Betfair edge closer to their date in court with Racing NSW

Betfair are taking on the crusty establishment at Racing NSW over their plans to introduce turnover-based fees for the right to bet on NSW racing. Might sound fair on the surface, but actually it's a massive trade restriction - pandering to their mates at the TAB and trying to put all their competitors out of business. It might have worked 50 years ago but not these days.

Read the Racenet article here

The ruling means that Racing NSW (and Harness Racing NSW)'s expensive lawyers are likely to once again leasd them down the wrong path and cost the NSW racing industry a fortune... ironically at the time when these racing authorities are making a lot of noise about supporting the low-paid workers at the bottom of the chain.

The taxpayer never wins when these things go to court, especially when Blind Freddie can see that the legislation is protectionist!

Comments

It's all gone Pete Tong at Betfair!

The Christmas Hurdle from Leopardstown, a good Grade 2 race during the holiday period. But now it will go into history as the race which brought Betfair down. Over £21m at odds of 29 available on Voler La Vedette in-running - that's a potential liability of over £500m. You might think that's a bit suspicious, something's fishy, especially with the horse starting at a Betfair SP of 2.96. Well, this wasn't a horse being stopped by a jockey either - the bloody horse won! Look at what was matched at 29. Split that in half and multiply by 28 for the actual liability for the layer(s). (Matched amounts always shown as double the backers' stake, never counts the layers' risk). There's no way a Betfair client would have £600m+ in their account. Maybe £20 or even £50m from the massive syndicates who regard(ed) Betfair as safer than any bank, but not £600m. So the error has to be something technical. However, rumour has it, a helpdesk reply (not gospel, natur

Spot-fixing - you will never, ever be able to stop it

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lay the field - my favourite racing strategy

Dabbling with laying the field in-running at various prices today, not just one price, but several in the same race. Got several matched in the previous race at Brighton, then this race came along at Nottingham. Such a long straight at Nottingham makes punters often over-react and think the finish line is closer than it actually is. As you can see by the number of bets matched, there was plenty of volatility in this in-play market. It's rare you'll get a complete wipe-out with one horse getting matched at all levels, but it can happen, so don't give yourself too much risk...

Sport is made for betting

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