Tag: betfair
Betfair add Sportsbook cash out facility
Nipped onto the Betfair site this afternoon to sort out some things on my account only to be re-directed to the sportsbook again, sigh.
I was greeted by a re-designed sportsbook page with the words ‘Cash out – BETA’ appearing right in front of me. It appears this is a new function and replaces the link to the exchange saying ‘cash out – you need to use the exchange’. Anybody visiting the home page would be hard pressed now to …
Racing steps up a gear
Nice looking card today with Newbury, York and Newmarket then Aintree in the evening. So I’m rubbing my hands at the prospect of some more action today.
The better quality racing has been quite good this week, the other stuff in-between not so great. But I’ve managed to pull out the odd decent result while avoiding the worst of things. It’s noticeable recently though, particularly since mid April, that trying to get an order filled on the weaker betting markets …
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 …
A fool and his money are soon parted
‘A fool and his money’ It’s a classic phrase, but it always seems to ring endlessly true and never shall it be any different it seems.
This post is about the case at Southwark Crown Court this week, involving the now infamous Elliot Short. I see others have picked up on this before I had the chance to write about it, but here is the link to the original article which was posted up on the forum at the start …
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 charts from the Grand National
For your interest, here is the front of the field from the Grand National today. Hopefully this will give some insight into where you went wrong / right today. I flagged up on one of the most likely main moves during an interview I did on Radio early this morning. I’ll post up the interview early next week. Off for a well deserved rest now!…
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 …
Nice finish to a tricky day
Wasn’t sure what to expect from today as it’s the first time the Lincoln has been shifted by a week since I have been trading it.
Last week we had virtually no racing at all and today we ended up with the chaos of 50 races, even excluding the big meeting at Meydan. To be honest I’d prefer neither. A nice progression from one race to another, no clashes, but lots of racing is my ideal set up. Didn’t really get …
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 …
A look under Betfair’s football markets
As you may know I’m bit of a stats man, but it’s a useful discipline. Monitoring your own activity can give you a useful insight into the markets and your activity on them. I spend at least a couple of hours a day either analysing what I did yesterday, or some aspect of the market or a strategy.
The champions league matches give me a chance really get under the skin of the market. This is because the liquidity is higher than …
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 …
Book your Betfair points holiday today
For the larger commission payers amongst you, this is a reminder to make sure you examine whether its worth booking your Betfair holiday next week.
When you generate commission you get credited with Betfair points. The more points you have the lower commission you pay. But each week Betfair decay a big chunk of your points which you would then top up with more activity.
Next week is a short week, especially if you are into horse racing, so it …
I lose money regulary…
Insert caveat – When I’m testing a new strategy!
In the thinner winter markets I often spend a lot of time revising data collected at other times of the year and inching forward on new ideas. I’m a great believer that no matter how much data you have, it’s more important to actually apply things into the market. There are two key reasons for this: -
(1) You need to be careful when Data mining, it can be statistical deja-vu. …
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 …
Newton would have used exchanges
Newton’s Third Law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Sometimes people are perplexed at how you can correctly call price action on an exchange, but sometimes it’s quite easy; thanks to referancing Newton’s third law.
Every betting market must add up to 100%. It’s impossible for it to exceed that value in either direction for any prolonged period of time. So if something is coming in, in one direction, this means something else, either in isolation or in …
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 …
Losers, winners and strike rates
Further to my previous post about strike rates, I thought I add some flesh to the discussion.
At the end of the day people have a variety of different risk profiles. Your tolerance and reaction to risk is predominantly a psychological factor. The good thing is you can learn to overcome any psychological failings. When I was not as experienced as I am now I would often over analyse things and let the market be my master. Now I am …
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 …
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