24th July 2002 - issue 16
1. The World Cup: How was it for you?
There were certainly plenty of opportunities for bookie free betters, especially with some of the crazy results we saw. My best result was backing Senegal to beat France 1-0 on Betfair at 22-1. I was also successful in arbitrage betting and in "working the margins", ie backing an outcome and then laying it at lower odds on the same site to give a potential risk free profit. On the negative side, I was caught out twice by the early morning kick offs to find that bets I had offered had been accepted, but because the match had started I was unable to lay the bet off. Both these bets were at great odds, which I could have translated into instant arbitrage profits, if I had been in time. Typically, however, both these bets lost, losing me the whole of my stake. As I have said before being disciplined and organised is one of the most important rule of successful bookie free betting. Predictably the World Cup meant great business for the Bookie Free Sites.
2. Betfair "the clear leader in the UK Online betting industry"
Betfair continues to exceed even the most aggressive growth forecasts. As recently as January 2002 when Betfair went through the £10m barrier of matched bets in a week, I suggested, that if they maintained current levels of growth, within a year this would grow to £50m a week. Well, we're only half way through the year and during the World Cup they missed this milestone by a meagre £2m. What is really significant is that while we were getting excited about the huge volumes they were trading on the football, it still never topped the racing, which is now trading £25m+ week in week out. £50m by the end of the year is starting to look quite conservative. I asked Tim Levene from Betfair if they are making a profit yet. Not surprisingly his response was guarded but he did say that,
“We are in excellent financial shape, despite Betfair swallowing all the increased costs of GPT, BHB levies and other additional licence fees without passing anything on to our customers."
"What I am sure about is that Betfair is now the clear leader in the UK Online betting industry. Our turnover makes Betfair, the UK 's No 1 Online Sports betting company by some way. Our closest rivals Ladbrokes and William Hill, have recently released figures hoping to turnover £400M in 2002, this is of course a target we exceeded some time ago."
***STOP PRESS....BETFAIR TO SPONSOR FULHAM***
As I put the final touches to issue 16, this massive news arrived. This is a tremendous coup for Betfair which will see their name paraded at every Premiership ground this year, as well as on ITVs Premiership highlights every week. More details available on the Fulham website at http://www.fulhamfc.co.uk/news/displaynews.asp?id=2193
3. Betdaq/Betdaqracing
Betdaq seemed to have achieved their goal of creating a truly international betting exchange, where large stake punters can bet against each other. Throughout the tournament bets worth a total of $81million were matched between the two sites. MD Rob Hartnett told us:
"The biggest single winner was from Europe . He won $500,000 on the Italy Korea game in a series of bets. In total there were 112 six figure bets placed on the exchange through the tournament."
From day 1 the World Cup was always seen as a significant milestone to which Betdaq were heading, with the high rolling Asian gamblers being their key target audience. Judging by the relative turnover of each game, they were successful in this objective, as for example,
China v Costa Rica attracted nearly two and a half times more turnover in matched bets than England v Argentina !
4. Intrade
Intrade reported a very good World Cup enjoying volumes which were treble the norm. In addition they benefited from a significant influx of new members, with total membership doubling throughout the World Cup. Intrade have got a great new feature, unique to their site which enables you to offer a trade, and predetermine the time at which you would like it to expire.
NB: Don't get caught out by this trick
On Intrade prior to the World Cup someone was asking to buy 25 contracts at a price of 1 for England to win their Group. This was a blatant attempt by someone trying to trick a fellow member into thinking that they would be giving a price of 25, which at 3-1 is realistic, whereas in fact if they had accepted the trade they would have been giving this trickster 99-1.
It is possible to set such traps on Betfair as well by deliberately getting the stakes and odds the wrong way round. Such a bet would stand out like a sore thumb in a busy market, but if it is the only bet on offer it will not be quite so obvious. If the offer is set up to give the appearance of very good value an over eager bookie free bettor may rush to snap up the bet before someone else, and in his haste not check the fine detail of his liability. So be careful.
If, despite this warning you do fall for such a trick, it may be worth contacting the site to alert them. It is unlikely that they will be able to help you, but at least they will have a look at the activities of your opponent, and "encourage" him not to bet in such a way, which could ultimately result in their account being closed.
5. Trading Sports
They managed to launch in time for the World Cup and had in running markets on all matches. They currently have three partner sites operational through Cricinfo and Tradindex which are offering all markets, and the official Big Brother 3 site, which exclusively offers trades on the show. Whilst the liquidity so far has been low, the site has shown plenty of promise, and when the bookmaker partners they are working with come on line, hopefully soon, the activity on the site should pick up dramatically. The full review which was intended for this issue should now feature in issue 17.