Betfair

General Information

Betfair is a British company which started in 2000. The founders of what is now the world’s largest sports betting exchange were Andrew Black and Edward Rae. The idea to transfer the principles of a regular exchange to the world of sports betting was not original, but its quality implementation in practice became such a success that Betfair sports betting exchange won one award after another. Within such a relatively short period of time, the exchange has received more than 60 international and national awards.

For example, in 2002, Andrew Black and Edward Ray in the UK were named “Entrepreneur of the Year” and in 2004 their company was named “Company of the Year”. And note that these are not awards from the betting community! Twice, in 2003 and 2008, the company received an award from Britain’s Queen herself in the category of “Innovation in International Trade”.

The betting company employs tens of thousands of people. Betfair has offices throughout Europe and the world. In 2007, Betfair has its own radio station which broadcasts around the clock covering exchange and sports news.

Clearly the Betfair brand is known primarily for the betting exchange, but the familiar online bookmaker was also launched in 2013, with services that can be accessed directly from the site. However, this material is just that, a review of Betfair as a betting exchange! This is what has revolutionized the sports betting world, making the British company a trendsetter. Betfair is continuously developing and can now offer its customers a full range of online gambling services: a betting exchange, a regular bookmaker, a casino, slots, a poker room and more.

Betfair website mirror

More than 1,000,000 people worldwide use the bookmaker’s services. Given the above facts, it is needless to say that Betfair acts in full compliance with international and national laws of the countries where the company offers its products. Betfair is licensed in the UK, Australia, Austria, USA (!), Italy and other countries of the world.

Betfair has extensive sponsorship activities, supporting many professional and amateur teams and projects. The company’s shares are successfully listed on a number of European and world stock exchanges.

Online activities

The stock exchange website was redesigned a few years ago and has become even more user-friendly and functional. Although for “conservatives” you can go to the old version of the portal at the link at the top of the page. The site is translated into more than 15 languages.

Naturally, there’s a dedicated mobile betting app. And the huge number of live sports broadcasts, which you can watch for free if you have a positive account balance, makes trading on the exchange much easier.

In general, according to experts, the players’ “problems” in getting acquainted and switching to Betfair, are not due to objective difficulties, but more to normal human laziness and unwillingness to learn something new.

Therefore, in order to understand all the benefits of the Betfair office should spend 10-15 minutes of your time and to understand the difference between the concepts of “bookmaker” and “betting exchange”.

If you do not understand the differences, which will be discussed below, you will lose all sense of the idea behind Betfair and betting exchange turns to you in usual online bookmaker.

So as far as possible let’s briefly describe the trading procedure on Betfair. In general, the site has a great help section with lots of interesting explanatory text and video material. Once a user has successfully completed the Betfair registration, the following options are available to them.

1. So, before or during the match, you select the market you are interested in.
2. Then you bet for or against a particular outcome. Betting for is no different to betting at a normal betting shop, but betting against is a little tricky for beginners. We won’t cover it here, therefore, and recommend that you study the examples and references on the Betfair bookmaker’s website yourself, without rushing through them. In a nutshell, it is that by “voting” against a particular outcome, you must be prepared to “refund” the winnings of the player who stakes “for” this outcome. Naturally, if you win, you will be paid for your winnings at the requested odds. I.e. betting “against” in case of an unfavourable outcome, you lose not only the sum of the bet, but must have enough money in your account to pay for one winning bet of the person, who on the opposite side accepted your bet. If you make a wrong prediction “for” an event, you simply lose the betting amount as in a regular office. Therefore, for beginners, in order not to confuse at the initial stage and not to risk extra money (although when betting “against” the exchange constantly gives warnings about the additional financial risks), it is RECOMMENDED (!) in the settings disable the column with bets “against”.
3. An important point! As this is not an ordinary bookmaker’s office, but rather a betting exchange, you can agree to the available odds at the time of your arrival, or ask for a different odds. Naturally, your offer may or may not be accepted. The status of the bets can be viewed in the betting slip, which will show whether or not there are any paired bets. Bets that are paired, i.e. those that are accepted by other players. If no doubles bets are placed and you get bored of waiting, you can of course withdraw your offer.
4. Another fundamental point is that as this is an exchange, you play and bet not against Betfair, but against other players like you. In other words, Betfair, unlike a classic bookmaker, does not care whether you win or lose. The company acts as a kind of intermediary in betting and provides, figuratively speaking, only a “platform for players to dispute”. The company only takes a commission on winnings! At the time of writing this review, it was 6.5%. So, we can say that there is a “margin” on Betfair but it is a commission which is taken only (!) from winnings and is not initially put in the odds, making them mathematically unprofitable, because the odds are offered by the players themselves. And in the course of bidding they become more or less “final”.
5. Then the most interesting thing starts. You try on the role of a trader, but not on the stock exchange, but on the sports betting exchange. Profits can be made in different ways: Before the event, if you correctly predict the movement of funds and, consequently, the change in odds; During the course of the event, if your prediction is confirmed by the course of the meeting.In these cases, without waiting for the end of the match, you can withdraw a certain part of the profit. If you have strong nerves or are 100% sure about the outcome of the event, you can wait until the end of the match and withdraw your betting profit in full. But this is an additional option. Naturally, this “cycle” can be done several times during a match. One should only remember that such trading in the Live mode imposes even greater demands on the trader in terms of financial and gaming discipline. Otherwise, if you don’t leave the market on time, you risk losing a lot of money. And losing psychological equilibrium and wishing to get even immediately, you can easily cause other trouble with the game bank.
6. From point #5 you can logically assume, and you would be right, that not only can you withdraw profit until the end of the event, but you can also “save” a part of the bet in case of unfavourable developments in the match. This is also one of the fundamental differences between a betting exchange and a regular online bookmaker.Once you understand these differences between a bookmaker and Betfair and have tried out the options of withdrawing part of your profits or limiting your losses, it is no surprise that most customers never go back to traditional bookmakers.

Line & Live Betting

For the world’s No. 1 sports betting exchange, it is probably superfluous to talk in general terms about great choice, high odds, etc. It is so obvious. Figuratively speaking, you can bet on “anything and everything”: on Betfair you can bet on all the most popular sporting events and not only. The odds in most cases are as good as Pinnacle Sports and Sbobet.

What’s a little depressing is that there isn’t a very extensive line-up for some hockey championships and tennis matches. Plus, because it’s an exchange, not all markets can be active. Understandably, the last point applies more to less popular events.

In terms of betting limits, in fact, there are no restrictions. It all depends on your possibilities and the counterparty that will be ready to accept your bet.

All the most popular payment systems are at your service. The only peculiarity is that you will be asked to create Australian account for Australian events, even though it will be in US Dollars + verify your identity. If you did not do anything illegal on the exchange, and the background information is correct, then there is nothing to be afraid of. The procedure takes a few days, and money from the main to the “Australian account” is transferred to your profile instantly. The whole procedure is due to the peculiarities of regulation of this sphere of activity in Australia.

On the live betting also a purely symbolic remark. They are, but, in fact, it should be understood that the exchange Betfair is one big Live, where all events from offline mode of trading seamlessly flow into Live. Otherwise again the very idea of exchange trading would be lost.

Special mention should be made of the Betfair Welcome Bonus. To get the freebet, a new player must, within 7 days after registration, make a first deposit of at least 10 EUR. If the bettor loses the bet, Betfair will return EUR 10 to the player. If the bet is successful, no bonus will be credited to the new customer, but he will receive his winnings and enjoyment. 

Customer service

This service is very efficient and of high quality. You can apply for a solution to your problem by email or phone. All necessary contacts are available in the corresponding section of the website, and depending on the category of your question, you have to select a specific address.

To summarise some of the results:

Advantages:

• the world’s largest and most reputable sports betting exchange;
• high odds;
• do not cut maximums and do not block the accounts of plus players;
• no margin as such, but they do charge a 6.5% commission on winnings;
• due to the fact that this is an exchange, and not a traditional bookmaker, it is possible to withdraw part of the profit or limit losses (depending on the development of events and the market situation), both during the event, and even before it starts;
• there is a mobile application for betting;
• lots of games: casino, slots, poker, etc;
• a lot of live video broadcasts;
• there is a traditional bookmaker.

Disadvantages:

• not familiar to newcomers in terms of functionality and navigation website;
• not a very detailed roster for some hockey championships and low-rated tennis tournaments;
• the unpopular markets may not be traded very actively.