A VIEW FROM ONE OF BETFAIR'S KEY SHAREHOLDERS

funny how in many other organisations and industries such as supermarkets the more you spend the more bonuses, rewards, money off deals you get but in betfair....being a key account gives you an even worse deal

you just get more taken off you the more commission you generate and the more money you earn for yourself is betfairs too

i got an idea to put to your shareholders...instead of taking it all off your key customers (the 20% who generate 80% of your commission why not take it off your staff).....ermmmm

instead of paying your CEO £300k pay him £180k

see if your key staff like it too

1.01 they would leave,

imagine staff having to take a huge pay cut what it would do to staff morale....now go figure what the PC has done to your key customers morale

MR CORCORAN please do the sensible thing and look at your business model and strategy .....the PC is fundamentally flawed and needs scrapping before your key customers leave in force....imagine one day waking up to find the 80% you got left generate diddly squit liquidity to the exchange...if you were a book kmaker you'd start providing it but you ain't you're a commission agent

"So he advocated cutting customer numbers to focus on the big fish, not the minnows. That would have allowed a drastic cut to the annual marketing budget – from £90m-£100m to just £20m – as Betfair stopped trying to lure tiddlers interested only in £10 free bets. “You have to focus on the core customers and provide new products for them,” he says."

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possibly we've had a narrow escape. don't think koch's pareto stuff works with betfair; the 20% he's interested in are linked to the other 80% in ways that make the principle non-applicable.

There isn't a major manager, owner or potential owner of bf who is just happy serving as an exchange or platform provider, like the LSE was when it was publicly listed.

They all want to be the broker or the bookmaker themselves.

Richard Koch is the same as Ed Wray or a senior manager like Breon Corcoran  in this regard.

The bid failed to go through because the managers, especially Mr Corcoran, were signed up to incentive plans and wage packages that might not have delivered w/ a change of strategy. Ed Wray and other singificant interests wanted Mr Corcoran, and Corcoran understandably wanted to master of his own destiny w/ respect to his pay.

They just dont seem to get how big the exchange could have been (could be) if they totally focused on it.

They have wasted so much time and effort on things like the poker fad, LMAX,and rubbish games that need replacing every few months. Now they are trying to be low grade bookie as well.

All this time they have not given a moments thought to how with a bit of price alteration,educational content and a low margin high volume bookie (with bets fed directly into the exchange) they could make this be the only place to bet.

They have completely lost their identity and the plot of what Betfair is all about.

If they really are intent on winding down and destroying the exchange it will be interesting to see if anyone else is willing to give the business model a go. I am sure it could be done for alot less than £950m.

The current competitors don't seem that interested.

Education is something they're lacking in. 

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Well, yes. Because the exchange has gone from being the point of the whole exercise to something they'd rather people didn't find out about.

Also, they've thrown away all the free advertising they used to get from a once growing band of evangelists telling people they were stupid to bet anywhere else.

That's what got me started, initially as a 2 pound recreational punter, who's now paying 5 figures in a commission a year.

When they do their sums, do they work out how much of the marketing budget is actually just replacing   what they used to get for nothing through customer goodwill - and a forum that's gone from being a vibrant part of the USP to a gated community they see as an embarrassment?

i reckon i must have gifted betfair at least 30 new customers when i used to preach about how good it was..i wouldnt even try do this nowadays

lol you just try explaining the premium charge to an eager newbie

Templeton you optimistically think that betfair will improve on their pricing structure.  All they are interested in is take, take, take. 

Small time punters paying 60 % premium charge on a life time sentence has not be addressed.  I am not optimistic at all.

i agree with viva el presidente ... I'm pretty sure I didn't join BF because of any adverts, i joined because I saw articles in racing columns saying something like "The favourite who started at 2/1 (3.5) on 'the Exchanges' ", or XXX who started at 7/1 (12.0 on 'the Exchanges')", made me feel like a complete idiot for going into a betting shop or using a bookies' site to back my fancy at bookies' odds in a Horse Race.

i suppose you could call that 'Evangelism' ... to me it was just useful information, and it was information that i was (and still would be)  happy to pass on to anyone i know who likes to bet on horse races or anything else, but now I have to preface any recommendation with something along the lines of ... 'When the site opens, ignore the first display, and look for the link that says 'Exchange'. Make sure to bookmark it or else you'll always get their cr@p sportsbook. If you clear your cookies, you'll have to do that ignoring bit again ...

as el presidente says:  "I figure anyone who got to the point where they were paying it (PC)  would be up on the deal and capable of looking after themselves. ... at least thy'd have a better chance of winning enough to be liable for PC than they would anywhere else, but God, what a struggle, just to find what should be obvious

I should add, that my skillset, honed on here over the years has proved quite transferable to online poker, where there is healthy competition and PC would kill a site instantly, rather than the death of a thousand cuts that we are witnessing here.

...scrap that, they're there. not sure what happened there.

I bet you regret letting them monitor how you went about your business.

ITS A GOOD JOB THEY DONT HAVE A SERIOUS COMPETITOR

He also appears to be the only person in the room not enjoying himself, too busy fretting over his £20 to win £8.

YOU COULD GET YOUR CASH OUT BEFORE YOU DONT NEED AN ADVERT TO TELL YOU

Should have had two guys playing a game of pool in the pub.  Player 1 says to Player 2 "who do you fancy for today's match"  Player 1 says "I fancy Liverpool, just backed them to win 1-0 at 10s with the bookies in the high street."  Player 2 says "yeah I quite fancy that.  Let me see what price that is on Betafir.  14s on Betfair mate."  Advert ends with the comment "make sure you get the best odds.  Check Betfair.com"

Then they open an account and get directed to the Sportsbook where it's 9s

There was a Betfair advert on Sky last night - the one with 400 odd (?) better prices on Betfair than on William Hill etcetera.  It does seem ridiculous the exchange is being hidden away, whilst the marketing campaign is focusing (misleadingly?) on prices from the exchange. 

As for the cashout advert, he is -£20 red on both Everton and the draw, but +£8 on Manchester Utd.  How does this translate into a cashout of 20 something quid,...? 

If you compared Bet365's advertising (brash, cool, Ray Winstone, advertising a latest available price on a relevant match which the viewer is normally watching) against Betfair's current advertising (cashout bogus amounts, better prices on the exchange but you are sent to the sportsbook when you log on, no relevant prices to current matches which viewers are watching, etcetera) there is no contest which adverts are doing a better job.  There must be a good way to advertise Betfair, perhaps some thought is needed as to how to achieve this going forward.

maybe one where he's finally hit a winning run - and been shut down.

... by the Betfair sportsbook.

Ad advert in which an ordinary guy wants his usual £50 on Man Utd and suddenly finds himself restricted to £2.94 would be explosive in its implications for every single bookmaker out there. All sorts of questions would be asked regarding integrity, fairness and advertising. The benefits to the Betfair betting exchange would be potentially colossal, while all the opposition would be badly wounded.

... Except, of course, Betfair has saddled itself with a sportsbook which behaves in just that way as a matter of course.