Barrier To Entry

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The last month has been a challenge, as wherever possible I've tried to direct my business to Betdaq as opposed to Betfair.  Liquidity for Test Matches has been good but as my income from this form of cricket is small when compared to one day games, for me at least, it's the T20 and One Day International markets that will need to improve.
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Don't get me wrong - things are much better now than they were, and there does seem to be a concerted effort from disgruntled 'Premium Charge' payers to move, so it just needs certain parts of the jigsaw to come together, and one of these is the availability of a quality API product.
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For those of you unaware, both Betfair and Betdaq have an API which allows third party vendors to create software to interact with the data from their exchanges.  However, until now vendors have mainly focused on providing users with a better product for Betfair due to the popularity of the exchange.  This is totally understandable as it wouldn't have made sense to invest equally in a product that didn't have an equal demand, but it appears that things maybe starting to change.
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On the Geeks Toy forum there's currently a clamour for the Geek to develop an alternative, and the good people at Bet Angel have recently upgraded their Betdaq software to include a number of significant enhancements.  These are huge steps showing an intent and willingness for change.
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So what's next?  Well, it's now up to us.  If the vendors are prepared to go out on a limb then we need to be prepared to follow.  If not, the status quo will remain and the long term forecast will remain bleak.
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For what it's worth, I can't underestimate how much of a difference using these types of programs have made to my betting over the last 6 years.  I can honestly say I wouldn't have been as profitable without them as they allow me to see the true form of the market and empower me to enter and exit positions instantly, so I'd strongly recommend you visit the following links if you haven't done so already:
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Geeks Toy
Bet Angel
Gruss Software
Centaur (they include access to their software if you sign-up to their Traders Club)
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I'm currently reading the book, 'The Newtonian Casino' and as it says at the end of the first chapter - "why would anyone play roulette, without a computer in their shoe?"
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The same principle applies here.
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Make Or Take?

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After reading countless forums over the last few weeks I stumbled across details of Betdaq's new commission structure.  I say new, but it would seem that this structure has been in place since the beginning of the year except I didn't know about it! The good news is that the post was from Betdaq's team themselves and it makes total sense.  Here's an extract:
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The reason for this post is to inform you that we have been studying the impact on our product and on our business of the activities of API users. We have noticed over the past year the increasing influence of such users who take offers made by other users while rarely making offers for other users to take. This has the impact of reducing the available liquidity for normal retail users.

 
Following this review, we decided to change the way in which we charge commission to customers using the Betdaq API.

From March 1st 2011 we introduced a new commission structure that operates for API users as follows:

Betdaq will operate a scalable commission structure whereby the greater the proportions of offers you make that are taken by others, the lower your rate will be. Commission will continue to be charged on your market winnings from any single market. 

The standard commission rate is 5 per cent, but you will be able to bring that down to as low as 1 per cent depending on your activity Take/Make % over a rolling 7 weeks period.

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What makes this so appealing?  Well, Betdaq are obviously trying to attract market makers who will in turn attract liquidity to their markets.  By putting up orders rather than taking them it's then possible to reduce the amount you pay in commission to just 1%. Imagine that, winning £100 and getting to keep £99! Here's the full commission table: 
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A different approach to normal maybe needed, but it's hard to see any initial drawbacks.  The full post can be found by clicking here.
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