One of the most contentious issues about betting in-play is the delay between the live action and when you can see it on TV.
Here's a few tips on what to look for and how to put the odds back in your favour.
1 - Never expect to have the fastest pictures available.
The only way you can possibly be seeing an event faster than anyone else is by being there yourself, seeing it with your own eyes. But how would you get a bet on? You could use Betfair Mobile or call someone to put bets on for you, but you still have to relay the information, confirm it etc and risk making a mistake in the rush. 3G cards, mobile betting applications etc aren't fast enough to get a significant advantage. There is money to be made here, expect people to take every advantage they can possibly get.
2 - Sometimes old technology is better than new
Go back to 'the good old days' before cable and satellite TV and everyone saw the same pictures at the same time. The analogue signal meant we had a level playing field. The only thing that was faster than your old TV set with a standard antenna was the radio. But those days are gone for good. Now we have analogue, digital, cable, satellite and online broadcasting all with different lag times.
If you have two TVs in your house and have cable/satellite TV, put one on a local channel (eg BBC) through your Sky/satellite box, and the other on the same channel using a standard antenna. Turn up the volume and hear the difference. The old TV will be faster! So if time is crucial (eg betting in-running), use the antenna option if an event is on a free-to-air channel.
Satellite channels such as AtTheRaces, Eurosport, SkySports etc will all have greater delays than terrestrial channels. Think about it logically - it all comes down to the technological process - camera films action, sends it to producer who selects which camera to broadcast, pictures beamed from production studio to satellite, the satellite then sends an encrypted signal back to Earth which is received by private dishes, that signal is then deciphered by the satellite box as it verifies the subscription to said channel is valid, then you see it on screen.
Also, TV networks have no commercial interest in whether the delay is two seconds or ten. American networks may have a seven-second delay in case of a 'wardrobe malfunction' or something pedantic like that, but this is different. Certain channels are faster than others. Eurosport has a reputation for being one of the slowest in the UK. Imagine a match between Panathanaikos and Man Utd. It may be broadcast on a local channel in Greece but on Sky in the UK. Unless you are there watching it happen real-time, chances are someone else has access to faster pictures than you. There will be times when UK punters have the fastest pictures (eg Royal Ascot, Wimbledon) and times when they don't (international events).
3. Watch the screen, watch the market
So you've just turned on an event on 'live TV', it's an exciting stage and you want to have a bet. WAIT! Watch the screen for a significant event (missed red, break point, horse falling) and see when the market reacts to it. Sometimes it will be before you even see it on TV. Don't forget to refresh the Betfair market yourself - it only refreshes naturally every 30 seconds.
If you see the market moving before it happens on screen, then other people have an advantage over you. Don't place a bet and then moan about it - either don't bet at all (remember there's always another race, another match...) or think about how to counter that disadvantage.
4. Let the market come to you
You're watching a tennis match and the prices move before the ball has even gone out. It will happen, particularly when the event is not on your local station. Remember that prices also change because some punters will remove their bet offers while the ball is in-play, not wanting to get caught out by someone else's faster feed.
Try thinking ahead and let the market come to you. Imagine a match where the market is 1.8 for the receiver, 2.2 for the server. The score is 2-2, 30-all. It's a tricky point, if the server wins the next one, his price drops to about 2, but if he loses it and goes down a break point, his price drifts markedly out to 3. But in all that movement, the prices would have been very volatile in that short term. All prices on Betfair are set by customers, and in-play, they set the market, they can't rely on figures from a bookmaker because they won't be as fast to update. Hence there can be major over-reactions. The price of 3 mentioned earlier - in the few seconds before that price stabilised might have been as low at 2.6 and high as 3.5. But if you blinked, you probably missed it. Don't be afraid to ask for a price and let the market come to you - let these people over-react and take silly prices, giving you great value!
5. Timing is everything
If that doesn't work for you, then bet at the times the market is stable and being a few seconds behind isn't an issue. If it's a two-mile horse race, then the action doesn't really hot up until the last half-mile. Betting early won't leave you at a big disadvantage. Betting in the last furlong as they all charge for home is when a gap of a few seconds really makes a difference.
In tennis, wait until between the points or at the change of ends. Even the start of a game doesn't matter too much, but at key points, if you know you are a few seconds behind and then try to react to what's happened on screen and 'beat' everyone else to the price, you'll miss out every time.
In football, the broadcast delay doesn't matter a great deal because Betfair suspend the market every time a goal is scored or it looks like there has been a penalty or red card awarded. When it can matter is when you are trying to 'micro-trade' when the ball is out of play etc and the under 2.5 goals market is still moving.
6. You can control how fast you bet
The majority of punters who complain about being five seconds behind watching AtTheRaces are the same people who take at least five seconds to place a bet. You can't control how fast your pictures are, but you can control how fast you place your bets! It takes only ONE click of the mouse to place any bet, the rest can be done by keyboard much, much faster.