Apparently Betfair now have a team of  employed 'in-house' traders, as well 
as the use of bots, this is not good.
I can maybe understand the practical use of bots for liquidity, to instantly 
match and pass on a transaction to a punter down the line (although this is 
wide open to abuse too ), but in-house traders, who will probably be looking 
at 'who' is betting on 'what', then taking that data to hedge for 
profit/loss management (we have to presume this to happen, as there is no 
governing body like the FSA to watch over them), err.....I smell a rat.
At the very least this will have an effect on market prices as Betfair buy 
or sell on any given position.
Would this inside practise be allowed in the city? I think not.
It contradicts exchange fundamentals & will deffo be ammo for the exchange 
foes (of which I'm not one) in some future court case & who knows, even 
effect licensing status longterm.

Cheers ears
Aid.

aid wrote:
> Apparently Betfair now have a team of  employed 'in-house' traders, as well 
> as the use of bots, this is not good.
> I can maybe understand the practical use of bots for liquidity, to instantly 
> match and pass on a transaction to a punter down the line (although this is 
> wide open to abuse too ), but in-house traders, who will probably be looking 
> at 'who' is betting on 'what', then taking that data to hedge for 
> profit/loss management (we have to presume this to happen, as there is no 
> governing body like the FSA to watch over them), err.....I smell a rat.
> At the very least this will have an effect on market prices as Betfair buy 
> or sell on any given position.
> Would this inside practise be allowed in the city? I think not.
> It contradicts exchange fundamentals & will deffo be ammo for the exchange 
> foes (of which I'm not one) in some future court case & who knows, even 
> effect licensing status longterm.

Totally agree. And regarding "in-running" events, they'll be the first 
to, for wexample, lay a faller, as you can be damn sure they have the 
fastest feeds. Also, something I've never managed to get out of them 
(Betdaq or Betfair) - are their in house traders subject to the same 
delay as the rest of us? You got to assume they have their own 
super-fast API "one-click" bet entry system which us normal punters 
would have to pay for.
LLort