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It is very much dead and anyone who says laying is a special case of betting does not understand betting. There's now been two court cases in the UK - one of wh

It is very much dead and anyone who says laying is a special case of betting does not understand betting. There's now been two court cases in the UK - one of which went to the court of appeals about this - and the matter is settled in law firmly. Betfair punters are 100% not bookmakers, regardless of how they behave. One of the key issues was that the betfair punter has no idea who they are trading against. For their purposes, they trade vs betfair who happen to have a perfect hedging model (eg only accepting a bet when there is an equal and opposite bet to hedge it with).

phillc73 11y ago
Yes, Betfair is a BHA authorised betting partner, which is why it is important for them to be seen to tackle fraud and corruption on their platform. The BHA could conceivably decide to withdraw that status. I was very careful in my earlier post not to specifically mention the UK government, although perhaps it was too strongly intimated. Your points about laying on an exchange not being a special case in betting does absolutely hold true in the UK. The point is not so well established in other countries. Why is Betfair regulated by the Tasmanian Gaming Commission in Australia? Other States wouldn't issue them a licence at the time. Why does Betfair restrict access by residents in so many other countries? See the recent withdrawal of Betfair from the Canadian market.[0] The point being, Betfair isn't just a UK operation anymore. They need to take into account global jurisdictions and being high profile about fraud prevention can only help their image when hoping to expand to new markets. Lastly, I use Betfair, Smarkets and to a lesser extent Betdaq every day. They are really the only way to get on a decent bet in the UK today. I think it would be devastating to the punting population if exchanges were no longer available. [0] http://calvinayre.com/2015/12/24/business/betfair-goes-full-grinch-exits-canada/ http://calvinayre.com/2015/12/24/business/betfair-goes-full-...
- joosters 11y ago
  What's your experience of Smarkets? I've been skeptical of them because it's not clear how money really gets traded there. Are the markets full of bots blindly copying Betfair or is there real activity?
  - phillc73 11y ago
    Smarkets has been OK. There's very little scope for arbitrage between Betfair and Smarkets markets, although I've had a couple of small scores doing that. Mostly, I can usually get a reasonable amount matched at the same price as Betfair, and only pay 2% commission on profits. I don't trade that much or play in running. Smarkets is really crap for in running bets. It takes far to long for the bet to be placed. They also don't offer an SP option, if that's important to you. I don't know about bots, because they don't have an official API, just an XML odds feed. However, it would appear they used to have an API in the past. No idea if it still works. https://smarkets.com/api/ https://smarkets.com/api/ http://smarkets.github.io/smk_api_docs/ http://smarkets.github.io/smk_api_docs/

phillc73 11y ago

Yes, Betfair is a BHA authorised betting partner, which is why it is important for them to be seen to tackle fraud and corruption on their platform. The BHA could conceivably decide to withdraw that status. I was very careful in my earlier post not to specifically mention the UK government, although perhaps it was too strongly intimated. Your points about laying on an exchange not being a special case in betting does absolutely hold true in the UK. The point is not so well established in other countries. Why is Betfair regulated by the Tasmanian Gaming Commission in Australia? Other States wouldn't issue them a licence at the time. Why does Betfair restrict access by residents in so many other countries? See the recent withdrawal of Betfair from the Canadian market.[0] The point being, Betfair isn't just a UK operation anymore. They need to take into account global jurisdictions and being high profile about fraud prevention can only help their image when hoping to expand to new markets. Lastly, I use Betfair, Smarkets and to a lesser extent Betdaq every day. They are really the only way to get on a decent bet in the UK today. I think it would be devastating to the punting population if exchanges were no longer available. [0] http://calvinayre.com/2015/12/24/business/betfair-goes-full-grinch-exits-canada/ http://calvinayre.com/2015/12/24/business/betfair-goes-full-...

joosters 11y ago
What's your experience of Smarkets? I've been skeptical of them because it's not clear how money really gets traded there. Are the markets full of bots blindly copying Betfair or is there real activity?
- phillc73 11y ago
  Smarkets has been OK. There's very little scope for arbitrage between Betfair and Smarkets markets, although I've had a couple of small scores doing that. Mostly, I can usually get a reasonable amount matched at the same price as Betfair, and only pay 2% commission on profits. I don't trade that much or play in running. Smarkets is really crap for in running bets. It takes far to long for the bet to be placed. They also don't offer an SP option, if that's important to you. I don't know about bots, because they don't have an official API, just an XML odds feed. However, it would appear they used to have an API in the past. No idea if it still works. https://smarkets.com/api/ https://smarkets.com/api/ http://smarkets.github.io/smk_api_docs/ http://smarkets.github.io/smk_api_docs/