Betfair Sportsbook was launched in 2012 and is designed to compete with traditional bookmakers by offering a fixed odds service in addition to their famous exchange model.
Betfair are known for offering some of the strongest odds and best range of markets in the industry and since introducing sportsbook they've also caught up on the features which were traditionally their weakest such as in-play betting and the range of betting promotions they made available to punters.
Betfair Sportsbook's range of markets is phenomenal; they cover pretty much every sporting event you can imagine from all the popular ones like football and horse racing to the obscure Gaelic games and mixed martial arts. There's also some non-sporting odds listed such as politics, financial markets and entertainment.
In popular events Betfair will always have highly competitive, if not the best, odds in almost all the markets. This applies to horse racing where they offer Best Odds Guaranteed on all UK and Irish racing, so if you back a horse early and its price improves you don't have to worry as any winnings will be paid out at the better price. Their competitiveness also applies to football where they will be near the best in all goalscorer and correct score markets, amongst others.
In some of the less popular sports such as MMA they're not quite as good as some competitors in terms of the range of fixtures they cover. When they do cover a fight their odds will invariably be good and the market depth also usually good but the coverage is generally limited to the top billed fights.
Betfair's website, designed with the help of close consultation from their client base, is one of their best features. The site is simple and clean but very functional with a range of useful features.
Firstly the live streaming capability is probably the best offered by any bookmaker in terms of the quality of streams available. They don't cover quite as many fixtures as the big daddy of streaming (we're sure you know who we're referring to here) but at least as many as most of their other competitors and the stream quality and fast load times more than make up for this.
You can also stream sporting events from the mobile app which is another great feature, branded with the same design and colour scheme as the website with all of the same functionality. The app is available on both apple and android app stores and is free to download, though just visiting the Betfair site in your mobile browser gives you as good an experience.
Using the in-play betting console is very simple, you just click the in-play tab and you're taken to a list of all currently live events. The outright markets are displayed on the long list along with an icon which indicates if there's a live stream or if the fixture is available to watch on television. You can then click any fixture to see more markets and any coverage that's available, be that a live stream or just a graphical representation of the game with key events reported.
The Cash Out feature allows bettors to take a profit or cut their loses while an event is taking place, and is available on all bets which show the orange Cash Out symbol.
A small but useful widget on the football main page is the Multiple Builder. It's a small tool to the right of the list of markets which lets you randomise fixtures into an accumulator with an option to lock in fixtures and just randomise the remaining until you build a bet you're happy with.
Betfair have the biggest betting exchange in the industry. For those that aren't aware, an exchange allows you both back and lay a bet, essentially becoming your own bookmaker if you wish. It opens up a huge range of betting options that traditional bookmaker simply aren't able to offer.
The good thing about using Betfair over rivals is that they have a huge amount of liquidity in their markets. This basically means that more money is able to be both backed and layed accordingly.
Price Rush is as much as promotion as anything, offering up inflated prices for single betting markets. The good thing about it is that both new and existing customers are able to take advantage of these offers and any winnings are paid in cash.
Price Rush bets tend to occur on your more popular markets, such as Premier League football and high profile horse races. The increases can range dramatically from each offer. For example, in a recent fight between Floyd Mayweather and Connor McGregor, Mayweather was priced at 1.30 across the industry, but Betfair had price rushed the market to odds of 1.50, making them easily best priced.
It's worth noting with this though that they are generally only around for a limited time. So, Betfair will have a set amount that they want to take at that price, then once that has been covered, the original price will be re-instated.
Acca Edge is Betfair's form of acca insurance, to put it simply. It works by allowing you to get your money back if one or more of your selections within a treble or more lets you down. It's important to make sure that each selection in your acca has the 'Edge' logo though as if just one or more doesn't, then the bet wont be eligible.
But, there is a slight catch to this. You can decide to take acca Edge on your bet or not. If you decide not to take the Edge then you will get full price for your bet, but no insurance. If you decide to take the Edge then you will have around 10% of your potential winnings stripped from your bet. The percentage will vary depending on how many selections you include in your bet, but Betfair does make the adjusted price very clear before placing the bet, so you always know what you are letting yourself in for.
As a result of the merger between Paddy Power and Betfair, it is now possible to access your Betfair account via your local Paddy Power shop. You are able to deposit cash into your account upon providing your Betfair username and also some form of photo ID, such as passport or driving license.
There are no fees involved with this and often it's the quickest way to get hold of funds in your Betfair account, which is a bonus!
Betfair was founded in the year 2000 by Andrew Black and Edward Wray. It is now the largest online betting company in the UK and the largest betting exchange in the world. Its operations are based in London although some moved to Gibraltar in 2011 where it is now registered and licensed for tax reasons, though it is also licensed and regulated by the UK Gambling Commission for UK customers, meaning they must adhere to a stringent regime that ensures fairness and data security.
Betfair was valued at £1.4 billion in 2010 when the company was floated on the London Stock Exchange, which was largely on the back of their betting exchange product. However, in response to research that showed the average Betfair customer left the website to place 30% of their wagers, Betfair launched their sportsbook section in order to offer fixed odds in the style of a traditional bookmaker. The plan was to keep customers from leaving their website for better in-play selections, amongst other things, elsewhere, which appears to have been a very wise move as their profitability has increased markedly as a result.