Betfair Official Blog

The Betfair Starting Price: A little customer 'feedback'

16 November 2007 | About Editor |

In his second launch diary entry, Betfair's Director of Horseracing Stephen Burn unveils the Betfair SP at the first customer roadshow in Dublin and gets a little more than he bargained for. In the meantime, if you want to read the Guardian's scoop on the Betfair SP, click here.

"When Oscar Wilde wrote that a little sincerity is a dangerous thing but in large doses it can be fatal, I never really got what he meant. After the first of our Betfair roadshows in Dublin on Tuesday, I now have more of an idea as to what he was getting at.

The Guinness Brewery in the heart of the city dominates the landscape and stimulates the senses. The first thing visitors notice is the comforting smells of the malty mix - the very essence of the special brew - and the warmth of welcome. In such an atmosphere it could only be a lovely, relaxing Irish evening, right? Wrong.

The venue played host to our first public unveiling of the forthcoming Betfair SP and a few other products we think customers might enjoy using. Half a dozen of Betfair's finest - and me - had flown over to join our local team to enable customers in Ireland to be the first to see what we'd been working on for the last couple of years.

Some of us travelled over hoping they'd sit back and simply say "wow!" but the very first question after the initial presentation rudely rocked us out of our complacency.

"Your site's always crashing. How you gonna return an SP when that happens?" It took a second for Steve High - the guy who's led the team that's developed the new product - to catch his composure.

There was an answer, and a detailed explanation of how we'd calculate the Betfair SP if such a scenario occurred but before Steve had even chance to complete his answer he was bombarded with a barrage of questions reflecting, if I might say, the very narrow focus of some punters. Although, wait a minute, a trend developing in the line of rapid-fire questioning indicated these guys might be a special set of punters, the ones called 'On-course Irish bookmakers'.

They didn't like what we were offering, not at all, and were not shy of saying so. In the diplomatic world they call it a full and frank exchange, the thin-skinned might call it a terrifying experience.

The retail bibles might proclaim the customer is always right but here they clearly weren't. Their questions contained a number of assumptions that were just plain wrong. Our answers tried to explain where their misunderstandings lay but either we were doing a bad job of the explaining; or they were wilfully pretending not to get it (because let's face it, baiting a group of Brits, plus one German, is always good sport); or... in fact, let's not go down that particular route.

Anyway, a noticeable split developed in the audience between those with a lot to say and those saying nothing. Saying nothing, that is, until catching up one-on-one in the bar afterwards. The silent guys were the ones with the smiles on their faces. The ones who immediately got what we're trying to do with the Betfair SP, the ones who had already spotted its potential, the ones who were simply staggered that their more vocal countryman had been so dismissive of what was being offered up.

One of our more successful customers reminded me that the most outspoken guy had said when Betfair started that it would never work. He said the same about the Betfair SP on Tuesday. Next week, it's Edinburgh, Feck from the forum and his fellow Scottish shrewdies."

Tags: betfair starting price, diary, dublin roadshow | Digg It