Betfair's official community forum to close at Christmas

[jamesedwards]

I met with Betfair senior management recently, and Betfair had a record year last year, so I'm pretty convinced that the exchange isn't disappearing anytime soon.

[Naffman]

I met with Betfair senior management recently, and Betfair had a record year last year, so I'm pretty convinced that the exchange isn't disappearing anytime soon.

Great news

[ShaunWhite]

I met with Betfair senior management recently, and Betfair had a record year last year, so I'm pretty convinced that the exchange isn't disappearing anytime soon.

Record by what metric? Turnover (world cup boost), or number of new customers, profit, or avg customer spend? What is 'a record year'?

[Trader724]

I met with Betfair senior management recently, and Betfair had a record year last year, so I'm pretty convinced that the exchange isn't disappearing anytime soon.

Record by what metric? Turnover (world cup boost), or number of new customers, profit, or avg customer spend? What is 'a record year'?

Maybe a negative record.

[Euler]

I met with Betfair senior management recently, and Betfair had a record year last year, so I'm pretty convinced that the exchange isn't disappearing anytime soon.

Record by what metric? Turnover (world cup boost), or number of new customers, profit, or avg customer spend? What is 'a record year'?

I've probably said too much already, to be honest. But there was surprise in the Betfair camp at how negative everybody has been, considering they've had such a good year.

[jamesedwards]

I met with Betfair senior management recently, and Betfair had a record year last year, so I'm pretty convinced that the exchange isn't disappearing anytime soon.

Record by what metric? Turnover (world cup boost), or number of new customers, profit, or avg customer spend? What is 'a record year'?

I've probably said too much already, to be honest. But there was surprise in the Betfair camp at how negative everybody has been, considering they've had such a good year.

What do they expect when they have closed the forum and withdrawn from Denmark, Italy, Sweden, New Zealand, and Croatia in the last 18 months? Add to that the uncertainty of new leadership.

[Kai]

I met with Betfair senior management recently, and Betfair had a record year last year, so I'm pretty convinced that the exchange isn't disappearing anytime soon.

Record by what metric? Turnover (world cup boost), or number of new customers, profit, or avg customer spend? What is 'a record year'?

Wasn't the exchange down like 6% last year iirc (although had no major events plus IPL disruptions), but expecting a rebound this year due to it being a big WC year for football and cricket.

But I think you can do the maths yourself? Flutter only cares about the bottom line, and you've got their annual report from last year.

They're the biggest gambling company in the world, yet out of 16.3 billion in revenue only 1.86% comes from the exchange model. They've just shut down Betfair Brasil and barely blinked, so some perspective is required. There's been an extinction level event for traders in Brasil and most people outside that space probably haven't even heard about it.

If you isolate the UK Exchange in the grand scheme of things their contribution is a mere 0.95%. Now I'm terrible at maths but that to me looks like a pretty low number, and the fact that the exchanges are lumped under "Other" like an afterthought doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the model and the amount of priority it gets.

Luckily, cricket is aggressively expanding its formats and events, and as everyone knows FIFA had a record 15 billion year. And some of that global hype/money trickles down to the exchange, all the way down to traders as well, in the form of good markets and opportunities. I think it's been a good year for everyone involved.