Wednesday 14 May 2008

A F***ing Joke.........

Daily Loss £52.00

OK, being honest, the daily loss is not what is most annoying about tonight. Yeah, I managed to lose £52 from placing 3 bets when I got in from work on horses at fancy prices which I then couldn’t lay off as Betfair was down for most of the night.

I’m even more annoyed about the money I could/should have won but couldn’t lay off in running or even get a bet on!

In the 6.40pm race from Perth, I had managed to back the eventual second for a £64 riskfree bet. So, I never lost in that race. However, the odds on favourite fell at the first hurdle and my horse led for most of the race and was involved in a 2 horse race from about a mile out! It would certainly have traded below 3 and it would have been odds on at one stage as it was really travelling well.

So, by not being able to lay off, Betfair cost me between £20-30 profit. I thought that was the end of the problems but it was only the start!

In the next race at Bath, I had put £22 on a horse when I got in from work. I backed the horse at 46 as it was certain to start lower than this or at least trade lower than this in running. Betfair went down, and I was left with a £22 win bet on a complete donkey. £22 loss.

Next race at Bath. Same issue. Had £17 on a 36 shot and site was down, so couldn’t do anything about it. £17 loss.

Next race at Bath, had £13 on a 65 shot. Couldn’t lay off. £13 loss.

At this point, I turned off Betfair in disgust and forgot about trying to bet on my fancy in the final race at Bath. I was sickened by what had happened. Well, without being Einstein, you can guess what happened here…..

On our discussion site, I wrote for the 8.30pm at Bath “Check out Dualagi in this one. Last two runs were basically identical where it has fallen out of the stalls and finished like a 'train'. Appears on a winning mark and ready to strike (to quote RP review from one of the runs!) but it ideally wants soft ground. Bath will no doubt be like a road tonight which means it can only be a speculative bet and a bit risky since it finishes late but I'll be trying to get a riskfree bet on it pre-race.”

Well, you can imagine my disgust when I watched the race. Dualagi fell out of the stalls (as usual), probably traded at massive odds on Betfair (it was back on by then!) and then came through to win easily. It won at 12/1 which means it would have been 14-20 pre-race on Betfair.

All in all, an absolutely shocking night on Betfair and I’m sure that there will be other traders out there who are far worse off than me.

I think the thing that Betfair miss is the fact that I didn’t really want £22 win on a 46 shot, or £17 on a 36 shot or even £13 on a 65 shot. I only backed these horses in the belief that I would be able to trade them. Hence, by taking away my opportunity to lay off, they have effectively changed the rules of the game after I placed my initial bet. It’s an absolute disgrace……………..

4 comments:

leonthefixer said...

Its a hard one to swallow mate but you need to move on. Easy for me to say as I didn't lose out. But these things are going to happen, I personally don't think BF should void all bets on an event that is affected by an outage as where do you draw the line? It is an interesting topic and one for debate, see 'My Letter to Betfair....' topic in General Betting which has been going since the first outage.

I just wish the other exchanges mainly Betdaq would do something about getting people to switch over and then Betfair my get their act together. They need to be paying the software vendors to develop their products for Betdaq and pay them to maintain them, they need to offer 0% commision to big players such as Peter Webb to get liquidity over to Betdaq etc. etc. then we may see some form improvement in product and customer service.

Anyway sorry to go on mate and I am soory to hear about your loss but remember you can win that back pretty quickly it isn't the end of your betting/trading!

Good luck!

Graeme Dand said...

Cheers Leon.

I agree that they maybe can't void all bets but they need to find a way to let traders get out of the position. I would have been very, very annoyed if I had laid a horse for £100 at 20 to back it in running and I wasn't given the opportunity!

As it happens, a £52 loss if a 'drop in the ocean' so to speak but I'm sure there must be others who are far worse off.

I agree with your point about other exhanges getting their act together. There is definitely a gap in the market but no one will have the balls to exploit it and take on someone established like Betfair.

I'll just need to win back my £52 this weekend! :)

Good luck with your trading today.

G

Mark Iverson said...

Hi Graeme,

One of the first things I did when I started trading was to ensure I had enough funds in my Betdaq account to cover my maximum exposure should Betfair go down unexpectedly.

Wouldn't something like this have given you the opportunity to lay off your bets?

just a tip mate in case this is not something you already have in place.

All the best,

Mark

leonthefixer said...

How did you do today mate? Did you beat me, I won £157 but stopped at the end of afternoon racing due to the site crashing AGAIN and AGAIN!