Betfair s Free Sport Betting Business Model

I've been using Betfair for years now however it is only recently I've wondered the amount performs this company make? This question is what has compelled me to publish this information. I will not receive copies of their accounts from companies house, this article is going to be all conjecture depending on what I've picked up from using the web page in the past.

What has allowed me to ponder this question could be the transparency in the Betfair site. If you consider traditional bookies including WilliamHill, Ladbrokes or Betfred, sboarena that which you have no idea on any particular sporting event is what has become bet in total and also on what particular outcome these bets were placed.

Take a normal Friday afternoon race meeting at say Ascot. It's the 2.30 and 5 horses are racing; the punters are logging to one of the traditional bookmakers websites and backing the many horses. The outcome is the second favourite winning, we now have no clue whether everyone was backing the outsider or favourite, the amount was bet, and what sort of assist the bookmaker made.

Now consider the same race with Betfair. The total amount exchanged to the race emerges at the top of the page, that is typically about A�200,000 to get a standard horse race. Now we understand that Betfair have a commission on all winnings, as well as for every bet exchanged there is a winner, so they're taking their 5% no matter what result - about A�10,000 in this instance.

So now for a quick little 'back of fag packet' maths. Approximately 40 races each day generating A�10,000 each is A�400,000 a day seven days every week, that's 2.8 million pounds every week. Throw inside bigger meetings which rounds it up to say 3 million, 5% of which is A�150,000.

Now take into account the Premiership football season. At least 12 games a week generating between A�200,000 and a million pounds in exchanged bets, make average and work out the 5% commission which's another A�350,000. On top of this you have the lower league and foreign games that has got to generate another A�100,000 in commission so we're up to Half one million pounds every week in revenue.

Bear at heart that you could (and individuals do) bet on everything, golf, cricket, tennis, boxing, champions league football, International soccer, as well as gaming. I'm starting to come to the conclusion that they must be pulling in weekly revenue in the millions, if it's only A�3 million weekly, that's over 150 million annually.

I admit to having no idea if my workings are drastically wrong here, if Betfair actually has annual revenue of A�1million or A�1billion. Neither do I have a concept of what their hips, IT costs etc total. What I do see is the fact that unlike traditional bookmakers the result of the sporting event has no bearing on their revenue.

To this end their main aim must be to just recruit as much customers as you possibly can, which poses the question; while using numerous online bookies available offering free introductory bets as high as as well as in excess of A�100, then exactly why do Betfair just offer A�30. That will be the topic of my next article.