Daily Result: £36.50
Let's be honest. Since the last upgrade Betfair hasn't exactly been providing a gold star service. Far from it in fact. Unless the ability to see other people's account details, a disappearing site, the inability to place bets and poorly-trained "helpdesk" staff unable to answer the simplest of questions with any authority are are all part of that service.
Betfair has changed a lot of lives. It's a fantastic site. A brilliant idea that revolutionised an industry. It's also still growing, profitable and the future looks, well, bright. Which leads to the inevitable question - Why the hell aren't these upgrades thoroughly tested in an appropriate environment before going live?
I'm not the most computer literate person. And I realise through what I read and discuss with those who are more technically savvy, that Betfair is a pretty amazing technical achievement. I accept things will go wrong. But fuck me, things have gone spectacularly wrong recently.
I've only really mentioned in passing the recent problems of being unable to log in via either the website or API. I accept these things will happen and try not to bang on about them despite the fact I've read some horror stories of people losing large sums of money because they have a position open, the site goes down, and they can't close out.
So why the post today? Well, it happened to me again and I've just about had enough for now! Betfair was suffering another unscheduled period of downtime when this afternoon's Derbyshire v Gloucestershire Pro40 Cricket match started. Unfortunate but I just got on with other stuff. I noticed it was up and running later so started to get involved. With hindsight this was a mistake and I should have just left it until the system was more stable.
To cut a long story short Gloucestershire, the big favourites pre match, won the toss, batted and got off to a flyer. They were short priced and the price was unlikely to be volatile so I upped my stakes to 1k. I placed a bet. And the site went down. I had no access through the website, the API or via telephone bets and stood to lose £1k if the market went against me. Betfair wipes its hands from these situations by pointing out their terms and conditions state they are not liable in these circumstances.
Anyway, the site was down for an uncomfortably long time. I had to rush over to Betdaq, decided to open a second account there, and deposited another 1k to enable me to deal with the situation. Luckily it seemed others had done the same thing and there was just about enough money around to get out if I needed to. As it was the market was pretty static and there was no need to trade. And eventually Betfair appeared again and I was able to log in and sort my position before leaving the game.
So everything turned out ok in the end. But sooner or later these technical problems will cost me and every other Betfair user. I was lucky this happened in the early stages of a game. If it had happened in a tiebreaker to decide a tennis match for example, with the volatility that entails, I'd have been screwed.
To be honest I have little sympathy with people who lose money on Betfair due to technical issues if they don't have contingency plans in place. I have access through the website and various API apps. I have a back up internet connection and the phone bet number to hand. Basically I'm doing all I can to ensure I don't get caught out. But even this isn't enough to protect me from large liabilities sometimes.
I realise this seems like a bit of a moan. And the truth is I'll continue to use Betfair. Of course I will. I'm not going to cut off my nose to spite my face. But this is the problem. Betfair has a virtual monopoly in the exchange industry and it's impossible not to feel sometimes that it more than knows it. I really do wonder how much better reliability and the "helpdesk" would be if there was more serious competition. Surely there would be more investment in these areas if commercially required?
Anyway, as ever Betfair has apologised. It is "extrememly disappointed" with the operational issues and has "identified and remedied" them. No refunds for those who lost money due to the unplanned downtime of course. While the apology is appreciated I'm sure most people would go with the old cliche that actions speak louder than words - Just keep the bloody site up in the first place!
I see there is another scheduled upgrade on August 21st at 10pm UK time. I know these scheduled downtimes are required and have no problem with them at all. Recent updates for example have laid the foundations to enable us to bet on the Ashes in running this winter following the granting of Betfair's Australian licence in February. All I ask is these upgrades are fully tested before they go live. This should help prevent the kind of problems we've seen since the last one, I'll be a happy bunny again and won't have to write long moaning blog entries!
Surely it's not too much to ask?
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