remember way back when, the bookmaker funeral stunt?

who'd have thought then that BF itself would burst out of the coffin shouting "surprise!"

...looking like a manky extra from the Thriller video.

btw, they've also changed things recently so that if you log in using the IP address (which I started doing after the DNS hijack fiasco) it takes you to the new style site.

Which just goes to show my efforts to try and remain impartial and not afraid to give credit to Betfair if it is due but on this occasion I was mistaken.

Its still shocking stuff how betfair is changing. It looks like exchange doesn't bring them enough money and betfair choosing new strategy promoting a fixed odds.
Why creating a competition on your own site to your own product?
Why not being an innovative anymore?

Just seen this on another forum.

Betfair t&c

From 31 January 2013, customers with an existing Betfair account shall not be permitted to open a new account with Betfair.
Any customer that already has more than one Betfair account on 31 January 2013 is required to nominate a single Betfair account to use across Betfair’s products by contacting the Betfair Helpdesk. Customers that continue to operate multiple Betfair accounts after 31 January 2013 will have their accounts ‘linked’ and managed accordingly. This may affect the extent to which bets can be placed on the Betfair Sportsbook by such customers.
Should Betfair believe, using its absolute and sole discretion, that you have:
registered and/or used more than one account; and/or
acted in collusion with one or more other individuals through a number of different Betfair accounts to back the same combination of selections (regardless of whether or not such bets are struck separately, at a range of different prices or on different days)
in an attempt to exceed the maximum pay-out for an individual account holder across linked accounts, it reserves the right to withhold any winnings arising from such behaviour.

To me it looks like the punter friendly betting exchange concept is on its way out. Betfair has become just like all the other bookmakers. A full circle?

bf_fan.  I never said it was unfair.  Just pointing out that from 31st January 2013 Betfair are not keen on multiple accounts.

Why?  Obviously because they are now promoting their sportsbook.

The sportsbook now takes centre stage of their new homepage (see details below/above), and I thought you being a great advocate of the betfair exchange would be disappointed that it now takes on a minor role.

If you are happy with that, then so be it.  I am a number one fan of exchange betting and would hate to see it falling by the wayside.

Trevh
I for one was only ever attracted to the exchange by virtue of the fact that I would not be limited on my bets, apart from there being relevant lquidity to fill them at any moment in time.
The fixed odds sportsbook makes no impact on that in principle does it ?
An argument is apparently being made by some on here that the promotion of the sportsbook will be at the expense of lquidity on the exchange, but that surely should be the limit of one's concerns ?
And I personally have not yet been affected by any material liquidity drop offs on the exchange.
But I only bet in the primary football and tennis mkts, and so perhaps I'm not seeing the worrying decline in liquidity that some on here are seeing or experiencing apparently.

I'm not sure I get this.  I've had two accounts with Betfair for years but they have always been linked for PC purposes.  Am I supposed to contact Betfair and nominate one as my main account?

Clydebank,  on the Premium Charge portal they have my main account at the top with blue background with sub accounts underneath so they must know this already.

Rich obviously Betfair could contact you by email, knowing you have linked accounts and informing you that .... unfortunately we no longer intend to offer this facility...could you please contact us and nominate your preferred account.  That is the logical sensible approach.  But this is Planet Betfair, where they advertise one thing but offer you another, so logic and sense go out the window.

I think crazily enough they don't want to be arbed w/fixed-price punters laying off on the exchange.

I wd have thought that this was one of the attractions of the exchange for many people; and that a lot of people w/ this strategy will be feeding through a lot of liquidity, of which bf take a large share, on all their other bets.

The change is more thorough than people realise and will eventually lead to a situation where the exchange is only shark vs. shark. It will become more and more difficult to make any money other than through chance.

The company will just become a third- or fourth-tier bookmaker, below Power and 3.65, because it doesn't have and can't buy the expertise to be a world-leading sportsbook.

Their best shot is the exchange beating all other bookmakers on multi-runner events like racing on price in a Darwinian way, and punters switching to the efficient market.

But the management can't see, because 1) they have no affinity with horse racing or multi-runner markets, and 2) the margins are thinner and any success in the market wd take much longer.

Eddie & hazel, I also think there is a chance that Ed Wray and Bert Black will do a 'Steve Jobs' and come back to lead a refreshed company.

Brean Corcoran is a big name in the industry and was very successful with Power, especially with marketing and managing a growing shop estate. He wd have switched to bf because of a perception that they shd win, that they shd be the most successful firm.

If he can't save the share price or bring it into alignment with Lads & Mountains, then there will be a feeling that no one can, except perhaps the founders.

This is the straw I'm clutching at.

Why crazy? From their viewpoint, why should they give up to 87.5% of a customer's losses to another set of customers?

If I was in charge of one of the big bookmakers I'd be using the Betfair Sportsbook to blur the value lines trotted out by Betfair. Essentially they can now run ads claiming 90% (or whatever the figure is) of our prices are better than Betfair Sportsbook. Overtime this blurring of the exchange prices and sportsbook prices will mean new punters will think better value exists elsewhere and never join betfair in the first place.

My other problem with this was lack of communication from betfair. Sportsbook simply appearing as my default page. I didn't request it, don't want it and pretty fed up having to tab away from it constantly. Just when they claim to be trying to go back to core values they pull a stunt like this. Let's hope purple gets sorted by the new owners.

http://www.betangel.com/blog_wp/2013/02/05/betfair-go-back-to-the-future/

and the new homepage directs you to:-

www.betfair.com/sport

Clydebank, the question is whether they would have a business with the information i.e. the prices supplied by their incumbent winners / market-makers on the exchange and their existing customer base.

They must be thinking that they can migrate some of this customer base, or the same kind of people as make up this customer base, onto fixed odds and cannibalise the small winners who currently pay the premium charge.

I agree w/ you that they're deluded and that the exchange is the only long-term winning product they have.

But its margins are too small for shareholders and they have completely lost sight of the long game.

Yes betfair has been thoroughly mismanaged to the extent that the home page doesn't even show the exchange.

They want to be like 3.65, yet the 3.65 prices are dependent on their successful players on the exchange.

If they make things so much harder for price-sensitive exchange players, who are they going to price off?

Once again they have not thought through their strategy.

I'm going now, bye people.

They can maximise customer wallet all they like, but what should be more important to them is the _size_ of that wallet.

If professional bf winners get a 60% share of a losing customer wallet of 2k /year, that is better for the company than an 80% share of a losing wallet of 1k / year.

Actually I suspect that company money comes from a few whales (big losers) and many fish (small-staking recreational losers), the people in between those losing a sum in the low thousands. These people are attracted because of the liquidity that depends in part on small winners sitting at the front of exchange markets.

40% of 2k is better than less than 80% of 1k is what I wanted to say.