Betfair set float price

[LeTiss]

Dobbin,

I agree, but many people have expressed their huge disappointment at Betdaq on here - I'm one of them.

They seem happy with their lot. Betdaq are a very unambitious organisation who quite frankly don't want Betfair's business

I think Betfair's competition will ultimately arise from a bookmaker that changes it's activity. There were rumours that ToteSport might move away from their fixed odds business & become a state owned exchange. I'm not saying this will be good, but a company already known and trusted within the betting fraternity has the best chance of offering competition to BF IMO

[Bet Angel]

From Racing Post

BETFAIR's share price continued its dive on Thursday, sinking to a new low of below 900p.

It has been a downward spiral since the shares hit a peak of 1610p and the latest slump to 898.5p came after Morgan Stanley, one of the investment bankers who headed Betfair's flotation under four months ago, downgraded its forecast for the betting exchange's financial performance over the next three years.

Betfair's six-month interim results disappointed the market, with racing and poker trading causing concern. The whiteout of the lucrative Christmas racing programme, which also hits bookmaker turnover, clearly added to investors' jitters as the share price dipped below 1000p for the first time.

There was a minor rally from Thursday''s lunchtime low of 887p to 898.5p, but it was still down 39p on the day, making it 73p in two days and over 36 per cent less than the launch price.

Morgan Stanley downgraded its earnings per share forecast for the years 2011-2013 by 21 per cent in the worst-case scenario, warning of the dangers posed to Betfair by new regulations, which it said could have "significant impact on the group's growth and profitability".

This still set a Betfair target price of 1400p to 1480p, which was lower than many other investment institutions, but not as low as UBS, who set a 1250p aim, while advising a sell of the stock.

A Betfair spokesman, not able to go into the specifics of recent trading conditions with the company's next results coming in April, said: "Analysts and commentators are clearly entitled to their views.

"We don't comment on speculation and are focused on the long-term valuation. We don't manage our business on short-term moves."

[Corker]

The market value has fallen £0.5bn since they listed.

Is it only me thinking that Betfair will increase charges to boost profits?

[Dobbin]

Yip

Doesn't look good

Matched on the 12:40 Lingfield

Betfair £19,021.00 at the moment

Betdaq £26,351.00 at the moment

[andyfuller]

The already have increased charges, the inactive account charge.

Seems they are continuing to fall today, down another 1.28% (11.5p) now at 887p won't be long at this rate till they have lost half of their value since floatation

[andyfuller]

Yip

Doesn't look good

Matched on the 12:40 Lingfield

Betfair £19,021.00 at the moment

Betdaq £26,351.00 at the moment

Don't forget they calculate turnover totally differently. Easiest way to make a comparison is to copy and paste all of the matched amounts at each price for each selection from the Betfair Price History into excel and then multiply the amount matched by the price, add it all up and then half it and you have it the same format as Betdaq then.

[Dobbin]

Cheers Andyfuller

Is that better or worse that way

[andyfuller]

It appears the company's growth is at the expense of their current customer base with a range of account charges. This will not continue forever!

Talk of new charges on the way:

http://community.betfair.com/general_be ... your_email

Hopefully they are just talking about the dormant account charge though - but I can't ask as I am banned

[LeTiss]

Bearing in mind they are talking about receiving emails, I think it's the dormant account charge

I'm not putting any money on that though

[andyfuller]

Just been given this link for the Webcast by David Yu and Stephen Morana where they discuss the first half year results:

http://axisto.com/webcasting/investis/b ... id=rm-300k

It is 1hr in length though so get the popcorn ready

[hgodden]

The talk of new charges doesnt look like its coming to anything....

Posted by Betfair's 'Community Manager' in response to the email someone had received about betfair looking at their pricing structure

"Hello all

Thanks for flagging this, and apologies that you received a reply that was erroneous.

I've had a message from the team that looks after this area, and they have asked me to pass on to you that you have received an 'auto reply' that was set up in 2008 and for some reason was loaded again recently in error.

Thanks to you highlighting it, we have been able to correct things and make sure that the auto reply e-mail is the current one, and not one that is nearing its third birthday!

So apologies and thanks again!"

[hgodden]

It's not all bad with betfair, they were clearly overpriced to begin with anyway so big falls like this are just natural. They might not be able to push a great deal of growth in the company but there's nothing to suggest it's actually in decline, racing volumes aside

[LeTiss]

It's not all bad with betfair, they were clearly overpriced to begin with anyway so big falls like this are just natural. They might not be able to push a great deal of growth in the company but there's nothing to suggest it's actually in decline, racing volumes aside

I disagree

They are not growing, that's fair enough.
Unfortunately, they refused to accept limited growth for period of time and have decided to cane their customers for extra money

They are in a service industry, and their customer service standards are grotesque. At some stage this will come back to haunt them

This is why I think Betfair's future is not at all rosy

[andyfuller]

Fall of 34.5p today (3.83%) now only 865.50p

Not a clue what caused today's fall but it is a fairly big drop...anyone know?

Now down over 33% since floatation - ouch.

[Dobbin]

Hi Folks

Sounds like Poetic Justice to me

http://www.livecharts.co.uk/share_price ... symbol-BET

If they drop another 20% that will be the Share Price it is worth.

Massively over valued in the first place

Maybe they should put their customers first for a change

Dobbin