Do Betting exchanges increase Corruption ???

The following article taken from the timesonline.co.uk....................



The controversy surrounding betting exchanges, heightened last week when Ladbrokes alleged that at least one race a day was fixed, is certain to increase after Betfair, Britain's biggest betting exchange, reported an eightfold increase in profits last year.



Ladbrokes, William Hill and other bookmakers are very concerned at the rapid rise in betting exchange business.

Exchanges such as Betfair allow people to bet against each other rather than against a bookie; they therefore get better odds. Many users of exchanges also use them to "lay" bets — in effect, backing a horse to lose, something that previously only bookmakers could do.

The bookmakers have alleged that by allowing a wider group of people to lay bets, the possibilities for corruption in racing become greater.

But that has not deterred Ladbrookes from developing plans to launch its own betting exchange service.

The country's largest bookmaking firm will be encouraged in that plan by Betfair's trading figures. The Sporting Exchange Ltd, Betfair's formal name, saw pre-tax profits rise from £1.07 million to £8.45 million in the 12 months to April 2003. Its revenues - simply its commission on winning bets - leapt from £6.09 million to £32.3 million, the equivalent of £625,000 a week.

Although Betfair is still a fraction of the size of the major bookmakers - William Hill, for example, made pre-tax profits of £171 million last year - the most striking aspect of its performance is its 26 per cent pre-tax profit margin.

Were Ladbrokes to join the betting exchange trading area, it would mark a U-turn, forced to some degree following revelations in The Sunday Times last week that the Government is set to ignore calls from an all-party committee to introduce a new tax regime for the exchanges to bring them more in line with traditional bookies.

Exchanges came to prominence this year when two races were linked to unusual betting patterns on the sites.

In one instance, Kieren Fallon was alleged to have thrown a race, while in the other Sean Fox was banned for 21 days for "stepping off" his ride.

Chris Bell, chief executive of Ladbrokes, will appear on BBC’s The Money Programme this week saying that he believes "one race per day in British racing is now being corrupted".

really cant answer your question about corruption, as it doesnt seem relavent except to the books who are shitting their pants because of them.

however i wanted people to know that betting exchanges are the greatest tool i have in winning every year. if this site wanted to be taken more seriously as a "wealth" of quality sportsbetting information they would be advocating the top rated exchanges every chance they can. how someone would consider sending money to bodog when betting exchanges are available is beyond my comprehension.

any white sox backers today?, i just put in my wager at -122.6. pinny has them at -136. hmm, i think even fezzik might have approved of that move.

see ya

There has always been a concern that some jockeys will from time to time not handle their ride in the best fashion, so the topic is not new.

Hard to tell whether the the concern is spawned solely by sour grapes from the traditional bookies who see the enormous popularity of Betfair taking away from their action.

Now if there really might be any validity to any of this, the fraud squad can mount an operation to look into the identity of who is laying big money on favorites to lose to see if they are in any way connected with the jockey. A judge can authorize search warrants against Betfair and its customer database if there is sufficient cause to warrant such an action.

This is total crap on the part of mainly UK books who have been ripping off their customers for years with their high juice -120 or worse lines.

They try to convince naive folk that laying bets is unethical. What the ordinary man in the street should be told is that the business of a BOOKIE is to lay bets.

UK books have been, and continue to be, involved in such practices as the creation of false favourites in horse racing.

The scandals in the UK this year are NOTHING compared to ones in the 80s and 90s involving drugging of highly fancied horses so they ran poorly, and soccer match fixing. Tennis has involved the throwing of matches for years, ditto snooker, darts and other head-2-heads.

The only additional element is that in the past this throwing has generally needed a bribe from the opponent, now the guy can just bet himself to lose.

I will be surprised if the UK Gvt. falls for all this drivel, and will fight hard to stop it if it looks like coming to much.

They are simply scared of competition, most people who use exchanges are average punters who like to back their own judgement or like the better and more transparent odds.

Ladbrokes are worried about their market share slipping, if they offered more realistic odds they'd be competitive, all we want is the best bang for our buck.

www.betp2p.com
www.ibetx.com
www.betfair.com

p[lay them all, each has its positives