BetFair (via Right2Bet) are furious at the new French gambling laws.

No Gravatar

Right2Bet (operated by BetFair):

A Senate hearing on Tuesday looked at ways in which the French authorities could make it more difficult for operators not licensed in France from offering their products to French citizens.

They are now looking at adding wording to the new gambling bill, set to &#8216-open up&#8217- the market in time for the World Cup this summer, that makes it illegal for any French-based company from taking advertising or even simply linking to certain sites.

Those sites based inside France, including multi-nationals with French subsidiares, notably Google, found to be &#8216-aiding and abetting&#8217- (no pun intended) foreign operators could face fines of up to €100,000.

This is just another example of the French bill being a facade. They want to appear like they are liberalising their market, to fit in with EU rules, but clearly they are going to make it as hard as possible for foreign operators to offer their services to value-deprived French citizens, and are even looking to make it difficult for those who do apply for a French license.

At what point is someone going to wake up and say &#8216-enough is enough&#8217-? Don&#8217-t wait for someone else to do it, sign our petition today and add your voice to the thousands of EU citizens already calling for fairness in online gambling.

Our previous post

France = Communist China

France will soon block access to the BetFair and InTrade websites.

No Gravatar

Gambling operators that are not be licensed by France will have their web access blocked for the French public. The license would require that servers be located within French territory.

France = Communist China

InTrade has a higher PageRank than BetFair. No change.

No Gravatar

Google has just updated its external PageRank servers. (The PageRank is updated internally in a continuous way, but Google updates its external servers once a quarter or so.)

InTrade is 7/10. BetFair 6/10. HSX 6/10. HubDub 6/10.

– BetFair&#8217-s blog (Betting @ BetFair) is 5/10, proving, once again, that it is a mediocre publication run by mediocre people. BetFair&#8217-s second blog (BetFair Predicts) is 4/10. Midas Oracle is 6/10.

For the record, the goal to attain (for both exchanges and publications) is 7/10.

BetFair is the best innovation that happened to horse-race betting.

No Gravatar

#1 innovation of the decade = Peer-to-peer wagering

&#8220-In 2000 two men who liked to play card games and make a bet or two created the Ebay of betting –- an exchange where players could bet with each other.&#8221-

BetFair co-founder Ed Wray laments the suppression of UKs tax incentive for startup entrepreneurs.

No Gravatar

BetFair chairman Ed Wray: &#8220-Too many hurdles in the way of enterprise&#8221-.

Wray refers to a tax incentive that he and Black used to launch Betfair after they were forced to go to friends and family for funds, having failed to raise capital from institutional investors.

&#8220-That was very useful in terms of getting the business off the ground. Everything I see now is about cutting back on those opportunities.&#8221-

Will Lewis Hamilton on McLaren-Mercedes win Formula Ones 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix?

No Gravatar

Formula One&#8217-s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates:

BetFair&#8217-s favorite is Lewis Hamilton on McLaren-Mercedes.

Bonus Track :-D

Ferrari World &#8211- Ferrari theme park @ Abu Dhabi

UPDATE: FAIL.

What happened to Betfairs Arnault card?

No Gravatar

Bernard Arnault is the 14th richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $16.5 billion US dollars. (Forbes). In 2007, Arnault was listed among Time magazine&#8217-s 100 Most Influential People in The World. No bad thing for Betfar then, that Europeatweb, an internet-based fund controlled by Arnault, holds a 10 per cent stake in the company.

In August 2009 it was reported that Betfair would be allowed to apply for a betting licence in France, ahead of the partial liberalisation of the French betting market in 2010. It was said that Betfair&#8217-s application had been approved by the French authorities, after heavy lobbying by Arnault.

Fast forward to October 2009 and it looks like Betfair will be excluded from the newly liberalised French betting market. A surprising defeat for Arnault and a major shock for Betfair.

Share This:

Never try to divine the IOC decisions on Olympics venues, Mike.

Prof Michael Giberson,

No &#8220-careful observer knew this in advance&#8221- (about Chicago being a lemon), for the simple reason that if they knew, they would have downgraded Chicago on the InTrade and BetFair prediction markets, and Ben Shannon would have not bet $6,000 on Chicago.

I look forward to your contrite correction on the frontpage of Knowledge Problem &#8212-in bold, and with a link to Midas Oracle, stating that &#8220-Midas Oracle is the only website in the world to have told you *not* to bet on Chicago a€”and to stay (far) away from any Olympics venue prediction market.&#8221-

My thesis holds: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is a close aristocratic group that does not leak out good information.

IOC

Previously: The Chicago candidacy, which was favored by the prediction markets (and gullible bettors like Ben Shannon), is the one that fared the worst.

Previously: Chicago wona€™t have the Olympics in 2016.

ADDENDUM:

– BetFair&#8217-s event derivative prices:

chicago-olympics-betfair

– InTrade&#8217-s event derivative prices:

chicago-olympics-intrade

– HubDub&#8217-s event derivative prices:

Who will recieve the winning bid to host the 2016 Olympics?