Being able to spot turning points in sporting events can be the key to making huge profits from in-play trading. I have spoken recently about the impact of the half time break on football matches and shown an example in the recent El Clasico match. When it comes to other sports you will find that the turning points can be their own “half time break” too as most sports do have them in some form.

Darts Trading

Something really does seem to happen during the break in Darts matches that is for sure. In most darts matches there is always a point, normally after a couple of sets or a few legs depending on the format, where the players get a five minutes break and they go off stage and gather their thoughts slightly. We don’t normally see this part as Sky will normally go to the adverts so it can be easy to miss.

This really can be a great time to take on the player who has been in the ascendency leading up to the break. In last nights Darts Premier League there were a couple of examples of players racing into huge leads before being pegged back.

Kevin Painter went 5-0 up against current champion Anderson (1.50 favourite) and was trading as low as 1.29.. Just before the break, Anderson pulled it back to 5-1 and you could sense that was a turning point in the match. Going into the break Anderson would have had time to rethink his game a bit and an underdog such as Painter would have probably gone into the break slightly worried about Anderson pulling a leg back.

We then saw that Anderson levelled it at 6-6 after the break and Painter went from trading as low as 1.29 to as high as 5 before sealing the win by a score of 8-6. So the markets did get it right and Painter did hold on for the win but not before a huge swing which us traders could have profited from.

Taylor V Lewis

Then there was a similar situation in the Taylor V Lewis match. Lewis steamed ahead to a 6-0 lead and traded as low as 1.11 before Taylor pulled one back to make it 6-1 and you just sensed the match had potentially turned at that point. Perhaps, you need experience with watching darts to sense these moments but as soon as Taylor got on the score board you could see Lewis getting tense, Taylor becoming galvanized and the crowd with their tails up in support of Taylor. With Lewis, trading lower then 1.20 it really wouldn’t hurt to take him on at that point. The odds are all over the place in Darts matches so even if you only wanted to gain about 20 ticks you would only have to put an order in at 1.40 and you will probably get matched.

As it was, the match HAD turned and Taylor, who had traded as high as 50, pulled it back to 6-6. A pretty insane come back but this is the best player of all time we are talking about!

In the end it finished as a draw at 7-7 and those who had lumped on Lewis at the low odds were left ruing their decision and the low-layers were left dancing into the night!

Another Example…

Even the football last night showed more examples of the points I have been making.

In Serie A, Lazio were pre-match favourites to beat Cesena @ 1.50 but had a disastrous first half. They went into half time 0-2 down and with a man sent off. Cesena were priced @ 1.20 to complete the win. However, the Lazio manager now had a good 15 minutes to organise and motivate his team Rafa Benitez style and so you should have expected a completely different second half even if Lazio were down to 10 men. At odds of 1.20 you don’t have much to lose if you decide to lay it but you do have much to gain and it can only take one goal from Lazio for the odds to jump high enough to give you a shot at a risk free trade or to go all green if you want.

Anyway, I wasn’t involved in this one but I wasn’t surprised to see that Lazio came out and won the match 3-2 in the end. As said before, it really is a game of two halves!

A huge weekend of Sport is ahead of us once again, so whichever events you decide to get involved with just keep an eye out for these situations. When there is plenty of time left on the clock and you see a team or player trading lower then you think they should. Just take them on!

Who dares wins!