Betfair Behind Fallon Charges
Published: Tuesday, July 04, 2006 Online-Casinos.com
BETFAIR BEHIND FALLON CHARGES
Betting exchange spotted irregular betting patterns
The UK media has been abuzz over the past week with the culmination of a long-running criminal investigation into the affairs of ex-champion jockey Kieren Fallon and seven others now facing charges of conspiracy to defraud. A key element in the case is that it stems from alleged irregular betting patterns spotted on Betfair, the international online betting exchange.
Using sophisticated tracking software the company fulfilled its agreements with sports regulatory bodies to flag suspicious betting activity, and reserves the right to provide account information to official regulators. Betfair generated revenues around GBP 5.2 billion in 2005.
The company was founded in 2000 by Andrew Black, who developed the internet betting exchange on his personal laptop in his spare time. Today the company employs nearly 1 000 staff and has 800 000 registered customers worldwide placing around 12 000 bets a minute. The Betfair business differentiator is that it allows customers to bet against odds set by other gamblers. So one person can place odds on the site and see if other customers are attracted to the wager.
The money placed on the bet is held in a Betfair account, and the company takes a percentage of the winnings in return for providing the facilities. Traditional betting shops suspend odds the moment a sporting event begins, but Betfair allows customers to place bets as they take place. This means odds can change during am event.
Concerning the tracking and reporting on unusual betting activity, Betfair spokesman Jack Houghton said: "Integrity and transparency are crucial in any sport. Our technology enables us to provide regulatory bodies with the information to achieve this transparency and integrity."
Online gambling is forecast to grow by 22 percent in 2006 and has emerged as a $12 billion or more global industry. Betfair alone is is believed to have taken GBP 1 billion of bets on the World Cup alone.
The scale of growth in online betting was one of the driving forces behind the Gambling Act, which comes into force in 2007. The Gambling Commission is the new regulatory body for the industry appointed under the Act. "Online gambling is burgeoning. The percentage of people who gamble on the internet has more than doubled in the last five years, and we expect this trend to continue," says Jo O'Driscoll of the Gambling Commission.
