Betfair re-launch in Italy (Sort of)
Betfair trumpeted the launch of the Italian exchange this morning. But they were the only ones celebrating as the markets in Italy resembled something of a ghost town and liquidity a piece of tumble weed blowing through it. A stark comparison to the betfair.com markets (see below).
Legislation permits that the exchange only be populated with Italian customers. So Betfair have closed all betfair.com accounts and moved them them to the ‘ringfenced’ Italian exchange. But I’d imagine most large Italian customers have made provision to ensure they are not counted as Italian given the likely impact of ring fencing liquidity. I’ve also been told by a native Italian, rather foolishly if true, that Betfair are still applying the premium charge to Italian customers. So that will almost certainly kill any chance of the liquidity providers participating in Italy.
IMHO Betfair should be fighting for fair legislation across Europe for the exchange model. This is a much more viable long term solution. I realise that things are never easy, but in a harmonised Europe, how can you put restrictive terms on a country with open borders? It’s a bit like the UK Government legislating to restrict the London stock exchange to England. Daft…
The exchange mechanism is such a wonderful and fair model, bringing such big benefits to traditional punters it should be allowed to thrive, not be sectioned off to suit a local monopoly. Italian users, please complain to your local authorities and Betfair, please fight for the exchange model. Rant over.
Category: Football trading strategies
Hello Sir,
Do you plan to release a BAP version for italian market?
At this moment, liquidity on betfair.it is pretty decent (for sure, better than 5 years ago), maybe it’d worth it
Thank you
Dario