Making Betfair more appealing to Australian clients?

[X_box_X]

I find the experience of being able to take on a punter, rather than a bookmaker, very appealing, and an exchange such as Betfair allows you to do that. It's a completely different dimension that allows you to trade by buying low and selling high. Betting with an exchange allows you to get a better price than what you normally would when betting against a bookmaker, even when you include the 5% commission.

Despite this fact, Betfair isn't as popular in Australia as it should be. Is there a reason for this? I don't think the 5% commission charged is a turnoff, because you are still getting a better price than you otherwise would if betting with a book.

For those unfamiliar with how the Betfair exchange works, understand most books offer a mark up of between 105.04% - 114.94% on head to head markets. That means for every $1 they are losing, they are making between $1.05 - $1.15 (over a long period of time, on average). With Betfair, you only pay commission on winning bets, which is a maximum of 5%. Bet often enough and your commission is discounted based on a betting activity and points system. You are offering a MAXIMUM mark up of only 105%.

Is there something Betfair should be doing differently to attract more clients? Betfair is extremely popular in the UK, and most of Betfair Australia customers are UK based. Why is this?

Punters are cntinuing to settle for "weaker" markets by betting with books. These same books are quick to limit you. Is Betfair Australia not doing something right, or is the average punter misinformed to understand how an exchange works?

Given this is BigFooty, I will use Australian Rules Football betting as an example. I am confident in saying that betting on the AFL would be this forum's number one choice for betting. Each week, books will take millions worth of bets on head to head markets.

Take the following Betfair markets as examples:

Total amount bet on the premiership market: $236,000
Despite being in April, this is extremely low. There would be this amount alone bet on Hawthorn with TAB, Sportsbet, Centrebet, Bet365, etc. Probably more.

Total amount bet on WCE V Carlton: $34,000
Again, this is extremely low. If the TAB only had this much matched on a game, they would struggle to make a profit when you consider all the fees, wages and taxes they have to pay. In fact, they wouldn't make a profit.

2015 Brownlow: $37,000
How come such a popular event such as the Brownlow only has $37,000 matched? I would assume that most agencies would have more matched on individual players winning the Brownlow, even in April.

I enjoy betting on most goals, most disposals, over/under, line betting, dream team, etc. These markets are all available on Betfair but due to a lack of exposure, it's rare that I will get a price matched.

Would I be correct in saying that out of 100 people who bet online, that less than 2% would be with Betfair? Why is this the case, and how can Betfair fix this?

 

[laam]

Well for me, I find betfair doesn't generally have the best odds once commission is taken into account. I use sportspunter to compare odds for any bets I place its rare that betfairs are the best (except for rank outsiders where their odds can be great).

Also I find their site a real pain to navigate.

 

[banana_bus]

Well for me, I find betfair doesn't generally have the best odds once commission is taken into account. I use sportspunter to compare odds for any bets I place its rare that betfairs are the best (except for rank outsiders where their odds can be great).

Also I find their site a real pain to navigate.

Signed up a while ago, deposited, and had no idea what I was doing.

Tried to make a small bet and kept getting errors about insufficient funds.

I'm sure there's reasons for it, but I couldn't be bothered looking into it.

When there's so many books with amazing offers, bonus bets and user-friendly apps, there's no reason for a mug punter like myself to waste my time with Betfair.

 

[Lyyynnnchy]

I agree with banana bus, the website and app are both horrible to navigate. With the website being an "exchange" as such there's probably not a whole lot that can be done about it though.

I use Sportsbet for 90% of my bets. I realise their odds aren't always going to be the best but as my units are only $100, an extra 1, 2 or 3%, which is really only the difference you'll get between bookmakers, doesn't both me at all. I'd rather the convenience of a user friendly website and being able to keep most of my betting history in the one place.

For bets of 10 units or more, I'll start to look at best odds available

 

[jimbler]

Despite this fact, Betfair isn't as popular in Australia as it should be. Is there a reason for this?

No in-play betting on the internet in Australia. I will use it 10,000% more if and when this becomes available down here.

 

[cutterman]

No in-play betting on the internet in Australia. I will use it 10,000% more if and when this becomes available down here.

This is a very good point, also think it's a bit of the chicken and the egg scenario. I would bet into these markets if there was more liquidity, for there to be more liquidity there needs to be more activity on there. You just have to take a look at the astronomical dollars being matched on the World Cup cricket games to see that it is possible in certain circumstances, but that's more the outlier than the norm.

I personally would love to exclusively use Betfair, however the comfort that I'm getting a good price due to the lack of liquidity on a lot of markets isn't there.

Part of the reason for this could be that for so long Aussie punters have been geared towards finding a winner rather than having the mathematical knowledge or mindset to lay an option. A change of mindset isn't easy to do.

(Apologies if the post is a bit all over the place, just putting thoughts to paper as they cross my mind)

 

[HeathySure]

I only bet on the Horse Races and i love Betfair. I am a longshot punter and also like laying false favorites the place. Nothing more satisfying than getting 10 to 1 about a horse missing a place which happens occasionally. Or getting 300/1 about a 50/1 chance which i have caught twice in my life!
Ive spoken to mates about this and they say they want the fixed odds and they want to bet early. Betfair horse racing is pretty much betting in the last 10 minutes pre race before you can get the odds you want and also my mates want to have bigger bets than the layers are offering. It can be stressful waiting to get the odds and then missing getting on because it was a tiny bit shorter than you wanted.

 

[X_box_X]

No in-play betting on the internet in Australia. I will use it 10,000% more if and when this becomes available down here.

You can't bet online in Australia at all. That isn't a Betfair problem exclusively.

 

[Rollin Dice]

Betfairs weakness probably has something to do with no multis (any more) and lack of advertising and promos. A lot of weekend punters I know still use TAB and nothing more which really is just stupid. If were just betting AFL , there is about 3 or 4 agencies that are offering money back specials , multi % boosters or even 3 outta 4 legs money back. People bet on TAB out of habit and convenience. Betfair is probably somewhat confusing at first to the standard punter but is definitely worth signing up for especially if you like roughies were you can get ridiculous odds.

 

[Rollin Dice]

Signed up a while ago, deposited, and had no idea what I was doing.

Tried to make a small bet and kept getting errors about insufficient funds.

I'm sure there's reasons for it, but I couldn't be bothered looking into it.

When there's so many books with amazing offers, bonus bets and user-friendly apps, there's no reason for a mug punter like myself to waste my time with Betfair.

I think your insufficient funds problem has to do with their 2 wallets system ( Main and Aus). When you deposit ,it lands in your main wallet, you use that for betting in overseas markets. To bet on Australian markets, you need to transfer funds from main to Aus. The transfer icon is just under your balance.

 

[Hamingja]

Well for me, I find betfair doesn't generally have the best odds once commission is taken into account.

Agreed. I'd be surprised if you had pinnacle and a portfolio of Aus books and you couldn't match betfair's price pre commission, let alone post commission, on head to head events. On futures and outrights you probably could get better prices on Betfair.

As far as lines and totals go, forget about betfair, it's not dynamic enough to deal with line changes due to line ups, weather, etc throughout the week.

 

[Hamingja]

For tonights game betfair has the eagles at $1.60 and carlton at $2.62 pre commission.

The TAB have Carlton at $2.65.

Crownbet have the Eagles at $1.60.

 

[terminators]

No in-play betting on the internet in Australia. I will use it 10,000% more if and when this becomes available down here.

Not exactly.

I bet online in-play all the time through Betfair. Horses and Trots this is allowed.