One thing we certainly agree on - it is a fascinating challenge, and we hope you will be around to watch, comment, and maybe have a bet or two once we've launched
I will definitely test things out when launched. The betting world needs some serious competition to Betfair and if it's just to get them off their high horse. Most users have a love-hate relationship with Betfair, so do I, and would be happy with a good and liquid alternative.
As discussed previously, liquidity is the most important cornerstone. What I am dearly missing nowadays though, being forced to use a white label Betfair exchange, is trading software. It's just so weary to do everything manually instead of one-click and all the maths being taken care of too (yes I am not good/fast with maths
). As I understood, you will have a market maker API at launch, so maybe it's not just a pipe dream to have some trading software like Geeks Toy available in the future, if all goes well with your exchange
But we firmly believe that there are a number of important trends (both inside and outside the betting industry) which offer an opportunity to disrupt the stranglehold that Betfair has on betting exchange liquidity.
I will get a bit off-topic here, but what I observed from a punters point of view, is a downward trend in terms of betting activity. And in my mind it's because the betting middle class is thinning out dramatically - just like the middle class is dying out in society. While until some years ago solid punters could make some money or at least break-even, this has now become way harder, because the markets have matured so much. Someone who was able to make some extra bucks in the past, which made it worth his/her time while not being addicted, is now not being able to do so anymore and will lose longterm. And these people are smart (and healthy for that matter) enough to leave the betting space unlike the gambling addicts.
This causes some imbalance, which is especially bad for betting exchanges. Bookmakers don't care - they are even happy with it - but the betting exchanges need a/the middle class, since addicts are not the ones using an exchange normally (no parlays there
). You need constant influx of money, because the sharks only take money out of the system and don't add to it. This influx is hard to get with a small middle class and addicts normally not too excited about exchanges.