Guardian and that Premium Charge

One more post on the Premium Charge, although I can’t promise it will be the final one.

As I have said before, I have reduced my Betfair balance to a working minimum and have opened accounts with BETDAQ and WBX. I like to keep at least £10,000 in my account, but anything over this amount will be regularly withdrawn.

Because I am primarily a trader, and BETDAQ and WBX may not offer the markets I trade in-running, I do not have any realistic alternative but to continue to use Betfair for these events. When an alternative does exist, I shall use one of the other exchanges if the liquidity there makes it a viable proposition. BETDAQ have promised me that they are looking to turn more markets in-running, so hopefully this will be an option.

As much as the Premium Charge stinks, and the way it has been introduced at short notice with a retrospective aspect to it as well as a lack of accountability (we still have no way of knowing the implied commission on losing markets) really is disappointing, at the end of the day I would rather win a net of 80% of a gross profit of £100 than 98% of a gross profit of nothing.

I am also taking the opportunity to run a system on football that, somewhat bizarrely perhaps, I will be happy with if it breaks even, for the simple reason that my implied commission on the losing bets will help to reduce my Premium Charge.

Currently most of my markets are winning bets, so my implied commission is significantly lower than my paid commission. Thus when these two totals are totaled and halved, it leaves me with a bigger liability. The idea of the system is increase the ratio of losing bets to reduce this liability. Of course, if the system proves profitable I won’t complain, and if it proves to be a loser then I will try something else.

It’s also annoying to me that the Premium Charge is not deducted until up to 9 days after the winning bet has been settled. It really messes up my spreadsheet and where the week spans two months, it really, really makes things messy, but I guess that I shouldn’t complain too much. In a way, it’s a nice problem to have.

Good to see The Guardian continues to highlight Betfair's Premium charge.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/sep/24/gambling