Betfair launches new app to introduce recreational punters to exchange betting
Operator says sportsbook-style Bet Against product can “demystify the concept of lay betting”
Betfair has launched a new site and app designed to get more recreational punters using the lay side of the exchange.
The Bet Against product, launched Monday, looks similar to a sportsbook layout but the price shown is the price to bet against that outcome.
For example, instead of laying Spurs at 1.5, the punter would ‘bet against’ Spurs at 3.0, with the bet then executed through the Betfair exchange liquidity pool.
Customers are able to sign into the app, available on Betfair’s web app store, using their usual Betfair account details.
“The idea behind the Bet Against site was to demystify the concept of lay betting and show off the benefits and freedom it can give to punters,” said Richard Hayward, Betfair’s exchange business and pricing director.
“Selections made on Bet Against will automatically place a lay bet on the Betfair Exchange on the behalf of the customer and get matched against other customers.”
The page itself is built on Betfair’s web app technology, where it lets third parties build web-based applications for Betfair customers to interact with the Betfair Exchange liquidity pool in unique ways.
A screenshot of Bet Against
The product is the latest attempt to get more recreational users onto the exchange, with Hawyard telling EGR recently “there’s only a finite amount of people you can get on that traditional exchange education curve.”
Betfair is also experimenting with ways to “blur the lines” between the exchange and sportsbook, having recently tested out a button on the bottom of mobile exchange pages that takes users to the sportsbook version of the same page.
“There’s lot more of that to come in terms of tying the products together,” Haywards said. “There’s very few customers who are solely using the exchange, so one of the key things for us is trying to make a product that’s seamless between the two.