Betfair introduces premium charges for successful punters

According to how much they won in the previous 60 weeks, successful Betfair customers will now be paying a 20% commission, up from a maximum of 5% before.
Betfair justified its decision to introduce premium charges saying they will affect only 0.5% of active customers. What they didn\’t say is how much those 0.5% of active customers contribute to market liquidity, especially on horce race markets and popular in-running events such as soccer and tennis.
And while Betfair stated that there will be no change for the vast majority of its customers, they should have really said there will be no changes now.There is no guarantee that there will not be new charges in the coming future.
Considering how over the years the corporate mentality has taken over the once upon a time punters exchange, I would actually be surprised if there will not be any new charges introduced as the company eventually decides to go public and its management wants to show strong result increases to make sure they can cash out on their stock options.
In the end, for players this is not the right time to be loyal and if any of other UK-facing exchanges can guarantee a reliable platform, they may finally have a shot at a larger share of the market…especially if the large traders (that make up the 0.5% of customers Betfair now charges 20%) will decide to give them their business. At that point it will be interesting to see how much that 0.5% means in terms of liquidity.