Betfair is the world's leading betting exchange, a concept it pioneered. Just like the Stock Market, its a financial exchange, but for sports betting. You'll never see a bookmaker leave their livelihood to chance. Instead they follow a series of clear and rational steps to bring in regular profits. Now, thanks to betting exchanges (and much to the bookies' distress, you're the bookmaker's equal!

As The Economist magazine puts it: "In an industry renowned for taking cash from the poor and gullible and giving it to the rich types who take the bets, betting exchanges are shifting the odds in the punters' favour." Trading on Betfair, if you get it right, can be very lucrative and rewarding.

All bets on Betfair are placed there by users who either want to bet for a selection or outcome in the normal way (back), or bet against a selection or outcome (lay). Bets are matched between people with opposing views.

The potential for dedicated sports investors is limitless:

At the end of last year, Betfair had one million registered accounts with 200,000 showing regular activity every month.

This has now grown to over 1.3 million users worldwide, of whom 500,000 are active customers.

With customers in 85 countries with 14 different languages used, Betfair's trading volume is rocketing.

Betfair have 7,000 markets running every week covering sports, financials, politics and special events. It matches many millions of bets every day (5 to 6% of all UK bets go through Betfair), and is a licensed gambling operator in the UK, Australia, Austria, Germany, Italy and Malta.

In addition to the exchange Betfair has an established games portfolio, including Betfair Poker, Betfair Casino and a number of exchange-enabled games.

Betfair match well over 2 million bets per day. At peak times their system can handle 12,000 bets per minute.

Betfair offers you unprecedented choice, value and control:

* You can bet that an outcome will happen (back) or that it won't happen (lay).

* You can choose the odds you want to play at

* You can bet whilst the game is in play.

* You can play on a range of products and innovative games

When you "back" a selection (be it an individual, a team, horse, dog or other), you are betting that it will win. This is just like betting with a conventional bookie.

When you "lay" it, you are betting against it winning. For example, if you're betting in a market on which team is going to win the Premiership and you lay Man Utd, you offer odds to other punters who wish to back Man Utd. If Man Utd don't win, then you pick up the backer's stake. If Man Utd wins, then you pay out. This is what bookmakers traditionally do.

In other words, it's possible to be in on BOTH sides of a bet! There is a constant interaction between punters, bookies and traders. Betfair is a live money market. Odds always change, especially in the last ten minutes before a race. That creates perfect opportunities to buy and sell at two different prices. This makes it possible to lock-in winning margins, no matter what the final result of the race or contest.

Although Betfair knows who is on each side of every bet matched through the exchange, you never know who you are betting against. Your privacy and the confidentiality of your bets is maintained by Betfair's secure site.

If you want better odds than are currently available, you can place an order for a better price, but be realistic because there has to be somebody prepared to lay the bet at those odds, and vice versa.

Take a look at the odds before an event and you will see them change as Betfair members back and lay their bets. The odds often improve nearer to the off as the number of people in the market increases. The traditional UK Betting Market is dominated by the "Big Players", who together with the bookies influence the odds in any given race. The same principles apply in the financial markets, where the major institutions and pension funds hold all the aces. The small investor is left exposed to the double-whammy of the current economic climate and a trading environment with the odds stacked against them.

This is not the case with Betfair, as its non-correlated platform allows for transparency in each market.

With a betting exchange such as Betfair, you're up against other people with the exchange making its money from commissions generated from customers' betting wins.

Therefore the odds for any given sporting event on Betfair are fixed by other bettors, NOT by bookmakers.Hence due to the transparency of the entire process, this "Bookie-Free-Zone" has become the ultimate online Sports trading platform. When you trade on Betfair, it doesn't matter how much you win, nobody will stop you placing bets. Your account will not be closed down!

Betfair is the trading name of Betfair Limited. Betfair Limited is registered as a limited liability company in England and Wales, company number 5140986. The registered office of Betfair Limited is at:

The Waterfront, Hammersmith Embankment, London, W6 9HP.

Betfair customers also usually like to use BETDAQ