Betfair's relationship with traders

[stueytrader]

A related topic to earlier discussion of outage, but feel it needs it's own post.

What exactly is BFs relationship with traders these days? They have previously really pushed it as a way to use the exchange, is that still true?

Or, are they starting to see trading as something they like less, care about less, earn less money from? Their responses about outages suggest that.

But still there is the issue of their previous marketing towards traders, and encouraging people to 'become a trader'. Promoting different traders and trading tools right on their site. Seems conflicting.

[weemac]

It's Paddy Power's relationship with the Betfair exchange that's the key issue, imo. They don't seem to like it very much.

[ShaunWhite]

Paddy Power is a 6.3 billion euro operation, I'd be suprised if people trading made much of a blip on the balance sheet. We don't generate much commission and the liquidy is at best fleeting. 'We' are also relatively expensive to support and have probably peaked numerically anyway, it's s bit niche. If I was PP CEO I don't think traders would be top of my list of priorities, bigger fish to fry. If anything the US, South America and Far East would be my target this year, they don't even know how the services passport is going to pan out with Brexit, so at best it would be a watching brief.

[LeTiss]

Paddy Power couldn't give a shit about traders, as the Exchange is an alien concept to them - they are bookmakers.

It's the equivalent of buying a building with 8 flats, but being told the upstairs flat is already occupied by a tenant - you don't need to bother them, or check if they're OK. They just do their own thing and contribute to the utility bills

[stueytrader]

Ok, do take on board and generally agree with those points - all pretty negative of course.

However, they do still have this page:

https://betting.betfair.com/guides/how- ... n-betfair/

Note some choice phrases e.g. "we will introduce you to some tactics and tools to help you get started with your trading career."

Career.

[JTEDL]

Relationship wasn't so good a couple of weekends ago

[ShaunWhite]

Paddy Power couldn't give a shit about traders

I think that's basically what I said, but you've been more economical with your words.

[jimibt]

having worked (many years ago) with companies that have been subsumed by larger companies, i know how painful it is for the minnow company to remain true to its original vision (i.e. the vision that perversely attracted its purchase in the 1st place).

at the end of the day, it's actually all about reach. in PP's case, it was no doubt to hedge its bets on the direction that recreational punters would take over the following 5-7 years. somewhere along the line, they found the exchange a very useful backstop to hedge out their sportsbook positions - the rest (as they say) is history (in the making)!!

[edit] - in fairness to the original team, it must be gutting to see what's unfolding but having to support the party line!

[stueytrader]

I do actually get this company moving away from promoting trading.

But then why still have big flashy pages promoting it, with 'pro traders' pimped on there like calender boys?

[Naffman]

Betfair introduced the PC a long time before Paddy ever came knocking - they stopped caring about traders around 10 years ago

[eightbo]

Gloomy in here. Here's a recent positive:

[spreadbetting]

I do actually get this company moving away from promoting trading.

But then why still have big flashy pages promoting it, with 'pro traders' pimped on there like calender boys?

I doubt hosting "big flashy pages promoting it, with 'pro traders' pimped on there like calender boys" costs them much. The guys behind the exchange idea will have since cashed in and enjoying the fruits of the labour. For Paddy Power it was probably more a case of getting their hands on the client list and technology the exchange is low down the list of their priorities and traders even more so. I'm pretty sure if I ran an exchange traders would be bottom of the list too, it's punters where your profits come from.

[greenmark]

If you move your operations to Romania, you're clearly looking to cut costs.
The basic BF exchange model is 5% commision. Thats peanuts vs the overround of a bookmaker. PP will ditch the exchange if it doesn't generate profit.
The only caveat I can think of is the authorities don't want to condone the destruction of the only alternative to the bookmakers.

[stueytrader]

I do actually get this company moving away from promoting trading.

But then why still have big flashy pages promoting it, with 'pro traders' pimped on there like calender boys?

I doubt hosting "big flashy pages promoting it, with 'pro traders' pimped on there like calender boys" costs them much.

Fair point that it probably doesn't cost much, but why do they even bother having those pages if they're not interested in promoting trading? Why not just delete them and move onto solely promoting exchange 'betting' instead?

I just find that there still seems an undercurrent for them promoting trading around. Not sure if any of the pro trader calender boys could comment on here too...

[napshnap]

[edit] - in fairness to the original team, it must be gutting to see what's unfolding but having to support the party line!

Yeah, and the original team started with a parade carrying a traditional bookmaking's coffin. How ironical.

And what will be the next chapter in their history, maybe they'll start to replace us with their advanced machine learning based algorithms?