Why is liquidity so poor

Hi anyone any ideas why horse racing liquidity is so poor now on betfair, every day is like trying to trade on a sunday, I know betfair are getting worried they rang me asking about the performance of the new api, don't think they will ring me again after my answers lol.

The premium charge (20% commission on the big fish) has turned many of them away, as what was a lucrative strategy paying 5% comm often becomes untenable when you start paying 20%.

I think the main reason in decline in the exchange though is Betfair's focus on the sportsbook for new customers which has inevitably kept them away from the exchange.  If you are a new customer you land on the sportsbook page, not the exchange.  If you don't know any different then this is where you'll place your bet.  The current management of betfair are trading off the name that the brand built up for value betting over the last decade, but are using that brand to fleece punters on the sportsbook site with lousy odds.

Betdaq could be the answer.  The only problems being, it hardly trades any football markets and MFpro doesn't work there.  Surely any business that was losing revenue due to a new policy, would need to reverse that policy (premium charge)?  This logic doesn't seem to apply to Betfair and I believe the exchange will disappear in a few years.

I agree, I think they are concentrating on the sportsbook, but that makes no sense they cannot compete with the big books, they are already renowned for limiting you after a few bets, and because of the sportsbook you can no longer have more than one account, if it carries on they will be left with nothing as betdaq will get bigger and bigger.

hi,

In general for horseracing win markets, how do the prices on Betdaq stack up visavis betfair? And are they improving?

Larp

Betfair is still way ahead at the moment, for example 1st race at Epsom at the moment 56k matched on betfair 12k matched on betdaq. Ayear ago there would have been treble that matched on betfair by now though.

Is there any data available showing the development of liquidity in Betfair markets?