Since the introduction of Betfair betting exchange in 2000 the gambling industry has totally changed. Betfair has become the largest betting company in the UK and the largest betting exchange in the world.
The immense popularity of Betfair has annoyed other major betting companies; they have even accused Betfair of bolstering corruption in sports. In the recent years other betting exchanges such as Betdaq are becoming increasingly popular, though Betfair is still by far the most popular with more than £50 million matched every week.
In what Way Betfair is Different from Traditional Bookmakers?
Traditional bookmakers only allow you to place bets for a selection to win (back bets). In case your bet wins, they pay you your winnings. Betfair, on the other hand, also allows its players to place lay bets (bets against the selection that win in case the selection doesn’t win).
Let’s consider the following example:
John thinks that a particular horse is going to win, while Bob thinks that this horse is going to lose.
They both log in to their Betfair accounts. John is willing to place a £10 back bet on this horse and offers it at the odds of 3.0; Bob considers these odds adequate and lays £10 on this horse at 3.0. If this horse wins, John will gain £20 and get his original £10 stake back; Bob will lose his liability of £20.
You may say that Bob loses £20 to John. If the horse loses, Bob gains £10 but John loses his £10. You may say that John loses £10 to Bob. As you can see, Betfair provides a place in which punters can bet against each other.
The only inaccuracy in the example above is that the names of players offering and placing bets remain anonymous; in fact, there may be several people on the other side of your bet, but you never know who they are.
The odds on Betfair are determined solely by the will of punters; they are what both laying and backing bettors agree they should be. Similarly the price in market is determined by supply and demand.
Advantages of Using Betfair
- The ability to act as a bookie and place lay bets
Lay bets create immense opportunities for matched betting to cash out free bets offered by bookies, Betfair trading and arbitrage betting; there wouldn’t be GetaFreebet.com if we couldn’t place lay bets on Betfair! Some punters also think that it is easier to predict what is not going to happen.
- On average Betfair odds are 15% higher than those of traditional bookies
If you place back bets you can win more than you could with bookmakers. The odds at Betfair are very close to the actual likelihood of an outcome and are only determined by bettors.
- In-play betting
Bets can be placed up till the last second of a soccer match, horse race or any other popular sports event.
- £25 Betfair free bet for new clients
How Betfair Makes Money?
After hearing so many good things about Betfair you may wonder if there is any way Betfair makes money?!
Unlike bookmakers, Betfair doesn’t take part in betting; it doesn’t lose anything if you win. Betfair profits by charging a slight commission every time a bet wins; no commission is paid for losing bets.
Betfair really doesn’t care if a user wins or loses (regular bookmakers may close accounts that win too much). The size of the commission depends on your betting activity and the sums you wager; for new users it is 5% of net winnings but it can be reduced to as low as 2% according to the number of Betfair points you earn. However, to achieve a significant commission decrease you should be regularly betting with huge sums.
This was only a short introduction to Betfair; if you are new to betting exchanges I recommend reading this tutorial and making yourself accustomed with Betfair user interface. It is important that you know how to use Betfair and understand the principals behind it if you want to make money with GetaFreeBet.com.
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