How would you like to trade a market where you get large regular price swings every 10 minutes in the afternoon, seven days a week. A
market where all prices are set purely by supply and demand, few transaction costs, no middle men and you only pay commission if you win? Where you can freely act as a market maker and where you have direct market access and where you can create a spread for others to take?

Betfair has revolutionised the betting market and created an open platform for exchanging risk on sports events. This market is now viewed much more like a traditional financial risk market than an old fashioned betting market. Smart users have realised that there are huge opportunities on Betfair because they can buy and sell risk in much the same way they would in a normal financial market but without the burden of cost or the restricted access that is usually associated with traditional financial markets.

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Yes, being going down regularly for the last few hours.

Completely off line at the moment.

Makes trading on the racing rather precarious I think. Just imagine backing at 200 and then not able to lay it back. Potentially disastrous.

This is really getting annoying


Friday, March 04, 2005


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Twiddling thumbs.

Cooper - eeer no, as Harlosh above states you stand to loose 90 or win 9.50 you could lay the draw @ 4.3 if no draw win 9.50 or loose 33.

Copper - as you say, 10 reflects the view that "surely, Norwich won't beat Chelsea" which is why, if they did, you would pay your backer 10x his stake which he has given to you (you have laid the bet). Put yourself in the shoes of the bookie when laying.

I got caught out yesterday on the first race. It hung right at the critical moment and by the time the market had come back my position was a mess. I cleaned it up a bit but it was a hopeless case. As always the position never goes for you in these situations. I am thinking a good strategy is to miss the first three races to check for stability.

I wonder how long before Betfair introduce a transaction fee to fund the network?

Nightmare Scrip. Do Betfair have any liability? Should they not declare the race void and straighten the money out?

Agreed Harlosh - but no doubt the small print gets them off the hook. I like Script's suggestion of a visit....balaclavas at the ready.

I think they should void but obviously they want their commision. I have joined a pressure group of regular users who are going to push for improvements and / or represent key issues and discussion points.

It would appear at the moment that when the issues start looking serious they just pull the plug. Solves all those messy settlement issues.

I have just downloaded pingplotter to monitor the site activity. Then at least I know if things are looking dodgy and can start I can start thinking about pulling out of a race or not starting it.

Copper, I read a book years ago written by two guys who toured the country backing any golfer to score a hole-in-one in any of the golf majors. They backed one hole-in-one per major and also did accumulators up to all four majors in that particular year. They deliberately steered clear of large chains as they didn't want their activities relayed to other shops, so they went to back-street independents all round the UK. Their experience was that the bookies had no idea what the odds of a single hole-in-one in a single major were so the bookie would say things like, "I'll lay you 20s" or "33s".

The true odds are between evens and 2/1 apparently. In this year, there was a hole-in-one in all four majors. The pair made 500k but were unable to collect from one shop in Southampton that owed 43k. It went bust. Other bookies were reluctant. Therein lies the danger of laying at long odds, especially if you think the punter will multiply his bet after the event!

We appear to be back but I am just watching for a couple of races.

Copper - Betfair provide a facility for you to see the effect of a bet before you actually place that bet.

Click on 'Settings' (above events), then tick box 'Show a separate future position' and Save.

Now when you place a bet, the effects of that bet are shown under each selection (green if bet profitable, red if not). This comes up before you confirm the bet, so you can use it to experiment with odds/stakes and see what would happen.

You'll find it will confirm all you've been told about laying Norwich :-))

Another hang there on the 14:45. Had a good position. Not now!! That's it for me for the day I can't trade like this.

Sites hung up on me again !!!

had a couple of good races but this is too dangerous

Betfair is down again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

An explanation and cancellation of some bets.

http://forum.betfair.com/jive3/betex/ThreadsFrameset.jsp?forumID=9&forumName=Service&tID=152891&tName=Site+Outages&schatname=Scripophilist&iMessageCount=1

Down again!!!!!

I know - just as i had opened a position - why dont i do as i say and stop when the site is like this