play121.com

Play121.com is another player-to-player betting site in the mould of Betfair and Flutter. Punters can take and lay bets with other punters with Play121 acting as the middle man you takes a 5% cut on the profit of the eventual winner.

On first entering the site you'll find yourself in the "Gateway." This is basically a hub from which all other parts of the website can be reached. On the left hand side you'll find references ...
...take you directly to the relevant market (the "Arena") for the event. It is worth pointing out that these references are not always up to date - you'll often find links to sporting events which have already taken place... and no, you can't bet on an event that's already happened!

Elsewhere on the Gateway screen you'll find links explaining how to use the site. There are also links to a news service, fun and games (e.g. quizzes), ... more

Play121.com is another player-to-player betting site in the mould of Betfair and Flutter. Punters can take and lay bets with other punters with Play121 acting as the middle man you takes a 5% cut on the profit of the eventual winner.

On first entering the site you'll find yourself in the "Gateway." This is basically a hub from which all other parts of the website can be reached. On the left hand side you'll find references to various sporting events. Clicking on one of these will take you directly to the relevant market (the "Arena") for the event. It is worth pointing out that these references are not always up to date - you'll often find links to sporting events which have already taken place... and no, you can't bet on an event that's already happened!

Elsewhere on the Gateway screen you'll find links explaining how to use the site. There are also links to a news service, fun and games (e.g. quizzes), chat etc, etc.

First things first. You'll need to sign up to the site and register your credit/debit card details. Though you're given the option of having either a sterling or US dollar denominated account, all transactions are carried out using the mighty greenback with the appropriate exchange rate. You may like me find when your credit/debit card statement arrives that there is a small discrepancy between what you thought you'd credited and what actually was credited. Anyhow, in my case the discrepancy was just a few pence - nothing to worry about. You'll hopefully want to be withdrawing your winnings at some point. I've haven't actually tried this yet but apparently their preferred method of payment is by cheque. They also say they might pay back to your credit/debit card up to a maximum of the amount originally credited from it.

Taking a bet is very straightforward. Once you've studied the bets available in the Arena and made your selection, you click on the little blue box to the right of the bet. This will then tell you that you can challenge such and such at odds of whatever. Beneath all of this are a couple of boxes. In the first box, "I risk," you enter your stake and the amount you could win will automatically appear in the "To win" box. In the event of a win, your actual return will be the "To win" amount (less 5% commission to Play121) plus your original stake. Bet settlement times, though variable, are generally reasonably quick.

You aren't just restricted to taking other people's plays - you can also lay odds of your own. In the top left hand corner of the Arena you'll find a circular button, "Make new play." Clicking on this will bring up a small window into which you can lay out the terms of your bet. It's a very nice system, using a series of drop-down menus into which you can lay out the terms of your bet. It needs little more explanation except to say that it is important to remember that you are setting out the terms of the bet from your side and not as it will appear on the Arena screen. To give an example, suppose you wanted to offer odds of 2/5 on England beating Mexico. You would actually enter the bet as "England WON'T win" and your odds would be the reciprocal of that which appears in the Arena - in this case 5/2. For beginners, it is certainly well worth checking the Arena to see that the bet you entered is actually what you intended it to be.

Once you laid and taken a few bets you might want to go back and check on them. This can be done from the "My account" button at the bottom of the Arena screen. This brings up another small window detailing your name, nickname, account balance, money in play and potential winnings. Below this are various buttons for topping up or withdrawing for your balance as well as altering your account details. To see which bets you're actually involved with you'll need to click on the "Account statement" button. It is with this screen that I would lay my biggest criticism of the site. You are presented with a list of your transactions along the lines of "Make Play", "Take Play" etc. All of your bets are given an ID number. Now, the diligent ones amongst you would probably have noted down your bet ID number when you took or layed a bet - I don't and I doubt I'm alone in that. So to see which bet it was that the ID number is actually referring to you're going to have to click on the "Make Play" (or variant) link to the left of the ID. Surely Play121 could put some kind of meaningful reference to the bet in question rather than an anonymous looking ID number? A small tip here - if you want to cancel any of your remaining layed bets then don't do it from here - do it from the Arena screen. In the top right of the screen (just to the left of the Play121 logo) you'll see a clock-like device entitled "...or Get:" At round about the 4 o'clock position you'll have a link to "My plays." Clicking on this will present you with a meaningful list of all the bets you're currently involved in. If you want to cancel one then just select it and click on the link to "... close this play now."

Play121's biggest problem at the moment seems to be a rather small user base. Consequently, available odds on certain markets can sometimes be a bit sparse. Things do tend to liven up in the hours before a fixture takes place but this is not always convenient. I don't necessarily agree with the view that a majority of the odds on offer are a rip-off. I for one have taken some cracking odds recently. A case in point was an offer of 5/2 on Arsenal winning at Southampton on the last day of the season. As things turned out, Arsenal lost the match but nonetheless, 5/2 was significantly better than I could find elsewhere.

In conclusion, Play121 is a fairly user-friendly site with a huge variety of possible markets. All that is currently missing are a few extra punters. I'd recommend it. 

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