Definition
What is paper trading in sports betting?
Last updated
Definition
Paper trading (paper betting) is running a strategy against live odds without placing real money. The platform records what the bet would have been, what it would have paid, and what the closing line looked like — but no capital changes hands.
Paper-first is the methodology Glitch Edge enforces by default. Every strategy runs paper-only until the operator promotes it to live placement, and the platform refuses to place real money on a strategy without paper history. Why: variance can make a bad strategy look good for a month, and the cheapest way to filter is to run it paper-first for long enough that variance noise washes out.
What paper-first proves
- Real edge vs lucky run: 200 paper bets give you a much better signal than 20
- Execution path works: the model can actually pull live odds + compute fair prices + decide to bet on schedule
- Drawdown profile matches expectation: if the paper drawdown is 3× what the model predicted, the strategy has a problem
Promotion rules
Glitch Edge requires recipe-level paper history before live placement. The threshold is configurable (default: 50 bets minimum + positive CLV) and the operator must explicitly promote — no automatic graduation.