Betfair s Free Sport Betting Business Model

I've been using Betfair for a long time now but it is only recently I've wondered the amount does this company make? This question is exactly what has compelled me to create this information. I will not receive copies of their accounts from companies house, this content will be all conjecture determined by what I've picked up while using your website through the years.

What has allowed me to ponder this question is the transparency within the Betfair site. If you consider traditional bookies including WilliamHill, Ladbrokes or Betfred, everything you do not know on any particular sporting event is what continues to be bet altogether and also on what particular outcome these bets were placed.

Take a regular Friday afternoon race meeting at say Ascot. It's the 2.30 and 5 horses are racing; the punters are logging on one of several traditional bookmakers websites and backing the various horses. The outcome is repeat the second favourite winning, we've not a clue whether people were backing the outsider or favourite, how much was bet, and what are the assist the bookmaker made.

Now look at the same race with Betfair. The total amount exchanged with the race is given at the top of the page, this really is typically about A�200,000 to get a standard horse race. Now we know that Betfair please take a commission on all winnings, and then for every bet exchanged there's a winner, so they're taking their 5% no matter what result - about A�10,000 in this instance.

So now for the quick bit of 'back of fag packet' maths. Approximately 40 races each day generating A�10,000 each are A�400,000 a day 1 week weekly, that's 2.8 million pounds per week. Throw in the bigger meetings knowning that rounds up to say 3 million, 5% of which is A�150,000.

Now think about the Premiership football season. At least 12 games a week generating between A�200,000 along with a million pounds in exchanged bets, make average and figure out the 5% commission and that's another A�350,000. On top of this there is the lower league and foreign games that has to generate another A�100,000 in commission so we're up to Half one million pounds weekly in revenue.

Bear in your mind that you can (the ones do) bet on everything, golf, sboarena cricket, tennis, boxing, champions league football, International soccer, not to mention gaming. I'm beginning to visit in conclusion that they must be getting weekly revenue within the millions, and when it's only A�3 million per week, that's over 150 million 12 months.

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

To this end their main aim is always to just recruit as numerous customers as is possible, which poses the question; with all the numerous online bookies on the market offering free introductory bets as high as along with overabundance A�100, then how come Betfair only offer A�30. That may be the topic of my next article.