I revisited this idea in the last hour. What it comes down too is the bookies have a nice 20% overround, that pays the wages and overheads. But like you say Pat, they employ traders of their own and use their skills in handicapping to pump out a bit more profit. They do that, as you say, by offering a price better than the lay price to attract some business (not arbers ), knowing that probability is on their side as they've done their own form, looked at the oppositions prices and thought they could do a bit better for little or no extra risk.

So casting my eye over all the bookies prices looking for at least 3 offering a price >= to the current Lay $. I've picked up a couple of hundred in the last hour just Laying that selection (not arbing), on the dogs and gallops. Probably just lucky but there is logic behind it. Now this is deja vu for me as I've been here before, wanted to implement an automated system but was let down by an odds comparison mob with the initials of the first two letters in DOOMBEN. (last time I mentioned them, I got sidelined by the mods)

Gary, do you still use them? and is yours integrated into excel? They weren't interested in helping anyone set it up last time I tried.