Is it time Betfair bit the bullet and gave NSW Racing the flick ?

Can't agree with this at all. Betfair has played this superbly, albeit in hindsight. In the end NSW may be the only State alienated with a T/O charge (though WA are probably still miffed about the court case 5 years ago).

It's surely more annoying to Racing NSW that the other bodies have come to the party, and Betfair still operates on their products :)

Iam with Kye and castiron

The liquidity on Australian racing is still poor. The way forward is to educate to Australian public on the fact that the exchange model gives them a fairer deal. If we look historically at Betfair's involvement in Australian racing we find that NOT participating is playing into the hands of the vested interests....pulling out wouldn't teach them anything, imo. We need to mobilise and evangalise.

I don't think they fully appreciate the potential market relative to the population, Nick. When they were trying to get a foothold here there was a hardcore base of reasonably intelligent punters who understood the whole concept of value. Mark Davis and then Andrew Twaites did an awesome job establishing a beach head, but the concept still hasn't really taken hold. You are quite right. The betting exchange model should be the premier platform for punting in Australia by now. If that were so, NSW would have no option but to accept and adapt. Sadly, it hasn't happened. But it still can.

wouldn't think so. Probably more Australian money going into UK pools than staying locally.

300,000 customers and 21 active forumites - sh1t there must be something wrong with me

Interesting stats, Joel. Do you know if those percentages relate to the number of customers or the amount wagered ?  Would be interested to see how much Australian money is bet on events outside Australia comparative to domestic events.

From my standpoint, my action is roughly:

20 Aus
80 Other (where I'm usually not awake)

And furthermore my Australian action is dominated by only 10 races a week. On average.

Which doesn't get me far as I simply get stuck on very loaded queues there.

This provoked my suggestion to Betfair that it realise the nature of action here is different to elsewhere, and it can do nothing to expand those 10 races vertically.

So it should instead try to expand horizontally through Quinellas et al.

But so far there is no evidence of anybody else warming to that idea.

Betfair has nearly 1,000 Quinellas and Exactas weekly away from Australia.

And we theoretically should do better than those because of available approximates comparisons with the 2 Tabcorp ugly alternatives.

But all I can figure from the miserly action last Sunday is that people won't even look at the healthy opportunities there.

From what I've gathered Betfair might be happy to do marketing promotions on them.

But when there's nearly zero traction like Saturday, it's more likely Betfair won't bother ever putting any more on.

And so do many of the sharpest punters in the last 50 years.

Perhaps because they have no objection to competing against 85 year olds?

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Sorry,

I'm not deliberately trying to threadjack this discussion about V'Landys.

There is a actually a Quinella thread below.

And I'm more than happy to debate all comers.

Particularly as it seems there are so few.

They would lose quite a lot of premium charge revenue if they stopped offering NSW racing

In my initial post on this thread I already explained why that is rubbish.

For example consider Goodwood tonight.

The biggest pool currently is R3.

Nearly 3 times that of R1.

Yet my Hold on R1 is 20% bigger than R3.

Simply because my Lays are often in very long queues.

This typically happens here as well.

For example my Melbourne Cup hold is far from the biggest for the year.

And grows smaller every year.

A Betfair Quinella on that would avoid the traffic jam, by providing another avenue for my action.

Your first line is absurd on so many levels that I'm surprised that you'd draw attention to it again.

For example when some counter-party grabbed the $6.40 I was offering about a clear favoured way Quinella that the opposition was offering for merely $2.10, how could that be of any possible benefit to me?

My counter-party undoubtedly benefited.

If this comes off, Betfair should benefit by finding a significant new earnings stream, with minimal effort on its part.

Quinella players will benefit.

And the vulture quants waiting to see if I survive, will then flock to Quinellas in droves, imitating my methods and completely shutting me out.