Sparrow I meant as how much Betfair needed the money at that time.

£25,000 in 2001/2002 now worth several millino pounds

maybe to Wonga dot com

there is a credible alternative daq..one of the mysteries of my life why all the in runners aint switched.

needs to be a mass migration...aint even been discussed...ming boggling.

I'm up for mass migration which would seem sensible but surely not credible alternative and would rather top myself than bet with those numpoes.

We would be going from a Beano to a Dandy or might even by a Tammy. What about customers because nobody gives a **** about us. Where's the old BF site gone for numpties like me who enjoy simple things like Dom Pom. That's progress. So was Ratners once.

RBoyd86 26 Aug 15 18:59 
I've never used ****, what is seen as the pros and cons with moving to them?


no PC.

RBoyd86 • August 26, 2015 7:11 PM BST
ok negative? must be one as we havent moved there yet



that is the negative!

lol seems lie

There is no credible alternative because the £20 and £50 punter will not move. The big players need these players to help make the the markets flow. Betfair got all the good press and word of mouth publicity in the early 2000s. They are betting exchanges.

This was a once in a generation chance to get punters into exchanges. When other firms fought back with account closures and gifts for losers Betfair joined them rather than promote the exchange. Instead of a big anti-bookmaker campaign saying how disgraceful retrictions to all but losers are Betfair introduced the Premium Charge and became a bookmaker themselves.

The market is now well and truely split. The exchange for people that might win and lots of offers and crazy prices for people that currently lose. If any of the current losers start to win they too will be banned by bookies.

The only way to stop this train is education. If people cannot win they should not be able to lose. There are so many flashing lights and options punters have no chance unless they get organised and focus on one or two areas of betting. Betting can be entertainment but surely it is more entertaining to try and use skill to pick a winner than bet on anything that moves.

Betfair Marketing Fuels Their Success
While Andrew Black once had a unique idea, he was never shy about sharing it. In fact, he pitched it to everyone under the sun, which perhaps, initially cost him landing venture capital and also increased the competition. By March of 2000, Betfair wasn't live yet, while other exchanges such as Betmart, Betswap, and a few others were. At this point they hired JoJo Pimrose who had formerly worked at Bloomsburg and News International. She had a 12-week deadline to come up with a marketing plan for Betfair's expected June 2000 launch.

Initially, Pimrose had nothing earthshattering to share. Her ideas were along the lines of "the eBay of betting" and "the NYSE of betting," which are rather simplistic pitches. She herself was frustrated and went to a marketing firm called Circus with only a £120,000 budget.

Circus agreed to help and came up with a unique idea. The company would spend £20,000 on a launch party, and then run a "death to the bookmaker" campaign. Ed Wray didn't like the idea, but he went along with it. He and Black appeared in gangster clothing, set up fake bookmakers picketing outside the launch party, and held a New Orleans style funeral running a coffin through the city of London. The media loved it, and there was a huge write up in the Sunday Times and other newspapers. Also, the Racing Post, which was very picky about whom they accepted advertisements from, approached Betfair on their own wanting them to be a sponsor.

Finally as we are in the final days of the exchange people are coming together.Reminds me of the very early days of Betfair.
The death of Betfair exchange is here and the coffin is in the undertakers.

Precisely.

Appformat 19.30 "Only for the golf Sparrow", really? a few examples,note the gulf between back and lay.
P Harrington bf 440-500 bd 310-655
S Piercy     bf 270-290 bd 176-440
J Dufner     bf 280-290 bd 180-440

Plenty more examples like above for admittedly longer priced players,a while ago bd were matching what was up on bf for a long time(before takeover) but while it is only conjecture on my part there is only a certain amount these days and that figure is very small, as the ad says when it's gone,it's gone. You have a choice of putting in an order at the same price or even a tick or two less and tbf it does get matched quite often but what a shocking mean looking disparity between the two exchanges and the wonder is are them prices there so that a mug takes them and the bd "bot" takes the bf price,no prizes for the answer to that.

will everyone move to the purple site then????very surprised the purple mob,before they flogged it to ladbrokes,never made the inroad into betfairs market after the premium charge

It was well said,a brilliant opening post.

does unbiased work for betfair?


http://community.betfair.com/horse_racing/go/thread/view/94102/28817889/has-the-voler-la-vedette-fiasco-subsided?post_id=514582443#514582443#flvWelcomeHeader
unbiased • January 4, 2012 5:06 PM GMT
How many races traded over the years?
How many major sporting events traded over the last few years?
How many footie matches traded over the years?
How much money traded over the years?
A LOT,WITHOUT TOO MANY HICCUPS,then the Leopardstown race happens and many are turning it into a major catastrophe for players and this exchange.
It wasn't a major catastrophe,it was a glitch that didn't affect many,yet they want to put the boot in,and turn it into something it isn't.
You should speak as you find,and I have traded large sums since the early days of Betfair when they had much smaller premises and only a handful of staff.No problems over those years whatsoever,and no,I don't work for them,but am a shareholder.
How many have had any serious problems?I would imagine very few,and when you think of the amount transacted on here they would be highly insignificant.

its a pity bf didnt ring pmbets after the vlv fiasco,he could have given them a few million then i would have got my £20k instead of the offer of a commission free bet on the chinese volleyball.

Frog - wd

Responding the OP - Agree with almost everything in the post. I used to work with bf in the early days 2002-2004. The problem was in the early days even though the number of users was growing fast bf wasn't really making much money and once the free acquisition of new players dried up they had to look at other options. This is where they made key mistakes in trying to expand too fast in new markets that cost them lots of money rather than continue with their solid growth that was eating into the bookies share.

I didn't have a problem with their expansion into games, poker etc but that should have been done one they had captured a bigger share of punters via the exchange. Once they started expanding too fast and the costs became too high they started with the PC and other changes in commission points for more revenue. Yes, they needed to address the fact that some people were winning too quickly (fairly or unfairly) but they needed to do it an another manner that made the game fairer and incentivised liquidity providers and straight punters and charged traders more (they've always had the best deal with bf).

Idealistically many of us are disappointed that bf didn't turn out to be what they said they set out to be but from a business standpoint they've been a huge success.