NEWS > ANALYSIS
Mark Davies, Betfair former head of public affairs
decisions. There also were too many meetings,” he explains to eGR. “The big difference I’ve noticed through working with various gaming companies, is that most of the more successful ones tend to be managed with clear direction and focus by a small team of decision makers and a lack of middle-management layers." Indeed, with rival operators – even those that in the past might have been slow to meet targets or get certain projects off the ground – picking up the pace might well be the right time for Corcoran to stamp his authority. “It could be that it was the right thing to do – in technology, senior management coming into the company may have thought that it was too top heavy in terms of number of employees,” says the unnamed employee. “While the near-unique nature of the exchange means it’s almost impossible to make direct comparisons with other operators, Betfair’s management may still feel they have more people involved than they need in that area, however in
“THERE HAVE BEEN REDUNDANCIES BEFORE AT BETFAIR SO IT WOULD BE WRONG TO SUGGEST THIS IS A NEW PHENOMENON"
Anonymous former Betfair employee
other areas the numbers seemed about right, so now I’m not sure how the reduction in staff numbers will affect the customer-base. “There have been redundancies before at Betfair so it would be wrong to suggest this is a new phenomenon, however when it was a private company the process didn’t seem to be as painful, and there was a longer consultation with a more generous package,” he adds. The former employee has recognised changes since the early days of the operator’s existence, where what he describes as “a start-up feel”, continued long into the 2000s. “At the beginning we always seemed to get a lot more done with a lot fewer people – even into 2004 and 2005 it felt like a relatively small company and felt like we were changing something,” he adds. This is by no means unique to Betfair with other operators looking outside the egaming industry as they pursue growth, however the USP of the exchange had arguably always been regarded as something more complicated and something that set Betfair apart from its competitors from a staff as well as a customer-base perspective. Looking to the future In tandem with the new CEO’s streamlining of the company, it will be fascinating to see whether the
BETFAIR
Share price on appointment: 764p Share price six months on: 666p Share price now: 699p
exchange remains prominent as Betfair continues to push its ?xed-odds sportsbook. While it is one thing to recognise the growing role in-play and other elements have in the sports betting industry, many have suggested adopting a ‘me too’ approach would unnecessarily diminish what made Betfair what it was in the ?rst place. Its potential acquisition of Rank Group’s Blue Square, however could have a great bearing on this with one likely avenue using Blue Square as its consumer sportbook brand and sticking to what it does best – providing the industry’s best known and most liquid exchange product. March’s third quarter ?gures showed a strong start from the ?xed-odds offering, while revenues fell from the core exchange offering, but what is perhaps more telling is the fact that the statement put out by the operator is little more than a holding statement, something which Mark Davies, a former member of the company’s founding group, admits is “understandable from Breon’s perspective". However, he also points out: “In April it will be two years that the share price has been under £8 and it will be seven years since the share price was at £13.20 – those are numbers which raise eyebrows.” While the company’s stock market ?oat in 2010 is seen by some as a key milestone in the development of the company away from its early identity, Davies is far from convinced that one can earmark any particular date when looking ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????Q??????????? ????????????????????????q$???????????????????1?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????t()???????????????((??((0