Pay Less Now, More Later

I received the following email from my 'account manager' yesterday, but I suspect it went out to number of people because the changes detailed are about as useful to me as a chocolate teapot.

As part of a wider review of Pricing at Betfair we have taken the decision to remove Transaction Charges from all Premium Accounts with immediate effect. Initially this is on a trial basis until 31st October 2013, if there is upside in terms of increased volumes and bet count then we will look to extend this further.

We believe this will help you with bet matching and in particular within markets where there are a number of runners.

Furthermore Betfair have also reduced the base commission rate to 0.5% for Asian Handicap markets in all Football matches. Again this is on a trial basis but the timings for this are from today (19th July) to 17th August when we will review the outcome.

I have never paid a transaction charge, and as frenetic as trading can sometimes seem, I doubt that I have ever come close to the 1,000 bets an hour needed to qualify. As for markets with 'a number of runners', how many markets don't have a number of runners? There's always at least two! Perhaps he means 'a large number of runners' but again, I am seldom involved in markets with more than two or three outcomes, so the benefit to me is likely to be absolutely none.

As for the reduction in base commission rate to 0.5% for Asian Handicap markets, again this is useless for anyone paying the Premium Charge. Whether I pay 5% up front and another 45% a week or so later, or pay 0.5% up front and 49.5% later really makes no difference. I tend to agree with Forum contributor Hazel:

It's a bit of a con trick by the premium account manager to try and make premium charge payers like myself think that we are getting something.

A resurrected post from October 2011 states that 480 customers are affected by the Super Premium Charge. If true, one can only suppose that number is a lot higher now. A couple more years will mean that anyone full-time for 10 years or more will have almost certainly have reached the barrier by now.

I await the email that says the decision has been made to remove Premium Charges. Why Betfair are trying these changes is interesting though. Presumably the transaction charges have driven some key players away, and Betfair's AH markets were never the most liquid, so perhaps they are trying to become competitive in this area.