What is the future of Betfair?

Will they still have this forum here which no one can join, that's the question.

Betfair is a likely target for a private equity bid. Also, check out co-founder Mark Davies' comments, especially in regard to price sensitivity.

http://green-all-over.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/buy-buy-betfair.html

the competition is very weak, so they don't really give a toss about their customers

PC aside , what advice would you offer betfair to ensure healthy liquidity in all sports in all markets

Westender they don't want winners on the exchange as they take money out. They are happy enough to lay bets themselves using bots which have taken over the exchange. You can't compete with bots which instantly match bets and pay no comm, so can lay at higher odds and hedge off at pinnacle and the asian books. Betfair = for losers.

As a PC payer, could you do what you on purple? There lies the answer.

It's an alternative exchange, not an alternative option.

It has to offer the same markets as here to begin with.  I've questioned before why, if they're in bed with Laddies, they can't share market setup and settling data.  Automate the process so that you don't have that excuse ("It's not worth our while").  Until you offer the same markets, you are always giving people a reason to bet away from your own exchange. 

Now, in the exchange world, I don't believe the "IF you build it they will come" adage necessarily holds true.  Liquidity is still king.  That is the biggest hurdle purple has to overcome, and it has been forever thus.  While certain parts of BF are dying on their arse, the main markets are still holding up in most sports - possibly even strengthening in some.  Purple has never been anywhere near as proactive in going out and attracting liquidity as BF has (in the past, not now).  This probably needs to change.  BF keep telling us how expensive it is to attract the new fish, and that may well be true, but without the new fish, Purple will not grow.  The thing with exchanges is, liquidity breeds liquidity.  Once you get the snowball rolling, you can gain momentum very quickly and the thing can grow exponentially.  They've never really managed to do that, despite all the own goals BF continue to score.  Let's be honest:  if they can't manage it in the face of PC, they likely never will.

Betfair have cut the 3rd party contract to the bone and are miles behind Bet365 with live streaming.

pablo-fanque 07 Nov 14 23:42 Joined: 22 Oct 14 | Topic/replies: 143 | Blogger: pablo-fanque's blog
ok, how do you improve daq to be an alternative ?

For me, the first two things they need to do are increase number of markets on major/televised events and have the option of 'My Markets'/'Favourites' so I can easily track the events I'm working on.

I have had enough now lads.Only peanuts left and no liquidity.
Only people who have an edge are the cheats now.Back USA mainly but sometime UK and I have had enough.
Impossible to get a price now with any volume.
I would advise anyone who want to win to give up too as the exchange is in it's final few years
and is becoming worse by the day.
I made over 350,000 with lots of hard work and I am proud of the work I did to achieve that.
I have a PC portal account statement.
I have paid just short of 20k PC charge and that is enough.The future is very bleak.
My account from about year 2000
Username: lottaluck

Lifetime Profile
Markets        49520   
Gross PL    £    386,692.37   

Good luck and God bless you all.Goodbye.

Pmbets, well done and good luck.
This will be my last jumps season seriously punting and the main reason is that it has got to the stage where the only way I can have a bet of a wortwhile volume is to be sat at my computer 90 seconds or less before the off hoping that there isn't a raceclash to kill what liquidity there is left. It is effectively SP bets only and you can knock a point or 2 off the price in the process of getting a grand matched (or less in very weak markets).
What's the point in going through a race only to have to wait for the prices to be nibbled at overnight and through the day with no proper volume ever available (apart from the main meetings)? If you attempt to have a bet any earlier, you just invite a whole hosts of copycat punters (mostly robots) feeding off you and taking the prices only to lay them off a click or two shorter for risk-free profit. The markets are so weak now that horses are halving and doubling in prices on a regular basis. Most meetings now resemble what Wolverhampton Saturday nights did a few years ago.
It is only going to get worse. Horse Racing is nearly dead as a betting medium.

I was hoping to get a few more productive years out of the game but I think it has had its day now, it was good while it lasted and I have been fortunate to be in the position to do it profitably for over a decade but lack of public interest in racing and Betfair encouraging all new punters on to the sportsbook have hastened the demise of exchange betting. It was fun while it lasted.
BB

Matchbook are consistently worse than betfair on price.

I love matchbook, can't go wrong paying 1%. If they have worse odds, why don't you put some up - it is an exchange after all. The prices will depend on what you're looking at. I find they are generally much better than the other exchanges. Example, New Zealand were 7.1 in the cricket yesterday prior to the start at matchbook and 6.8 on betfair.

They'll be no good. Volumes are hardly likely to be bigger than on here.

Are they not a Mickey Mouse outfit trading in very small amounts?
Being realistic, much as we rightly suggest that liquidity on the betfair exchange is falling, whenever you look at the alternatives they are still a long way ahead.

I heard Smarkets exist for the purpose of a handful of bookmakers who get winners banned.

275k on a race is not that much really when you are looking at a double figure field. Nearly all of that will be concentrated on the first 2 or 3 in the betting. And yes, a grand at 20s would be nice if I fancied one at that price but the reality is you can't have that sort of bet without crashing the price at anything other than the top meetings.

I used to be prepared to put up overnight lays for horses to a 110-115 percent book for decent amounts. Now no-one can do that because within a microsecond of your bet hitting the screen a bot has jumped in front of you and moved the price.