Betfair
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Betfair
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Racing
Betfair
is licensed in the UK, Malta, Australia and Italy.
Betfair is one of the first online gaming organisations
to gain the internationally recognised ISO/IEC 27001:2005
Information Security Management System Certification.
Betfair Ltd is a limited liability company registered
in England and Wales, number 5140986

News
Flock
to Pink Pigeon Race, punters urged - 3rd January 2009
(Credit:
The Sydney Morning Herald)
Australia
has a new race to stop the nation but this time the
competitors have wings.
Twelve
elite racing pigeons will be flapping it out on Monday
in The Great Betfair Pink Pigeon Race launched on
Saturday.
The
aim is to raise dollars for breast care nurses in
rural and regional Australia.
Proceeds
will go to the McGrath Foundation - named after Jane
McGrath, the late wife of Australian cricketer Glenn
McGrath, who died from breast cancer
last June.
The
inaugural event at Glenn McGrath Oval in Narromine,
in NSW's central west, is a 30km race that will finish
at the tiny wheat town of Trangie on day three of
the Sydney Test between Australia and South Africa
- renamed Jane McGrath Day by Cricket Australia.
Punters
will be able to place bets on the pigeons named after
the Nine Network's cricket commentary team through
online betting exchange Betfair.
Betfair
spokesman Hugh Taggart said the event was starting
in the hometown of the Glenn "Pidge" McGrath.
"We
hope the Great Betfair Pigeon Race captures the imagination
of the Australian public and becomes an annual event
on the Australian sporting calendar for many years
to come," Mr Taggart said.
Outcry
over Betfair cricket ads, by Natasha Robinson- 27th
Dec 2008
(Credit:
The Australian)
The
Nine Network has caused a furore for allowing online
betting agency Betfair to advertise during the Boxing
Day Test, with campaigners furious that the plugs
-- including one by cricket legend Ritchie Benaud
-- expose children and teenagers to gambling.
World
Vision head Tim Costello and South Australian senator
Nick Xenophon said yesterday they were shocked to
see Betfair's strong presence on advertising billboards
at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Mr
Costello, who was at the MCG yesterday, said he was
"very worried" about the potential for children
who viewed the Betfair advertising to go home and
gamble online without their parents' knowledge.
"You've
got families and kids here," Mr Costello said.
"Of course gambling is part of life, but I think
when it's a family cultural event like the Boxing
Day Test, the advertising is inappropriate."
He
said he was particularly concerned at the way Benaud
had quoted Betfair's odds during his commentary, broadcast
live around the nation on the Nine Network yesterday
morning.
"The
truth is we know that gambling addiction breaks up
families, causes crime and comes at a huge social
cost," Mr Costello said. "When it's a family
event like the cricket, when it's being broadcast
live and kids are listening to it, it is overstepping
the mark. It's inappropriate certainly for kids at
a family event."
Senator
Xenophon, who was elected as a South Australian senator
at the last federal poll largely on an anti-gambling
platform, described the online gambling world as the
"wild west" and called on the Rudd Government
to impose regulations on the broadcasters.
"Online
gambling such as Betfair has the potential to deliver
the next wave of problem gamblers," he said.
"There's
very little regulation in relation to advertising.
Gambling advertising ought to carry with it warnings,
and we ought to be looking at restrictions similar
to those that apply to cigarettes and alcohol."
Senator
Xenophon agreed with Mr Costello that the ability
for online betting agencies to advertise at the cricket
threatened the Boxing Day match's family- riendly
status. "It's a shame for the great game of cricket
that it's been reduced to just another event to have
a punt on," Senator Xenophon said. "It diminishes
the great game of cricket."
Nine's
publicity officer did not return calls yesterday.
Senator
Xenophon said he had concerns that online betting
on sporting matches could expose sports to corruption
and match-fixing. A spokesman for Betfair last night
declined to respond to the criticisms made by Mr Costello
and Senator Xenophon, but the agency has strongly
argued in the past that it has safeguards in place
to guard against corruption, the risk of which is
increased because punters have the chance to bet on
a team's loss as well as a win.
Betfair
tipped off the Australian Football Federation last
week that Socceroos Kevin Muscat and Craig Moore,
as well as Melbourne Victory midfielder Grant Brebner,
had bet on soccer matches, in breach of regulations.
In
2000, South African captain Hansie Cronje was banned
from cricket for life after admitting he took bribes
from bookmakers to fix games.
And
Shane Warne and Mark Waugh were fined by the Australian
Cricket Board after being offered inducements to give
pitch and weather reports on Australia's tour of Pakistan
and Sri Lanka in 1994.
Betfair
Sports Exchange
Betfair
is the world's leading sports betting exchange, a
concept it pioneered in 2000. All bets on Betfair
are placed by users who either want to bet for a selection
or outcome in the normal way (back), or bet against
a selection or outcome (lay). Bets are matched between
people with opposing views. Betfair is a licensed
bookmaker in the UK. It also has licences in Australia,
Malta, Austria and Germany.
Betfair Poker
Betfair
Poker Originally launched in May 2004, Betfair Poker
is one of the fastest growing poker rooms on the internet
and one of the busiest online rooms in Europe. In
October 2006 Betfair Poker released its new poker
software, hosted on our own poker network. This means
we are very lucky – we’re able to react
to what our players want, so you’re really able
to “Play it Your Way”. Betfair revolutionised
the sports betting industry and Betfair Poker is changing
the face of online poker for ever.
Betfair Casino
The
only casino in the world with no house edge.
Betfair
Casino offers two great casino lounges, the Zero Lounge
and the Main Lounge. The Main Lounge offers a huge
range of the newest and most exciting games making
it one of the most diverse and best value casinos
on the web. The Zero Lounge is the first casino with
zero house edge on every game.
Company
Overview
Betfair
is the world's largest Internet betting exchange.
The company is based in the borough of Hammersmith
and Fulham in London, England.
History
Since Betfair was launched in June 2000 it has become
the largest online betting company in the UK and the
largest bet exchange in the world. Betfair currently
has over 1,000,000 clients and a turnover in excess
of £50m/week.
A
bet exchange allows punters (gamblers) to bet at odds
set and requested by other punters rather than by
a bookmaker. Members can make both 'Back' bets (normal
bets on a selection to win) and 'Lay' bets (bets on
the opposite side of the Back, against the selection),
thereby eliminating the traditional bookmaker.
Betfair
uses decimal odds, which are easier to calculate with
than fractional odds. Its bookmaking model brings
together two counterparties with opposing views, and
thus removes the need for a bookmaker's markup or
overround. As a result, the odds are up to 20% better
than bookmakers' odds, according to the site's operators.[citation
needed] Betfair punters are able to offer odds based
on their own opinion rather than on a set bookmakers'
margin. Betfair charges a commission on all winning
bets, which is set at 5% of the net winnings for most
markets--though it is possible to earn discounts.
The
company has attracted much comment in the British
and Australian press. Its co-founders, Andrew Black
and Edward Wray, won the Ernst and Young Emerging
Entrepreneur of the Year award. More recently the
company was recognised by the Department of Trade
& Industry when it was given a Queen's Award,
the most prestigious business award in the UK.
In
October 2005 chief executive Stephen Hill announced
his resignation when the board decided not to proceed
with plans for a stock market flotation, the investors
holding out for a higher valuation.
In
November 2005 the Tasmanian government announced a
deal to licence Betfair in the state. The deal will
see Tasmania receive AU$5 million up front and is
projected to pay Tasmania about $40 million per year.
Now that it has been approved by the Tasmanian Parliament,
it will be the second licence Betfair has received
outside the UK - the first being in Malta. The deal
has infuriated the established monopolistic totalisers
and bookmakers (due to loss of revenue) and governments
(due to loss of taxes) in the other Australian states.
A ban on the use of betting exchanges took effect
in Western Australia on the 29th January 2007 and
possibly South Australia in the future. Betfair claims
this new law violates the Constitution of Australia
and filed a legal challenge which remains before the
courts.
On
28 February 2006 Betfair launched a new interface,
including current live scores of in-play soccer matches,
jockey silks and horse form, and an 'express view'
in which only the currently available back odds are
viewable. Within two days the 'Xpress' idea was also
adopted by BETDAQ. The changes were criticised on
the Betfair forums by many members who disliked the
smaller fonts and the right-aligned columns, which
displayed a large amount of whitespace. On March 1
these display issues were addressed, although many
users still felt the site had been dumbed down in
order to attract new punters to the exchanges. The
gambit worked, however, with a significant increase
in membership and deposits during the Cheltenham Festival.
Softbank
purchased 23% of Betfair in early April 2006 valuing
the company at £1.5 billion.
Controversy
The fact that gamblers can now lay outcomes on the
exchanges has caused tremendous criticism from traditional
bookmakers with much of the anger coming from the
UK's "Big Three" - Gala Coral Group, Ladbrokes
and William Hill. These firms argue that granting
who they consider to be anonymous punters the ability
to bet that an outcome will not happen is causing
corruption in sports such as horse racing (since it
is much easier to ensure a horse will lose a race,
the bookmakers reason).
Betfair
has led their defence by countering that while corruption
is possible on any gambling platform, the bookies'
arguments are motivated not by concern for the integrity
of sport but by commercial interests. Betfair also
asserts that unlike the high street brokers, who all
accept anonymous cash bets, Betfair is well aware
of who their customers are. Customers are required
to create personal accounts, and Betfair keeps records
of each customer's betting history. Betfair in particular
has noted that they have signed numerous agreements
with governing bodies of sport including the Jockey
Club, with whom they insist they will co-operate fully
if the latter suspects corruption to have taken place.
Criticism
Betfair handles 5,000,000 transactions every day -
more than the London, New York and Tokyo Stock Exchanges
combined.[citation needed] On occasions, the site
has been unavailable as the company performs upgrades
to the software. While these suspensions in service
are often planned and announced to Betfair's customers
before they are due to take place, at other times
the site has been known to crash unexpectedly.
For
traditional punters, a crash might be little more
than an annoyance, but unexpected outages are of particular
concern for the so-called traders - customers who
typically bet on both sides of a proposition in an
attempt to make money by capitalising on changes in
the odds. Unlike most stock exchanges which charge
a commission for every transaction, Betfair only charges
commission on the net "winnings" which for
a trader who will typically be no more than 5% of
the amount "bet" - so to try and make substantial
amounts of money a trader needs to commit a significant
amount of capital. The bulk of a trader's capital
can be protected if he "closes" any "open"
position before the match/race being bet on begins.
But if the website crashes shortly before the start
of the race/match and the trader is unable to close
his open positions, his capital will be in serious
jeopardy.
Keeping
the traders happy is probably very important to Betfair
because they are believed to be the primary source
of capital in the client accounts, which is what provides
the liquidity that Betfair's competitors have not
yet been able to match. Betfair have acknowledged
these "unplanned outages" and attributed
them to technical and hardware issues.
Betfair outside the United Kingdom
Although the bulk of its customer base is in the UK,
Betfair offers its services in a number of countries.
Betfair has never accepted customers and/or credit
card numbers from the United States, where online
gambling is legally proscribed. Being the leading
betting exchange, Betfair has been reluctant to entangle
itself in legal trouble and has thus turned away business
from countries where its services are likely prohibited.
As a result, unlike some other online gambling operations
Betfair was not seriously affected when the U.S. Congress
passed strict prohibitions affecting Internet gambling
in late 2006.
Betfair
has several thousand customers in Australia but its
marketing activities are currently restricted to Tasmania,
where it is licensed. Betfair is well known in Australia
because of negative publicity from the racing industry
and the totalizators. However, Betfair signed a landmark
agreement with Racing Victoria in July 2006 which
saw Betfair begin covering Victorian racing and left
the exchange on decent terms with two of Australia's
six states. Betfair also has agreements in place with
several major spors in Austrlaiam including the Australian
Football League, Cricket Australia and the PGA Tour
of Australasia.
PokerChamps.com
In late autumn of 2005, Betfair finalised a deal that
began in early summer, to purchase the online poker
site PokerChamps.com, which the company will integrate
into its network, replacing a poker arm that previously
used gaming technology software from CryptoLogic Inc.
On 30 October 2006, Betfair Poker left the Cryptologic
network to move to its new platform.
In
a press release the company's poker head, Ben Fried,
stated: "Having our own poker software puts us
in command of our own destiny. It means we can react
quickly to customer feedback and continue to develop
an innovative, community-focused product. We are confident
that we are laying the foundations of a market leading
poker room."
On
21 July 2006, all American accounts were frozen and
the return of players' funds were in progress, a move
that immediately followed the arrest of David Carruthers,
former Chief Executive at BETonSPORTS. Betfair had
previously implemented geo-location software in 2004
to deny U.S. residents the ability to place bets on
its site.
Zero lounge
In 2006 Betfair Casino introduced its "Zero lounge
- where the house has no edge". According to
Betfair, perfect play should result in the player
having an equal chance of winning or losing. For example,
the Roulette wheel has no zero. This means that someone
playing red-black, odd-even, or high-low has an exactly
50% chance of winning, (as opposed to a 48.65% chance
on a normal Roulette wheel with a zero). However,
in some games, such as Blackjack, it is necessary
to learn perfect play in order to match the house.
Bad players, (e.g. players who draw a card when they
have 17 or more), are likely to lose money to the
house. The zero Blackjack rules have been slightly
modified (re-written) compared to normal European
Blackjack. For example natural suited Blackjacks pay
2 to 1 instead of 1.5 to 1, Any five card 21 automatically
pays 2-1, Pairs of Aces cannot be split, all other
pairs can be split, including 4s, 5s, and 10s, only
one split is allowed, doubling is allowed on 8, 9,
10 and 11, including "soft" 18s, 19s, 20s
and 21s, and insurance can be taken any time the dealer
shows an ace, no matter what cards the player holds.
The
games offered in the Zero lounge are Blackjack, Roulette,
Baccarat and Jacks or Better.
Betfair
Australia Corporate
Betfair
is the world's leading betting exchange, a concept
it pioneered.
All
bets on Betfair are placed there by users who either
want to bet for a selection or outcome in the normal
way (back), or bet against a selection or outcome
(lay). Bets are matched between people with opposing
views.
Betfair
is a licensed bookmaker in the UK. It also has licences
in Australia, Malta, Austria and Germany.
Why
Betfair?
Betfair
offers you unprecedented choice, value and control.
* You can bet that an outcome will happen (back) or
that it won't happen (lay).
* You can choose the odds you want to play at.
* You can bet whilst the game is in play.
How
do I use the Exchange?
When
you "back" a selection (be it an individual,
a team, horse, dog or other), you are betting that
it will win. This is just like betting with a conventional
bookie.
When
you "lay" it, you are betting against it
winning. For example, if you're betting in a market
on which team is going to win the Premiership and
you lay Sydney Swans, you offer odds to other punters
who wish to back Sydney Swans. If Sydney Swans don't
win, then you pick up the backer's stake. If Sydney
Swans wins, then you pay out. This is what bookmakers
traditionally do.
Although
Betfair knows who is on each side of every bet matched
through the exchange, you never know who you are betting
against. Your privacy and the confidentiality of your
bets is maintained by Betfair's secure site.
Choose
your odds
If
you want better odds than are currently available,
you can place an order for a better price, but be
realistic because there has to be somebody prepared
to lay the bet at those odds, and vice versa.
Take
a look at the odds before an event and you will see
them change as Betfair members back and lay their
bets. The odds often improve nearer to the off as
the number of people in the market increases.
Betfair
is licensed by the Tasmanian Gaming Commission.
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