We are proud to announce the launch of our new Sportsbook site, available at http://www.betfair.com/sport.
The Sportsbook is a standalone website offering back-only fixed odds betting, with a focus on daily promotions and a broad range of events and in-play betting opportunities. It is an expansion of the fixed odds offering currently available on the Exchange site. This new site will continue to evolve over time but we would love to hear your views now, which you can submit here.
The Exchange. No change.
The Exchange is still the best place to back, lay, trade, ask for a better price and Cash Out. And you will still be able to access our most popular Sportsbook markets from within the Exchange (click the Fixed Odds option) meaning you can always get a bet on. We've been listening to your thoughts on the new Exchange site, and - while it's still our intention to close the old site down - we will continue to develop the new Exchange site in line with your feedback before doing so. Going forward, following the launch of the new Sportsbook site, the Exchange site can be found at http://www.betfair.com/exchange.
With our Exchange and Sportsbook sites side-by-side, Betfair can now offer a much wider range of bets.
For more information about our Sportsbook launch click here.
The Betfair Team
Betfair mailer
-
Mr Undercover
- Posts: 226
- Joined: Thu Nov 03, 2011 7:22 pm
they'll try to smooth out the spikes of liability in their book by dumping excess on the exchange... is it a coincidence i wonder that we've seen some seemingly mad bombing today.
if the effect of both exchanges having a fractional sports book coupled, and so trying to lay off additional risk then the futures looking bright.... i'll be wearing shades while trading at the weekend.
if the effect of both exchanges having a fractional sports book coupled, and so trying to lay off additional risk then the futures looking bright.... i'll be wearing shades while trading at the weekend.
They have been doing this for months. The bigger damage comes with lack of growth on the exchange. Let's be honest they have the white flag waving and are using their hugh customer base to sell them conventional betting.Mr Undercover wrote:they'll try to smooth out the spikes of liability in their book by dumping excess on the exchange... is it a coincidence i wonder that we've seen some seemingly mad bombing today.
if the effect of both exchanges having a fractional sports book coupled, and so trying to lay off additional risk then the futures looking bright.... i'll be wearing shades while trading at the weekend.
I've watched many businesses over the years and this does look like a strategic blunder for me?
Betfair is known as the place for savvy punters to go to try and win some money, a place where you can actually win by gambling (if you are better than others). By dumbing down the Betfair brand to a sportbooks they are throwing away their USP and it's an area of the market that is well established and fiercely competitive.
Existing high margin causal punters already use established channels and are price insensitive, so Betfair will somehow have to spend a lot to create awareness there; but by doing that they undermine their USP. I'm struggling to see a win here for Betfair, only risk.
If they had created a separate brand and website and leverage their model to fulfil that, I can see how that would work and be complementary. I'm confused why they haven't done that.
Betfair is known as the place for savvy punters to go to try and win some money, a place where you can actually win by gambling (if you are better than others). By dumbing down the Betfair brand to a sportbooks they are throwing away their USP and it's an area of the market that is well established and fiercely competitive.
Existing high margin causal punters already use established channels and are price insensitive, so Betfair will somehow have to spend a lot to create awareness there; but by doing that they undermine their USP. I'm struggling to see a win here for Betfair, only risk.
If they had created a separate brand and website and leverage their model to fulfil that, I can see how that would work and be complementary. I'm confused why they haven't done that.
Personally i find it very wrong that Betfair advertise
that they offer better prices on average than other bookies and then direct people by default to the sports book where you will find none of them.
The casual punter who is not price sensitive could easily fall in this trap and not realise there are two betting platforms, one that offer Often good value
and one that offer from what i have seen the worst odds around.
that they offer better prices on average than other bookies and then direct people by default to the sports book where you will find none of them.
The casual punter who is not price sensitive could easily fall in this trap and not realise there are two betting platforms, one that offer Often good value
and one that offer from what i have seen the worst odds around.
-
Groovyelms
- Posts: 277
- Joined: Fri May 20, 2011 7:42 am
This all seems very strange that Betfair are attempting to dumb down and attract money away from as already said, a very competative and established industry... am I right in thinking that they tried something along the lines of a financial spread betting platform some years back... that went totally t..s up. costing them a small fortune along the way.
Laddaq could get a big boost from all this self inflicted confusion.
Laddaq could get a big boost from all this self inflicted confusion.
-
Mr Undercover
- Posts: 226
- Joined: Thu Nov 03, 2011 7:22 pm
Spring time for Hitler and Ladbrokes, this appears to be exactly their strategy.Euler wrote:
If they had created a separate brand and website and leverage their model to fulfil that, I can see how that would work and be complementary. I'm confused why they haven't done that.
I guess the problem for BF is they don't have any other brand name thru which to attract fractional punters. Setting up a gambling brand from scratch is a £50-100m operational/marketing speed.
BF have no choice but to launch a fractional odds business as their growth effectively halted 2-3years back. Their impatient investors switched CEO to find a way to win more market share. Understandably the new big idea is "If you can't beat em join em". The fractional online bookies rake in several billions yearly GGR between them while the exchange produces £60m ish.
They lost the best price argument long time back, and launching fractional odds is a saturated difficult to stand out market. I agree with Peter they needed a separate brand, perhaps rebrand Betfair to "the exchange" and turn betfair into the front of house fractional. Currently their USP is now lost/hidden.
Mr Glynn and team are going to win this battle before it even commences if BF continue to score own goals at this rate.
Nice summary on the BF forum
essentially the logic seems to be: we've built a known and popular brand through doing one thing really well. now let's take advantage of that brand recognition to make money by launching a new business doing the opposite.
just can't see that working long term.
-
Mr Undercover
- Posts: 226
- Joined: Thu Nov 03, 2011 7:22 pm
It's nieve and they must surely know that.
you'd think there would be a clear distinction bewtween the two betting options both in terms of discovery and market positioning.
how is a newly aquired betfair customer going to discover the exchange, you'd think there would be a big button saying the 'exchange' or something.
it's poor.
you'd think there would be a clear distinction bewtween the two betting options both in terms of discovery and market positioning.
how is a newly aquired betfair customer going to discover the exchange, you'd think there would be a big button saying the 'exchange' or something.
it's poor.