Price boosts explained: what an enhanced price is worth
A price boost is a bookmaker offering higher odds on one selection. How max stakes cap it, how to test if it beats the fair price, and a worked example.
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A price boost is a bookmaker offering higher odds than usual on one selection: the old price crossed out, a new, bigger one beside it. It looks like a gift. Whether it is one depends on a single question: is the boosted price above the fair price for that selection? If not, you are being offered a slightly less bad price, not a good one.
How a boost works
The details below are Sky Bet's, and other books vary.
- Boosts are labelled on the market, with the previous odds crossed out.
- You do not need to opt in: add it to the slip and place the bet.
- A maximum stake applies, and it can vary from customer to customer.
- For its enhanced accumulators, backing the same selections separately inside your own accumulator does not get you the boosted price.
- Boosted odds can move, and the book can restrict an account from the offer.
The cap matters most. A big boost on a small maximum stake can only ever be worth a small amount of money.
The only test that matters
Take the boosted price and compare it with your own estimate of the chance.
- Turn your chance into a fair price: 1 ÷ chance.
- Compare. If the boosted price is above the fair price, the bet has a positive edge on your estimate. If it is below, it does not, boost or no boost.
Made-up numbers to show the arithmetic. A side is normally 2.00 and is boosted to 2.50. If your chance for that side is 45%, the fair price is 2.22, and 2.50 is above it: the edge is 45% minus the 40% that 2.50 implies, 5 points. If your chance is 35%, the fair price is 2.86, and 2.50 is below it: a boosted price that is still a losing bet.
A shorter way to see it: the boost shifted the price, not the chance. Our own numbers stay put when the price moves, which is covered in why our chance stays put when the price moves.
How much is a boost worth in money
A boost is worth the edge times the stake, and the stake is capped. If a boost gives you a 5 point edge on a maximum £10 stake, the expected gain is about 50p on that bet. Real, small, and it will lose far more often than it wins. How big the swings are is in what variance does to a good bet.
Why bookmakers offer them
A boost draws you to a market and an account, and the book chooses which selections to boost and caps the stake. The cap and the right to restrict accounts, both in Sky Bet's terms, keep the cost to the book small. None of that makes a boost bad; it means it needs checking like any other price.
A checklist before you take a boost
- Is the boosted price actually above your fair price?
- What is the maximum stake, and is it worth the time?
- Is the same selection already at a better price elsewhere? See line shopping explained.
- Does the boost vanish if you add it to an accumulator?
What this does not tell you
BAI8 does not price boosts or promotions. The numbers above are made-up arithmetic to show the test, not research outputs, and the terms quoted are one bookmaker's. Read the terms of the boost you are offered.
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Common questions
What is a price boost?
A bookmaker offers higher odds than normal on one selection, shown with the old price crossed out. At Sky Bet, for example, boosts are labelled and need no opt-in.
Is a price boost always good value?
No. A boost is only worth taking if the boosted price is above the fair price for the selection. A boost from 2.00 to 2.50 on something with a true chance of 35% is still a losing bet.
What is the maximum stake on a price boost?
It varies by bookmaker and by customer. Sky Bet says max stake rules apply and can vary from customer to customer, so the cap limits how much the boost can ever be worth.
Can I get the boosted price by building the same accumulator myself?
Not on Sky Bet's accumulator boosts: backing the selections separately in an accumulator does not entitle you to the boosted price.
Does BAI8 price boosts?
No. BAI8 prices the match result and compares our chance with the price at bookmakers. A boost is just a different price, and the same test applies.