BetFair App for the iPhone and the iPad -> BetFair Rattle

Posted on March 17, 2010 by admin

As I understand it, BetFair has one iPhone App for the British bettors (only).

And they&#8217-ve just released a new one (BetFair Rattle), also only for the UK Apple App Store.

BetFair:

BETFAIR LAUNCHES FREE IPHONE APP FOR FOOTBALL FANS

BETFAIR, the world&#8217-s biggest online sports betting company, has released a nifty new application for football fans to compete against each other in order to make their club the most supported on the iPhone.

The &#8216-app-tly&#8217- named Betfair Rattle provides a quick and easy interface for fans to check fixtures and then turn their phone into a rattle with which to back their side. Support for a particular team increases according to how much fans shake their phones before the match kicks-off.

In time, Betfair hopes to release a Betfair Rattle league table, so if you&#8217-re sitting bottom of the Premier League and have lost 10 in a row your team can still get three points at the weekend if you get your rattle out. For instance, Portsmouth fans will be glad to know they got three points at Anfield last night, even if they don&#8217-t have the bragging rights in real life.

Betfair&#8217-s Mobile Manager Richard Hewitt said: &#8220-First and foremost we wanted to create something where fans compete against each other to show support for their teams, but we also wanted to provide something that was genuinely useful by making sure it was the most simple way of checking upcoming fixtures on the iPhone.

&#8220-So many apps are slow and clunky when all a user wants is the information there and then, and that&#8217-s what this app provides.

&#8220-Above all else though, it&#8217-s a bit of fun and we hope football fans across the country will be seen shaking their iPhones at stadiums around the country come 2:55pm every Saturday.&#8221-

To download the app go to:
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/betfair-rattle/id360162909?mt=8

http://iphone.betfair.com/

Bookmaker laying a la BetFair

Posted on March 17, 2010 by admin

At Ladbrokes, you can now bet on an anti event &#8212-so to speak.

Via Mark Davies &#8212-who rejoices.

BRITISH CRETINERY: The Financial Times features the InTrade probabilities -not the BetFair ones.

Posted on March 17, 2010 by admin

This is really stupid. The decerebrated journalos at the FT chose to feature the illiquid, Ireland-based, un-regulated InTrade prediction markets instead of the very liquid, UK-based, regulated BetFair prediction markets on the next British congress.

Makes no sense at all.

The BetFair PR boys have an omelet on their face. They should work harder.

DISAMBIGUATION: The &#8220-illiquid&#8221- adjective refers to the UK political markets on InTrade &#8212-not the US political prediction markets.

GREAT NEWS: Stephen Burn is now the big boss at BetFair USA [*], and Gerard Cunningham is out. – [VIDEO]

Posted on March 12, 2010 by admin

BetFair won&#8217-t release any public press release on all this, but they told me what&#8217-s on this site is accurate: Stephen Burn (previously director of horse racing) is taking over BetFair US leadership, including TVG.

We have decided that the strategy for the U.S. is to enhance our horse racing offerings and to support our global product development initiatives and therefore, at this point, Betfair wants the U.S. horse racing and engineering teams to integrate more closely with [United Kingdom] operations. Given these changes, Gerard decided to leave the company to pursue alternative opportunities.

More info:

Stephen Burn will now run Betfair’s US horseracing business and Los Angeles office, reporting to Betfair’s UK-based managing director of exchange, Mathias Entenmann.

Ravi Keswani will continue to run the US engineering and product management teams and assume responsibility for the San Francisco office, reporting to Betfair’s London-based chief technology officer Tony McAlister.

If you wanna know what Stephen Burn looks like, here&#8217-s an old video:

–

MY VIEWS: Some years ago, I e-mailed Stephen Burn (2 or 3 times) for info on BetFair (not knowing that he was not in the PR department), and he graciously forwarded each e-mail to right person at BetFair (instead of killing them, wrong recipient), and my requests got always satisfied. So, to me, the chap sounds like a nice gentleman. As for Gerard Cunningham, I was told by one betting exchange industry insider that he was not very enlightened.

–

[*] Technically, David Yu is the upper boss at The Sporting Exchange USA, if I remember well. Go to http://corporate.betfair.com/ for more info. (Well, actually, you won&#8217-t find that info there. Their corporate site is quite elliptic.)

Smarkets want you to believe that they are going after a much bigger betting market than BetFairs one.

Posted on March 12, 2010 by admin

Their CTO (Hunter Morris) is the first to present in the video. Watch out for his slide on casual and social betting.

Startups Rally &#8211- Part I &#8211- Elevator Pitches (4 of 4) from Plugg Conference on Vimeo.

Download this post if your feed player does not show you the video above.

External Link: Smarkets

Any people from BetFairs marketing department?

Posted on March 10, 2010 by admin

Got an idea I&#8217-d like to discuss with some higher-up in BetFair&#8217-s marketing department.

Would you mind contacting me. Thanks.

Insider trading in the InTrade prediction market on health care reform?

Posted on March 9, 2010 by admin

InTrade CEO John Delaney:

&#8230-it is a reasonably active market but atypically a lot of the trade is coming from the DC area when normally we might see trade coming from all the major urban areas.

ADDENDUM: For your information, in Great Britain, sporting insiders (such as athletes or jockeys) who trade on betting exchanges (such as BetFair) are actively monitored.