IN DETAIL

so lets assume well..... but did they people getting the explination have the interest/knowledge or capacity to understand it

GOM,

how disappointing.... :(

We should teach children to gamble responsibly. Just like sex and alchohol they should be introduced gradually to young people, with education of the risks. The Gambling Commission probably doesn't agree with this.

gettingbetter, the GC have three pretty rudimentary frames of reference: keeping crime out of gambling, protecting the vulnerable and making sure that betting is 'fair and open'. On the last they have referred in the past to the Unfair Contract Act and to breaches of the law of contract in bookies retroactively changing their bet terms.

Bf fall down on the 'fair and open' criterion with their arber for the immediate reason that their changes weren't announced and in fact contravene the t&c in which the company promise their customers best execution.

There are poss. ways that bf can get out of the allegation that the skimming is unethical and illegal, and at a pinch ways they can get out of the claim that they have violated their fundamental principle of p2p betting. For instance, they can redefine 'best execution' as pertaining only to sub-runner markets.

But they will have a hard time convincing anyone that they consulted sufficiently on this material change.

The minimal scenario I see is a rap across the knuckles for failing to explain the house bot to their users.

Bigger scenarios include the GC telling them to offer best execution, telling them to swicth the arber off, suggesting they try to return their rake and fining them.

Good to see that the forum Q & A is going to (a) last a massive 60 minutes and (b) consist of pre-selected questions:

Betfair Customer Services 17 Mar 11:50
As announced last week well be hosting a Q&A session on the forum this Wednesday evening (19th March) between 6pm and 7pm (UK Time). The purpose of this Q&A session is to answer questions regarding Betfairs new bet matching logic. To help us get through as many questions as possible you can send them in advance to livechat@betfair.com. Unfortunately it is not possible for us to respond to each Email individually but we will attempt to answer all questions raised via the live Q&A session.


We realise that customers would appreciate the chance to have questions answered on other topics too, but we want to focus this initial session on just the new bet matching logic to ensure that we answer as many questions as possible. For those customers who have questions for Betfair that arent related to this topic well be reintroducing regular forum Q&A sessions over the coming weeks. Well post more information about those sessions nearer the time.

We hope you find this session helpful and informative.

User: Dear Betfair, will this new system help me get matched more often?
Betfair: Yes, and at the price you want!

I've been mulling things ahead of the Q&A. Back on page 34 "ludus20099" gave two examples of how Betfair could implement the matching process. I've been mulling over example two for some time now and I think this is probably how Betfair have implemented the matching model. I think its possible people have been making an error in how they think the matching works? If you match liabilities and gains rather than % it puts a whole different complextion on things.

Hopefully we will find out tonight anyhow.

Basically if you back 2 at 6 you create a potential profit of 10, you offset that by creating two lay liabilities of 5 each with the "spare" money created by the overbroke book. Viola no money leaves the system, or so it would seem.

I understand those mathematics, but how does this fit in with the market being overround? And it still doesn't give best price execution, just requested price execution. I feel even thicker now :(

Classic fred.

Great work wiljons.

LOL :^0

Isn't it easy to give best execution?

Taking ludus2099 example (page 34 on this thread) of "surebet" algorithm.

Lay Atalanta: 2 * 6.0 / 3.45 = 3,48
Lay The Draw: 2 * 6.0 / 1.80 = 6,67

Total payout if Siena win is 6,67+3,48+2,00=12,15

So odds returned to punter should be 12,15/2 = 6.075

I.e. better execution and improved prices for Betfair's punters

Betfair have finally done the right thing. not because they believe its wrong to make money on top of commision, NO, obviously its because enough customers complained to make them seriously worried!

bet matching clearly wasnt implemented to benefit us as they try to say:

" The motivation for introducing this change is to make it easier for customers to get bets matched, and to reduce the load on the site"

So profit is not a motive? Is betfair a charity - I think not. Betfair, please tell us how profit is so irrelevant its not even worth a mention among your motives?... you have given 2 reasons, 1 of which is actually down right dangerous and bad for a customer...

If i enter a lay of 11 instead of 1.1 as intended, do you think ill be happy that at least it was matched! SWEET, at least i didnt have to worry about cancelling.

Is it not enough to make 5% of all the money that is lost on here?

I have spent the past 3 hours wading my way through as much information on this thread as I can possibly stomach (I was only made aware of this today because I am not an in-play trader). As I understand it, this matter has been resolved for now but not before Betfair made a pretty penny from the initial implementation and 1 month's worth of skimming (and perhaps a little ironically from the myriad of people who decided to test to see if this travesty was actually true lol)
I note many are less cynical than me and feel somewhat protected from Betfair's integrity (or lack thereof) by the sharp minds that appear in these discussions. My own experience of Betfair's ethics leaves a significant amount to be desired and if I had a better option I would surely explore it.
To state the obvious, in the end, the interest for Betfair is to make money. Whilst that might seem like an obvious statement, some of you appear to be labouring under the misapprehension that a subset of that is to serve the customer. Only by default would this ever be the case, so save yourselves the anguish of proving your beliefs to be in error.
Thanks to the sleuthes who found this "anomoly". I have as much faith in you as I lack in Betfair. By implication, if you were deities I would worship you, and I do :)

very.

1.98 and 2.02 doesn't really add up does it ?! i am worried about their maths..

im also curious about how this best execution thing is going to work with the queuing system.. why are they playing around so much with their product, the best execution thing is not as straight forward as it looks to put together, you have to wonder if it is actually worth the man hours to betfair to program it...

so will they only match two people who want to back at 1.98 and 2.02 and make a few pence or are they also willing to match a couple of people who want to lay at 1.98 and 2.02 and lose a few pence?

RIP :(

?

JamesBlakesHugeArse 10 May 16:48
?

the author of this thread sadly passed away last week, his father had a thread about it on sat morning

how you know?
you have a link?