Paddy Power Betfair to launch in US with betting exchange Irish bookie breaks €1 billion revenue mark in its last year as a standalone company Tue, Mar 8, 2016, 07:30. Betfair was the first betting company to sponsor an English football team, featuring on the kit of Fulham in the 2002–03 season before the Gambling Act 2005 permitted the industry to advertise on television and radio. In March 2007, Betfair launched its own Betfair Radio service, available via its website, on the telephone and elsewhere.
This is an excellent question. The name hints at what the company has to offer, although it has often been misconstrued as being about fairness in gaming.
In essence, Betfair wanted to take the process of setting lines for sporting events out of the hands of the traditional bookmaker and put it into the hands of the punters, or bettors.
The theory was that if people were allowed to set their own odds based on their personal knowledge of a sport or their love of a particular team, then the betting options would increase, making the wagers more appealing to a broader group of players.
To accomplish this, Wray and Black created a betting exchange. The principle behind the exchange is similar to that of a stock exchange. A player would initiate a wager at a certain price and odds, and it would be posted to the exchange.
Betfair Launch Date
If someone fancied that particular wager, then they could agree to make the wager. The bet would happen between the two players, with Betfair taking a small fee for providing the service.
Let’s show you what this could look like regarding an NFL football game. For this example, we will use a game between the New England Patriots and the Cleveland Browns. Many bookmakers would consider this an easy game for New England, so they may set a line that looks like this:
This means that New England would have to win the game by 15 points for you the wager. Now, let’s say you are a huge fan who is so sure that you want to give more points away. With Betfair, you can create a wager like this:
- NE -21.5 +150
Betfair Launcher
In this case, you are betting that they will actually win by 22 points, but if someone wants to take the other side of that wager, then they have to put up $150 to your $100. See how easy it is? Of course, there has to be someone on the other end of the bet, or else it doesn’t take place.