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Betfair share price tumbling

Early last week - £15. Now £11.40 and falling. Is the bad UK weather, and thus cancellation of a lot of sporting events, particularly race meetings, the main reason behind it, or have some unfavourable pieces of advice made public by various brokerages hit hard?

Take a look at the price graph yourself, it's not pretty to look at if you are holding shares. A drop after the early flurry of trading was always to be expected with so many smaller shareholders ready to sell up after years of waiting, but the sharpness of the decline has to be concerning for the firm. It's an over-reaction if you ask me - they are making good progress in the US with racing authorities. It will be slow going and the US can only go state-by-state for them, so don't expect a massive surge any time soon. On the other hand, long-term profits should be solid enough for the price not to fall much further....
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Comments

  1. leonthefixer3 December 2010 at 18:32

    Hi Scott - any chance of changing the colour scheme back to how it was on the blog - using blue text against black just doesn't work - it is very hard to read.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sports Punter3 December 2010 at 21:06

    What are your thoughts Scott?

    Not saying I am a lover any more of Betfair, in fact probably the opposite, but don't you think they were overvalued in the first place? (Low liquidity and all that not withstanding)

    They are definitely the Trend Setter, but all I see lately is extremely poor customer service and the whole ethos of the Company seems to have been lost. Is it just me?

    Love your Blog by the way. Won't mention the Ashes.............

    ReplyDelete
  3. Scott3 December 2010 at 21:36

    how's that Leon?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Scott3 December 2010 at 21:40

    initial price of £13 sounded right to me, bearing in mind it is a strong company with zero debt. Conditional trading sent it out to £15 which was over the top IMO. Company has totally changed since I began there, and continues to change since I left. Once the punter's best friend, now just another company trying to screw as much out of them as possible....

    ReplyDelete
  5. Betfree2473 December 2010 at 23:15

    Scott, that's an interesting view from someone who used to work there.

    When I first found it, I thought it was great. Still use it now for football, but tend to find the liquidity isn't that great unless a game is live on TV.

    Haven't had to deal with them on the customer services side of things, but have noticed a lot of negativity towards them in this department.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Scott3 December 2010 at 23:34

    as a start-up, Betfair was exciting. It had some great people, people who knew knew what punters wanted because they were punters themselves. They're all gone. Now it's all just corporate people who could be working anywhere, comparing metrics against insurance company call centres or click-thru rates on banners. Customer service is scripted out of a manual and the company would rather minimise the damage from problems and keep the cost down rather than finding the root of the issue and solving. Too busy adding money-grabbing product like arcade and virtual racing than taking the exchange to another level. It's gone flat, very flat.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sports Punter4 December 2010 at 09:04

    Interesting thoughts Scott and I appreciate you taking the time to reply.

    It's such a shame to be honest, but I guess with the lack of a credible alternative, they don't have the motivation to improve on the Customer Services front.

    You only have to read Bert's and your Blog to see how the Company/Idea flourished in the first place. Like you say Punters know what Punters want.

    I guess the Corporate world gets hold (and ruins) most things that are successful.

    Definitely won't mention the Ashes again this morning........

    ReplyDelete
  8. Betfair Botter4 December 2010 at 12:07

    In the early days just about every punter using the site would be happy to recommend it, these days you'd be lucky to find anyone singing it's praises. It's just becoming one big bot with the sole aim of extracting cash whether it's via cross matching or PC charges etc.

    ReplyDelete
  9. leonthefixer5 December 2010 at 15:41

    Hi Scott,

    Much better colours now.

    Fully agree with your comments about BF.

    Keep on blogging!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Unknown6 December 2010 at 08:05

    Do you think the recent casino debacle may have impacted this at all?
    Some rumours posted on forums claiming it to have cost them up to 7 figures.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Scott6 December 2010 at 09:44

    No idea Thomas, not a part of the business/industry I have any interest in, have only seen a few headlines on Google alerts. Seven figs sounds rather extreme.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Unknown9 December 2010 at 11:38

    they lost over 8 figures and have refused to pay out the winners, guess whats happening to their name now??

    ReplyDelete

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