ET,

Fair enough - although I doubt this forum reaches enough people to generate a "rush away from the TABs" :smile:

With regards to the 5% vs 15% commission point the main reason I would see is that it would probably generate a huge increase in turnover. For example last Saturday I only had one "normal" bet (placed with IAS) but 5 bets on Betfair - none of those would have occured on the normal TAB as I was either laying, taking advantage of the huge overs or doing a "surebet". Had I not had other commitments in the afternoon it would have been much higher still. Therefore my turnover was more than 5 times higher than it would have been without a betting exchange - 5 lots of 5% is certainly better than one lot of 15%.

Even for punters just using the exchange to place their normal bets I am pretty sure over time they would be investing significantly higher turnover on an exchange - most people do not say "I will bet $500 turnover this month" - they say "I will put $100 in the account and bet until that is gone" - if they are losing less due to the lower takeout then they will compensate by increasing their turnover.

Add to that the potential international market which makes the Aussie turnover look insignificant and maybe there is a reason to set one up? They could even brand it with a different name so that the regular TAB punters did not know it was a TAB offering and still keep their 15% from the mugs money.

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