Seeing as BF do not limit, I am not sure why backers would leave to bet with a bookie that in all likelyhood will be offering lower prices than those currently available at BFSP.

I welcome Pinnacle in the hope they deliver a long & painful kick in the bum to the current batch of corps, but suspect there's a bit of an overreaction going on here regards their potential impact on BF.

Look at the actual turnover for betfair on Australian markets for the last few years. It has still grown for Australia. Even after the turnover tax, the premium charges, etc. Its growing. Betfair has more charges to pay out to regulatory bodies but there market share has not dropped.

From the annual report:


Its all available in their last annual report. They even made a profit in the Australian region.

So even if the markets are not there earlier for the "traders" they are still at least matching as much as they were through the previous years and growing.

The exchange isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Exactly UB.

& if Packer & Co use a bit of nouse & tweak the Australian model a bit & ******** off the PC charges, we could well see the exchange evolve.

Another thing which hasnt been raised as far as I know, is that Pinnacle will have to deal with the upcoming race field fee increases the same as all other corps.

The second coming they may be...or not.

Funnily enough I spoke to someone from Pinnacle several weeks ago, as did Pat, and some others I'm guessing, and I did not get the same story or feeling that Pat is talking up. In fact I was told that Pinnacle would not be able to help me, as an arber, at all. Honestly, I don't know what to think.

That assumes all their fixed odds will be of lower value than Betfair 100% of the time.

No, it assumes nothing, just reporting what I was told. I hope they do offer great odds and ban nobody, I just can't see it happening myself.

Well given the definition of an arb and that you've been told it won't help arbers, it does. I guess we shall see.

My understanding is that a sharp bookie is not useful for arbing horses. For sports, you still need one or more un-sharp bookies to take the other side and not ban you.

Just from my own experience I used to arb with the main Pinnacle site on sports all the time, especially tennis matches when first put up.

With regards to arbs alone - i've never come across a sharp bookie. For me, that would just mean copying betfair odds. I've seen a multitude of arbs across every bookmaker i've ever used.

You're right Pat, I realised what I was saying was wrong for sports and edited my message just as you replied. :)

I've come across bookies that were relatively sharp in one or more racing codes.