dogdice - you flatter yourself by thinking that you are anything other than a pain in the erse.

Surprise me and say something useful.

ok tamsloup - in the banking sector, pick the one with the highest P/E ratio - I think it might be HSBC at the moment.

what more do you want ?

there is a trade-off between cost of policing a market, and leaving some users open to being picked off at the end of a game.

i don't think many users leave bets up expecting a suspension (i don't after having had bets hoovered before on tennis), but there has to be some responsibility for users to manage their own positions at times, and i think in a minority market, without monitoring, it does fall to the user (if the minority market needed supervision, the cost of doing so might stop it from being offered in the first place).

tamsloup it's not as though you've stuck your neck out on anything is it ?

That's right, I haven't stated that a cash cow isn't really a cow; a hoover is a vaccuum,and you don't oil wheels. Somehow I think the thread would have survived without you sticking your oar in.

If 70% of accounts that win one year lose the following year closing winning accounts would be a big mistake. By all means remove the winning insiders and **s who cannot lose from the system but removing genuine punters would be a mistake. Patterns change all the time. Last years biggest winner could well be this year's biggest loser.

"I state that a cash cow isn't really a cow; a hoover is a vacuum,and you don't oil wheels"

if I got that much sense out of anyone I would feel quite good about it.

I sincerely hope you guys never get a job on the board of Betfair.

I don't think many people would take 100 million to 1 that I ever reached the Betfair board, Betfairy :^O

Did you have to check the calendar there, dogdice?

I never bet with inside information. I dont know how much the biggest winner made last year but I do know people that have won six figures one year and lost six figures the next on Betfair. This is 100% true. If the six figure winner was banned that money would be gone from the system and would never has returned the next. Remember in gambling it is just when you think the game is cracked you probably are about to face your worst ever losing streak. I have been hanging around the betting game for about 15 years and things are always changing for genuine gamblers. If you dont keep changing what you do someone cleverer and and harder working will come along and rip your arm off.

"This is 100% true"

that and mortality. nice one froghead.

frog,

the answer may be something along the lines of starting everyone at 5%, and reducing their percentage each time they had a loss on their account.

this would mean that people who hardly ever lose pay a higher proportion of their winnings to betfair, and the more losses someone has, the cheaper the product is for them to use.

i have not thought this through, and i'm sure it is flawed, but its a starting point.

frog - sorry, I meant me.

DJ, get a grip. Alot of the big players on Betfair are arbers and bookies. Charge them 5% to bet 10,000 or 50,000 or 100,000 on a cricket match or a gootball match and they wont play on here. When the bookies price up at 101% do you seriously think Betfair can charge big players 5% commission? The only people who need to be removed from the system are the insiders and the **s and there is zero evidence that these people are not being hunted down and removed.

something along the lines of charging commission according to relative wins to losses is the way forward.

i'm not suggesting that arbers should be on 5%, they will build up huge greens and reds, and would have a lower commission rate generated.

i am surprised that you say there is zero evidence that insiders/**s aren't being tackled though. they're not being tackled in specials, but i dont' know if they are tackled or not in other sports.

the hedgers will always be there - Betfair is just covenient, that's all.

in 10 years time I'll laugh about it, but then again 10 years ago I would have laughed about the very concept of "Betfair"

it's a piece of plasticine and I seriously think that if you've done well out of it, jump ship.

or how about starting new accounts on 3.75% (halfway between 2 and 5%), and having a commission rate that climbed or fell in a ratio to the win:loss ratio on the account? it would only climb on say an account that was a significant winner (10% or more ahead on turnover), but would fall if it was a healthy account generating lots of commission at a stable rate for betfair.

can nobody stand back and ask "where is the cash coming from ?"

tamsloup doesn't get it, DJ probably doesn't, frog might not, but okay YOU tell me where the leisure quid is going to go...

The leisure quid is split between professional gamblers and betfair.