum stakes
- 100 / 50 / 20
- maximum returns
- 170 / 95 / 42
- ratio
- 4.05 times
the market priceThe price shown beside a selection before an account is considered. On the samples it is 1.90 on every screen, and it is the price the receipt is measured against.
the quoteThe price your own account is offered. Across 120 accounts on one selection it ran from 1.88 to 2.00, a spread of 6.4%, and 42 of the 120 accounts were offered the market price exactly.
the receiptThe price at the moment you accept governs the bet. Of 100 disputed quotes the receipt price governed 100 and the headline price governed none of them.
Direct answerA choose-your-price feature offers the same selection at several prices, each with its own maximum stake. On the samples 1.70 carried a 100.00 ceiling, 1.90 a 50.00 ceiling and 2.10 a 20.00 ceiling, so the maximum returns were 170.00, 95.00 and 42.00. The longest price had the smallest ceiling, and the shortest price returned the most in total.
Why a price has to be traded against size
A selection has one underlying probability, so a price above the market price is a price the operator is paying more than it needs to. The way that is controlled is not by refusing the long price but by capping how much of it can be taken. Choosing your own price is therefore not a choice between three better and worse prices: it is a choice of where on one line to sit, and every point on the line is a different combination of price and size.
Sample F - three prices on one selection, each with its own ceiling
| Price chosen | Against 1.90 | Maximum stake | Maximum return |
|---|
| 1.70 | -10.5% | 100.00 | 170.00 |
| 1.90 | 0.0% | 50.00 | 95.00 |
| 2.10 | +10.5% | 20.00 | 42.00 |
| three prices | 21.0% apart | 5 times apart | 4.05 times apart |
sample F - the three lines, priced properly
1.70 with a 100.00 ceiling -> 100.00 x 1.70 = 170.00
1.90 with a 50.00 ceiling -> 50.00 x 1.90 = 95.00
2.10 with a 20.00 ceiling -> 20.00 x 2.10 = 42.00
the shortest price returns the most in total:
170.00 / 42.00 = 4.05 times the longest price
and the spread of prices is 2.10 / 1.70 = 1.2353 -> 23.5% in price terms,
against a spread of 5 times in the ceilings that go with them,
so the ceiling moves further than the price does.
The choice is a bet on your own confidence
There is a second reading of the same three lines, and it is the one that decides which to take: the longer the price, the less likely the outcome. A reader who believes the selection is stronger than the market price implies is the reader the short price suits, because the short price lets the money in.
sample F - the same three lines read as probabilities
the three prices imply three different probabilities:
1 / 1.70 = 58.8% 1 / 1.90 = 52.6% 1 / 2.10 = 47.6%
the maximum returns under each, at each ceiling:
170.00 / 95.00 / 42.00, a ratio of 4.05 between the ends
and the money at stake in each case:
100.00 / 50.00 / 20.00 = 5.00 / 2.50 / 1.00 relative units
so the reader taking 2.10 is accepting a 47.6% implied chance and
a ceiling one fifth of the ceiling at 1.70, on the same selection, in the same minute.
Check a choose-your-price screen before you pick a line
- Are the ceilings shown beside each price, or only the prices?
- Is the short price short enough that you would have taken it without the feature?
- Is the ceiling set in money or in units of your normal stake, which are different ceilings?
- Does the same screen apply the chosen price to one selection or to the whole bet?
- If you would stake above the ceiling, what price applies to the excess?
Read next