Why has tennis become so dead?

[notangel]

I remember two years ago even the most unpopular matches were actively traded. Now, either a bot (a Betfair bot or someone else's bot, I don't know) enters the market, or there's no money. I'm not talking about Grand Slam matches but about matches taking place now, for example, during Christmas and New Year's. If you take a bet, in many cases you won't sell it because the bot will completely believe in the outcome, even if the bookmaker's odds are higher.And no one trades the markets except the bot.
The situation often reaches the point of absurdity. I understand that it's almost impossible to get a super-value bet, like 10 years ago. But even if you placed a lay of 1.05 three hours before the match, there's no guarantee you'll get a back of 1.06. The market is absolutely stagnant. This is despite the fact that, in addition to Betfair, many brokers use the Betfair platform and must create some liquidity.
Where did all the money go?

[ODPaul82]

It's been ITF level for the last 2 weeks which has never had liquidity at any point of the year barring the Abu Dhabi one in December.

Last couple of years there has been the season openers with WTA Auckland starting around 28th/29th December, think ATP Cup started end of December last year.
This year they're a bit later I believe to give the players more of a rest.

[notangel]

It's been ITF level for the last 2 weeks which has never had liquidity at any point of the year barring the Abu Dhabi one in December.

Last couple of years there has been the season openers with WTA Auckland starting around 28th/29th December, think ATP Cup started end of December last year.
This year they're a bit later I believe to give the players more of a rest.

I agree, ITF wasn't very active, but it was always possible to make a deal there, at least at odds roughly equal to the bookmaker's. Now even that is often impossible. So if I place a bet there, it's a one-way ticket; it's impossible to make a reverse bet later in many cases.
I think I need to deposit money into a bookmaker and insure my bet there, since I can’t even get such odds on Betfair.

[notangel]

Perhaps there never was human money in illiquid markets. Betfair itself matched bets. Now they've fixed the algorithm and matched only in ways that were very favorable to themselves, or to one side expecting a win based on certain criteria. Because they lost a lot there to traders like me.
A bit of conspiracy theory but they won't tell us the truth. I don't believe everyone suddenly stopped betting on such markets. We are seeing zeros in some tennis markets before the game starts, something that would never have happened 10 years ago

[notangel]

Ashmitha Easwaramurthi
vs
Alyssa Reguer

In this match, I bet lay 1.03 Reguer thinking about trading, but I saw before the game started that no one wanted to bet on the underdog, so I tried to back it at 1.03. But it didn't work out and I lost 25 euros, even trying to trade it live. Meanwhile bookmakers like William Hill were offering odds of 1.04 on a win. But I couldn't even take the back 1.03!!!

[jamesedwards]

Why does everyone getting beaten by bots assume it is Betfair playing in their own markets? You can't move for has-beens on the Betfair forum lamenting about how great things used to be before Betfair started cheating them out of their profits.

There are thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of people and syndicates betting into Betfair using bots. It's only logical that exchange markets get more and more difficult over time as players get smarter and volumes get smaller. If you don't evolve you will eventually die.

[notangel]

Why does everyone getting beaten by bots assume it is Betfair playing in their own markets? You can't move for has-beens on the Betfair forum lamenting about how great things used to be before Betfair started cheating them out of their profits.

There are thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of people and syndicates betting into Betfair using bots. It's only logical that exchange markets get more and more difficult over time as players get smarter and volumes get smaller. If you don't evolve you will eventually die.

I understand it's gotten more difficult; there's no easy money—only the pros are left. But when you can't even get lower odds than the bookmaker's, that's complete bullshit.

[jamesedwards]

Why does everyone getting beaten by bots assume it is Betfair playing in their own markets? You can't move for has-beens on the Betfair forum lamenting about how great things used to be before Betfair started cheating them out of their profits.

There are thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of people and syndicates betting into Betfair using bots. It's only logical that exchange markets get more and more difficult over time as players get smarter and volumes get smaller. If you don't evolve you will eventually die.

I understand it's gotten more difficult; there's no easy money—only the pros are left. But when you can't even get lower odds than the bookmaker's, that's complete bullshit.

Surely if that's the case then you could be backing at the bookie and arbing on the Exchange?

[Euler]

Negative minds find problems, positive ones opportunities.

[notangel]

Surely if that's the case then you could be backing at the bookie and arbing on the Exchange?

I don't bet at bookmakers because I've always been a Betfair trader. I don't have an account there. But now I'll be thinking about it because Betfair has become terrible. They let you bet on one outcome and then wait for it to finish. Betting on a different outcome is often simply impossible or very-very unprofitable.
Besides as far as I know, the maximum bet on such matches at bookmakers is laughable.

[notangel]

Negative minds find problems, positive ones opportunities.

As long as you have a living from there, you see opportunities. But believe me as an old trader, things have gotten very bad.
And if they banned bots the exchange would simply died; there would be almost no human money left.

You used to be able to earn a million, but now you won't even make 100,000. You might say you need to improve, but then again, even with improvement, you won't earn as much as you would have if you were less experienced before.