On Your Side for 20 Years 💛

Does anyone remember for @RacingVictoria boss Robert Nason saying "I'd rather shut down the spring carnival than allow Betfair into Australia" on my @RSN927 Racing Central program back then - kudos to @markxdavies and @ajtwaits for carrying the torch and navigating the message.

If twenty people walk into a room, to play betfair on a race with ten starters, all 9/1, and one person in the room loves number 1, one loves number 2 and so on, and then another person hates number 1, another hates number 2, etc, you now have the situation where we have ten bettors and ten layers for the race, each backing a laying a different horse. Let’s say they all either have 900/100 or they lay 900/100. The hold is $1000. Nine people win $100 and they pay $10 commission each= $90 One person wins $900 and they pay $90 commission. The betfair takeout in this extreme instance is in fact 18%. The truth of the takeout figure quoted by betfair and the true takeout lies somewhere in the middle. By and large betfair today with the high takeout rates, even 7-8% is just on par with best fluctuation on metro meetings, and a worse product that best tote plus SP, and MUCH worse than BOB. It’s not giving punters a fairer go than almost all major bookies. It’s just an advertising gimmick.