About Betfair (Betfair)
Betfair is a
UK betting company, and began life in June 2000.
It is the largest online betting exchange in the
world, and holds around 85% of this rapidly
increasing market. A betting exchange is
different from most other betting web sites, and
does not have fixed odds. Instead, customers bet
at prices that they set. This can be
accomplished by using high-level technology that
works in a similar way to the New York Stock
Exchange. Betfair covers a variety of sports, as
well as financial events, and offsets any
individual bets against orders from other users.
Betfair is a betting exchange, which
means unlike traditional betting web sites there is no bookmaker. People
simple exchange bets, and this means that odds are much better because
the large fees of the bookmaker are removed. Betfair consistently has
odds that are around 20% better than traditional betting sites.
Betfair has a turnover of more than
£50 million a week, and there are over 200,000 users from nearly 100
countries all over the world. Incredibly, Betfair processes more
transactions a day than the mighty London Stock Exchange. This success
has led to the founders receiving a number of awards, including Ernst
and Young Emerging Entrepreneur in 2002 and the Queen’s Award for
Enterprise, Innovation Category, in 2003.
Betfair is a trading name, and the
actual company is registered as a limited liability company in England
under the name The Sporting Exchange Ltd. The main office of the company
is located at The Waterfront on Hammersmith Embankment, London, W6 9HP.
Andrew Black and Edward Wray, who hoped to commercialise betting
technology that had been in development for over a year, founded the
company in 1999.
The company has a betting license
within England and Wales, and is its technology is protected by
copyright and patent applications. The company operates within the
statutes of the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Act of 1963.
Although the company has been hugely
successful, it has come under fire from traditional bookmakers. They
believe that allowing customers to set odds and bet on exchanges greatly
increases the chance of corruption. This is because betting that an
outcome will not happen, such as a horse not winning, is much easier
than just betting on a winner. They say this leaves open the possibility
of widespread corruption. However, Betfair have responded by saying that
traditional bookmakers are simply motivated by their own well-being, and
don’t care about corruption. To counter the corruption claims, Betfair
have signed deals with large sporting organisations such as the Jockey
Club to ensure that corruption does not take place.
