Economic contrasts next week

[Gordon McIvor Wilson]

Next week heralds two hugely contrasting economic events:

Wed 20th: the coalition's Comprehensive Spending Review sets the seal on Austerity for years to come; and then

Fri 22nd: final pricing set for the Betfair IPO and first dealings.

The amazing success of the betting exchange will be crowned with a wildly successful float expected. Whilst 3rd World economies will be imposed on public spending in key government services. Meanwhile, neither event helps the lamentable state of the funding of horseracing. New levy rules maybe, to draw in the millions bet and traded on British racing events, even through the off-shore exchanges: the mantra 'tough but fair' rings true.

[Adonis First]

Sattire too!

Better than Monty Python....

http://www.casinomeister.com/forums/casino-complaints-bonus-issues/...

 

Oh woe is betfair.

What a terrible shame.

[Adonis First]

Some more people are getting VERY angry!

http://video.sbrforum.com/video-10600-Betfair-robs-100s-of-casino-p...

 

They call it FRAUD!

Wonder if betfair legal tried to silence them yet?

.... they usually have a go!

[Adonis First]

http://www.gambling.co.uk/forums/general-casino-forum/47984-rogue-w...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=303Y8ulZs90

Looks like betfair is headed to where it has aspired for several years now......

[Adonis First]

Hmmm

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=BET.L&t=3m

Looks like a steal at half the price........

Might the mugs have FINALLY cottoned on?

nah......once a mug,

[Gordon McIvor Wilson]

More exposure of these 'unhappinesses' re betfair - to be found in Matthew Goodman in yday's Sunday Times. No comments available, as its all hidden behind a subscription, but the article flags up a number of issues as 'controversial'.

[Adonis First]

OK, as we're talking about "free", "austerity years", and "milking" Clients, we do of course need to examine the apparent propensity of betfair (I avoid a capital when writing that word) to extract (aka tax, milk) from its Clientele in various ways. The last way was "Premium Charge" where - if you are a Client that wins "too much" - you will be made to pay more than other Clients. Before that (admitted in 2008 publicly by betfair) they covertly abstracted cash from the process of Clients submitting offers for matching - quicker than the Client eye could even see! (To my eye, a modern day "chase the lady" game?)

When a Competitor arrives (as it must surely do?) which sticks to "up front" charges which are levied to all equally, I can see nothing but a downhill slope for betfair. A trajectory that, IMHO, they have worked very hard to achieve!

For those interested in how betfair arrived at their "how can we get more revenue" predicament, it does not take rocket science to understand that their primary expense is provision of high-performance systems tp accept, align and match incoming Client bet offers, reputedly in Timely fashion. Unfortunately, in someone's misguided wisdom at betfair, they charge all Customers a simple commission on profits (if they make any) rather than s much smaller levy on the number of transactions they put through their systems! So "traders" hammer the limits of the system with multiple offers and cancellations per second (because significant abstraction opportunities exist in doing that!) whilst even busy Punters might use less of the system's resources in a whole day!
A formula for ultimate failure.
[The PC attempts to charge these high-rate "trader" users, but it unfortunately ropes in a huge overhead for a tiny number of Punter Clients who DON'T overuse the systems, but DO win! Some of the Time. So eventually they will move somewhere less punitive.]

Ergo....... the Clientele trends towards a collection of "traders" whose goal is to extract profit from the process of Punters punting (amateur bookmakers) and Punters with ever-decreasing skills, trying to win a bet from an ever-decreasing pool of "what's left".
A recipe for future success if ever I saw one!
There again, I could be completely wrong......
But I dohn fink so!

[Gordon McIvor Wilson]

Yippee, another outstanding piece from Adonis who can be relied on to rise to the occasion: keyword 'Betfair' elicits a guaranteed response of the highest quality!

[Adonis First]

we are now in the 21st Century; the era of "Free".
The value-added of punters and racecource attendees is their collective EYEBALL time, NOT the opportunity to hold them to ransom or pick their pockets.
Google understood this and rapidly headed the pack.
The likes of Murdoch don't understand the concept of refraining from "milking the Consumer cow" overtly, and are thus likely doomed to business oblivion.
Not overnight, so that you'd notice from one day to the other..... gently, progressively.
BUT WITH CERTAINTY.
There again, waybe I'm completely wrong?
But I dohn fink so..........

[Adonis First]

.... regarding "levies"....
one wonders if two flies crawling up a window are entitled to a cut of the cash which two punters wager with each other on which fly gets to the top first? As "God's Creatures" must we put an extra penny into the Church Offertory plate to pay them for their existence and work?

Without the attention of punters (and their gate money to see the events) horseracing would be a series of closed-shop, unattended competitions conducted at great expense by a small handful of grotesquely rich people with little better to do with their time. On land that even fewer of them could afford!
These aristocracts would then probably have to pay huge additional sums for "security" to keep the Great Unwashed out of their "game" and off their land.
So, rich Blokes.... make up your mind..... do you WANT the plebs, and their collective spending power, around at your gatherings, or not?
We can just as easily entertain ourselves racing and betting with ponies, dogs and donkeys if you "take your ball home"!
We could even start building guillotines, to place bets on the relative performances of the Separatist aristocrats as they part company with their noggins......