Fixed-Odds Sportsbook for Betfair?

Company soon to launch as a bookmaker The latest report from online betting exchange Betfair is that the company is about to launch itself as a bookmaker. This move will be made so as to prevent customers from leaving it to move to competitors such as William Hill and Ladbrokes, it was explained. In a statement given to the media, interim chief executive Stephen Morana said that Betfair will shortly be introducing its own fixed-odds sports book, which means it will start taking bets of its own rather than just acting as a marketplace where customers offer bets to each other. He underlined: “Our sports exchange always has been – and always will be – Betfair's core product. It has revolutionised the industry and we have a loyal customer base, but we also recognise that there are certain bets at certain times that the exchange, by its nature, cannot offer. "Some of our customers are going to traditional bookies for a portion of their betting and we hope to address this with the introduction of an integrated risk product that will complement the exchange, not compete with it." Betfair still needs to set up the branding for its new bookmaking business, Morana concluded. Some industry observers and analysts assessed that such a combination of betting exchange and bookmaking business models could see Betfair's profits boosted by more than 50 percent; however, the results are less than certain.