Betting
Rogue bot leaves Betfair red-faced
A ‘unique sequence of events’ has seen betting exchange operator Betfair forced to void a market after one customer’s bot ran riot in Leopardstown.
AUTOMATION T
he acting CEO of Betfair, Stephen Morana, has been left ‘person- ally devastated’
after the betting exchange’s safeguards failed and allowed one customer’s account to make offers with a liability of £600m despite only having £1,000 in the account.
The account placed bets on the website via Betfair’s vaunted API using an auto- mated programme, but during one race in Leopard- stown on 28 December, the ‘bot’ developed a fault
ANALYSIS
Betfair operates the biggest betting exchange in the world, and it is likely to stay there if this statement from the company is anything to go by: “Betfair’s exchange has significant barriers to entry, including our leading technology, liquidity advantage and substantial customer base and none of our competitors have been able to successfully replicate the product.” However, the firm has been slowly slipping into bookmaker’s shoes for some years now in a search for greater margins and it seems this year will see a major shift into bookmaking. How the firm, and its shareholders, will adapt to becoming a more risk seeking business will be interesting to watch.
causing it to try and place a very high number of in- running bets on the exchange which were both large and mispriced.
Morana explained that the Betfair system had stopped the majority of these offers: “However, due to a technical glitch within the core exchange database, one of the bets evaded the preven- tion system and was shown on the site. This was an issue that was triggered because of a unique sequence of events that had never hap- pened before.”
The exchange had to
suspend, and later void, the in-running market for the race, but not before the rogue bot’s offer on what was eventually the winning horse, Voler La Vedette, was matched by £822,614 - resulting in a potential lia- bility to the customer of £23m.
Morana continued: “We had to void both the win and place markets and, to be clear, we would have voided the race regardless of who had won and whether or not we had sus- pended these markets sooner. This is because the bet in question had signifi- cantly impacted both markets. We did not void those bets placed before the off because they had not been affected by the bet. “The Betfair technical teams continued to investi- gate the details of the fault and, having identified the issue, worked on putting a fix in place which was applied at 10.15pm on 28 December. Following exten- sive testing, we can confirm that there have been no sub-
A BOT MANAGED TO MAKE AN OFFER WITH A LIABILITY OF £600M ON THE EXCHANGE
sequent occurrences of this fault and we’ve taken steps to prevent its reoccurrence in the future.”
Morana said that lessons have been learnt in terms of how quickly the company needs to respond, and how to communicate with our customers. “Our reputation has been built on integrity and we have been pioneers in the industry in ensuring that betting is carried out in a fair and transparent manner. By making the voiding decision, I can assure you that this deci- sion was not taken lightly and that we have imple- mented what we believe to
Olympics minister voices fears about spot fixing
INTEGRITY O
lympics minister Hugh Robertson has sug- gested that event fixing
is more dangerous to the Games now than doping. In a series of media interviews conducted at the turn of what is now an Olympics year, Robertson suggested that cor- ruption could occur in manip- ulating small elements of a sporting event. “The real danger lies in spot- fixing,” Robertson told BBC News. “Just consider how easy it is to bet on something like the first short corner in a hockey game - any team sport you can bet on an individual action or occurrence. So you look at the number of team sports that there are in the Olympics and the threat - the real threat - becomes very obvious.”
Despite making comments that would alarm many in the betting industry, Robertson
recognised that jurisdictions with well developed gambling legislation were ‘well set up’ to police corruption, and added that it was the international black markets which caused the problems.
He said: “If you look at the
most recent high-profile inci- dent - the Pakistani cricketers at Lord’s - the issue is not of betting syndicates in this part of the world. It is in illegal betting syndicates on the Indian subcontinent and else- where, where huge sums of money change hands.” He added: “We have a very sophisticated information sharing system, so the moment there is any spike in betting activities that is recorded and investigated. We’re reasonably clear that we can police the UK end of it. The much more difficult element is how you police illegal syndicates probably
14 BettingBusinessInteractive • JANUARY 2012
HUGH ROBERTSON: ‘REAL DANGER LIES IN SPOT-FIXING’
operating a long way away from these shores.” Robertson’s claims that corruption is more of a threat than doping, however, fly in the face of a recent independ- ent report by Coventry Univer- sity’s International Centre for the Business of Sport (CIBS). Commission by the Remote Gambling Association (RGA), the study found that corrup- tion in sport remains domi- nated by doping, equating to nearly 96 per cent of cases,
followed by betting and non- betting related match-fixing with less than 3 per cent and the misuse of inside informa- tion at around 1.5 per cent. The report’s findings are based on a unique detailed database of 2,089 proven cases of corruption in sport identified during 2000-2010. It found that the ratio of doping to match-fixing cases equates to 35:1 and the ratio of doping to betting related match-fixing cases equates to 60:1.
be the fairest solution in these truly exceptional cir- cumstances.”
The timing of the occur- rence was particularly unfor- tunate for the company as it had only recently revealed impressive interim results for its betting exchange and plans for it to act more as a bookmaker in ‘less liquid markets’.
While hailing the exchange as the ‘only truly differentiated product in online gaming’, the company added: “We have, however, recognised that it cannot fulfil all betting needs and to be a leading sports betting operator we must offer cus-
tomers a full range of prod- ucts. We already offer non- exchange products such as multiple and pari-mutuel bets and, as previously announced, we are further developing our risk product portfolio to offer customers more betting opportunities on less liquid markets. This improved customer experi- ence will be delivered through Betfair acting as principal in situations where exchange liquidity has not yet formed. As a result, there will be fewer reasons for customers to bet elsewhere and we should increase our share of cus- tomers’ betting wallets.”
Bodugi supports Injured Jockeys Fund
CHARITY L
eading social gambling website
Bodugi.com has announced its commitment to support to the Injured Jockeys Fund (IJF) by hosting a daily IJF game, where Bodugi users can join and compete against each other, with a proportion of the proceeds being donated to the charity.
Bodugi is the world’s first social betting platform that enables players to interact with friends or meet new people, while placing bets on sports including horserac- ing. Players can join a ‘table’ of members and predict various aspects of a sporting contest, with a stake start- ing from £5. The most accurate predictions win cash prizes dependent on the number of players at the table. Jeremy Zielinski, IJF marketing manager, said “We are delighted with the support of
Bodugi.com which provides a fun and exciting way for us to raise funds. Our supporters, and indeed all Bodugi users, can now enjoy playing the IJF game and hopefully win a bit of money in the knowledge that they are also contributing to the Injured Jockeys Fund.”
Bodugi founder and director Dave Nevison said: “The IJF is a hugely important charity, and is very close to the heart of the Bodugi management, but also the majority of our users who love horseracing. We are extremely proud to be working with the Injured Jockeys Fund, and are confident that we can make a worthwhile contribu- tion. We are calling on all horseracing enthusiasts to reg- ister and start playing the IJF game.”
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76