General Betting
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The full extent of Betfair's fall from grace was epitomised when Numis Securities' Ivor Jones proposed that the company should merge with online bookmaker Sportingbet. The deal, would, he said, give Betfair "the first-class fixed-odds bookmaking product which it needs to round out its product depth and avoid a lengthy, expensive and risky process of building it internally". Purists balked at the notion, some even suggesting that it was a joke: it wasn't. Betfair's
http://www.bettingmarket.com/
beleagured CEO David Yu confirmed that there were indeed holes in the pure betting exchange model, and that it was the company's intention to incrementally develop the fixed odds side of its business. It has been a bad year for Betfair, the once high flying betting exchange. The biggest disaster by far, has been the dismal performance of the company's shares since they started conditional trading in London on Friday 22 October 2010. During the course of that day, shares in Betfair recorded an intra-day high of £16.09, before closing back at £15.50. This morning shares in the company were trading at a new low of 595p; a new low (and this despite the company's ongoing share buyback programme. The year has seen Betfair excluded from a number of European markets, such as France, Spain Greece, and also encounter some problems with its licence in the Italian betting market. A succession of the company's high profile television ads were banned by the ASA; its online casino was blacklisted by the leading industry website Casinomeister, where it still lingers in the "Rogue Section"; its poker arm was forced to migrate to another company's network; and the Observer recently reported that the company had experienced a large exodus of key staff. At the exchange level the company's horse racing product which once had the bookmakers running scared, is now devoid of liquidity in the mornings, and more often than not, it seems to take its lead from the on-course betting market. Negative vibes continue to surround the company's fledgling LMAX trading platform. There are many reasons as to why Betfair has taken on the mantle of a rudderless ship. For many punters, its betting exchange remains too complicated. Then there is the notion that the exchange is a shark infested pit; with small punters likely to be eaten up by professionals, who may perhaps be trading on the back of insider information. Mark Davies exodus from the company was a serious mistake, as he was the only person capable of projecting the bold revolutionary spirit that epotomised Betfair in its early days. Davies took the war to the bookmakers and was quick to highlight issues such as the integrity of the exchange product, whenever an owner, jockey or trader was involved in a case of insider dealing on the exchange. Davies is gone, and in his wake we find a muted silence. There are many who believe that under the stewardship of David Yu, the company has become too fixated with technology and with the holy grail of cracking the US market. Allegations also abound that the senior management at the company are both arrogant and blinkered, and do not know the slightest thing about the market that their company operates in. Betfair failed because it became too big for its own boots. It took its eye of the ball, and sought success in far flung corners, whilst taking its eye of the holy grail, that is the betting exchange.
http://www.bettingmarket.com/
http://www.bettingmarket.com/
beleagured CEO David Yu confirmed that there were indeed holes in the pure betting exchange model, and that it was the company's intention to incrementally develop the fixed odds side of its business. It has been a bad year for Betfair, the once high flying betting exchange. The biggest disaster by far, has been the dismal performance of the company's shares since they started conditional trading in London on Friday 22 October 2010. During the course of that day, shares in Betfair recorded an intra-day high of £16.09, before closing back at £15.50. This morning shares in the company were trading at a new low of 595p; a new low (and this despite the company's ongoing share buyback programme. The year has seen Betfair excluded from a number of European markets, such as France, Spain Greece, and also encounter some problems with its licence in the Italian betting market. A succession of the company's high profile television ads were banned by the ASA; its online casino was blacklisted by the leading industry website Casinomeister, where it still lingers in the "Rogue Section"; its poker arm was forced to migrate to another company's network; and the Observer recently reported that the company had experienced a large exodus of key staff. At the exchange level the company's horse racing product which once had the bookmakers running scared, is now devoid of liquidity in the mornings, and more often than not, it seems to take its lead from the on-course betting market. Negative vibes continue to surround the company's fledgling LMAX trading platform. There are many reasons as to why Betfair has taken on the mantle of a rudderless ship. For many punters, its betting exchange remains too complicated. Then there is the notion that the exchange is a shark infested pit; with small punters likely to be eaten up by professionals, who may perhaps be trading on the back of insider information. Mark Davies exodus from the company was a serious mistake, as he was the only person capable of projecting the bold revolutionary spirit that epotomised Betfair in its early days. Davies took the war to the bookmakers and was quick to highlight issues such as the integrity of the exchange product, whenever an owner, jockey or trader was involved in a case of insider dealing on the exchange. Davies is gone, and in his wake we find a muted silence. There are many who believe that under the stewardship of David Yu, the company has become too fixated with technology and with the holy grail of cracking the US market. Allegations also abound that the senior management at the company are both arrogant and blinkered, and do not know the slightest thing about the market that their company operates in. Betfair failed because it became too big for its own boots. It took its eye of the ball, and sought success in far flung corners, whilst taking its eye of the holy grail, that is the betting exchange.
http://www.bettingmarket.com/
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Replies: 73
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At the time you post today the footsie 100 is down nearly 2%. That means the top 100 listed companies are down 2% on there share price today due to worries over sovereign debt, bet.l (betfair) has gained 2% today!
(although this could change by market close time). Seedy write ups in the press aren't always "fair" and only trade gloom and doom and your claim of failure of betfair is probably the best fairy story of the day.  |
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What about all the other points brought up in the admittedly biased article?
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What, the bit about cracking the American market that is controlled through congress to be pro-casino and anti-online betting against the wishes of American gamblers.
or the statement that reckons the expected fall in a newly listed company is a direct disaster to a company with impecable 10 year profits. Got any write ups on will hill s bookmakers they make massive losses of 100s of millions each year[;)] |
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here are many who believe that under the stewardship of David Yu, the company has become too fixated with technology
only thing you ever hear from betfair over the last 5 years, is about Technlogy Allegations also abound that the senior management at the company are both arrogant and blinkered, and do not know the slightest thing about the market that their company operates in  |
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the brain and the pen aren't always the best of friends
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The bit about LMAX, banned ads, rogue casino, empty horsey markets etc.
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Betfair failed because it became too big for its own boots. It took its eye of the ball, and sought success in far flung corners, whilst taking its eye of the holy grail, that is the betting exchange
Time will tell |
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Horse racing turnover is down 15% to 20% over the last 2 weeks
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Who writes an article without knowing the difference between 'of' and 'off'? They need new journalists.
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Thats old news isnt it, haven't betfair already changed and changing some of there top staff positions?
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Sports betting is down everywhere except football and some minor sports, at least betfair have maintained some growth from other sectors, overseas and products, hardly a disaster as this journalist
states? |
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Why are you always so desperate to defend Betfair?
Answer in one short sentence. |
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I have stated that betfair is ready for the world but is the old fashioned and over-regulated betting world ready for betfir?
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There are many who believe that under the stewardship of David Yu, the company has become too fixated with technology and with the holy grail of cracking the US market.
This seems to ring very true to me. I find it very hard to see how they would ever dominate the US market should it open up fully to them, with these obscene taxations on winners, its a no-brainer that the Americans themselves would undercut the pricing and offer a fairer priced platform. The BF model is just taking too big a chunk of the pie to leave itself competative in such a scenario. |
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because its all one sided, I always bet on the under-dog there the better price, and betfair do have good form[;)]
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bf_fananatic Joined: 17 Jul 11
Replies: 677 05 Aug 11 13:43 because its all one sided, I always bet on the under-dog there the better price, and betfair do have good form Just be thankful you joined a gambling forum and not a world war two discussion group I guess. |
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in the states you pay 27% taxes if you win the lottery, you dont in the UK, Americans love thinking there the saints of free trade when in reality there greed in the 1930 wall street crash ended up causing global depression and a war that ended over 20 million lives !
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PARAGRAPHS
you utter t!t  |
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Which they then profited from in arms sales and national loans !
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Always bet on the underdog because they are the better price? Holy fcuk no wonder you are on the forum 24/7 because with logic like that you will never have to worry about any pc charges
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I cant expect persons with a low iq to understand the lessons from history, but I just want to point out that don't expect to much fairness from the congress over there and considering there current debt
they will be out to tax,tax,tax! |
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Graded dog races are often won by the underdog, the grading system gives nearly all runners an equal chance in theory so outsiders are better value!
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Try laying all favorites in trap 4 and backing all time dogs in trap 6 in outsiders and you will always make a profit, simple really
[;)] |
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You've just revealed your system.
I'm going to be very rich. |
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bff, should that not read "the world is ready for a global exchange but is betfair's old fashioned, over-complex interface and commission system ready for the world?
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Cant relate that to the data before me, sorry!
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Perhaps the emotions always get the better of some punters
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anyway I have work to do, enjoy slating the exchange on its own forum, good day
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Betfair in USA isn't a bed thing....Betfair TVG would make a profit this year, if betfair just stop hiring new people there:)))
Betfair spends to much money on technology over it's peers..technology is just a tool, nothing more I happy for betfair do all these things, Im just not happy to pay for it in a 40%-60% PC |
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This is rather sad to me.
Not only are we reading articles like this in the media, we have a generally negative vibe about Betfair across a range of betting and financial forums. Yet a few years ago Betfair was the bees knees. Want went wrong in the last few years can be summed up in three words... management, management, management |
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I agree, I dont think its a bad thing either, just my feeling is that other companies will step in and increase competition there because the comm structure leaves too big a gap open to exploit.
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An outsider reading this could be forgiven for assuming this thread was discussing the demise of a company like Ratners,Northern Rock or some other "Failed" enterprise.
This companies balance sheet is pretty robust,plenty of cash and customer numbers increasing.....a position envied by most in these challenging times. Increasing their presence in other territories will present challenges but they must persist in this quest or others will which will be more damaging long term. The PC issue will sort itself out eventually as other competitors adopt similar charges(Easyjet,Ryanair fine examples of piggy backing ideas). |
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betfair has no debt and cash....but a 50mil share buy back on a falling share prices...a cash div pay out to shareholders ,, and 15% to 20% drop in turnover because of PC2, things can change real fast
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Is the 15-20% drop a guess nairda?
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no, not a guess....their a drop in horse racing,..it not 100% right, and there many factor, but their look to be a drop of 15% to 20%
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i am starting to wonder about the value of their technology.
they must have done some pretty bleeding edge stuff with oracle, but there's surely no way any of that can be betfair's proprietary software (?) |
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There is now a gap in the market for a crisp, clear, focused, exchange concentrating on providing value for money for all of its customers.It mustn't try to be everything to everybody and not chase ever increasing growth by diversfying away from its core markets.
This new exchange should not seek to take over the world but should provide a strong core product,coupled with a simple charging structure,that can provide long term sustainable profits together with a safe,secure,and fair,betting environment for everybody. A few possible ideas :- - Flat rate commission on all winning bets (2%) - Transaction charge 0.2% on all bets. - No in running horses. - Hide the money queue That'll do for starters... |
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mrbojangles 05 Aug 11 14:36
An outsider reading this could be forgiven for assuming this thread was discussing the demise of a company like Ratners,Northern Rock or some other "Failed" enterprise. This companies balance sheet is pretty robust,plenty of cash and customer numbers increasing.....a position envied by most in these challenging times. this of course is the most interesting bit of it all. what it confirms (as if everyone didn't already know) is that the core exchange business is profitable: there are no holes in the pure exchange betting model which require plugging to transform the business from a loss making one to a profitable one. |
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if they hadn't floated, where exactly would the evidence for this crisis lie?
in their cash pile or in their annual after tax profits? |