Ante Post Football Betting

The term Ante Post originates from horse racing and refers to betting on a horse before it goes to "post". The post being a historical reference to a wooden post that used to mark the start point of a race.

You can simply read Ante Post these days as betting before the day of a race in horse racing or for football betting, before the start of an event.

In terms of football betting popular ante post markets include trying to predict the winner of major leagues such as the Premiership or major soccer competitions such as the FIFA World Cup. Bookmakers also often form ante post markets on the likes of Top Premiership Goal Scorer or a touch more pessimistically , which football team will get relegated.

Is There Value In Ante Post Betting?

Often no but sometimes yes is the muddy gray answer.

If we look at a betting market such as the World Cup for example you can place a bet several years in advance of the main event actually taking place. Have a bet on a team you fancy and you may be holding a betting slip with odds much greater than available when the World Cup proper kicks off. On the other hand before a ball has even been kicked in the World Cup finals your bet may have already lost your cash if your team did not make it through qualification.

A key point to note with horse racing especially is that if you have an ante post bet and your selection does not run in the race..you have lost. Bet on race day on the other hand and if your horse is withdrawn then you get your stake back. With an ante post bet you are often taking a gamble on your selection to actually run.

A similar analogy from the soccer world may be an ante post bet on Top Premiership Goal Scorer

Wayne Rooney could stub his toe again in training the day before the Premiership kicks off and miss half a season.

Positives Of Ante Post Betting

I know quite a few serious punters who are very happy to play ante post. What they do is try and build a book over time covering several teams using a combination of backing and laying. Take for example the simple scenario of backing a team ante post for £100 at 10/1. When markets move their way that same team they may lay again at 5/1. For simplicity ignoring exchange commission that results in an upside of £500 and a downside of zero.

Such an approach can of course be taken in a horse race or soccer match. However the pace of things is a lot slower in an ante post market and you have more time to think and make calculations and decisions.

Downsides of Ante Post Betting

The obvious one as touch on above is that you will lose your stake if your selection does not run.

Another not so obvious one is that it can tie up your capital for a long amount of time.

You could have your cash sitting in a bank earning interest as opposed to it sitting in the bookies coffers for months or years even.

Obviously if you are a bookmaker it's the other way round. You can keep a punters cash and earn interest on it for a long period of time.

Ante Post Bookmaker Warning

A bit of experienced wisdom for you here.

Tread carefully if betting ante post with some lesser know bookmakers.

I have seen scenarios where certain bookmakers go top price about all the main contenders in an ante post market.

Why would they do this?

Well they may do so if the are running out of cash and need to gather in funds they do not have to pay out on for a long period of time. In effect they are putting up silly attractive and often easy to arb ante post prices because they have cash flow problems.

So additional risk with an ante post bet is that your bookmaker will still be around and trading in six months or a years time when you come to collect.

I actually recall advising a major oddschecker site that I suspected that such a thing was going on with one bookmaker.

Said odds checker site did not use the betting brain they claimed to have and kept sending their customers over to them. Shortly after the rouge bookie as anticipated proved me right and went under with no pay back to the customers.

Stick with the bigger name bookmakers however and you will be fine.

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