A question for all the layers

wb

Does anyone else feel that the market has matured a lot in the past year or so, and its getting harder to make a profit? I've started my end of year review of all my backing and laying, and for the first time ever, my backing is outperforming my laying (especially my dutch backs, and a 'long shots' system that I run). My main bulk of laying selections had performed well up until the end of the summer, but they are pretty static since then. At first, I put it down to the NH season change-over, but its nearly the end of December at this stage, and the bank has been fairly level for a while.
Now, this may be just a trend, or perhaps frustration about my laying becoming static on my part, and Im well aware of the need for long term thinking when it comes to lays - however, could it be that the backers are becoming more shrewd and getting matched at better prices than they would accept before? I always thought that the growth in exchanges would lead to better liquidity and better gambling oppertunities, but im finding the lays are getting tight lately.
I read recently that the average SP has gone up a bit in the past couple of years, as the bookies cut their overound to compete with the exchanges. If this is the case, coupled with the fact that layers are offering 20% better odds (according to the ads) than SP, that makes margins much tighter than
in the early days.

The other side of the coin is that my backing has improved a lot over the past year. Some of this is down to learning more about racing, but some of it may be to do with the prices Im getting matched at.

So what says you?

Just a blip/trend in my laying, or are you getting similar findings?

masterK

I can't really see how anything could have changed since most races are still close to a 100% book, if layers were being forced offer bigger prices then there would be an underround which would make it possible to dutch all runners in a race and make a profit.

One thing I have noticed is that you can get some tasty odds matched soon after a market has opened when the liquidity is almost non existant, but the amounts in question would be peanuts compared to the overall market.

As for this 20% better odds, this is an average figure and can be quite misleading, you will usually find it's only 0-10% better for horses towards the head of the market while outsiders can often be 400% higher.

Colonel Sanders

I used to make a killing laying horses for places but that market seems to have wised up and some horses I fancy laying are a lot bigger than I'm prepared to go to. the over rounds are similar so obviously the horses are just being priced up more realistically