It was once the 'mind-blowing' revolution to betting on racing - but has the Betfair Exchange lost its magic touch?
Jonathan Harding looks at the current state of racing markets on the famous betting platform
Back in the early 2000s, whether you were a serious punter or just betting for a bit of fun, there was really only one place you would want to be doing it online: the Betfair Exchange.
A colleague recalls that when they first joined the Racing Post more than 20 years ago and asked for some advice on how to learn more about gambling, they were instructed to open a Betfair account, deposit what they could afford and play around with it. It was that simple.
After its launch in 2000, the Betfair Exchange reshaped the gambling landscape, much to the chagrin of traditional bookmakers and some of British racing's leaders, by creating a hugely popular exchange where punters can act as the bettor and bookmaker, backing and laying. It offered better returns on racing than fixed-odds operators, as well as in-running betting and, with strong liquidity, it led to a wave of professional punters who built a community on the Betfair Forum, trading all manner of opinions – very often not just about the exchange.
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