On a betting exchange, you bet peer to peer against other parties. On a sportsbook, you bet against the house. We believe the betting exchange model provides numerous benefits to the player:
Better odds: With a peer to peer exchange, you are betting against your peers and not against the house. So there is no margin built into the odds, as Degens makes its money by charging a small fee on winning bets compared to a typical book who makes money by taking player bets directly, thus building a margin into the odds.
Ability to make lay bets: On an exchange, you can make lay bets where you are wagering on something NOT happening. An example wager on an exchange being, "I bet that Chelsea will NOT win the championship." This isn’t typically possible at a sportsbook which only gives you the opportunity to bet that Chelsea WILL win the championship.
Ability to trade in-game: On betting exchanges such as Degens, you can trade in and out of your position at any time up until the match has finished. You can effectively day-trade a sporting event which isn’t possible with a typical sports book.
Thus the days of placing a bet and hoping for the best from the moment the game began or the race was off are over. You can adjust your position an unlimited number of times throughout the event. Even if your initial bet ends up being a loser, you can still make money from the event as long as at some point it shortened in price.
No betting limits: Since you aren't betting against the house, a single entity with risk controls in place, there are no inherent betting limits, as long as you can find somebody else to take the other side. Thanks to the exchange model, a large bet can be matched by dozens if not hundreds of different counterparties.
And because of this, Degens will never ban winning players unlike a typical sports book which can ban professionals as it directly affects their bottom line.
Set your own odds: The biggest advantage of a betting exchange is the ability to enter your own odds, and effectively be your own bookie. Whereas a traditional bookie decides the odds, and you either choose to accept or decline.
