Betfair v The Bookies

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Betfair, it is a betting exchange where customers can either bet on a selection or choose to oppose a selection and lay someone else's bet. Although there are other betting exchanges it was the first and is by far the largest. Betfair do not actually take bets themselves they are just a conduit between people wishing to bet against each other. They make their profit by charging a commission that operates on a sliding scale. Basically the more you play the less you pay.
If you read the racing press you may have heard the bookmakers bleating on about how it is ruining the gambling industry and undermining the integrity of racing in particular. They are saying this is because you can lay a horse to lose it encourages people to fix horse races. This is as far from the truth as you can get. People have been profiting from fixed horse races and knobbled horses since time began and as I explain underneath some are pretty familiar names!
Betfair makes everything more transparent and more in the open, it is there for everyone to see. They operate with integrity and invites the racing authorities to look into its books if there are any suspicious betting patterns. Does this sound like a company that encourages dishonesty in racing or one trying to make it more transparent and fairly run?
For decades the high street bookmakers have fleeced the general public, making sure they are best priced on horses they know can't win. One firm (who may be the world's largest bookmaker) has spies and informants in nearly every major stable and knows when horses are fancied and when they are not going to win. This firm in question, whenever they are best price on a strong favourite and they hold this price; it is amazing how often this horse will lose!
The bookmakers have refused to co-operate with the racing authorities in the same way that it does as they say this would interfere with their client confidentiality. Surely if their clients had nothing to hide then there would not be a problem! Does this sound like companies who encourage dishonesty in racing or one trying to make it more transparent and fairly run?
Another trick of the bookmakers was to give trainers a 'free' account where they could back their own horses when they fancied them but would not get billed if the horse lost. So when it comes to integrity Betfair wins hands down and the cries of foul play from the likes of William Hills and Ladbrokes is just tears of the playground bully who has had his nose bloodied.
In terms of the value that it gives once again it wins easily, bookmakers bet to an over-round on horse racing of about 125 profit. On football they will bet to an over-round of 111 which on three selections is daylight robbery. Betfair on the other hand because of the competitive nature of a betting exchange offer a flat 100 on your winnings but this is still far better value that the bookmakers can offer.
Betfair will let you bet on just about any sporting event anywhere in the world 24 hours a day, they offer more markets than are available elsewhere. They will also let you bet on things like reality TV and even politics and the weather. It is now the home of many a professional punter and also for traders who are people who take advantage of any discrepancies in the bookmakers prices by backing them and then laying them back to someone else on Betfair at a shorter price.