A tissue price is a draft price set for a runner or team before its market opens and before any money has been bet; the tissue is the full set of those prices for the field. A bookmaker's odds compiler draws one to turn a view of the event into opening prices, and punters can draw their own, so they have a price before the market can sway them.
The word has two meanings: a draft framed to 100%, the compiler's honest view with the margin added at the open, and a draft with the margin already in. Check which kind a tissue is before comparing it with yours.
How a bookmaker tissue is drawn
The compiler rates the field, turns the ratings into chances and writes them as prices. To open the market, the margin goes on, popular selections may be shaded shorter, and prices are rounded to the bookmaker's steps. With an illustrative 106% market and the margin spread evenly, a team the tissue rates a 40% chance, a fair $2.50, opens at about 1 / (0.40 x 1.06) = $2.36. How bookmakers set odds follows the process in full.
Tissue vs opening price
| Tissue price | Opening price | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A draft, before any bets | The first price you can bet at, and the first point on the flucs |
| Margin | At 100% or with the margin in, depending on who drew it | Margin in, and sometimes shaded |
| Who sees it | The compiler, or the punter who drew it | Everyone |
| What moves it next | Nothing: it is a snapshot | Bets, news and other bookmakers |
The opening price entry follows what happens after the open.
How punters use their own tissue
Draw your tissue before you look at the market, framed to 100%, then hold the market against it at the open and again near the start.
Example: An illustrative four-runner race: your tissue, then one bookmaker's prices at the open and five minutes before the jump.
| Runner | Your chance | Tissue price | Opening price | Price near the jump |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runner 1 | 40% | $2.50 | $2.20 | $2.30 |
| Runner 2 | 30% | $3.33 | $3.70 | $3.10 |
| Runner 3 | 20% | $5.00 | $5.20 | $6.00 |
| Runner 4 | 10% | $10.00 | $7.50 | $8.00 |
Runner 2 opened 3.70 / 3.333 - 1 = 11.0% above your tissue, then the market came round to your view and past it. A bet at the open beat the late price by 3.70 / 3.10 - 1 = 19.4%. Runner 3 opened 5.20 / 5.00 - 1 = 4.0% above your tissue and drifted to $6.00, 6.00 / 5.00 - 1 = 20% above it: a reason to check what you missed, not a stronger bet.
Over a few hundred races, a market that keeps moving towards your tissue says your prices are ahead of it, and one that keeps moving away says they are behind. Each line of your tissue is a runner's rated price, how to frame a betting market builds a full one, and setting your price first is where a betting strategy begins.
Risk: Betting involves risk. A tissue is your estimate, the market can know things it does not, and a runner priced above your tissue can still lose. See responsible gambling for limits and support.
Holding your tissue against the Terminal's flucs
On B337's Terminal, the price history (flucs) of each price shows how it moved towards the jump, and closing lines show the last prices before it. B337 is not a ratings tool, so you hold the tissue you drew against both yourself.
Prices from 40+ bookmakers across racing and sports sit side by side with Betfair back and lay, read on a repeating cycle, so check any price at the bookmaker before you bet. A free account opens a limited view of the Terminal with live odds. Betfair is a trade mark of its owner, and B337 is not affiliated with it.