Betfair - Outside The United Kingdom

Outside The United Kingdom

Although the bulk of its customer base is in the UK, Betfair offers its services in a number of countries. Betfair has never accepted customers and/or credit card numbers from the United States. Betfair was not seriously affected when the U.S. Congress passed strict prohibitions affecting Internet gambling in late 2006.

Betfair's Australian and New Zealand operations are a 50:50 joint venture between Betfair UK and Crown Limited (listed on the ASX). Betfair has several thousand customers in Australia and New Zealand. For the first 2½ years of its existence in Australia, Betfair's marketing activities were restricted to Tasmania, where it has been licensed since February 2006. However, in October 2008 the Victorian and NSW governments announced their intention to remove laws that prevented interstate betting companies from advertising in their jurisdictions. These changes enabled Betfair to advertise more broadly. Betfair is well known in Australia, originally because of negative publicity from the racing industry and the totalisators. However, Betfair signed a landmark agreement with Racing Victoria in July 2006. Betfair now has information-sharing agreements with most racing bodies in Australia and most major professional sports, including the Australian Football League, the National Rugby League, the Australian Rugby Union, Football Federation Australia, Cricket Australia, the PGA Tour of Australasia and Tennis Australia. In Australia, Betfair also pays voluntary product fees to sports on whose events it offers markets.

On 27 January 2009, Betfair announced the purchase of the TVG Network in the United States from Macrovision $50 million USD as part of Macrovision's dissolving of TV Guide's assets.