Betfair loses race fields legislation case

[mugsgame]

Betfair have not withdrew the facility to bet on NSW publicly.
But is has sneaked around telephoning people and asking them not to bet on them. The Oz customers just had their accounts suspended.
Well done BF UK!

It's obviously a ploy to show the other states what will happen to their levy. The big races at Rosehill (least night/this morning) were 30% what the Flemington races were.
This isn't accurate, just what I observed. PW will have the figures no doubt.

It will be interesting to see how this pans out. I only traded Flemington & Ipswich last night. My PL was well down. To the point where I am asking myself is it worth it and should I kick the OZ racing completely.

[steven1976]

So if betfair have to pay 1.5% on all matched trades, I guess they cant afford to have traders who may scratch a lot of trades. Is that the reason they are stopping people trading the markets or have i not understood it properly?

Example
A good trader earns 0.3% ROI and gets matched 10,000 on a race. He earns 33 pounds green before commission and betfair have to pay 1.5% both sides of the book on the 10,000 matched meaning 300 pounds. A loss of 267 pounds. Have I understood it correct or am I a million miles away?

[gazuty]

Steven

Best to think of the model from a bookmaker perspective. It is the amount staked with the bookmaker (ie the amount held in total bets) that is the bookmakers turnover. He pays 1.5% of that.

Same rule is being applied to betfair. The amount staked that gets matched.

I think you were double counting.

[steven1976]

Still a bit lost with it. So with my above example in which 10,000 has been matched to make 34 pounds green, if the position is hedged up would they pay 1.5% of the 34pounds or on the 10,000 matched? Sorry for the confusion

[gazuty]

Betfair pay 1.5% of the amount matched, 10,000 x 0.015 = 150

Assuming no premium charge, betfair earn 34 x 0.05 = 1.70

Not a good business model.

[steven1976]

Not a good model at all and understandable that they will no longer allow people to trade it. I gave up on aussy racing a few weeks back but just wondering how the markets look now?

[CaerMyrddin]

NSW markets really strange, the rest of the pack, bussiness as usual, as far as I can tell.

[Euler]

Wednesday, 27 June 2012: Racing Queensland will implement a new model for the calculation of Race Information Fees from July 1 resulting from the High Court decision in favour of Racing NSW.

http://www.racingandsports.com.au/racin ... _Structure

[Photon]

Australian racing was used to be good for me and I used to use money gained from there to use it on the UK market. But if the new charge is going to be rolled out in the rest of Australia then that will be the end of Betfair in Oz.

Its pity because Oz gamblers are the biggest loosers in the world already:


http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailycha ... 5/gambling

even before factoring the effect of extra levy and therefore leaving TAB as the monopoly.

[gazuty]

Whether Betfair survives (I hope it does) or has to quit horse racing will make absolutely no difference to Australian gaming losses.

Those losses mostly come mostly from poker machines. Over $1000 per year per Australian adult. Sad but true.

[James1st]

The "pokies" are a way of life in Australia and if it weren't for the huge revenue streams generated from gaming machines in pubs and clubs (all centrally controlled by the authorities) then Australian taxes would be 20% higher than they are.

I also think you will find that the "average" Australian's spend on pokies is a lot smaller than you think and its the visitors (mostly Eastern) who gamble with the bigger bucks.

[gazuty]

A very good article on pokies losses in Australia.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/-221ps.html

Sadly it's just ordinary folk out in the burbs ruining their lives.

State Governments are also addicted - to the tax revenue.

Interested why the fruit machines at the local pub in every uk town doesnt cause the same misery (maybe they do?).

[spreadbetting]

I see Betfair have thrown in the towel as expected and decided to bring in additional charges.

http://betfair.com.au/turnovercharge/

See they've left the 6.5% base rate unchanged

[rubysglory]

I asked Betfair earlier today if the 'turnover charge' was 'additional' or 'as well as' and the operator was unable to give me an answer. Irrespective, I can't get my head around why 'The turnover charge is aimed at customer activity which generates large volumes of back bets ' with Layers not affected ?

rg

[Euler]

Reading through the detail, this looks like its charged against everything, no matter how you do it. Disappointing but not entirely unexpected.