Betfair go back to the future
Some of you may have missed this, but at the turn of the month Betfair quietly slipped in a new home page.
If you are logged into your account on a computer you have previously used all appears normal. But if you log into Betfair on a new computer you are presented with an entirely different look. It’s a strange place……. The main URL appears to be www.befair.com/sport/
It has amazing new innovative features, such as fixed odds betting and fractional odds. Yes that’s right, those things that Betfair used to go to great lengths to position as old and outdated. When Betfair started they did a great PR stunt by carrying a coffin around the streets and proclaiming the bookmaker is dead, it appears he has just sprung to life again. The question is, are resurrections just the stuff of fiction, are we looking at a zombie, or is taking focus away from your USP a stroke of genius? I guess time will tell. It appears Betfair have also modified terms and conditions as well.
When I look at Betfair punters what I see are intelligent people who realise that technology has given them a leg up against traditional betting models and at last they have a fair chance of winning. Ultimately that is what is attractive about Betfair and it’s exchange mechanism. Joe Punter doesn’t really care about that, he just wants to nip out at lunch to Ladbrokes and stick a tenner on England and be done with it. My guess is that he is not that price sensitive either. He is familiar with a brand, trusts it and looks at the price and judges it to be worth a shot.
Of course you can still find the exchange on this new home page, it’s just not that immediately obvious. And of course Betfair are still advertising their prices as better than others, insert small print, ‘exchange prices only’. I really thought they would create an entirely separate site for fixed odds, afterall they still own the very useful ‘Flutter’ name. I’m not convinced that trying to appeal to two different markets on one site will have the desired effect. I will be watching with interest.
