What is Tissue Price?

A tissue price is the initial set of odds an odds compiler produces for an event before the market is released to customers. The tissue is a fair-probability model of the event with the operator's margin added on top, and it serves as the reference point that traders adjust as money arrives, team news lands and rival books publish their own numbers. The term comes from horse racing, where early forecast prices were printed on thin tissue paper. A tissue is not a prediction the operator stands behind; it is a starting position, and the gap between the tissue and the eventual closing line shows how far the market moved that opinion. Early money taken against a tissue is one of the main signals traders use when repricing a market.