2002-2003

[Euler]

I didn't realise Betfair went in-play that early. I thought that was implemented in the early 2010s.

Was there really no inplay market in the early days?

No, there were no in-play markets when it was launched. No keep bets, no cashout.

[Derek27]

I didn't realise Betfair went in-play that early. I thought that was implemented in the early 2010s.

Was there really no inplay market in the early days?

I started trading pre-off racing but can't even imagine trading football or tennis before in-play was introduced.

[Kai]

I didn't realise Betfair went in-play that early. I thought that was implemented in the early 2010s.

Was there really no inplay market in the early days?

I started trading pre-off racing but can't even imagine trading football or tennis before in-play was introduced.

I always started inplay and sort of went full circle, tbf there's enough volume in preoff football to speculate and stuff but not liquid at all, while preoff tennis is very weak and niche at best, I still pick off some decent trades on grand slams but less often than before

Would have loved a stab at 2002 markets though, as would anyone I imagine!

[Euler]

Early markets were not like today's. They were very low volume and not that liquid with wide spreads.

But you could still do stuff in them.

It's helped me work with similar markets now.

[Derek27]

I remember when footy first went in-play, a team gets a red card and the market thought they were as good as losers - massive overreactions all the time.

[Kai]

Early markets were not like today's. They were very low volume and not that liquid with wide spreads.

But you could still do stuff in them.

It's helped me work with similar markets now.

Unsure about volumes but almost sounds like a paradise for market makers and the like

[Euler]

I original started by just offering a spread and waiting for stuff to get matched.

[weemac]

In the run-up to Wimbledon 2000, the BF market had the Williams sisters' odds mixed up; Venus at 12/1 and Serena 3/1 instead of vice versa. Took about 12 hours for enough folk to realise and adjust them, but I think there was only fivers and tenners available.

[CloseBets]

I remember they used to have some horrible flash interface until they bought Flutter. They then started using the flutter website backend which used json and javascript and was a lot easier to scrape.

[CloseBets]

Talking of horrible flash based apps I saw Adam Todd had been ordered to pay $16M from some CFTC action back in July.

[bimmerpost]

I original started by just offering a spread and waiting for stuff to get matched.

How much could you bet on a PL game for ex laying the draw...were 50 dollars available?

[Kai]

Some cool stories. Is it true that you could lay the draw on any match and expect to automatically be profitable?

[JohnT]

In the early days there was no % at the top of page. I think sporting options were the first
to show the %.

Remember when the round betting for the Lewis v Tyson was a steady 103% on the right hand side. Possible to earn thousands in a short period of time on very big events.

And there was a pop-up screen when you wanted to place bets.