The Oaks – Betfair’s first ever market

06/06/2014 | By | Reply More

So today we reach the Oaks and tomorrow the Derby, when the summer racing really starts to step  up a gear. The start of June means Royal Ascot is just around the corner.

If you are a Betfair newbie you may not know that the Oaks at Epsom was Betfair’s first market way back when they started in June 2000. But it was a little later that year, on June 11th. Mark Davis reminisced on his blog about it. I think Mark, as an insider, gives a better insight into the early days at Betfair better than I can. That are some interesting bits in there – “From memory, I think about £3,400 was matched.” Mark says on the first ever market. I wonder if they could have foreseen what the site would look like in 2013? I bet you they didn’t think the home page would be a sportsbook!

Mark goes on to talk about the launch – “Many people remember our mock funeral which made the front page of the business section of the Sunday Times, when we paraded a coffin around Finsbury Circus and its environs proclaiming, “the bookie is dead – make your own market!”. Far fewer remember the demo we arranged outside the Sports Cafe, where a rag-tag-and-bobtail group of actors donned mackintoshes and flat caps, and held up placards saying “stop the launch”…… The Sports Cafe launch was the ‘official’ launch, but it wasn’t a whole lot more successful than the private one.”
Read the full story on Mark’s blog.

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Category: Betfair, Horse Racing

About the Author ()

I left a good job in the consumer technology industry to go a trade on Betfair for a living way back in June 2000. I've been here ever since pushing very boundaries of what's possible on betting exchanges and loved every minute of it.

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