Rules and Regulations Update

Over the last few months we have spent a great deal of time reviewing all our Rules and Regulations. The revised version can be found in the About Us section of the Betfair website. There is also a summary in the Rules tab adjacent to every market. This primarily concentrates on how a particular market is managed and should always be read in conjunction with the specific Rules for the relevant sport.

Whilst we have not made any major changes, all our Rules have been re-written in a manner which makes them clearer, less open to interpretation, and easier to reference. Please spend a few minutes reading through them and make sure you are aware of any subtle differences. This is arguably one of the most important pieces of research you can do before placing any bet!

For the vast majority of the time, events unfold as expected and few people have a need to refer to the Rules. However, whenever something out of the ordinary happens, most people delve into the rule book and try to identify how the situation will be interpreted. We hope our revised Rules and Regulations will make them less open to interpretation.

Having an understanding of the Rules can not only relieve the stress over your position in a market but can greatly assist in spotting value. Our Dead Heat rule is a good example of this: say a horse race is too close to call and goes to a photo-finish, the betting continues on Betfair. If the stewards call a Dead Heat, any bet at odds better than 2.0 will show a profit; anything bet at less than 2.0 will show a loss.

Our Rules and Regulations are under constant review: after any major betting incident we examine them and see if there are any improvements to be made or situations that aren’t covered. Betting exchanges have a particular pressure on their Rules and are very different from other areas of the betting industry. Traditional bookmakers can pay out on multiple outcomes when it is prudent for them to do so, but for us to do so would mean unfairly penalising layers. We therefore have to strike a delicate balance and must operate strictly to the letter of our Rules. Often this means we will void a market as it is the fairest thing for us to do for all those invlovled.

Inevitably there will always be certain circumstances where our Rules can sometimes cause confusion, particularly with events which don’t have clearly defined rules themselves (Big Brother comes to mind…). The underlying principle we employ is that any rule is fair to both backers and layers. If you have any comments on our Rules and Regulations please contact info@betfair.com.