General Betting
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Betfair to withdraw from Canada, Germany, Greece, Russia and 8 other markets with uncertain regulatory environments. This is a big deal for me, what are the other markets and does withdraw mean betfair will actively block customers logging in on from there and make it against their terms and conditions or what? what is anyone hearing? This might push me to smarkets...
http://www.drf.com/news/betfair-pulling-out-dozen-countries
http://www.drf.com/news/betfair-pulling-out-dozen-countries
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giving up on 24% of revenue (see the article) doesn't sound like something they would do lightly and yet those countries named must have markedly different regulatory environments. i hope they aren't fazed by uncertainty over scottish independence or the spectre of britain leaving the eu......
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What does withdraw me? Does it mean block users from there, or not advertise, or not provide the website in that language? Will be interesting to see.
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1.01 it means user from those countries will be thrown out and nobody will be able to access Betfair when in these countries or having an IP address from those countries.
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The countries that are affected are: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Finland, Norway, Canada, and Greece.
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old nudes
http://forum.sbrforum.com/sportsbooks-industry/2075886-betfair-pulling-out-dozen-countries.html |
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As a Norwegian I had a bad feeling reading that press release.
It said nothing about when though, do you know when ? |
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Wichser, I se that someone on that forum say people from most of those countries still will be able to access Betfair.
Do you know if that is correct ? |
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@Eddie - I'll lay that - want to put up £10k to win £100?
@xnada - if you listen to the analyst presentation that article refers to (which is available on the BF corporate website) it's pretty clear that 'withdrawal' in this context is about ceasing marketing spend and the like (local offices, translations etc) and not forced closure - the CEO says he expects the impact of such a withdrawal to be a decline in revenue from these countries, not a complete loss thereof. |
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Eddie, I certainly hope so. I am in Germany but only as a visitor.
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To late longbridge. I cancelled my 1.01 back when I read the link put up by bloder Wichser.
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Longbridge is correct, but it seems they will close down Germany, but I thought that had allready happened ?
This is from Betfair's financial report released on December 13th : Focus on regulated jurisdictions Betfair‟s international expansion, leveraged a centralised product to offer services to new geographies at low marginal cost. This approach was successful in growing international revenues to almost 50% of total Betfair revenues. More recently, however, an increasing number of countries have, or are in the process of, introducing gaming regulation. This brings additional costs such as taxation and compliance costs, and in some cases results in risk to revenues if, for instance, product limitations are introduced. This risk has recently been illustrated in Germany, where we invested over a number of years to build a business with annual revenues of £13 million. Following changes in taxation laws in July 2012, which, if applicable, make our exchange model unviable, we have chosen to withdraw from the market. Other examples exist, including France, Greece and Cyprus. We are addressing regulatory uncertainty by ceasing marketing and other investment in countries where we are not confident there is sufficient near-term regulatory visibility until such clarity is received. These countries contributed 24% of Group revenue in the first six months of the year and included 8% from Cyprus, Germany and Greece. Stopping investment in these markets will allow greater focus on markets that are regulated or are in the process of regulating in the near term. We anticipate that revenue from these jurisdictions will reduce over the next few years, reflecting our suspension of marketing and other local activity. While this will act as a drag on Group revenue growth for a period of time, we believe it better positions the company for the long-term and ensures that the quality of |
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From what I can find, they are making the move not to acquire new customers in these countries and will (a) honor payments and keep existing accounts alive and (b) any existing agreements with partners in those countries will be honored.
It means that they won't invest nor spend any more promo budget on these markets. It sounds like a good move considering the economic climate in a lot of the markets. I also remember in 2004 when I was in contact with the International team and trying to find a way into Canada, advertising and geo-advertising laws on promoting betting sites was difficult. |
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Leaving the EU completely will prove to be an even bigger mistake for this government
than either the effect on the economy of massive cuts and over control of the banks or the announcement of reducing the police force numbers had on the following outbreak of riots. We are all now painfully aware of what the conservatives don't like and want to be rid of. "no conservative policy change " is the image portrayed, but it will cost us a hell of a lot more long term than stupidly making national lending balances better as was the elected parties knee jerk vote grabber! |
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The conservaties need to learn fast how important services at home intergrate with its citizens livlyhoods
and how important it is for britain to intergrate with its niehbours markets with better funding before we sink to an all time low. |
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bf fanatic,
I think it is more coming down to the negotiation with governments elsewhere. These bodies are 'partners' in business and tax relief and/or alliances are always possible. I am aware of a tech firm from outside the UK that does not need lending but needs initial tax relief for three years to get offices set up. Deal with government is being negotiated to try to get them here. (i.e. guarantee hiring of UK techs/management, etc, all generating money for UK). But, essentially, if the UK doesn't work with them, they won't come. Betfair should do the same. The pie is simple to slice but if a country is greedy and wants it for nothing, then why bother. |
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Shapeshifter - your logic is sound but unfortunately the government "negotiators" are either incompetent or corrupt (I include being heavily influenced by local business interests in my definition of corrupt).
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Unfortunately, dave1357, I am sure there is an element of this that Betfair's reps (and legal teams) are constantly having to deal with.
Perhaps a 'zero tolerance' approach is necessary if they are going to progress forward. (recently did this with my small business - clients playing games (either ordering big then cutting at last minute/expecting discount OR delaying payment I simply stopped working with) |