Smarkets statements contain a good level of detail about the progress of your bets on the exchange, from bet placement to bet settlement. However, they can be a little confusing, especially when you are new to using an exchange. This is a guide to help to understand these statements.
Smarkets have their own guide to their statement in their help section:-
How to Use Your Account Statement
Statement Options
At the top of the statement there are options to select the date range of results shown, the types of activity and categories of bets:-
There are certain pre-set date ranges that can be selected, from 'Today' all the way up to 'Last 365 Days':-
You can also select a custom range of dates by clicking on the first date of your desired range and then clicking the last date:-
The activity types can also be filtered for, which can make it much easier to find certain bets that you are looking for:-
Similarly, the categories filter can be used to focus on bets on certain sports:-
Summary of Bets
Just underneath the filters is a breakdown of your bets placed during the period set by the filter, as well as a summary from the current month, and your commission rate:-
Statement
The statement shows the different stages of progress of your bets, from placement to settlement. It also shows when bets are partially matched or voided. The statement reads from bottom to top (i.e. the most recent entries are at the top).
Bet Placement
At the bottom of the screenshot you can see that a lay bet against Gutsy Lady was placed with a lay stake of £24 and odds of 13:-
The liability of the bet is £288.09, and this is shown under the £24.00 stake. The exposure (the amount in red) is the maximum amount that you could lose at Smarkets, for all current open bets. In this case the exposure is the same as the liability for this bet, which is the only open bet.
To give another example, if you had four lay bets against four different football games, your exposure would be the sum of all of the liabilites for these bets. You would lose this exposure from your Smarkets account if all of these lay bets lost. However, since we are matched betting, this loss would be covered by corresponding bets at one or more bookmakers, so you don't need to worry about it. What it does tell you is how much money is currently 'tied up' in your Smarkets bets, which can be useful to know.
Above the 'Bet Placed' line in the statement you can see a couple of entries for partially matched bets. These show that the bet was partially matched with £1.01 being matched to start with, then another £9.75, and finally £13.23, giving a total of the £24.00 stake (it actually adds up to £23.99, but this will be due to rounding on the Smarkets statement).
Looking at the times on the statement, it can be seen that the bet was placed, partially matched and fully matched at the same time (15:22:48). This means that there was probably at least £24 liquidity in the lay market at the time that the bet was placed, and that the bet was matched with several different people's bets, all at the same time, immediately after bet placement. The important point to note is that the bet is shown as fully matched in the top entry.
Settled Bets
The screenshot below shows the settlement of the 15:40 race, with the £4.40 lay stake against Hurricane Lane being won. The liability of £3.49 would have been returned to the account, along with the £4.40 profit. The confirmation that the Third Realm bet was settled for zero loss can also be seen:-
Below is a screenshot of a losing lay bet. The liability of £9.90 was lost at Smarkets, since the lay bet lost. This will have happened because the horse that was laid won the race. Bear in mind that only the liability is lost when you lose your lay bet. The lay stake is not also lost, and this amount is not at risk (the lay stake is what you win if your lay bet wins):-
Voided and Bet Reduced Bets
Sometimes (mainly in horse racing, but this can affect other sports), you will end up with voided bets and reduced bets. This can be seen in the following screenshot:-
This information was found on the Racing Post website. Other places to check racing results can be found here.
In the 15:40 Ascot, Third Realm was a non-runner, so the lay bet against the horse was voided and settled for £0 profit or loss, as can be seen. The liability would have been returned to the account.
In the 17:00 Ascot, the lay bet against Blackrod won, because the horse did not win the race. The lay stake of £7.74 was received as profit, and the liability of this bet would have been returned to the account.
In the 17:35 Ascot, the bet against Aldous Huxley was voided, as the horse was a non-runner. A 'Bet Reduced' entry can be seen, with the Aldous Huxley odds being decreased from 9.99 to 9.4967 as a result of a Rule 4 Deduction. However, since Aldous Huxley was a non-runner, the bet was voided, as mentioned, so this reduction did not affect the bet, which was settled for zero loss.