That new Betfair results page is awful. How are you supposed to look at past results and work stuff out? Why would they change it? FFS!!!

__________________
Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.”

― Earl Nightingale

Hi
At last I received a reply to my question to BF regarding lay betting.

here it is lol

"No, Betfair has no intention of closing lay betting in the near future"

I have now questioned will it cease long term .. be the same reply I reckon.

I had also asked as to where do I find past results of lay prices. Despite a direct question they directed me to the results page which I understand does not contain lay prices. It did in the past.

Maybe the BF rep answering my query doesn't know?
I have now asked if Betfair does or doesn't publish lay prices. I bet they are getting sick of me..lol

Regards
Ted

how can and why would BF cancel lay betting. they are an exchange of opinions between bettors and layers.

They cancel layers and they cancel their business.

yes - i have had something familiar happen to me.
i thought it was just me.

That's now added to the reasons why i got so angry when p123 came on here made some excuse to introduce himself and then and said he was laying '000's of $ and never a mention of problems with being set.

In one race i think he said he layed 600+ when the whole market was only 2000 in total.

i have it is a big risk if you are laying ad wait and hope for SP - even on some metro markets

The trouble with their exchange business is they're only making 5-6.5% on half the turnover as opposed to having a 15% markup on 100% turnover if they just have a Fixed Price Tote. We all know that must be a successful business model as overseas bookies are trying to buy a share of the market.
A parallel might be CocaCola Amatil. They make 100's of millions in profit a year and own SPC Ardmona who allegedly lose millions each year. If they closed down, that'd upset a few people(aka Layers), but as a listed company with shareholders their charter is to make a profit at all costs.

I guess it's about economy of scale, Australia has a fairly small population of Exchange users compared with the UK, dunno? I hope not.

to state the obvious they are 2 different businesses.
the closest thing, unless i am mistaken, that BF get to risk exposure is their best tote product. everything else they are facilitators .

corporate bookmaking is a much different beast with fixed prices, price assessment etc.

Betfair are solely responsible for their own downturn in customers and revenue.
They were getting between 2% and 5% commission on ALL winning bets.
That is an extremely massive revenue stream when one considers the turnover on all the races they cover.
That also had no risk whatsoever, a massive money making machine.

However, since it was publicly listed, they could not report expected growth as punters come and go, a bit like sales, customers drop off, and customers join, one is constantly filling a funnel. There was no growth model at all.
So the boffins decided to hit it's very core customers who supply liquidity which is the lifeblood of any exchange.

Short sighted bean counters decided on a Premium Charge.
The growth graph looked hypothetically great in reporting statements to shareholders and the market.
This is business mistakes for dummies stuff. Hit your best customers where it hurts with no discount for loyalty or turnover.

And there has been more fallout than Chernobyl!

1) It was no longer viable to trade (in the traditional sense) on any market whatsoever.
2) The winning traders left for greener pastures at the expense of liquidity and profit - NEVER TO RETURN.
3) The markets lost more than half it's liquidity leaving punters unable to get set on anything greater than 10/1 for decent amounts.
4) Markets devoid of liquidity meant that the prices were only driven by punters, therefore as a market total virtually became 100% on average, with commission on top. Meat was sheared off the bone.
5) Thousands of punters left in droves.
6) Revenue and growth dropped massively and stagnated with no hope of redemption.

Good one Betfair!

However, this does not mean there is not value to be had.
But the bread and butter traders and recreational punters are the ones hit hard. There are ways around everything, but Betfair have killed their own share price and value.
The latest from the bean counters is to offer fixed odds, scoop up the overround and trade out on liability on the exchange to try and restore some liquidity.

Well, that ain't going to work.

Exchange users want an exchange.
Recreational punters (in the main) will use the bookies or tote.
Leaving only the smarties scooping odds anomalies, costing Betfair yet again.

There are none so blind as those who cannot see.
Or to be more precise, a degree should never take the place of knowledge.

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i will have to buy some new glasses..
does BF offer fixed odds ?
i know you can fix in the exchange market but i havent noticed a fixed odds section?

where is it please ?

It's there for UK markets, and coming to Oz markets very shortly, got a call from Betfair this morning about it.

__________________
RaceCensus - powerful system testing software.
Now with over 399,000 Metropolitan, Provincial and Country races!
http://www.propun.com.au/horse_raci...ng_systems.html
*RaceCensus now updated to 31/03/2024
Video overview of RaceCensus here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W821YP_b0Pg

Beautifully put CP. How about leaking this summary to the press? It might spur someone on to write a story, maybe the ABC....hey??...lol