Review of

Title:

You Bet: The Betfair Story: How Two Men Changed the World of Gambling

Author:

Colin Cameron

Publisher:

Harper Collins

Date:

2008

ISBN:

978-0-00-727701-8

Pages:

308

Price:

$24.95

Reviewed by Nick Christenson, npc@lvrevealed.com

October 31, 2009

The UK is arguably the country in the world in which sports betting is the most integrated into society. English "punters" have a myriad of legal betting options available to them. In the last decade, a new player has burst onto this crowded scene, the betting exchange, Betfair. It has emerged as a strong presence, and a dominant one online. You Bet: The Betfair Story chronicles the rise of this pioneering company.

First, I want to discuss the writing. In the past, I, myself, have been (fairly) accused of writing long-winded sentences. However, in this book author Colin Cameron makes me look like Ernest Hemingway by comparison. Here's just one sentence taken from the book quoted as an example:

Of course, the arrests in 2006 of Peter Dicks, at the time chairman of the Internet gambling operation, Sportingbet, and BetOnSports' former chief executive, David Carruthers under warrants related to investigations into illegal gambling are indicative of how inflexible minds are there.

Admittedly, this is taken out of context, and I've purposely chosen a rather extreme example of the author's prose. Still, it took a bit more focus than I normally like to feel like I need to give to this material for me to digest it. It's almost as if the publisher paid the author by the comma, and withheld payment for every precious period consumed.

On a similar note, several of the gambling books I've reviewed have been primarily intended for a UK audience, despite the fact that the audience of my reviews primarily resides in the United States. Certainly, You Bet: The Betfair Story meets the UK criterion. In most cases, I don't think that the use of British English idioms make these books difficult for an American audience to digest. However, none of them have been quite as "English" as Cameron's book. The reader is repeatedly confronted with shorthand references to English football clubs, London neighborhoods, and many references are made to the British political system. A reader who is unfamiliar with these specifics may find many sections to be especially obscure.

The book really isn't about sports betting. It's the story of a successful company. The prospective reader shouldn't compare it to other books on gambling. Its peer group includes other books that speak admiringly about a business success story, as many volumes covering the rise of Microsoft, Federal Express, or Google would. It just so happens that the object of this book's affection is a company that takes bets over the Internet in a relatively novel way.

In addition to a discussion of the history, structure, and business plans of Betfair, we also gain considerable information about Betfair's interaction with its competitors and the government via the regulatory process. I found this to be quite interesting, as it's a world I know nothing about. There's not much here about betting, though, except to indicate what a good deal Betfair customers are getting, and to opine, probably correctly for the most part, about how much this organization has impacted the betting market.

At the same time, I entered the book with a bunch of questions I wanted to see addressed, and I left the book with the same questions unanswered. Betfair wasn't the first company to create a sports betting exchange for UK bettors, and while Cameron tried to answer why it was that Betfair won out, I have to admit to being a little dissatisfied. We hear that the interface they presented was superior, and they had a better concept for how to present betting options to the customer. However, after reading the book I don't know how or why it was superior. Also, while the exchange betting model has undeniably taken off in the UK, it hasn't really caught on with online bettors in the States, despite several attempts. Why is this so? The facts are presented, but there's little here in terms of interesting interpretations or revelations. To that extent, it reads a bit like a lengthy college term paper.

As a narrative about the history of Betfair presented for an English audience, the book works serviceably. As that appears to be the author's intent, I have to pronounce the book a qualified success by that standard. However, given the demographics and the interests of most of the readers of my reviews, I expect that most of my audience will not be satisfied by this effort.

Capsule:

You Bet: The Betfair Story is a business history of the highly successful UK betting exchange. The book is about sports betting in the same way that Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire is about software development. That is to say, it really isn't much. It's also highly UK-centric, to the point where an American reader may find the language makes reading the book difficult. If one wants a very British book about the rise of this remarkable company, this book is for you. Otherwise, it might be best to pass on this one.