Exchange+ discussion thread

That would be my preference too askari.

Alternatively, they should design a new stripped down interface for people who are essentially using the site professionally and are much more interested in speed and performance than anything superficial. Focussing particularly on how well it performs when it's open in multiple tabs simulataneously.

cool, I'll have a look and chuck in my two million drachmas worth

I've had to play the new site today, and I absolutely hate it.
If Betfair have no regard for their customers wishes, I'll find somewhere else to bet.

Spoke to someone at Betfair Towers today and he reckons the IT bods are well aware of the stickiness on the 'my markets' bit and are still developing that section. Fingers crossed they'll sort it before the football season starts, otherwise it'll be unusable at busy times. The interface seems much better to me now - I think I could get used to it after a while. The key thing is to get it running as quickly and smoothly as the old site, which still seems some way off.

No mention of Australian customers and non-Australian events. I still get the old site for all events. I recall bf's poker, casino, etc aren't allowed in Oz, which could be the reason.

i completely understand why they wanted to change what's under the hood and how and it works.

and someone needs to be kept busy developing new shiny front ends to keep them busy i suppose, but why oh why they haven't developed a skin which is exactly like the old site with exactly the same functionality, BEFORE SWITCHING OFF THE OLD SITE, is a mystery.

they managed it with the forum and that was having to work with a third party and a COTS forum solution.

They haven't changed what's under the hood. Had they changed the exchange functionality or how it worked, the old site wouldn't work. The changes are all cosmetic, navigational and fixing elementary design errors like too much dead space on the screen.

BTW, I agree with El Presidente, what us power users (to slip into tech jargon) need is a stripped down version that gets rid of all the stuff we don't need and just displays what the market is, current bets offered, and our bets offered and matched.

Been off the site all day. Just come back, and for some reason it's forced me onto the old site again - heavy work must be underway on the new site.

After a few days of the new site, I'd almost forgotten how smoothly and quickly the old site runs. It must be at least 10 times quicker at loading a market. It was becoming a real chore flicking between markets on the new site - it got to the point that I was having to click refresh in the browser and after a chunky 4-5 second wait it'd load the market I wanted. It'd be impossible to trade efficiently at busy times if left as it was.

They have to sort it properly before pulling the plug on the old site!!!

Well, the forum has a scroll bar today, which it didn't yesterday. But the sports menu doesn't have a scroll bar! So I can't even access the special bets. Even though I have matched bets on the "Next Prime Minister" market, which was saved to "My Markets" on the old site, I can't access the market!

Betfair, why didn't you get the new site to actually work before taking down the old site?

You're describing the various API software there.

I've used Geeks Toy quite a lot and Bet Angel a bit. Both suffer from the same (or similar) over complication that BF does.

All a trader does is buy and sell. The only trick is knowing what price to buy and sell at, and how much to buy and sell.

All I need to know is what others are offering to buy and sell at, what I am offering to buy and sell at, and my net position from what I have bought and sold to date.

And to scale to as many simultaneous markets as possible.

The only other feature I'd rate as 'must have' is a way to highlight when best prices have changed that stays highlighted until I see it and clear it, and no one does that satisfactorily.

All my current markets on a single scrolling screen would be great.* None of the API product developers seems to get what a volume trader does.

* I was in the SW biz for a long time and would have no problem describing exactly what would fulfil my requirements.

I agree whole-heartedly with pxb.  I just need a basic site.  I've looked at a couple of APIs and just too much stuff on screen.  I'm surprised someone hasn't copied the old site. Would make a fortune.

Romford, I avoid the pc through having arbed off two multiples which won at straight bookmakers for about 60k. I'm a small player with no more than a 0.25% edge on turnover counting all money bet and haven't made anything like 60k on bf.

Having bet in about as much money as you can get on at the High St without having a sophisticated placing operation e.g. to win £1,000 per bet two or three times for good races for the books, and traded, arbed and taken positions on bf, I feel I have a good line on what the customer experience is like at bf. It's got a lot worse in the last 8-10 years--with the company getting back to you slower, less efficiently and less courteously.

I feel people like me are the canary in the coalmine--but that the mgt. don't care and think they can grow their way to stock market riches on the back of sportsbook and mobile. But with declining liquidity on all but major markets close to off times, I have the sense they're risking losing a lot of their winners, market makers and opinion players.

If you try to point out to the company that their offering is far worse, they become defensive and think they're doing well enough with a buoyant share price. Then a plausible competitor is going to come along.

the new site is crap

what pisses me off is that this exchange+ waffle is merely a way of telling us that the old site is being closed down without admitting it and that this was so transparent that no one even felt the need to mention it on either side. that sort of short term pr bull (seemingly standard practice since well before the premium charge was introduced) serves no purpose other than to sully betfair's reputation.

Well, finally I'm stuck with this thing, though I have the old site open in a coupleof legacy tabs.

Opening the same market in both, the contrast is stark.

One simple question which i would love to see someone from betfair try to address:

When I open the top australia batsman market in the old site, I can immediately see 11 runners in full, with no scrolling. Doing the same in the new site, I can see 7.

So what am I getting in return for that lost functionality? Because in terms of the interface I can't see anything at all. Unless you count nearly two inches of completely blank yellow space as functionality.

Two years and god knows how much money's worth of development, and all BF's you achieved is to make three legacy tabs the most precious things on my laptop.

1. announce that you're switching off old site in the future explaining why.
2. engage and incentivise experienced users to alpha and beta test new site, providing exclusive access.
3. roll out new site.
4. switch off old site.


would seemingly be the right approach.

instead

3. roll out new site, but make access to it optional. (obviously no experienced user is going to choose to use something new and broken over something that they are familiar with and works)

4. switch off old site.

2. get feedback from experienced site users about everything that it wrong with the new site now that they are finally forced to use it.

1. announce why you've switched off the old site.

i said that below vep.

of course you could have provided an old site skin which sat on top of the new API, and that should have been done before switching off the new site.

it's exactly what they did with the forum and they had third party software to worry about then as well.

listening to customers blah blah, better experience blah blah,  SHYTE

*rollover connections and form