Just a short post to say I won't be covering Royal Ascot this week on the blog, having a break during the World Cup...
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
beloved friend
ReplyDeletegreetings from india,
you must be really busy with foot ball game, good
my question is this why inspite of higher percentage of commission, 6.5% betfair getting larger turnover compared to betdaq, which is not getting with 3% commission, can you throw me some light on this please,thanks for your lovely blog.love and gratitude -easwaran India
Betfair is only 6.5% on Australian racing where Betdaq doesn't compete, max of 5% elsewhere. Betdaq has had many many chances to improve their market share (premium charge, crap BF customer service, breakdowns, restricted territories, etc) for minimal difference. Simply ain't gonna happen.
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