CP, do you mind if I put that one on the Betfair site (sighting yourself and this site or not)? Someone who may have a say might see something like that over there rather than here.

Feel free to post it TO, but no names preferred.

Post #27 is spot on CP.

I posted it on Betfair (see link - no names) and the first response had a go at it but then I didn't really explain the context of the fixed tote product coming in here. Mind you I posted it on the Aussie forum so you would think they would know.

Link below (I think you have to switch to standard view to see the complete response).
http://community.betfair.com/austra...lvWelcomeHeader

Guess what???
 

Hi All

Betfair (Tim Manson) have confirmed they have no intention of phasing out Lay betting ever.

and -
After at least 6 emails they inform me that LAY results and prices for any race meeting within Australia WILL NOT be available.

Regards
Ted

I think you might've misunderstood the last bit Ted. They could never Not publish results as that would contravene consumer law. They've just made it harder to find!

However, why don't you send your man Tim, CP's post and PS it with, "Well done Tim, to you and all the team, you've managed to achieve what every graduate from a' How to Run a Business into the Ground' course aspires to!"...lol

Read the responses.
I'll just reply here, as I don't like the BF forum much.

I am probably making more now than I did before, but it's harder and with Aus races I can't get set early on many horses, I have to wait until the last ten minutes. Before PC and levies, that was not the case.

1) It was no longer viable to trade (in the traditional sense) on any market whatsoever.

Nonsense.

Clearly this bloke is not a tick trader. Neither am I, I was just pointing out that tick traders have all but left because of the PC.

2) The winning traders left for greener pastures at the expense of liquidity and profit - NEVER TO RETURN.

Less sharks in the pool means the smaller fish have got a chance. Make the most of it.

Nope, that doesn't follow. Less fish in the pool means a smaller pool in this case and prices that would have been there aren't, because traders aren't trying to get on or get out.

3) The markets lost more than half it's liquidity leaving punters unable to get set on anything greater than 10/1 for decent amounts.

It all comes down to supply and demand. If it's long prices you're looking for you'll normally find that anything that's not in the first 3 or 4 in the market in most races will drift out to big odds just before the race. As for "decent amounts", that's a very vague concept. The less greedy you are about price, the more you'll get set for, just like any other betting medium.

I did not do any betting for the early part of yesterday, I watched the markets quite a bit though. The amount of money available at anything outside a few fancied runners even on metro races was dismal (with some exceptions). Greedy is a vague concept also.


4) Markets devoid of liquidity meant that the prices were only driven by punters, therefore as a market total virtually became 100% on average, with commission on top. Meat was sheared off the bone.

I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about. Sorry.

He doesn't understand market percentages fully.

5) Thousands of punters left in droves.

Because all the whingers kept talking the place down.

No they left the forum for that reason, they left Betfair because of Premium Charges - fact.

6) Revenue and growth dropped massively and stagnated with no hope of redemption.

More doom and gloom. And isn't that more a problem for the share-holders and bean counters? Why should punters give a flying fig, as long as we can get a bet on.

Because it's getting harder and harder to get a bet on, that's the point.

I put your response up CP but all I got was some banal piece of crap. You're right about that forum and I too don't go there much at all - only when something happens like your original post that I put up there.

Betfair's forum actually used to be quite good years ago, plenty of interesting topics and contributions, but these days it's full of time wasters except for the occasional contributions.

Betfair Advantage Comparison Tool
 

Another casualty of the NEW Betfair results page is the Advantage Comparison Tool. It's their for all to see as in the final % AFTER the race, but not available BEFORE the race anymore. I found it a very useful tool, and for the life of me, I don't know why they pulled the plug on it displaying before the race start. Another genius move by the 'kid'!

The software was freely available back in 2007 and I know Chrome had used it, as I've read your old postings. It's no longer available for download now, it just reverts back to Betfair's results page. The only trouble with the tool prior to the race start was it was taking the average of totes and comparing it with the Betfair Back price, so it was pretty unstable as an indicator. What you saw on the screen a second before the close was never the same after, out by a long way at times.

Can anybody suggest a software, not reliant on the API close that can display the % difference between a nominated, (let's say Unibet) bookie site's Fixed price and the Betfair Back price? There are sites around that display, on one page, all prices live but you can't nominate two as a % comparison.