Betfair Group plc is the world’s largest Internet betting exchange. The company’s headquarters are located in Hammersmith in West London, England. Since 9 March 2011 Betfair has operated its betting exchange under a Gibraltar licence.
Betfair claims to be the “world’s leading online betting exchange”. Betfair enables punters to choose their own odds and bet against each other, even after an event has started. Betfair claims more than 5 million transactions a day and 300 bets a second.
In addition to the exchange, Betfair has an established games portfolio. Betfair Games, Betfair Poker, Betfair Casino and Betfair’s multiples and accumulator products, are hosted from Malta, which is an area that has seen significant growth and investment. The company is also developing automated price feeds to third parties, establishing white-label exchanges and through its own Betfair Mobile product.
Launched in 2000, Betfair is a profitable and debt-free company with annual revenues exceeding £300 million. It is a privately-owned company. Betfair is proud that a large percentage of its employees own part of the company through its SAYE scheme.
The company was founded in 2000 by Andrew Black and Edward Wray.
Softbank purchased 23% of Betfair in early April 2006 valuing the company at £1.5 billion. In December 2006, Betfair completed the purchase of the horseracing publishing company Timeform (which traded under the name Portway Press Ltd).[2]
In March 2007, Betfair launched its own Betfair Radio service, available via its website, on the telephone and elsewhere. This has now become Timeform Radio, broadcasting horse racing commentary and results.[3]
On 27 January 2009, Betfair announced the purchase of the TVG Network in the United States from Macrovision $50 million USD as part of Macrovision’s dissolving of TV Guide’s assets.[4]
In November 2009, Betfair announced a deal with the New York Racing Association that allows Betfair’s customers to start wagering immediately on Aqueduct’s thoroughbreeding races.[5]
Betfair floated on the London Stock Exchange with a stock symbol of BET on 22 October 2010 at £13, valuing the company at £1.4bn ($2.2bn).[6]
In March 2011 the company moved some of its operations to Gibraltar to reduce the amount they paid in tax.[7]
In 2012, Betfair launched a fixed-odds betting sports betting service to compete with traditional bookmakers.[8]
In August 2014, Net Entertainment NE AB entered into a partnership with Betfair to expand its reach into the UK market.[9]
It was announced in September 2015 that Paddy Power and Betfair had agreed terms for a merger. The transaction will be structured as an acquisition of Betfair by Paddy Power[10] and the enlarged entity, to be named ‘Paddy Power Betfair’, will be based in Dublin.[11]