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Once upon a time there was a professional gambler who came up with a revolutionary new idea that would radically change the world of sports betting. He has discussed his idea with a fellow professional, and the two have decided to join forces and transform the idea into a product. The result was Betfair, the first ever betting exchange of the world – and it was a huge success, transforming their startup into one of the most successful companies in this business.

Let’s see what a betting exchange is and how it works.

A traditional bookmaker will allow punters to place a bet on a specific outcome of an event at odds specified by themselves. Say, in case of a football game, you can bet on Team A winning, Team B winning or a draw. Also, a traditional bookmaker builds its commission into the prices (odds) offered, making money twice – when you lose, and also when you win.

In case of a betting exchange, things are a little different. First of all, there are only two bet types a punter can place: on something (a back bet) and against something (a lay bet). To stick with the above example: at a betting exchange you can bet on Team A winning the match, and also on Team A not winning (and the same goes for both other possible outcomes). Another difference between the exchange and a traditional bookmaker is that exchange bets are not placed against the bookmaker, but against fellow punters that bet on the same event.

For example, if you bet £10 on Team A winning, and a mate bets £10 on Team A not winning, the two bets are matched, so you bet against your mate. The exchange only acts as an intermediary. If you think this game can be very confusing at first, it is advisable to try some online games such as Judi Online so you can have a little practice. This will also give you an overview and background on how other games work.

Betting exchanged offer their users better odds (prices) than traditional bookmakers, as they don’t build their margin into them, instead retaining a small commission (in case of Betfrair this is 2 to 5 per cent) of the amount paid out to winning punters. They also offer higher limits to punters, and bigger flexibility, as well as the possibility to place a bet on both possible options in the same market, making sure they stay profitable even if one of their bets are lost.

The idea of the betting exchange was proposed by Andrew ‘Bert’ Black in the late 1990s. He and Edward Wray have decided to build a business out of it in 1999, and as a result they launched the Betfair betting exchange in 2000. Betfair’s first market was the 2000 Epsom Oaks, a British horse race with a century-long tradition. Although the odds were low, the industry media picked up the news, speaking about a sports betting revolution. From there on, the growth of Betfair exchange was uninterrupted.

Nowadays it handles over 5 million transactions each day. The two entrepreneurs have introduced the “in-play” football market in 2001, they added a series of other services – casino games, poker, bingo and other games in the years that followed, introduced a new concept of online gaming – exchange games – and launched their fixed odds sportsbook (to increase their reach on the recreational sports betting market) in 2013.

The betting exchange was and remains Betfair’s core product, although some say that since the introduction of its “traditional” online sportsbook the company has kind of lost its focus. By eliminating the financial risk attached to traditional sports bets, Betfair‘s exchange can offer better odds as any traditional bookmaker, making it an attractive destination for many punters from all over the world.

In this period – I write this review during the 2014 FIFA World Cup – football is the market Betfair focuses on the most, offering its punters the best odds on the market (for example, the odds of Germany winning its match against Portugal are 1.99 at Betfair’s exchange, while the average odds of the same outcome at traditional bookmakers is 1.91).

Betfair punters can place their bets on a great variety of markets on every game – over/under, correct score, half time / full time, penalties and more. Actually, the betting options are comparable to those offered by traditional bookmakers, but exchange punters can bet both on and against each outcome.

Besides football, punters can place their back and lay bets on a series of other events – sports and otherwise – at the Betfair exchange, the most popular of them being horse racing, but also on a series of sports from American football to volleyball, politics, entertainment and finances. Betfair’s exchange covers everything a traditional bookmaker would.

Surely its most popular product is in-play betting, where punters can adjust their bets according to the events of the game. This, too, covers a great variety of events – football, tennis, cricket and more – and also offers its visitors the chance to either follow the game itself through live streaming, or to find out which TV channel to switch to for following the events live.

The most popular selections for Betfair’s live in-play punters are football, horse racing, cricket and tennis, plus a special category reserved for the matches of the 2014 World Cup.

Betfair has launched its fixed odds online sportsbook late, at the end of 2013. Some of its users consider this a bad decision, drawing punters away from the exchange – Betfair’s revolutionary and most popular product. The Betfair sportsbook covers less markets than the exchange – a total of 22 main categories, including specials – and has far worse odds than the exchange (to stick with the above example: Betfair offers odds of 1.95 on Germany winning its match against Portugal, while the odds at the exchange are 1.99).

The sportsbook also offers live betting to its customers (again, the odds are worse than at the exchange) and TV listing and live streaming respectively for the upcoming games.

One of the most notable services offered by Betfair is a combination between casino games and exchange betting: exchange games. These games are like sitting behind a player at a table in Las Vegas, and betting on the game he plays. This service is truly unique.

Besides these, Betfair has a full range of online gaming options, from its online casino – powered by Playtech – to its Arcade (with games by a series of developers, with special bonuses and offers), its Vegas Slots (with a series of great slot machines that provide hours and hours of play to the fans of this game) and bingo hall. Besides it features a poker room on the iPoker network – also a product of Playtech – with exclusive giveaways, great tournaments and the promise of a big bonus.

Betfair‘s betting exchange is surely one of the most notable sports betting operations available online (the biggest sports betting exchange), offering great odds, good specials and a series of other recreational betting services. Unfortunately its casino and poker rooms are nothing special – especially compared to some of its competitors on the market. The exchange is what makes Betfair unique, and if its management continues to consider it the most important part of its business, it will remain one of the best places to bet on sporting events.

supports many games including Hold ’em, Omaha, 7 Card Stud, and Razz. One of its most compelling features is its ability to evaluate hand ranges. This means that you can enter multiple possible hands for your opponents and it will return the average equity. To select hands, just click on the button for the player you are interested in, which brings up the following dialog: 

 tab is currently available for all games except Omaha. It is used to select hands from meaningful groups. You can find out how your hand matches up against all broadway hands or maybe just see preflop equity for whenever possible to reduce computation time, since often the result will approximately be the same and it will take a lot less time. When this tab is selected, the dialog looks like this…

Thetab is currently available for all games except Omaha. It is used to select hands from meaningful groups. You can find out how your hand matches up against all broadway hands or maybe just see preflop equity for Ace-King-suited versus all Pairs . You should be careful and usewhenever possible to reduce computation time, since often the result will approximately be the same and it will take aless time.

When this tab is selected, the dialog looks like this…  Situs Judi Bola site features are different and unique in comparison to the other website. The playing of the card games will offer different benefits to the players. The use of the right table and room will bring the desired results. The features and benefits are enormous in comparison to the other website. 

 The Omaha Equity Calculator has some features that are worth explaining. Omaha is a 4 card game, and only 4 card hands are valid. That said, you may have noticed that allows you to add 2, 3, or 4 cards. When you select 2 or 3 cards and add them to the hand distribution tree, they are placed below items that say 2+2 Cards and 3+1 Cards respectively.

What is this??? Well, the idea is that sometimes you might think that your opponent’s hand has 2 or 3 cards that line up with the flop in a certain way. You might use this to create a hand range like Ace-2-3. You would first add 3 card hands that fit this pattern. Then, if you select the group in the Hands tree, you can add 1 card to each hand. An easy way to do this is the use Select Last Hand to select the last hand you added, then use Random1 to add a bunch of random cards to complete the 4 card hand.

Make sense??? Ok, it is confusing, but once you get used to it, we hope that can be used to analyze some of the more complex scenarios that come up during the game of Omaha. is currently under active development. Here are some features we are thinking of adding:

• Speed!! We are working on making much, much faster!
• Omaha “Group” Hand Selection – We are working on a richer UI that will let you select Omaha hands from meaningful groups. We want people to select a hand like “Ace 2 3 double suited.” If that makes no sense to you, you really should play more Omaha!
• UI improvements – We have a slew of small improvements that we want to make. Some features could just be easier to use. For example, we want to make it easier for people to visualize the hands that have been selected. We also want better feedback when hands are entered incorrectly. These are just some of the improvements that need the most feedback, since we need to know exactly how people use .
• Better Keyboard Control – Currently there are keyboard shortcuts to some of the buttons, but we are working on ways of making this work in a more consistent manner.

• Verbose Output – We are considering adding an option to get more verbose output. This would tell you things like which matchups were ignored when you select large overlapping hand ranges. We are happy to get your opinion on what you would like to do for you. We will take every request seriously, no matter how outrageous. Even feel free to tell us about minor mistakes or annoyances, and we will do our best to fix it quickly. Since we are members of the poker community ourselves, our main goal is to please the poker community.

PartyPoker.com is the third largest online poker room despite not currently being open to US players. They have made major gains in the European and Asian markets offering good first deposit and reload deals.

Apart from the regular poker games you’d expect to find, they also host a unique Double Hold’em game where players are dealt three pocket cards, one of which the player selects pre-flop and combines that with one of the other two cards to form their best poker hand.

Some players will not like the slightly increased rake over PartyPoker.com’s competitors in the lower buy-in tournaments, but this criticism should be weighed against the longer blind levels used for the regular tournaments, which should mean for players with patience a comparatively longer time spent enjoying your favourite game. The lobby design is clinical with intelligent filtering and a ‘Quick Seat’ option to preset your preferred game conditions.

A collapsible sidebar gives players several shortcuts including one to their excellent 24/7 telephone and email support. In keeping with the lobby, PartyPoker.com maintain a contemporary table design that looks cool and easy on the eye, with some of the best looking chips found in online poker. The accompanying audio is also pleasant and fitting; the card dealing sounds real enough, the chip ‘chinks’ are appropriate and the action alert ‘ping’ doesn’t intrude.

While none of those are a clincher they all add to the positive experience of playing there. Optional avatars along with emoticons add some colour to the table and chat window; good sized and clearly marked buttons make player actions easy. Standard check boxes speed up play when decisions are taken early and four colour decks are an option.

Texas Hold’em ring game players will find action spread nicely across all the table stake levels; 7 Card Stud and Omaha (also available as Hi/Lo) along with Double Hold’em cash tables enjoy less action, but a choice of game can be found at most times. PartyPoker.com Sit and Go tournament action is most buoyant for the single table games. The regular tournament schedule is well filled throughout the day with good participation at all buy-in levels.

Typically you will find 300+ players beginning a $1 game, 100+ players entering a $2,000 GTD tournament for $11, while 200+ higher rollers will set aside $215 for a $40,000 GTD event. There is such a wide choice of promotions including a welcome bonus available in Dollars, Pounds Sterling and Euros, I’d recommend you visit the site’s bonus page for details. The pick of the bunch would be the first depositors bonus, the monthly million tournament with freeroll, FPP and $1 satellites, as well as a $1,500 freeroll for depositing players that runs every Saturday and is capped at 5,000 entrants (so book your seat early).

The information can be uploaded at the websites to play Pkv Games. The ratings are required to be high to play the card games at the table. The spending of the money is under the funds available with the gamblers. The depositing of the money is done with a simple procedure.