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Betting Exchanges - The eBay of the Betting Industry
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A new era of betting in Europe.
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Because current discussions of betting focus mostly on
legal issues, one of the most successful new phenomena of the betting industry unfortunately remains
largely overlooked. But the fact is that potentially betting exchanges
are more likely to revolutionize the sports betting market in Europe than the Gambelli case.
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Betting exchanges are intermediaries in a person-to-person model (similar to eBay and Napster);
they arrange bets between individual customers on an Internet platform. Their customers can act as
traditional bettors, and they can also function as bookmakers. Thus, customers can offer their own bets and
ask for better odds without having to have a betting license. And according to decisions of the
first European legislature, the provider of the platform also does not need to have a bookmaker’s
license.
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What eBay and Napster did to the retail and the music industries, betting exchanges will do to the betting industry throughout Europe – they will revolutionize and change it forever:
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- “The betting exchanges, Betfair, Betdaq and co.
represent the greatest revolution in gambling in generations.” BBC (17 August 2003)
- Industry experts predict that across Europe
betting exchanges by 2008 will match bets totaling USD 159 billion. Based on their current (2004)
volume of USD 16 billion, this would mean a CAGR of 79%.
- Betfair, the market leader, currently arranges bets worth
an estimated USD 9.8 billion per year and realizes an annual profit (EBIT) of about USD 70 million.
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View Executive Summary and Table of Contents
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