Betfair acquire The TV Games Network
January 28, 2009 by mbates
The UK based internet betting exchange Betfair and digital entertainment technology company Macrovision Solutions Corporation has today announced that Betfair has completed the purchased of the TV Games Network (TVG) from Macrovision for $50 million. This move will see Betfair put a massive foothold into the American gaming market.
The TV Games Network (TVG) system is used at 70 horse racing tracks throughout the US, including the major courses at Kentucky and New York. The service allows user to wage from home online, by phone with a web-enabled mobile phone, and a set-top remote control.
The President of US arm of Betfair Gerard Cunningham said: “We are tremendously excited to be the new owners of TVG and look forward to building upon the worldwide experience of Betfair to help grow the business. We believe TVG to be the premium product in the sector, with exceptional staff and loyal customers, and we look forward to working with the horseracing industry to help promote this great sport.”
Although any betting in the USA is strictly regulated it has been seen as off limits area for British companies due to The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act which has caused severe problems for many operators, this could see Betfair have a major head start when and if the regulations are eased.
David Yu the CEO of the Betfair Group Ltd said “We have waited to enter the US market until we had a high quality, and above all, legal product offering”
Betfair announce Ascot sponsorship deal
December 11, 2008 by mbates
The Internet Betting Exchange Betfair has outlined a new five year sponsorship deal that will see it sponsoring key races at Ascot including the Queen Elizabeth and King George VI stakes, this new deal will make Betfair the second largest sponsor in the racing industry, the state owned Tote still holds first place. The deal will see the three day event in July branded as “Betfair Weekend”.
The First Commercial Chase will now become the Betfair Ascot Chase. The sponsorship will see the value of the race raise to an impressive £1 million and will help the event that has suffered from a lack of sponsorship for the previous two seasons.
Betfair’s director of horse racing Stephen Burn, said “We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with Ascot on this ground-breaking agreement, especially as it will take us up to and beyond the course’s historic tercentenary in 2011. Betfair’s first market was the Oaks in 2000, when 36 people had a bet. It is extraordinary that less than 10 years later we are involved in a deal like this.”
Bookies Take a Beating as Comply or Die wins the National
April 8, 2008 by Robert
Bookmakers were left counting the costs after joint favourite, Comply or Die won the 2008 John Smiths Grand National. This year’s Aintree spectacle is estimated to have attracted over £400 million in bets placed in betting shops and on the internet and following the result, bookmakers are reporting big losses on the race for the first time in years as seemingly millions of punters up and down the country had backed the winner.
One website that won’t be facing losses is betting exchange Betfair, whose market on the race traded over £15 million as punters bet agaisnt each other, with Betfair taking a commission on every bet up to 5%. However, for the more traditional ‘high street’ bookies the result saw massive payout but not from the horse they feared the most in the days leading up to the race. It was Cloudy Lane that was expected to start as the favourite; but continued support for Comply or Die throughout Saturday saw the David Pipe trained winner start as the 7/1 joint favourite alongside Cloudy Lane, who could only manage 6th position - much to the delight of millions of punters up and down the country who had backed the winner at odds as big as 10/1.
The BBC reported that an impressives 10.1 million people watched the race live on Saturday afternoon.
Sportingbet Betting Site
October 17, 2007 by mcohen
The Sportingbet betting site is now amongst the best in Europe and this is the viewpoint of the egaming awards sponsored by Income Access and yes Income Access supply the software for Sportingbet to power their sports book affiliate programme.
Betfair won the operator of the year award and no one could deny them this as their site is top class and they have spearheaded the online gaming sector in recent years.
Watch out for Coral as thier new improved site is such an improvement and William Hill is also on the up with their gaming portal
“We are pleased to have been a sponsor at the eGaming Review Industry Awards and to see our clients Jackpotjoy, Unibet and Sporting Bet Europe receive recognition for work in our industry,” said Nicky Senyard CEO of Income Access.
Betfair is Betting fair
October 15, 2007 by mcohen
Betfair really is Betting fair and that is the message that should be taken from the Kieron Fallon trial in that it while Betfair has permitted all and sundry to lay sports events they now provide the paper trail to catch those that try to make profit from trying to influence results and while this trail has some way to go the message is clear if you are guilty you will be found out.
Mark Davies of Betfair, quoted in The Daily Telegraph recently, said: “I think that all sport has always been liable to corruption, by the very nature of it producing clear results one way or another. They say that chariot races were rigged for financial reward. I don’t see why subsequent sporting events should suddenly have been less liable to corrupt practice. We would strongly dispute the idea that sport suddenly has a corruption problem because of the boom in gambling.”
Betfair Poker
October 1, 2007 by mcohen
The Betfair Poker product which has only been introduced in the last year is someway responsible for the significant additional numbers visiting the site as active user numbers are right up to over one million users today and that is a significant improvement as they said today that the number of registered customers is now more than one million, with active users up to 443,300 at the end of April, up 57% on a year earlier.
CEO David Yu said :’It has been a very exciting year during which significant steps have been taken towards transforming Betfair from a mainly Uk-based betting exchange to the world’s leading legal e-gaming site.
The UK company is an exchange that allows people to bet against each other on racing and other sports online for a small comission and this company has really made a major contribution to the development of the gaming industry in the UK over the last seven years.
Betfair allows its clients to ability to be the bookmaker as they can bet against or ‘lay’ horses in the same way as bookmakers, or their customers can bet on them in the conventional fashion usually at better prices that available elsewhere.
Betfair Big Bets
September 25, 2007 by mcohen
A new Betfair big bets record has been set by a Rugby punter with the Australian branch of Betfair who has bet the kitchen sink on New Zealand to win the 2007 Rugby World Cup on Betfair the number one betting exchange and could well be one of the largest in sports betting history.
The bet is reportedly one of 5 million Australian dollars at the betfair price of 1.71 which is an odds on bet so the return would be a profit of 3,550,000 Australian dollars should New Zealand do the business over the next couple of weeks.
The most interesting thing about this bet is that it is only due to betfair that such a large bet could get place as bookmakers would shy away from such a liablility but as this is a person to person exchange and this market is so liquid he managed to get his bet on but he will be paying around 2-3% of his winnings in comission as he is obviously a large punter and will be on the lower rate of comission so thats a whopping 100,000 Australian dollars profit to the betting exchange not bad you might say, plus all the publicity this gets for the betfair organisation.
Betfair refused to discuss the gambler’s identity or nationality, but said it was one of the biggest bets ever placed through the site.
Kiwi gamblers, possibly mindful of their team’s past cup calamities, have been much more restrained.
TAB head bookie Paul Lally said the biggest bet received on the All Blacks so far was $100,000 - at the shorter odds of $1.55
Source: The Dominion Post
Channel 4 Racing Bets
September 21, 2007 by mcohen
The Channel 4 Racing bets are all on once again after the a firm owned by the Dubai government began exclusive negotiations for a two-year £4m sponsorship deal and this will permit the Channel 4 coverage to continue as it was reported that it would come off the air if a new sporsor was not found to take over from totesport after they have decided to pull out of their support of the programme.
Dubai is the up and coming city for the next decade and they are very proud of their Horse RAcing and Dubai festival and a company called Dubai Holding, which owns and controls companies including Tussauds Group, Travelodge and the “seven-star” sail-shaped Burj Al Arab hotel, is discussing a deal that covers 80 days a year of Channel 4 terrestrial horse racing coverage.
Dubai Holding is a company that belongs to the government of Dubai. The ruler of the emirate, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, controls almost all of the company.
Companies including Betfair and Satellite Information Services had been tipped as front runners to take over the Channel 4 horseracing sponsorship.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Big Brother Gambling
August 31, 2007 by mcohen
The Reality Show Big Brother will have about £1million will be gambled in the final twenty four hours of the show accoring to bookmakers and the clear favourite are the twins, Amanda and Sam Marchant, overwhelming favourites to take the £100,000 prize tonight.
One firm, Boylesports, is convinced they will win and has already paid out thousands of pounds. The Irish bookmaker said: “The twins have cost us a lot of money but they have been complete stars.”
William Hill took a £50,000 bet on them at 5-1 on yesterday from a punter in Birmingham. It said: “We’ve taken some huge bets on Big Brother but none bigger than this. Millions will be won and lost.” It is thought most punters will back the twins, liked for their love of the colour pink and their singing sessions.
About three quarters through the show Big Brother gave teh twins the chance to be treated as one contestant which they readily agreed to and so knocking off Brian from top sport to win the show. Before going into the house they were studying social care at university but are now expected to cash in on magazine and modelling deals. A show source said: “We’re surprised one bookmaker has paid out. It’s closer than most people think.” Brian and Liam are in the running but the other three remaining contestants Ziggy, Jonty and Carole are seen as huge outsiders.
Betfair Odds: Twins 11-8, Brian 6-1, Liam 43-1, Ziggy 129-1, Carole 279-1, Jonty 759-1.
Source: Mirror
Betfair Laying a Horse
August 30, 2007 by mcohen
One of the great things about Betfair and laying a horse is that it permits you to become the bookmaker and it is so simple to do with an account on Betfair the betting exchange. betfair works by putting together backers with layers of any event online and the winning part of the bet pays a small comission to Betfair.
As the bookies have pointed out on many an occasion this can lead to fowl play but Betfair have put in place security systems where say if you had a bet with Betfair yesterday, Tom and Mark will know about it. Or they could, if they wanted to. If it was a big bet, laying a horse that ran well below form, they may have looked up your betting history since 2004 too. And the next time that you have a similar bet, they will probably know about that too.
Tom and Mark are the betting analysts in the security department at the British Horseracing Authority, and the breadth and power of the information at their disposal is remarkable.
“It’s a long process and you can’t just issue new rules. There are still some groups in racing who see us an unnecessary hindrance.”
A few feet away, Tom and Mark are still poring over the markets. “Of course, people will do their best to hide,” Mark says, “but even if they are using several accounts, we will be able to link them together. And sooner or later, people always tend to make mistakes.”
Source: Guardian
