Introduction
Betfair is the world’s largest betting exchange, meaning YOU can offer your own odds to fellow punters, unlike traditional bookmakers who you are betting against with their set odds. With these, you play against fellow punters. This gives you the opportunity to back and lay events. Laying is very popular at Betfair, this gives you the voice to say “I don’t think this will happen”. So if you think Manchester United won’t beat Liverpool, you can lay Manchester United, and you will win the beat if Liverpool win or draw this game. Or you can lay Roger Federer winning Wimbledon etc. Something not offered by your traditional bookmaker, and something that has made Betfair extremely popular.

Bonuses
As you’re playing against other punters and not the bookmaker themselves, bonuses are hard to come by here. But Betfair still offer £10 free bets to all new accounts.

Betting with Betfair
As you can create your own odds, if you think other bookmakers are offering too shorter odds on one event, you can increase them yourselves before you put your money on. Lay betting is the obvious advantage Betfair has over other bookmakers, and is very useful if you don’t think Arsenal will win the Premier League or Fulham won’t be relegated. Very popular in horse racing, to lay horses you don’t think will win. Laying the favourite will often get you very good odds!

Deposits – You can transfer money into your Betfair account with Credit Card, Debit Card, Maestro, Switch/Solo, Visa Electron Cheque, Western Union, Moneybookers and Neteller. Minimum deposit is £10, with no maximum specified.

Withdrawals – Withdrawals take 2-5 days.

What PremiershipTips.com likes about Betfair
1. Lay betting. Gives you a chance to bet on outcomes you don’t think will happen. Very profitable opportunities when laying the favourites, or just higher-rated-than-should be teams/players that you don’t think have a chance.
2. Competitive odds; allowing you to create your own odds better than traditional bookmakers.

What we dislike
1. 20% commission of big winners. It doesn’t include many, but it’s a substantial amount. This rule change came into effect towards the end of 2008 and the normal rate is 5%.
2. Betfair claim their odds are on average 20% better than the competition, but we don’t find this to be the case. A single-digit percentage higher is more realistic.
3. Quite complex. It can take a little getting use too for rookie punters or even some experienced. But if you work it out it will be worth it in the end!

Overall rating
We recommend Betfair for anyone interested in lay betting and making big money from that. For your traditional backing you are probably better off with another bookmaker that doesn’t charge you commission on your winnings and are a lot simpler!