Category: Betfair
Betfair find a new home for flutter.com
Remember flutter? I do, I signed up for flutter.com around the same time I signed up for Betfair.
Flutter was one of Betfair’s biggest competitors before spending a lot of money pursuing slightly the wrong angle and falling victim to a Betfair takeover in their infancy.
I’ve been an advocate of Betfair using the Flutter brand to launch their assault on the gaming and sportsbook market while leaving the exchange mechanism to the suitably named Betfair. However it looks like …
Betfair and CVC terminate takeover talks
Full statement here – http://www.betangel.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=2623&start=266
Looks like I was right to sell into the market. It will be interesting to see what price the shares open at this morning. Highlights of the statement: -
Following the announcement of the trading and strategy update, the Board received a revised proposal from the Co-offerors (the “Revised Proposal”) on the evening of Friday, 10 May 2013. The Revised Proposal valued each Betfair share at 920 pence per share in cash. On the morning …
City awaits CVC Betfair bid, or not
CVC, the private equity group that was revealed as in talks with Betfair about a possible bid, has until 5pm today to put in a bid or walk away.
The city is talking up a bid of £10, or somewhere near that, to get discussions really going. Betfair shares have responded in kind to this potential. But it’s really a case of how much risk CVC wants to take.
At certain prices Betfair would be a slam dunk investment. I …
Betfair test new pricing models
Betfair announced their FY2013 post close trading update today and generally put a positive slant on things. True detail was hard to come by though.
The S word got a lot of mentions today but it was a confusing picture, for me at least. They showed big growth in the sportsbook customer base, but didn’t indicate whether it included the Blue Square stuff or not? So it’s difficult to know if that figure has any relevance. Also last year the …
Strange Betfair error you need to be aware of
While browsing the Betfair site today I spotted an error that could lead to you placing a bet on the sportsbooks rather than the exchange. Even if you are logged into and using the exchange. Please see the following video: -
…
Betfair wins William Hill Judicial Review
In a unanimous ruling, the Court of Appeal today found in favour of Betfair in the Judicial Review brought by William Hill, which concerned the Horserace Levy Board’s treatment of betting exchange customers.
The High Court had previously ruled in favour of the position of Betfair as supported by the Levy Board in July 2012, confirming the outcome of the extensive Consultation the Board itself undertook in 2010-2011. That Consultation clearly determined that customers of betting exchanges are not liable …
Betfair reject £900m takeover offer
Betfair came out this morning and rejected an offer by CVC of 880p per share. With 103m shares in issue, that values Betfair at roughly £900m. Betfair shares closed at 800p on Friday so expect another jump up today.
Mark Davis had some interesting reflections on the offer on his blog. His comments are always worth a look as he is a big shareholder and obviously an insider on the whole Betfair thing. He has often given insight to …
Private equity firm seeks Betfair buyout
Last last night SKY news broke a story about CVC approaching Betfair: -
http://news.sky.com/story/1077839/exclusive-cvc-mulls-750m-gamble-on-betfair
I think this would make a good target for a firm like CVC, but whether they can pull it off is another thing; they would require the buy in of all major shareholders. The rationale for a private equity buyout would probably be along the following lines. Betfair is cash rich and a private equity firm would probably use that cash as part of the buy …
Betfair acquires customer database of Blue Square
Full the full press release visit here: -
http://corporate.betfair.com/media/press-releases/2013/02-04-2013.aspx
Text reads: -
Betfair Group plc (“Betfair”) today announces that it has acquired certain assets, including the customer database, of online bookmaker Blue Square Bet for £5m. From today, all Blue Square customers will be automatically redirected to Betfair where they can access a full suite of sports betting and gaming products and receive a promotional welcome offer.
The acquisition is consistent with Betfair’s strategy of focusing on regulated markets and …
Betfair rumours
News from the betting industry today that Betfair is alledgedy closing in on an attempt to buy Blue Square.
Little detailed information available at the moment but it is reported that ‘Initial upfront sum will be paid with fee understood to be worth as much as £35m if loss-making sportsbook hits certain targets.’
It’s been an interesting start to the year.…
Betfair Q3 results
Betfair announced their Q3 results this morning. Basically flat overall, you can read the full announcement here: -
http://corporate.betfair.com/media/press-releases/2013/07-03-2013.aspx
As normal I participated in the conference call, but there wasn’t much given away at all during the call and very little insight given into the inner workings and trends within Betfair. The introduction took a couple of minutes and the Q&A about twenty.
They were keen to point out that the sportsbook was up 39%, but that was only £7.5m …
Betfair wields the axe
Lots of news stories floating around last week about redundancies at Betfair. Most reports quoted redundancies in the ‘hundreds’. The news first came to light when GamblingCompliance revealed that around 80 jobs had been cut from Betfair’s London headquarters. eGamingReview went on to announce that the total number of redundancies could top 650.
This appears to be part of CEO Breon Corcoran’s attempts to ‘rejuvenate’ the business by cutting £20m in annual expenses as stated in their December analyst call. Some …
Betfair go back to the future
Some of you may have missed this, but at the turn of the month Betfair quietly slipped in a new home page.
If you are logged into your account on a computer you have previously used all appears normal. But if you log into Betfair on a new computer you are presented with an entirely different look. It’s a strange place……. The main URL appears to be www.befair.com/sport/
It has amazing new innovative features, such as fixed odds betting and …
Bert in £3m Betfair cash out
According to a regulatory filing notice issued on the 24th January; Andrew Black, one of the founders of Betfair, ‘cashed out’ £3m worth of shares on Wednesday.
In my experience there can be any number of reasons to sell shares, but only one reason to buy them. So I’m not sure a sale is that significant. Also, he still has 7,817,390 left! When Bert left the board is was a watershed moment for Betfair. It’s never been the same since.
It …
Betfair H1 results – Exit LMAX – Rev up, earnings down 25%
A right old mixed bag in Betfair’s results this morning. Official results here: -
http://corporate.betfair.com/media/press-releases/2012/13-12-2012.aspx
If you want the full set of results, regulatory disclosure and detailed extracts, please visit the Bet Angel forum.
As expected Betfair’s new CEO taking the opportunity to hit the reset button on the business. This is a very common practice for incoming CEO’s and will allow better comparitive results this time next year. This set of results you can take in any number …
Now Betfair exit Greece
It was announced at 7:04 this morning that Betfair are now, on top of all the other recent markets, exiting Greece. It’s another blow for the exchange model in Europe.
Full statement is available here: -
http://otp.investis.com/clients/uk/betfair/rns/regulatory-story.aspx?cid=270&newsid=293343
The key part is the following: -
On 5 November 2012, the Greek Gaming Commission issued a Decision that includes provisions for financial penalties and criminal sanctions against gaming operators that continue to operate in the market without a permit. Betfair believes that …
Betfair forced to exit Germany
In another blow for international expansion Betfair has been forced to exit Germany.
In July Germany applied a turnover tax of 5% on stakes which Betfair believed wasn’t applicable to it. Betfair confirmed that discussions are continuing with tax authorities regarding the potential tax liability, if any, arising from bets placed on its exchange since the law came into effect.
Betfair is now reviewing its operations in this market. In FY12, approximately 4% of Core Betfair revenue came from Germany …
Newmarket Cambridgeshire & a bit of a warning
An interesting set up for racing today. It’s a shame Ripon is off and Chester is only 5 minutes in front of Newmarket.
I’ve picked off a few good results from the Cambridgshire in the past but I will remember this race forever for the disaster of last year.
As we approached the key race of the day people started posting in the forum about performance issues with Betfair, we have a specific thread for this. Having done well on …
What changed?
Join the debate on the forum – http://www.betangel.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=6516&start=10
I’m an avid market watcher and over time you expect all markets to evolve and change, I’ve always been keen to be one step ahead of that. Something that worked well in certain market conditions, sometimes doesn’t work a few months down the line; though some things are unchanging.
When a strategy fails you often have to look at yourself first. I made a cock up on a strategy not so long again and …
Germany set to backtrack on Gambling laws
Recently the Germany state of Schleswig-Holstein, to much fanfare, announced the licensing of three operators in it’s territory, myBet, Betfair and Nordwest Lotto. Three weeks later, operators Bwin, Bet365, BetAtHome and Tipico were also approved with their gaming licenses.
However the state recently announced a shock decision to return to German’s Interstate Gambling Treaty. Ralf Stegner had the following to say according to EGR:
“We are beginning to clear the minefield in the German gambling legislation left by our predecessors …
Betfair implement new turnover charge
News from Australia this morning that Betfair are to implement a turnover charge on customers, full details: -
http://betfair.com.au/turnovercharge/
In case you were not aware, a high court ruling this year in Australia has switched the law from a gross profits tax to a turnover based revenue fee for racing. This doesn’t affect the well established and politically well oiledl, but slightly ancient and backward thinking, incumbents in Australia; but does have a significant impact on the new entrants like …
Judicial Review rules in favour of Betfair
Full press release here: -
http://corporate.betfair.com/media/press-releases/2012.aspx
Basically William Hill have lost their case, which was arguing that an undefined group of Betfair customers should paying levy on profits. This premise carefully ignored the fact that Betfair customers already pay levy via Betfair by proxy and brushed over a number of other contradictory issues. From my view point and that of the friend of mine who is in the legal profession, it looked more like a competitive action than a legal …
Cyprus legislates against Betfair
The Cypriot government announced on Friday legislation that aims to restricts products that gambling operators can offer in the country. Product restrictions included processes that are “designed to facilitate the receipt or acceptance of bets between players”.
Betfair announced this morning that they intended to challenge the decision as “the company believes that the legislation contains serious flaws and, in certain areas, is inconsistent with European Union law. “
Betfair also announced that Cyprus “generated approximately 4% of revenue from …
Betfair revenue down, profits up
Betfair have released their FY12 results this morning and it shows top line revenue down 1% but underlying earnings up 46%. ‘Underlying’ figures are a bit different though, but until we see the presentation it’s difficult to know the exact detail behind the figures or how it was generated. Full result annoucement here: -
http://corporate.betfair.com/media/press-releases/2012/29-06-2012.aspx
Generally speaking, ‘Revenue’ is commision earned from customers, so that appears to have fallen or on an ‘underlying basis’ not grown much. From what I can …
Royal Ascot trading review
This was an interesting year at Royal Ascot. The obvious highlights were Frankel’s win and Black Caviar’s close call. I thought the Duke of Edinburgh presenting his wife with a trophy was also a moment to remember, surprised to see no caption competitions on that!
Overall, according to Betfair’s statistics, £92.6m was traded before the off, up from £73m the year before. However, that included to races at incredibly short prices. If you strip those out and add back average …
The Oaks – Betfair’s first ever market
A really good nights racing last night at Sandown. Decent trading conditions and plenty of opportunities for everybody. Today we switch to the Oaks and tomorrow the Derby when the summer racing really starts to step up a gear
If you are a Betfair newbie you may not know that the Oaks at Epsom was Betfair’s first market way back when they started in June 2000. Mark Davis reminisced on his blog about it. I think Mark, as an insider, …
Betfair fixed odds sportsbook launched
I’ve just seen a promo banner appear on Betfair which gave details on how the sportsbook will look and work. You can find out more details here: -
https://promotions.betfair.com/fixed-odds-uk
It looks like we finally have the launch of the sportsbook. Clicking into Euro 2012 football market provides the option to view both fixed odds and exchange odds. Exchanges odds are way better than the fixed odds. I can’t see any value add to a customer on placing a fixed odds …
Now Spain says yes and no to Betfair
Betfair confirmed today that thier exchange will be unavailable in Spain from early June upon receipt of a new gaming license.
It seems Betfair have been granted a licence for a sportsbook and will ‘transfer’ exchange customers to the sportsbook. But the exchange will be shut down while, “Betfair continues its constructive dialogue with the Spanish regulatory authorities and looks forward to working with them in the near future on the licensing of betting exchanges.”
Full details here: -
http://corporate.betfair.com/media/press-releases/2012/23-05-2012.aspx…
Goldman Sachs sells off entire Betfair LMAX stake
Missed this the first time around but thought it was of interest.
INVESTMENT bank Goldman Sachs has sold out its investment in LMAX, the online trading platform owned by Betfair. The bank’s exit comes as the platform struggles to live up to its earlier expectations. Its chief executive left last year as trading volumes failed to live up to hopes. Betfair said that its decision to invest a further £10m in LMAX diluted Goldman’s 12.5 per cent shareholding to less …
Betfair awarded licence in Germany
Hot off the news wires, the man from Schleswig Holstein says Jawohl: -
BETFAIR GROUP (“Betfair”) has today been awarded a licence to operate its betting exchange in the German state of Schleswig Holstein.
Following the receipt of the licence for sports betting, Betfair intends to pay 20% of Gross Gaming Revenue derived from Germany to Schleswig Holstein. Based on current revenue run-rates it is envisaged that this payment will reduce Core Betfair’s gross margin by approximately one percentage point.…
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