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Betfair review
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Betfair is our very own traveling flea market that roams around Stakersland with no fixed address. Due to the certain level of liquidity that is required to run the exchange efficiently, it heavily relies on both stakers and bookmakers from all corners of Stakersland.
The Betfair exchange gives each of our stakers the chance to act out their dreams of becoming a bookmaker, but at the same time, this is the reason why it is not for everyone. Some stakers simply prefer to use the fixed odds markets with those potential profits guaranteed.
As they travel up and down the sunny boulevards, setting up shop each morning, many of the smaller betting shops and staker venues in the park use their odds for market reference. You can often see employees taking notes and running back to update their own betting products for the day. You’ll also find plenty of stakers casting an eye over the odds as they then wander off to find betting profits elsewhere in the park. In fact, the exchange acts as the perfect ‘Stakersland Odds Information Centre’, a place you can visit before you go window shopping for the best bets of the day. In essence, the Betfair exchange is the lifeblood of Stakersland with the latest odds being pumped out across the park throughout the day.
Regardless of all the passing trade and particular betting knowledge required to make money on the exchange, many stakers still consider it their go-to choice for placing bets. The 2 million active list of stakers and traders proves its overall popularity and there is a distinct trend of UK stakers here with almost one million trained and seasoned betting veterans. Other stakers come from as far away as Italy, Spain, and Brazil as they hunt down the trading stalls of the Betfair market to place their bets for the day. The two top sports on the site are football and horse racing but there is no player-specific geo location or country preferences in use, the markets are the same for all stakers. The active esports market is just another example of the all-inclusive attitude of Betfair with continuous betting options for CS:GO, League of Legends, Dota, and Starcraft. But even with all these underage teams and players involved, there doesn’t seem to be any specific controls being enforced due to the increasing number of events that they continue to trade on within this market.
A highlight of the Betfair betting exchange is that there are no limits with all daily payout caps relating to their sportsbook. The top tier sportsbook football events such as the English Premier League, FIFA World Cup Finals, French Ligue 1, German 1. Bundesliga, Serie A, Spanish Primera Division, The Championship, League 1 & 2, UEFA Champions League (group stage onwards), Europa League (group stage onwards), UEFA European Championship, FA Cup (1st round onwards), and competitive Internationals played between two UEFA teams are linked to a daily winning maximum limit of £1,000,000. These winnings are limited to specific markets such as Match Result, To Win League, To Win Cup, and Ante-Post/Long Term markets and as such are capped at £250,000. Related side bets that are decided off the field of play, i.e. Next Manager to Leave, are all limited to £10,000. Horse racing events in the UK (Classes 1 & 2) are also capped at £1,000,000 but all other country limits outside of Ireland and the UK drop down to £100,000. Elsewhere, non-domestic cricket is limited to £15,000 which also goes for any Non-NHL ice hockey and esports events. Much like the bigger betting establishments at Stakersland, the availability of funds is rarely an issue. It would only take Betfair eight hours to payout that top £1,000,000 limit and only a few minutes to balance out the smaller limits. Furthermore, your withdrawal transactions shouldn’t be delayed on the Betfair side of things, but just be aware of any additional time that payment providers add on to the overall transaction process. All in all, Flutter Entertainment plc is a publicly traded bookmaker created by the merger of Paddy Power and Betfair, so it’s clearly a profit-making company with decent cash reserves available at any moment.
Due to the specifics of betting on the exchange there are only a few stakers who understand and enjoy the trading markets out of the total active community.
2.2M stakers and traders descend on the Betfair betting exchange and fixed odds markets to spend up to £40-45 per month. There are no set limits tied to the exchange and the £1,000,000 limit within the sportsbook is large enough to keep stakers entertained.
Gross gaming revenues for Betfair have been calculated at £91 Million per month with a staggering £40-45 average spend per player. This figure is twice as much as the average spend at the biggest bookmaker at Stakersland, Bet365. The exchange is obviously a lucrative betting tool for Betfair and it’s the main catalyst for that huge average spend per player. Flutter, the owners of the Paddy Power Betfair venture, enjoy an annual gross gaming revenue of around £1B from Betfair alone. According to reports, their profit for the year is around 10% which adds up to roughly £130 million, with a final yield of £6 from each and every staker. This significant expense is all down to their sales and marketing costs which contributes to 60% of the total amount spent by Betfair throughout the year. No one gets close to Betfair in the exchange sector of Stakersland, but we can look at Betdaq for comparison. The number three betting exchange enjoys around £50 million in annual revenues and a casual trading community of 150,000. Most of which are likely testing the waters and passing through to rivals Smarkets and the Betfair markets themselves. Smarkets is also worth a mention here as they are the rising name in betting exchanges with an increasing community of 210,000 stakers. Even though Smarkets enjoys a 200% annual growth rate, the enterprise is still making a loss due to significant expenditure on driving their name across Stakersland. It’s an essential tactic in order to try and keep up with the might of Betfair as their current annual commission is calculated way below the mark at £63 million.
Betfair Offers
The majority of players are British and this is followed by Brazilian, Italian, and Spanish stakers who still get to enjoy the rest of the betting entertainment provided by Betfair:
| United Kingdom | Brazil | Spain | Italy | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| monthly | 689K | 654K | 403K | 174K |
| License |  |  |  |  |
Social Buzz
A total of 17 from 35 complaints have already been resolved so there is much more interaction here. You can also find up to 60 reviews with numerous mentions of account closures and suspensions and withholding money. Unapproved withdrawals and poor customer service tend to be the common complaints.
A majority of the comments on LCB have been marked as ‘green’ with many ratings in the 3.5-5 range. What does seem strange is that there are almost no negative comments although that official rating stands at 2.8 with 679 votes. Overall, stakers tend to enjoy the promotions and game selection the most.
Bonus clash
The lesson we are going to learn today from a billionaire company is this; never give any bonuses or send any wealth back from where it originated if you ever want to make a billion. If you finished reading that previous sentence and still have doubts, re-start the paragraph all over again to make sure you know how to make at least a million.
After that lesson in making money, you’ll be glad to learn that there are bonuses available in the exchange. However, you do need to work hard to make the small sum of £10 though, by sending your dearest friends to the Betfair market. There is no welcome bonus party for sportsbook fans either, but nevertheless, they do provide stakers with four other bonuses and again that refer a friend offer pops up again.
“It’s the only site with real funds as a reward for referring a friend. I love it! You may get about £50 by simply inviting your friends to bet with you. It’s a great offer.”
“Although there is no welcome bonus, the site has everything regular punters need: refer a friend promo, odds guaranteed for the ones who prefer racing, and two extra promos for placing bets. Not a bad choice, I have to say.”
“They don’t provide any welcome bonus and there are not many promotions on Betfair whatsoever. All that we have is refer a friend and some promos for multiples. Playing there is a really poor option for me.”
“There is almost no decent promotions here. I decided to join up anyway although they don’t provide a welcome bonus and what did I get? A £5 free bet for multiples and another £5 for a football multi? I suggest that you don’t waste your time there.”
The five available bonuses at Betfair are listed below and like we said, it’s not a huge list but there are one or two enticing deals in there. You can find classic free bets, cash prizes, and odds boost offers, so let’s take a closer look at the finer details to see the quality of these promotions:
| promo name | promo type | requirements | restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
Bet £20 on multiples & get a £5 free bet valid on multiples  | free bet club | Place £20 on multiples on any sport with minimum odds of 1.5 for that multiple | Max £5 free bet available per day |
For the most hardworking stakers who enjoy the thrills of daily member clubs, you can opt-in every day to qualify for the free bet - if you can keep up with the wagering demands. To get the freebet, stakers are required to wager singles or multiples of a value of at least £20. At least one selection in each multiple must have minimum odds of 1.5. Qualifying bets must be placed and settled on the same day and these are valid for sportsbook only. If you are outside of the UK then the only option you have is to opt-in to a weekly challenge of the same kind.
| promo name | promo type | requirements | restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
Free bet up to £25 when you win a football same game multi at 4/1 or more | free bet club | You can only take part using one account. If you have been excluded (via email or otherwise) by Betfair from taking part in Sportsbook promotions, you will not qualify for this promotion | Same as the bonus requirements. You can only take part using one account. If you have been excluded (via email or otherwise) by Betfair from taking part in Sportsbook promotions, you will not qualify for this promotion |
You will more than likely fail with this bonus, or at least you might fail to understand the conditions of the generous reward. So, we will keep it as it is worded on Betfair with "FREE BET UP TO £25 WHEN YOU WIN A FOOTBALL SAME GAME MULTI AT 4/1 OR MORE". The first and the most significant condition is "You can only take part using one account. If you have been excluded (via email or otherwise) by Betfair from taking part in Sportsbook promotions, you will not qualify for this promotion". We were told this three times, got it?
| promo name | promo type | requirements | restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
Refer and earn | Other | Invite a friend using a specific referral code. The invited person should create an account and place bets to the amount of £10 | Referring Customer and the Referred Customer must have accounts registered in the same country |
If you are still thinking about promotions then there is one you could make good use of. With this refer and earn promotion stakers can help the Betfair billionaires make double next year. Does that sound like a deal? On your part, for every one of your friends you refer to this establishment you can receive £10 in real cash funds. The maximum number of friends any staker can invite is five, so that 6th referral will end being free courtesy of you. Once your good friends wager £10, Betfair will pass those £10 over to you. So that's the Betting Bonus Exchange in practise, now it’s over to you to find eager friends.
| promo name | promo type | requirements | restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
Best odds guaranteed on all UK and Ireland races | Best Odds Guaranteed | The promo applies to any price taken on singles and multiples after 8am on the day of the race | Excludes customers who have opted into the Basic pricing promotion. Bets placed with Each Way Edge are not eligible for Best Odds Guaranteed |
An offer copied straight from the popular UK horse books. The conditions are similar to those you are already familiar with, so whenever the starting prices are higher than your odds, the winnings will be settled with the Starting Prices. There is however a significant notice and that is those stakers who enjoy basic pricing are excluded from the promotion.
| promo name | promo type | requirements | restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
Minimum bet to win guarantee | Other | Place bets on the selected events | The promo is limited to one account per customer |
Another promotion from Betfair at which you might again feel dumbfounded is the 'Minimum £500 bet to win guarantee for all races taking place in UK or Ireland.' The conditions we will leave to your understanding: 'A Minimum Bet to Win Limit of £500 has been introduced and will be available on all UK and IRE races. These races will be deemed “qualifying races”. On qualifying races, customers will be able to bet to win a minimum of £500 (e.g. £500 @ Evens, £250 @ 2/1 or £125 @ 4/1)'. From what we could see the amount of £900 is above the average a typical staker can afford and this is just illegal to advertise, in our eyes. And now the most important detail, or so it seems to Betfair…the guarantee is limited to one account per customer, of course!
Conclusion
After closer examination, there are simply no respectable deals at Betfair for keen bonus hunters. The ones which are available are misleading and should be taken with caution. We found the conditions to be vague and the less significant details are displayed as the most significant, very strange indeed. The terms and conditions barely make sense at times and most likely have been written by non-native speakers. The free bet club requires daily opt-in, which is complete nonsense as all across Stakersland there are only single opt-in requirements. We feel that the ‘bet to win guarantee’ currently violates advertising rules and so should be deleted from the promotions board with haste. The refer-a-friend offer looks like the only offer giving true value at the moment, so get that message out to your friends.
Sports betting
Betfair run their own exclusive software technology which has always been dominated by their famous exchange platform.
Picking the details from each bookmaker to find out what betting features and tools are on offer is what our betting technology team do best. We approach each and every bookmaker with maximum scrutiny and this way we can ensure that you can find the best betting entertainment at Stakersland. It’s a tough job but we love it, so sit back and read on to find out about Betfair’s current sportsbook and exchange setup.
Firstly, both the exchange platform and sportsbook of Betfair are based on their own exclusive technology which is currently developed at their offices in Dublin and London. This still proves to be a challenge for the team though as we found no explicit mapping for /error’s, as a result, stakers are seeing this worrying message as a fallback, “There was an unexpected error (type=Internal Server Error, status=500)”. You lose a sense of trust when you see a message like this and the other “java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException” is another common issue, but then again, that's good old Java as we know it.
Sports
The betting exchange creates 80% of the revenue generated by Betfair with the remaining 20% coming from the Sportsbook. The major sports for Betfair are football followed by horse racing in the UK. However, the significant difference for foreign stakers coming to Betfair from abroad is that only the Fixed odds and Casino games are available in most jurisdictions.
Betting slip
The betting slip for the exchange platform is specific to P2P wagering and designed for single bets and reduced multiples. The sportsbook betting slip is featured with custom systems such as Patent, Trixie, Luckies, Yankee, Canadian, Heinz, Super Heinz, and Goliath, while there is no bankers feature to be seen. Cashout options are integrated and available from the betting slip, offering stakers full or partial amounts to sell for prematch and live in-play events.
In-play stats
Betfair features a very detailed widget that contains match statistics, standings, and line-ups. Live in-play events are featured with the timeline as well as a text broadcast supporting the game. Head to head data is supplied for most of the events with past matches as well as form statistics available. The exchange part is supplied with trading volumes and these can assist stakers in making informative decisions.
Betting markets
Betfair features live in-play football events with 114 before the start and up to 104 markets during in-play action. Tennis provides up to 49 live markets and 72 pre-live markets and ice hockey, on the other hand, offers around 63 live and 40 pre-match markets.
Margins
Betfair’s sports betting margins are standard in terms of the market average. For some of the top sports, we found that the football pre-live markets come in at 4.93% while for live games they offer 6.79%, tennis provides 9.44% on pre-live games and 5.9%, and finally, basketball events come in at around 6% before the event start and 6.68% for ongoing games.
Event results
Betfair is not the place where you should be looking for event results and statistics. The site does not contain information available to stakers in the way they do for settling bets. However, the results are only available to traders and there is a number of complaints from stakers regarding the source of information used to settle events.
| Sports | margins | live margins | markets | live markets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| tennis | 9.44% | 5.9% | 72 | 49 |
| football | 4.93% | 6.79% | 114 | 104 |
| basketball | 6% | 6.68% | 243 | 167 |
| ice hockey | 12.63% | 11.38% | 40 | 63 |
For all of Betfair’s power in the betting exchange, the margins found in the fixed odds sportsbook are still considered to be only slightly above average. It’s not to say that stakers can’t find betting value here but all the top events like the Champions League are included in those high margins. Betfair offer highs of 11.7% in the pre-live football markets whereas rivals Bet365 fix their highest margins at 9.5%, a considerable difference. Even their live Champions League markets show a lack of value with 7.51% compared to 6.35% at Bet365 and the notable lows of 5.7% at Unibet. If you know your way around the betting exchange then you will find much better value there than in the sportsbook, that’s for sure.
Financial Limits
The Stakersland team are deeply passionate about sourcing and displaying all the right details and information. Everything that passes through our team is 100% checked and verified and only then does it find its way to our Financials table below. We suggest you read through the following information and make yourself aware of all the pro and cons of the Betfair financial processes and procedures.
Payment Method Restrictions
Which payment methods are valid when claiming my bonuses?
The top line is that Betfair does not offer welcome bonuses to new stakers. The only place where bonuses are restricted to payment methods is the “Refer and earn” promotion. Referred stakers are required to use credit/debit cards or Apple Pay when placing the qualifying bet, as all other methods are excluded.
The Influence of Third Party Agencies
What checks are being made and do they use any third party agencies?
Betfair terms and conditions warn that their team may check any information, including banking transactions at any time. They can use any means necessary to verify users’ identity and creditworthiness with any third-party providers information. For players from Australia and New Zealand, the identity will be verified using credit data information sourced by Veda Advantage Limited. Besides that, Betfair clearly states 'Your personal information may be transferred or disclosed to any company within the Group or, subject to appropriate agreement, to third parties, for the processing of that personal information based on our instructions and in compliance with this policy and any other appropriate confidentially and security measures.' So, always keep in mind that Flutter Entertainment plc operates businesses in multiple jurisdictions, some of which are not located in the European Economic Area (“EEA”). As such your information may be shared with the never-ending list of contractors and service providers that are connected to Flutter.
Personal Data Transparency
Will they inform me about the automated checks being performed?
There is no mentioning of any automated checks in the Betfair terms and conditions. They only state that the KYC verification documents may be requested either before or after your account is created. On the other hand, they do state that "To verify your age and accuracy of your registration details, including disclosure of such information to third parties e.g. financial institutions and third-party reference agencies. This is required for the purpose of our complying with our legal obligations", this normally means that they do perform automated checks and may also leave a soft footprint in your credit history as well.
Social Media Communication
Will my financial disputes and complaints be answered on the social media profiles?
Betfair do not communicate with stakers on Trustpilot despite having consistently low ratings there. All staker finance-related complaints at Askgamblers were being resolved though. Many more complaints remained unresolved and these are still left without any comments from the Betfair team.
Gambling Anonymously
Are my banking transactions with the bookmaker private?
Betfair support agents informed us that the Betfair name will appear on all staker banking documents and there is no way to change this at the moment.
Withdrawal Timeframe & Common Complaints
How fast are the withdrawals and what do stakers complain about the most?
Withdrawals are usually processed within 24-48 hours and so we can’t call Betfair the fastest operator in banking terms. The customer service team could not clarify what part of this timeframe is down to their internal transaction approval process, claiming that the whole approval procedure depends on the individual case, amount, payment method etc. In accordance with the Betfair help centre, debit or credit cards will take 2-5 working days as soon as approved, e-wallets (Skrill, PayPal, Neteller) take 4-24 hours, and bank transfers up to 3-4 working days.
Player-Friendly Withdrawal Limits
What are the minimum and maximum withdrawal limits available?
There are no limits on withdrawal transactions and this is for both the higher and lower ends according to the Betfair customer service team. The on-site help center and terms and conditions also do not display anything regarding withdrawal limits.
Withdrawal Options & Additional Costs
What are my banking options when withdrawing my funds and do they add fees?
A list of withdrawal options is given on the Betfair FAQ section, these include: Debit or Credit Card, UK Standard Bank Transfer, UK Express Bank Transfer, Non-UK Bank Transfer, Skrill, PayPal, Neteller, WebMoney, Qiwi, and Apple Pay. Take note that all withdrawals except Express bank transfer are free of charge.
Regulatory Check Transparency
Are they clear about the Source of Funds and Source of Wealth procedures?
Neither the ‘source of funds’ nor ‘source of wealth’ verification procedures are mentioned in the Betfair terms and conditions. Betfair representatives did not clarify the situation either and only confirmed that such checks do exist. Unfortunately, no specific list of documents was provided for these checks.
Conclusion
On the plus side, Betfair provides a strong set of withdrawal options without any limits on how much stakers can withdraw per transaction. This is a big feature for casual stakers with no restraints on trying to win a certain amount before being able to withdraw, the lack of additional fees is also a welcome feature. On the other hand, the all-important ‘source of funds/wealth’ verification procedures are unclear and it seems as though withdrawal funds may be frozen for an uncertain period of time as well. There is no privacy guarantee either as your data may be shared with the never-ending list of contractors and providers, this sharing also comes down to the sole discretion of Betfair. Your credit history may also contain records through the various automated checks with credit agencies and so the list of financial issues does start to mount up here at Betfair.
Customer Support
Through rigorous testing and constant questioning, we have managed to put together a full review of the Betfair support team. On first impressions, the support agents communicate in a formal manner although some of their instructions were misleading. As we found across some of the social sites, the support team doesn’t seem to hold a high enough level of knowledge for when it comes to technical queries. This seems to be a general observation across most betting venues where support agents lack the training in dealing with all situations that include the upper reaches of business-level queries. The contact options open to stakers at Betfair include a live chat feature, Twitter, and Facebook. The live chat accessibility does change from country to country though and we were surprised not to see a first-line of support email address available. Once again, our tests failed to pick up any signs of SLA agreements or any other relevant and related information to the overall support service provided by Betfair.
Support Speed & Resolution
How fast do they reply to my general queries?
Response times are hard to judge here as stakers initially get connected with a chat bot. If you want to base this on human response then it takes agents up to 10 minutes to join the chat depending on the time of the day, the average response time is then a further 2-3 minutes.
Live Chat Access
Is the online live chat tool available on the site?
The live chat is available to unregistered stakers when accessing it from the Players Protection section on the Contact page. However, the chat button can be found on the Contact page upon clicking on any of the provided topics. Additionally, there is no email support available for everyday queries.
Support Team Competency
How quickly will the support team reply to complex queries?
It might take the Betfair agents up 5-6 minutes to reply to complex bonus queries or when asked to provide official details on their SoF/SoW checks.
Level of Technical Expertise
Are the support agents sufficiently trained to answer technical queries based on odds, margins, and markets?
Betfair agents couldn’t provide us with any information regarding margins. They also had difficulties in understanding our questions regarding outright markets. So, the lack of training here is obvious and potentially these agents could soon be replaced with the chat bot.
Unregistered Staker Support
Will the customer service team interact with unregistered stakers and will I get a free bet?
Unregistered stakers will not be successful in getting bonuses at Betfair. All replies were short with copy-and-paste answers. In some cases, they simply sent a link as their reply. Again, the response time was lengthy and tedious as we often had to wait for up to 5-6 minutes each time.
Professional & Friendly Service
What type of response will I get when requesting a bonus from the service team?
Each and every attempt of trying to obtain a bonus was responded with a formal template from the agents. We found no luck with getting any sort of human response and so there is certainly no chance of getting a bonus here.
Customer Service Knowledge
Will the agents provide the correct information about payment limits when compared to the terms and conditions on the website?
After asking for the official withdrawal and deposit limits, fees, and commission queries, the representatives only provided us with a link to their withdrawal section and could not give us the exact details themselves.
Willingness to Help Out
Will the support representatives help me navigate around their website?
When we asked for assistance in navigating the Betfair premises we were provided with the necessary links with no further detail given. Surprisingly, it took an agent a total of 10 minutes to find a specific tournament that we were looking for. Again, a lack of knowledge was the obvious takeaway conclusion here.
Tolerance Levels
Does the support team have a high tolerance level for repeated bonus requests?
We found that their tolerance to repeated bonus requests was substantial, their replies were formal and they repeatedly told us that all bonus matters are ultimately decided by the marketing team only.
Onsite Support Efficiency
How efficient is their onsite Helpdesk compared to the competition?
The Help Desk section contains a list of topics with a convenient tree-like structure. This include useful functions such as a search box, their live twitter feed, and all the available contact details to keep you up-to-date and informed.
Conclusion
The one overriding element that we can take away from our customer support test was that Betfair representatives do not provide detailed responses. Strangely, it takes them more than five minutes to reply and they then only give short, general information on the offered services. This customer service team looks to be a generic helpdesk backed up by both operators and a chat bot who cover the same set of support areas. So, your options are the chat bot, operator, or you try to find the answers yourself. The helpdesk is the only true helpful feature of the customer service team, so you can forget chat bots and humans because the most help that you will find is from the static pages of the website. Betfair might as well close down the whole customer service team for now, more training required!
Conclusion
The one overriding element that we can take away from our customer support test was that Betfair representatives do not provide detailed responses. Strangely, it takes them more than five minutes to reply and they then only give short, general information on the offered services. This customer service team looks to be a generic helpdesk backed up by both operators and a chat bot who cover the same set of support areas. So, your options are the chat bot, operator, or you try to find the answers yourself. The helpdesk is the only true helpful feature of the customer service team, so you can forget chat bots and humans because the most help that you will find is from the static pages of the website. Betfair might as well close down the whole customer service team for now, more training required!
Should you run into further problems with any of the Betfair betting services then we hope that this short FAQ can help you on your way to some clear and practical solutions:
Are you able to complain with Betfair?
A complaint can be raised with the customer service and/or forwarded directly to the escalation management at escalations@betfair.com. A complete resolution should be provided within 10 days; however, this period might be extended at Betfair’s discretion.
Where to complain if they refuse a withdrawal?
A dispute can be submitted for further investigation to IBAS. In every case, stakers need to provide IBAS with a Deadlock Email from the Escalation management team. Non-UK players can address their disputes to MGA except all Australian stakers who need to submit their disputes to the Northern Territory Racing Commission.
How do stakers rate the Betfair customer service?
Stakers don’t rate the Betfair support very high. Many of them have reported the fact that representatives tend to be robotic, inflexible, and incompetent with the all-important rules and bonus requirements.
Up or down
Betfair’s uptime rate is almost perfect and this allows all those millions of stakers an uninterrupted betting and trading experience at the market stalls - no shutters or boards dropping on your fingertips here. The 99.99% rate is impressive and all the more so when you consider that they manage all their own servers and data storage. Top-rate optimisation with just a 1MB script makes opening the site a dream but just like their Flutter partners, Paddy Power, the Google page speed shows a dreary 25/100. Something is seriously lacking in that department and so here is what we found when we looked a bit deeper into their technology structure and framework:
TECHNOLOGY
A weak point for Betfair is the sportsbook platform and content delivery, the use of HTTP queries to deliver changes to their running odds is a dated option. The use of websockets really should be introduced here if they want improvements. A 2-5 second lag after odds are updated in the database is not optimal for in-play stakers. Both native JavaScript and Angular framework is in use and the backend is also written in Java, and making use of the Apache Kafka technology.
DATA CENTER
Betfair’s servers are located in the UK within their own BETFAIR data center in what delivers an impressive service overall. It’s also extremely convenient for all British and Irish stakers. Betfair do not make use of any external protection like Cloudflare and this decision does lead to possible vulnerability, especially when the data center network loads with possible issues of security breaches and sophisticated data attacks noticeable.
SSL CERTIFICATE
The Flutter Entertainment Group that Betfair is a part of has clearly mastered the art of closing business deals in their favour. The HydrantID certificate is used by Betfair and costs a total of $120 a month. Just one of these types of certificates can secure 10 domains which is works out at $12 per month per site. The high-level security from the 256-bit encryption and 2056-bit key also gives them the perfect level of safety for their staker community.
From the watchful eyes of our technical team, Betfair looks to be well thought out in terms of structure and obviously the sheer scale on which it operates within Stakersland backs that up as well. The optimisation is impressive and the team has clearly worked hard on this, but as ever, there is always room for improvement. The one area where we feel that the Betfair team can work on right now is content delivery. It’s such a simple update and obvious option that we wonder why it hasn’t already been implemented, but for anyone who might be reading this who knows a Betfair developer, pass these kind words on from our tech team – “Please make use of websockets!”.
countries where Betfair is licensed
The huge game-changing acquisition merger with Paddy Power moved the overall headquarters of Betfair to Dublin, but there are still offices spread out over London and Malta. Even after the merger, the company is still actively recruiting and looking for managerial and technical specialists. The technical office in Romania is also actively hiring with a number of positions open, as is the Betfair customer service team who are also hiring within the Malta offices as well, so there is no stopping the growth of Paddy Power Betfair. When it comes to the Betfair sign-up form then you can find many different countries and jurisdictions available. The Betfair name is licenced by the UKGC under the name TSE Malta LP, this license was provided for the official business activity of betting intermediary. One more license has also been issued by the UKGC via the name of Betfair Limited which is for betting software development activities. Elsewhere, The Northern Territory Racing Commission licenced Betfair under the name Betfair PTY LTD, with exclusive access via the Aussie domain https://www.betfair.com.au. The MGA licence is under the name Betfair International PLC and they also hold several local licenses in Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Spain, and Romania as well.
Multiple betting licenses from across the world give Betfair the chance to attract stakers from countries as far away as Australia. UKGC, MGA, and the NTRC are the main licenses along with Italy, Spain, Sweden, Romania, and Denmark.
Next up is the record of sanctions and we did find a few cases from the past. In 2014, Betfair admitted to paying erroneous dividends in 2012 and 2013, along with the illegal purchasing of £6.5 million in shares when sufficient reserves were not available. Going back a little further to 2011, Betfair also admitted to concealing the theft of confidential customer data from the company’s 2010 share prospectus. Many card details, usernames, addresses, and bank details were stolen and, in fact, the company didn’t even notice the theft had taken placed until only a few months after it happened.
Finally, now being a part of the Flutter Entertainment PLC, the same actions that were initially taken against Paddy Power by the UKGC in the past now also apply to the Betfair name as well. One notable point is that back in 2018 the UKGC investigated Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) for failing to interact with stakers who were showing signs of problem gambling. A lack of social responsibility and anti-money laundering checks were cited and the Commission agreed a divestment of £174,881 and payment in lieu of a financial penalty of £349,762 overall.
Questions
What documents do Betfair require for account verification?
For age and identity verification, the Betfair team asks to upload one photo ID from the following: Passport, Driving Licence, and National ID. For address verification, one of the following is needed: Utility bill (less than 6 months old) or a copy of a bank statement (less than 6 months old).
Both ‘source of wealth’ and ‘source of funds’ procedures are not documented. The customer service team did confirm that both procedures are established but could not be disclosed with further details. There is a number of complaints about the procedures taking longer than expected and that the documents requested are not relevant to similar procedures established by other operators at Stakersland.
How long does it take them to settle the bets and payout?
Though bets are settled instantly in most cases, Betfair gives a one-hour timeframe for this procedure as sometimes it may take longer to get the results and perform all the necessary checks. They use many sport data sources to verify the results including sportinglife.com, flashscore.com, whoscored.com, sofascore.com, and others. Betfair does not maintain score and results on their web site and there is a number of complaints from stakers about the source of information being used. Occasionally, they are also using data which is different to publicly available information on 3rd party sites, so again this could cause delays in getting 100% correct information.
How to request a withdrawal and how long it may take?
Betfair does not display or set any upper and lower withdrawal limits. Withdrawal times for any transaction to be approved ranges from 24 to 48 hours, without a specific deadline. The overall processing time depends on the method used with quick e-wallet transactions (up to 24 hours) to longer card and bank wire withdrawals (2-5 working days). A list of withdrawal options is also given on their FAQ section and these include Debit or Credit Card, UK Standard Bank Transfer, UK Express Bank Transfer, Non-UK Bank Transfer, Skrill, PayPal, Neteller, WebMoney, Qiwi, and Apple Pay. All withdrawals except the Express bank transfer are free of charge with no extra fees included on top.
Are multiple accounts allowed?
As of 31st January 2013, customers with an existing Betfair account were not permitted to open a new account. In the case that you already had more than one Betfair account, it was required to nominate a single Betfair account to use across all of Betfair's products. Stakers who kept using multiple Betfair accounts after 31 January 2013 had their accounts "linked" and managed accordingly. Nowadays, in any case where stakers create multiple accounts to exceed the maximum payout per player limits and are caught making the same combination of bets, Betfair reserves the right to withhold any winnings arising from such behaviour.
Is it safe to open an account with Betfair?
Betfair stakers often complain about accounts being closed for unclear reasons and therefore funds are often being withheld. It can sometimes be unclear that Paddy Power and Betfair are connected, so applying self-exclusion or account closure requests on one of these websites frequently leads to stakers being unable to play on the other. A lot of stakers are also complaining about complex and misleading bonus rules as well, so there are ongoing issues within the grounds of Betfair. At the same time, the Paddy Power Betfair group is one of the world’s largest companies unifying two gigantic gambling operators, licenced by several legit authorities across many jurisdictions. The multi-million community of stakers says that it is safe to bet at Betfair, just step with caution on the financial side of things and step with caution when claiming bonuses.
VPN Usage - legal or not?
We could not find any information about VPN on their website but the Betfair support team do claim that using VPN is simply not allowed. However, from our own private tests we did find that the Betfair site is accessible when VPN is turned on.
gross gaming revenue
customer base
time to make £1M
Social Buzz
Up or down
Only 13% of the comments on Trustpilot are positive with most stakers complaining about rigged games, suspensions without any reasons being given, account closures, and the general lack of interaction with their issues. It’s always been this way, even though the profile has been claimed by Betfair officials.