Betfair offers the best services at the cheapest prices, is completely transparent in its operations, is readily available, accessible from anywhere round the globe, and is easy to use. Do we need any more reasons May be not but there are more reasons to go for Betfair. Let's go over the advantages of using Betfair.com one by one in the order of their significance.



The most important point is that there is no bookmaker. The one who lays a bet is also a user like the one who backs a bet. There is no arbitrage income make by any middlemen. This saves the spread losses and the backing prices are higher than those offered by bookmakers. Also in traditional betting setup, the bookmaker's books cannot be seen and one cannot calculate the arbitrage losses. At Betfair, no book is built, arbitrage loss is nil, commissions are well defined, and hence there is complete transparency.

Secondly, a user can back an outcome as well as lay a bet. In a traditional market, only a bookmaker lays a bet. Laying a bet means taking the other side of the bet. The one who lays a bet wins when the outcome is negative and vice-versa. Laying bets then by backing especially when there are multiple outcomes possible makes more money. This opportunity, not available in a bookmaker's office, is present on Betfair. This is good when betting on sports like cricket/football/rugby/tennis/ motor racing etc. You have the ability in a game/match/race to back and lay according to what is happening. The odds change quite dramatically when a goal/try is scored and with multiple goals/tries the odds see saw giving you the chance to back and lay to win no matter what the result is. Laying systems can also be used with betfair.

Next important point is the control offered to the user by Betfair. Odds are not decided by Betfair but are placed by the user himself. Market forces define the odds just as in the financial markets where bids and offers decide the price movement. User can decide whether to back or to lie. He can bet while the game is on. He can monitor and participate in a number of different games simultaneously happening in different parts of the world.

Betfair is racing towards the number one spot in the world of gambling at a rampant pace. Its increasing market share means more than just rising commissions and more business. More gamblers, implies more volumes and more volumes implies more liquidity. When a user wants to bet on a particular event, the most important thing is that there should be someone to take the other side of the bet. At Betfair, high level of liquidity assures him that there will be lay betters for his backings and back betters for his laying. Sometimes, this point alone suffices for a gambler to enter the Betfair arena. This is how liquidity acts in a self-fuelling manner to create more liquidity and lead to efficient price discovery.

The betting opportunities are far greater with betfair with in running betting. Winning bets of odds of 999/1 are far more common than people think. You would never get those sort of odds with a traditional bookmakers.

There are also a few people that put up to ?16000 on every horse in a race at odds of 1.01. These sort of bets use high speed bots. The bets are set up and only taken when a horse reaches 1.01 in the betting which is usually just before the winning post. The thinking behind this is, there are often over 30 races a day and to make 1 percent of your money on each race means they can make around 30 percent a day. The bad thing is when a horse gets pipped on the line when well clear and you lose your money. So long as this doesn't happen more than once in a hundred races which is only about 3 ? days racing they do make a lot more than a bank pays interest.

All in all, Betfair is a great betting exchange that is improving by the day and the advantages it offers at a minimal cost are unbelievable, yet true.