USA Gambling legislation and Betfair

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Big Bad Barney
Posts: 335
Joined: Mon Feb 04, 2019 6:00 am

Hello there,

I was talking to a guy today who reckoned the USA was going in the direction of opening up gambling. I don't know the truth of that, or anything about it. Hence I thought I'd start a thread about it. A quick google says that online gambling is legal in 11 states, I think as long as it's online and not based in the USA and it's not sports....

What do you guys think? Is that remotely possible?
What do you guys think would happen in terms of liquidity on Befair? Would it be good or bad for experienced or inexperienced people?

(There is a Peter Webb youtube out there somewhere visiting the USA, he looked thoroughly pleased with the place if I remember rightly).

Personally wouldn't change anything I am doing, I am just curious about such things.
Thanks for any thoughts
cookie247
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Aug 29, 2017 1:34 am

Gday,,

Funny enough i read something in an article that basically implied that this was going to happen
and that was coming from the biggest wager company out here. I personally dont have a clue
but thats what it implied, so much so i took a screen shot of it and was gonna ask around.
I know i deleted it a while ago but will see if i can find it.
Vladimir CC
Posts: 88
Joined: Wed Jan 22, 2020 1:13 pm

johnsheppard wrote:
Mon Aug 24, 2020 10:16 am
Hello there,

I was talking to a guy today who reckoned the USA was going in the direction of opening up gambling. I don't know the truth of that, or anything about it. Hence I thought I'd start a thread about it. A quick google says that online gambling is legal in 11 states, I think as long as it's online and not based in the USA and it's not sports....

What do you guys think? Is that remotely possible?
What do you guys think would happen in terms of liquidity on Befair? Would it be good or bad for experienced or inexperienced people?

(There is a Peter Webb youtube out there somewhere visiting the USA, he looked thoroughly pleased with the place if I remember rightly).

Personally wouldn't change anything I am doing, I am just curious about such things.
Thanks for any thoughts
I know that gambling(and sports betting) is legal in New Jersey and Nevada, I don't know about the other 9. While in europe people seem very reluctant towards exchanges, in USA i think there's gonna be a different story. IMO betting exchanges are closer to the american way of thinking, so i recon that this'll be a big step for the industry. Can't wait for liquidity to pick-up on those hockey matches and horseracing, maybe ufc.

L.E: Looks like 42 states are about to legalise sports betting https://www.businessinsider.com/states- ... %20Nevada.
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Euler
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Joined: Wed Nov 10, 2010 1:39 pm

Well, that went well (rather predictably given the merger).

Betfair are pulling the NJ exchange from 1st October. Sportsbooks all the way!
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Dallas
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Euler wrote:
Fri Sep 25, 2020 7:41 pm
Well, that went well (rather predictably given the merger).

Betfair are pulling the NJ exchange from 1st October. Sportsbooks all the way!
1 step forward 2 steps back
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LeTiss
Posts: 5489
Joined: Fri May 08, 2009 6:04 pm

Shame. Not surprised though

Exchanges are very difficult to get off the ground. I can't see any exchange properly working unless everyone has access to the same markets
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Euler
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Joined: Wed Nov 10, 2010 1:39 pm

They didn't try very hard though, did they?

Whenever I talked about exchanges over there, people were open-mouthed and desperate to get on board. But there were simply none available.

I'm just waiting for somebody to really run with the idea properly in the US and they could wipe out all the traditional sportsbooks. The existing betting options are terrible.
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cmuddle
Posts: 160
Joined: Tue Apr 18, 2017 7:12 pm

They have couple of major bookies in the US who have the whole market to themselves and they offer horrible odds, which are not fixed, let's say you put a wager on 3.35 and it moves to 1.5 along the way and that's what you get. It works like a pool.
It is a monopoly like.

And then you have many small local bookies at the races and in the gambling destinations in Nevada.

It is time to break that with an exchange but it looks like an impossible dream at the moment.
Maybe to get big company like Facebook become interested in the idea would be a way?
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jamesedwards
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Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2018 6:16 pm

Euler wrote:
Fri Sep 25, 2020 8:04 pm
They didn't try very hard though, did they?

Whenever I talked about exchanges over there, people were open-mouthed and desperate to get on board. But there were simply none available.

I'm just waiting for somebody to really run with the idea properly in the US and they could wipe out all the traditional sportsbooks. The existing betting options are terrible.
I read BF US commission rates were up in the teens in order to cover operational and legislative costs. With such high rates it must have been too hard drag bettors away from the existing 20% takeout pool structure that they understand inside out. Add the complication of various different betting rules/taxes etc across different States.
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Euler
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I sat with the legal counsel at Betfair US quite a few years ago and it was complicated. But I read it as being obstructive from the local bodies.

It's similar to sort of thing I've seen elsewhere. But it needs a true disruptor to make a difference and I just don't think Betfair are up for it. When you merge and have embedded interests, you will come under pressure on commercial activities.

So it really needs somebody else to step up to the plate who can't be pressured in a similar way. I'm sure somebody will emerge, but it will probably have to be a US company.
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gazuty
Posts: 2557
Joined: Sun Jun 26, 2011 11:03 am

Euler wrote:
Fri Sep 25, 2020 10:26 pm
I sat with the legal counsel at Betfair US quite a few years ago and it was complicated. But I read it as being obstructive from the local bodies.

It's similar to sort of thing I've seen elsewhere. But it needs a true disruptor to make a difference and I just don't think Betfair are up for it. When you merge and have embedded interests, you will come under pressure on commercial activities.

So it really needs somebody else to step up to the plate who can't be pressured in a similar way. I'm sure somebody will emerge, but it will probably have to be a US company.
The Uber strategy (which used the Nike philosophy of "just do it"). Uber did not care about legality, they just keep going and bent the regulators to its will and some places (eg New South Wales) managed to get the law changed in its favour.

Requires a lot of courage and can all end in disaster, US criminal law system is a complete disaster for those on the wrong side of it - so what you say, requiring a brand new disruptor makes a lot of sense. Probably need a lot of the staff based offshore with no plans ever to go stateside.
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jamesedwards
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gazuty wrote:
Fri Sep 25, 2020 11:05 pm

The Uber strategy (which used the Nike philosophy of "just do it"). Uber did not care about legality, they just keep going and bent the regulators to its will and some places (eg New South Wales) managed to get the law changed in its favour.

Requires a lot of courage and can all end in disaster, US criminal law system is a complete disaster for those on the wrong side of it - so what you say, requiring a brand new disruptor makes a lot of sense. Probably need a lot of the staff based offshore with no plans ever to go stateside.
That's a real balls-out strategy. One for new entrants only, not for the likes of Flutter or whatever they call themselves these days.
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