Too much going on this weekend for a long post, but I thought I would do my little bit and raise some awareness of the Purple Betting Day campaign.
Basically the campaign is a protest against Betfair, who are abusing their position as a de facto monopoly (however much they pretend they are not) and giving:
"...an appalling customer experience with a hefty price tag on it. Some examples include:
Ever increasing charges - both the Premium Charge and higher demands for points discount
A total PR disaster with the introduction of the Premium Charge and the way Betfair went about doing it. There was no way of checking whether you will be liable and how much you are likely to pay. Even nowadays its extremely complicated to find out exactly how much you are likely to pay. Just shows they treat customers like dirt.
Banning users from the forums for a lifetime for the slightest offence
Probably the worst customer service not only in the betting industry
Too little investment in technology compared to what other exchanges working in competitive markets spend (e.g. futures exchanges - CME, Eurex, Liffe) which shows in many horrific market failures costing some customers massive amounts. It also shows in how slow API is compared to how for example futures markets operate."
Personally, I can't say that the API issue concerns me too much, nor do I tend to read or post too much on the forum, since there are very few threads that actually have something sensible to say. My complaint is with the Premium Charge as I might have mentioned before. It targets traders like myself who have no viable alternative, and here's where BETDAQ could help themselves. For example, I like the NBA, but BETDAQ don't turn these games in-play. Why not? They don't need to be actively managed as the football markets do. The result is that if I want to trade the NBA, I have no alternative than to use Betfair. WBX do actually have these games in play, but liquidity is poor, or was last time I checked, which thinking about it was quite a while ago.
Until there IS a viable alternative, Betfair will continue to tax people like myself, because they can. In my opinion, the competition missed a golden opportunity to offer the same markets in-play when the Premium Charge was first announced, but if this campaign can work on that aspect as well as drive business to BETDAQ (or even WBX) then it has a chance to succeed. Monopolies don't last forever.
6 comments:
Lol don't be conned, just saw another post about it and it's littered with affiliate links, suprisingly the same one as www.freebetting.co.uk use
Still I'm sure their hearts in the right place and they wouldn't be doing it just to pick up some affiliate bonuses would they ?:)P
Appears Thomas has all the answers to everyone's dreams!
I bet you could even teach your father to put out oilwell fires.
RED!
:@)
LOL
Red Adair :)
The affiliate bonuses are acceptable imo, it takes time to put together a site (not much, but some)... if they can get some clicks, then fair play to them, it's not as if they are plastered everywhere.
I'm not sure I agree with all the ideas on their site. Too little investment in technology doesn't stack up. The recent problems were more 'implementation' problems rather than lack of investment. I believe they have replaced every piece of hardware that our bets go through. BF should be miles ahead of BQ in technology terms.
The people at the top know they have issues with communication. And they also know they have moved away from the original ethos, I think they do want to make sure they retain that. Whether they can or it's too far gone is another question / matter of opinion.
Most of their problems stem from fast expansion. 1200 employees there now, as the number grows, the % with actual exchange/betting experience drops, the number of varying attitudes to business increases as does their own internal communication problems/prejudices.
The betfair product is stil superior imo, but the idea of keeping a monopoly in check gets my support. The only way to do this is being organised.. When the monopoly ends, it'll probably be quicker than anyone expected.
Cassini still pretending he pays the premium charge. LOL.
Virtually his whole blog is based on football correct score betting yet he chooses to describe himself as a successful trader when he fancies pretending he pays the charge.
I agree that it's us (the punter/traders) that need to make the big move away from Betfair. Some people have said in the past that Betdaq don't push it enough, but on the face of it new custom isn't the problem for Betdaq (any new customers who haven't heard of Betfair or Betdaq previously are unlikely to trouble the premium charge for sometime and so not an issue for them).
It's the people who are aware of Betdaq and currently using Betfair that will make the difference long term.
Betfair was the best thing to happen to to betting/trading when it came along as it put the bookies to the sword. Now unfortunately we need to turn the sword on Betfair, it's abused it's power because it can. A choice of exchanges on a similar level could offer the sort of competitiveness that would usher in a new golden era (not unlike when Betfair first came along) for trading.
Maybe Betfair know it won't last forever so are milking what they can. A better approach might be to encourage customers to stay rather than leave in droves when Judgement Day arrives!
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