Here is an example of how the Premium Charge can vary unfairly, taken from a letter to Betfair:
Sir/Madam,
With regard to the new Premium Charge, I would be grateful if you would please review the scenario below and let me have your comments on it. I may well be misunderstanding something (your logic is not exactly straight forward in the way that a flat 5% is).
I have two bets between Monday and Sunday, and I am already nicely in profit for the 60 weeks, and have played in enough markets to be eligible for the Premium Charge.
Bet A - I win gross £2,000, pay 5% commission (of £100) and net £1,900.
Bet B - I lose £1,000 to one of your customers who is on 2% commission who nets £980. My Commssion Generated for the week is therefore (£100+£20) / 2 = £60. Premium Charge applied is £140 (£1,000 gross profit * 20%, minus the £60 Commission Generated). So my total commission for the week is £100 + £140 = £240.
Bet C - I lose £1,000 to one of your customers who is on 5% commission who nets £950. My Commssion Generated for the week is therefore (£100+£50) / 2 = £75. Premium Charge applied is £125 (£1,000 gross profit * 20%, minus the £75 Commission Generated). So my total commission for the week is £100 + £125 = £225.
As I do not have a choice of who my bet is matched with (and indeed it could be matched with any number of people all on different commission rates) how is this formula fair?
Why should the amount I am charged vary? I cannot see how this pricing policy is fair? Customers should always know before making a transaction what their charges are going to be.
How am I able to verify that any charges are in fact accurate?
There is a disturbing lack of transparency to the way this Premium Charge is calculated.
I do hope that someone will be able to explain this to me, because right now I am very confused.
About Me
- Cassini
- I have had a life-long interest in sports and after studying Pure Mathematics with Statistics at secondary school, have been fascinated by odds and probability. The first system I came up with was a simple one - back the favourite and double up after a loss until a winner. Simple enough in theory, and I told my Dad about it. Not being a betting man himself, he ran it by some of his colleagues, and came home to tell me that it wouldn’t work because a long losing run would mean that the bank would be empty. Then there was always the possibility that the winner would be returned at odds-on, meaning that the total returns would not match the outlay. Not what a ten year old wants to hear! Only slightly daunted, I then went on a search for the Holy Grail, the secret to riches that I knew was out there somewhere. Finally in 2004 I stumbled across an article about Betting Exchanges and four years later I was able to make a steady profit.
It will be interesting if they get back to you with a detailed response but I doubt it. It seems some of the unfortunate souls manning the helpdesk dont quite get the logic either as I have had different responses to the same question.
ReplyDeleteBetfair could easily get themselves out of this PR hole by reversing the decision, opening it up to debate with their users and then introducing a fair change later down the line.
Let's hope so. I think everyone would prefer just a flat percentage on winning bets with no discounts. Do away with the impossible to calculate Implied Commission etc. If I get a response, I'll publish it on here. Thanks for the comment.
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