Betfair and paddy power merging

Hi betfair forum full of rumours that betfair and paddy power are merging, if this is true surely it is the end of the exchange, what a nightmare that will be. Colin

Ladbrokes took over Betdaq and the exchange is still running as far as I know.   A merger is likely to be less damaging for the exchange, but who knows?  Surely if they wanted to abandon the exchange they would attempt to sell it first?  There are others who could manage it far better than Betfair.

hope you are right perhaps the liquidity will pick up after a merger as don't know what you think but early morning horse racing is almost non existant at the moment, it only pick up about half hour before the off, Colin

As Paddy Power are getting 52% and Betfair 48% of the new company you have to look at it as a takeover by Paddies.  If so then to my mind it makes sense for them to brand all the sportsbook activity under Paddy Power and repurpose the Betfair brand back to being exclusively about the exchange.  Seems foolish for them to have two separate sportsbooks competing with each other, and having two separate marketing budgets when they could roll it all into one.

In that scenario then it would be good for the exchange side of the business, but maybe it's just my wishful thinking!

Hi,
The writing was on the wall when a Paddy Power executive joined Betfair almost two years ago and the first thing he did was fire the seminar training department headed by Tony The Badger Hargraves. The seminars were designed to help people become better punters and were conducted throughout the UK and Australia. The last thing bookies would want is educated punters!! We all have witnessed how Betfair has gone from a pure exchange system to a blatant fixed odds bookmaker operation with the exchange being an unwelcomed add on as far as they are concerned.
I hope they prove me wrong and that the exchange flourishes. We'll see.
R

I hope there is some political will or desire to copper-fasten a guarantee to retain the exchange in much the same format. But there is surely much to worry about. Like if Paddy Power (ShadyShower) decide to dump liabilities onto the BSP markets in amounts greater than BetFairSportsbook already do, then  who knows how it will affect traders.

It is many years ago since I had a meeting at PaddyPowers head office and tried to broker a deal on a football based punter/customer competition I had. They didn't bite at the time, but a few years later they did set up a Last Man Standing competition based on my format, albeit mine was to be a premium phone in comp. Ohhhhh so close lol

Larp