A whole new way of betting!

Betfair is one of the most established online casinos in the industry today and thanks to their merger with Paddy Power, the company has grown from strength to strength. We took a trip down under and checked out their Australian counterpart to see how the company operates in the land of Oz!

Betfair’s start in Australia

Betfair Australia was created in 2005 when the Government of Tasmania announced a deal to license Betfair in Tasmania. This was very significant as it was only the second license awarded to Betfair outside of England and resulted in Tasmania receiving substantial tax revenues. A year after the company was formed, the first bet was matched on the Australian exchange. Since 2006, over 350 million bets have been placed and millions of calls have been taken. That is not all as hundreds of thousands of unique markets have also been created and settled since the company starting running their betting exchange operation in Australia.

The company became so successful that in 2014 Betfair sold a 50% stake in Betfair Australia to Crown Resorts, who are one of Australia’s biggest gaming and entertainment companies. In 2015, Betfair Australia set a world record for most money traded in a single market when over $184 million was matched in-play during the 2015 Cricket World Cup semi-final between South Africa and New Zealand.

Betting Exchange Explained

One unique feature of Betfair Australia is that the company is one of the only betting exchange operators in Australia. What is a betting exchange you may ask? Well, it is simple, it is a place where customers come together to place bets on the outcome of a variety of sporting events. Events can range from anything like American Football, Horse Racing, Golf, right through to Financial Bets and Netball. This kind of betting offers the same opportunities as many bookmakers but with a few additional extras.

For starters, bettors can buy and sell the outcome, trade in real-time throughout an event and it is also possible to trade out to cut your losses so you can remain in profit. Bookmakers do not offer this kind of flexibility when it comes to placing odds as they generate their revenue from offering fewer odds whereas a Betting exchange generates revenue by simply charging a transaction fee. With traditional bookmakers, a customer will usually place a bet to determine an outcome of an event and the bookmaker will bet against the outcome of the bet. With Betting exchanges, customers have the opportunity to both place a bet and also to bet on the outcome of said bet not occurring.

Betfair Australia usually offer 20% better odds than traditional bookmakers but this percentage is known to fluctuate as it is based entirely on the liquidity of the market you are placing bets in. No need to worry about this with Betfair as they offer the best liquidity of any Betting Exchange in Australia. Another big plus for Betfair Australia is that it is the only betting exchange to offer Australian racing markets. It is also worth highlighting that the company takes a commission ranging between 2% and 5% from any winning bettor.

Betting Exchange has revolutionised the gambling industry with Betfair leading the charge in Australia and it will be interesting to see if other bookmakers follow suit in the coming months and years and develop their own versions of this highly popular way of placing bets.