Betfair Q&A
 

Betfair stated that 25% of their customers are in profit after commission and Premium Charges.
I find that extremely hard to believe.

Would you believe 2.5%, Chief?

I find that very hard to believe Max!

Seriously, that figure is not only improbable, but near impossible.
If 25% of their clients are winning and paying commission and premium charges, then their bottom line and share price would be a lot better.
It also means that 25% of their clients are losing equally, but the other 50% are not winners, so where is all the money going?
Mostly commission levies and Premium Charges.
Arbers will be losing also.
It also goes against the 80/20 rule.
Are they counting once a year bettors on the Melbourne Cup or Cox Plate, or the $5.00 punters? Commonsense says that cannot be, there is a very small proportion of clients winning very large sums of money.

http://www.betangel.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=9338 -


What percentage of your users make a profit each year?

From memory, c.25% of our customers are profitable after commission is deducted.


Lol, from memory I shagged Elle MacPherson 20 years ago...

Profitable? HaHa.
 

Without a time frame reference the concept of profitability is meaningless. It's probably true to say that almost 100% of customers are profitable for a while.

A hundred up over the course of a year......yeh!!! He's profitable.
Two bucks ahead after one bet.......yeh!!! He's profitable too.
Five hundred quid up after six years....yeh!!!! etc. etc.

Profitability means regular withdrawals and no deposits.....25%? LOL.

I though about this last night, it could be true NOW.
A lot of people have either run out of money or gone elsewhere for a better deal. A lot of very serious traders have left.
In a comparison Betfair drew an enormous crowd in it's first five years of operation, then people realised that after paying commission, they were better off using other products on well backed runners. Then they introduced the Premium Charge and most of the joy went out of it. Then they introduced levies on Australian racing and liquidity dropped.

So what's left are the handful who have really good strategies, that are still in profit and the opposing losers. The rest could be made up of new blood.

But gone are the days when huge amounts were traded on average horse races.

However, not to be negative, there are still some very good opportunities to be had for both backers or layers, if you know where to look.

I still think 25% is a fanciful figure.