Fairlay

**Optional** · 06-17-18, 05:25 AM

Originally posted by Barrakuda

I think the owner is simply clueless as to how to run an exchange fairly. It's unfortunate, but consider yourself warned.

The site design, re-design, and the way they think when a problem comes up screams IT expert and not strong in gambling experience too.

Seems like the best chance of a US facing exchange too, so would like it to succeed.

**Bsims** · 06-17-18, 08:07 AM

I agree, Fairlay is cumbersome and frustrating (I miss the days of Matchbook). Consequently I use Fairlay very little. I wonder if headlines like "Betfair to Power Meadowlands Racetrack with Sports Betting" bode well for the possibility of betting exchanges in the US in the future.

I once proposed that the federal government should operate an online betting exchange with very low commissions. It would require very little operational overhead to run and generate significant revenue. Don't hold your breath, makes too much sense.

**Optional** · 06-17-18, 08:27 AM

Originally posted by Bsims

I agree, Fairlay is cumbersome and frustrating (I miss the days of Matchbook). Consequently I use Fairlay very little. I wonder if headlines like "Betfair to Power Meadowlands Racetrack with Sports Betting" bode well for the possibility of betting exchanges in the US in the future.

I once proposed that the federal government should operate an online betting exchange with very low commissions. It would require very little operational overhead to run and generate significant revenue. Don't hold your breath, makes too much sense.

It must be tougher then we realize to profit form running an exchange. Betfair closed voluntarily in several markets and sold out to local operators to continue it in others, before selling out totally to Paddy Power.

A blockchain based exchange with everything handled by users, from listing markets to grading and resolving disputes, might work. With the operator taking a small commission to fund development and technical management.

**littlekona** · 06-17-18, 08:50 AM

I do high volume of wagers there since i play horses and do see that orders are there then once u click to place they disappear on occasion...they always come back though in a few secs to min and sometimes at better price sonetimes not...i think it some sort of bug as the market maker uses scripts tied into matchbook and other exchanges so the price changes quick...i see it on horses mostly not so much on sports..it is frustrating as hell i agree...the guys who run site are total btc and IT nerds like optional said not the best sportsbook knowledge at times it seems...but i will say they keep "trying" to improve the site and user experience..plus payouts have had no issues and basically instantaneous...Op has a legit gripe and i hope they fix but im not worried about them going down..it has as much chance as any book

**BrickJames** · 06-17-18, 11:01 AM

The problem with exchanges is there is no liquidity, as with anything including your 10% vigorish on losers at the sport book you get what you pay for.

**BrickJames** · 06-17-18, 11:06 AM

........ and I love fairlay but the site is truly a big pain in the ass to use.

**turbobets** · 06-17-18, 04:18 PM

Same here. Too many times only a fraction of my bet gets matched when the offered amount on the screen should have covered my wager. Plus it's just not profitable to keep funds in bitcoin right now.

**Barrakuda** · 06-17-18, 07:19 PM

They basically allow market makers to do whatever they want with an incoming order. Accept, partial fill or cancel. Ridiculous.

**Yjacket22``** · 06-23-18, 05:00 AM

Opened an account with Fairlay and will be using it as soon as my bitcoin ach is clear and then I will make my first deposit. Can someone please explain to me how an API works? It appears to be an interface for creating your own markets?? Would I need additional software to use it?

Also, on the MLB markets some have 4 colored boxes (2 green and 2 red) with almost identical odds. One may have the favorite at -160 and the other at -161 or thereabouts. What's that all about? It will take me a while to figure out everything as I have never used an exchange before. Any tips or help would be greatly appreciated.

**Optional** · 06-23-18, 10:16 AM

Originally posted by Yjacket22``

Opened an account with Fairlay and will be using it as soon as my bitcoin ach is clear and then I will make my first deposit. Can someone please explain to me how an API works? It appears to be an interface for creating your own markets?? Would I need additional software to use it?

Also, on the MLB markets some have 4 colored boxes (2 green and 2 red) with almost identical odds. One may have the favorite at -160 and the other at -161 or thereabouts. What's that all about? It will take me a while to figure out everything as I have never used an exchange before. Any tips or help would be greatly appreciated.

The green box shows what odds other people are offering you to bet on the market, and the red box shows odds on offer to bet against it.

If you want to bet ON something but want to ask for better odds than are currently on offer, you will notice your offer/money is updated on the red box side. As you are effectively offering people to bet against you.

The API does require your own software to do anything with.

**PharaohUB** · 06-23-18, 11:43 AM

Fairlay is what it is. I don’t know anywhere else I can get better odds or faster payouts. You just have to learn to deal with it or Leave. I don’t see anything wrong with them alllowing market makers to selectively accept. It’s not like they are changing odds. If you get matched great. If you can’t then bet at a different book. It’s not hard to keep another place funded along with fairlay and just use them when you can’t do better at fairlay. If, like you say, the MM are operating on credit then it’s a good thing they have more options to protect themselves. Also I would imagine almost any exchange allows their MM to operate on credit in some capacity. Otherwise they would constantly have millions and millions of dollars of cash tied up which would be bad business.

**littlekona** · 07-01-18, 09:42 AM

The last week I’ve been using Fairlay a lot esp w my other exchange 9wickets having liquidity restrictions on markets...it’s been working perfect, quick grades and has more markets then pinny on most events...the guys there are continually trying to make it better...some new features are the option to opt out of the reserve fund rule plus reduced commission structure....as always withdrawls are basically instant and best odds around

**RonPaul2008** · 07-01-18, 12:08 PM

Today there are no markets for WNBA on Fairlay. What the actual f*ck?????

**RonPaul2008** · 07-01-18, 01:06 PM

Now they have WNBA lines, but they didn't put them out until around 1-2pm eastern time.

**70'sMan** · 07-01-18, 01:09 PM

They had mlb lines and offers but everytime I tried to bet it would not match and the offer was withdrawn. Ridiculous.

**Bsims** · 07-01-18, 01:16 PM

I'm close to dropping off Fairlay again. The site is a struggle to handle, but I've been using it daily for 3 months. Each day I've placed a ML win wager on the the Cleveland Indians to win (for a friend). A week ago I made two wagers on Cleveland. I used the same procedure, the wagers were confirmed, and before leaving the site I checked my list of matched bets and they were there.

Cleveland won 10-0, but the next morning when I checked, the bets had disappeared. I got on the support part of the message board with the following dialogue.

--------------
" Yesterday I made 2 wagers on Cleveland to win at -151. They were for 10 and 90 mBTC’s. They were fully matched and appeared on my matched wager list and my balance was reduced appropriately. Today they have disappeared. What happened?

ognjen-support: As I see, both these markets were voided for some reason and you have net profit of 0.0 on them. For more detail please check #13 of our FAQ: https://fairlay.com/faq/#i-think-one...at-shall-i-do.

Who voided the wagers and why? Will there be a review of these wagers for re-instatement? Is it Fairlay’s policy not to notify users when wagers are voided?

ognjen-support: You can wait for 20 hours for the possible resettlement. After that you check the reason for this by contacting us through 5mBTC@fairlay.com. Please note that by contacting us through this email you agree that a fee up to 5mBTC might be deducted for each ticket. We reserve the right to charge 1mBTC for each 6 minutes spent on your ticket (maximum 30 minutes)."
------------

I Emailed support with the same three questions and a day later got two responses. One is that they do not contact the user when a bet is voided. The other two were not directly answered, but they pointed me to a link that had my wagers. Apparently I wagered on the 1st inning only (0-0). I can't believe that I made the same error on two separate wagers, but my bad. And they did charge me 1 mBTC administrative fee.

What it comes down to is they do have slightly better lines sometime.s But is the hassle worth the 1% better odds? Jury is still out with me.

**70'sMan** · 07-01-18, 01:46 PM

I am done with them as well.

**littlekona** · 07-01-18, 06:38 PM

Originally posted by 70'sMan

They had mlb lines and offers but everytime I tried to bet it would not match and the offer was withdrawn. Ridiculous.

Live or standard? I have not had any issues on standard sports bets major markets like soccer mlb matching first try last few weeks....horses once in a while but they always pop back up....live bets are different beast esp on exchange platform

**RonPaul2008** · 07-01-18, 08:38 PM

I love fairlay. No problem with getting wnba bets accepted either pregame or live.

**Barrakuda** · 07-02-18, 12:43 AM

These guys have literally done everything they can to prevent the site from growing. Not saying it's easy to get an exchange off the ground, but if you want to know what not to do, study the Fairlay interface and customer support.

**jjgold** · 07-02-18, 06:08 AM

Originally posted by Barrakuda

I've supported Fairlay for years, using them regularly. But I'm out. Their site is a total joke, with significantly *more* bugs than they had four years ago. More importantly, they allow their main market maker to operate on credit. So if he goes down in flames, you're likely not getting paid. Most importantly, they allow MMs to selectively accept orders. That is, if you try to lift an offer, the MM has x seconds to decide to cancel the offer based on your userid or whatever other reason he wants. I.e., spoofing with fake orders is allowed.

I think the owner is simply clueless as to how to run an exchange fairly. It's unfortunate, but consider yourself warned.

stay far away from it

Bubble game operation

HIGH RISK

**littlekona** · 07-02-18, 07:03 AM

Originally posted by jjgold

stay far away from it

Bubble game operation

HIGH RISK

May have it's hiccups like interface but once you get used to it it's fine...they have been running for what like 4+ years and have had no issues with payouts that I know of but that one BETG case. Any book exchange ect that does instant payouts is far from high risk....I'd argue that BOL has had 10X more issues then Fairlay over last year...The guys there are very active in BTC and Technology development and I trust them granted it is a small outfit(I am sure other books/exchanges I use and trust are smaller outfits)You just have to get used to the site and like many exchanges there is a learning curve BUT they pay fast and odds are great...

**70'sMan** · 07-02-18, 02:46 PM

Originally posted by littlekona

Live or standard? I have not had any issues on standard sports bets major markets like soccer mlb matching first try last few weeks....horses once in a while but they always pop back up....live bets are different beast esp on exchange platform

Standards

**Barrakuda** · 07-03-18, 12:35 AM

I'm not sure "small" really captures the situation. Just a year or two ago, they had to stop payouts for a day bc the main (only?) guy was traveling and having issues with his laptop.

Not telling anyone what to do, just relating what I have experienced over the years there.

**littlekona** · 07-03-18, 06:34 AM

Originally posted by Barrakuda

I'm not sure "small" really captures the situation. Just a year or two ago, they had to stop payouts for a day bc the main (only?) guy was traveling and having issues with his laptop.

Not telling anyone what to do, just relating what I have experienced over the years there.

Lol...yea i remember that weekend...then we have BOL huge book down for 2 weeks + few months back...im satisfied w both and trust both...Fairlay has had issues at times w the site but what book has not? They pay fast and have great odds is whats important to me...It is what it is Fairlay and i see the guys working on improving it every week

**RonPaul2008** · 07-05-18, 10:17 PM

.....

**PharaohUB** · 07-05-18, 11:47 PM

Originally posted by Barrakuda

I'm not sure "small" really captures the situation. Just a year or two ago, they had to stop payouts for a day bc the main (only?) guy was traveling and having issues with his laptop.

Not telling anyone what to do, just relating what I have experienced over the years there.

That means nothing. I've worked for top 200 company and been "the guy" if something went down on a specific application that had thousands of users. If I was flying it would have stayed down until I got to an internet connection. It's way too expensive to keep tons of system admins on your payroll if you're not like google. There's likely 1 guy internal, and probably a consultant or 2, who actually understands their infrastructure (website, servers, application, databases, etc), well enough to troubleshoot an issue quickly. And consultants cost money. They seem to operate at fairly low margins, so I doubt the consultant route makes much sense to them.

**Yjacket22``** · 07-08-18, 09:23 AM

I've been playing at Fairlay a couple weeks now. My first time using an exchange and took a day or two to figure it out. I like making taker bets and playing the role of the bookie. My question is after creating a taker bet with the same odds as someone else who's offer gets matched first?

**Optional** · 07-08-18, 11:09 AM

Originally posted by Yjacket22``

I've been playing at Fairlay a couple weeks now. My first time using an exchange and took a day or two to figure it out. I like making taker bets and playing the role of the bookie. My question is after creating a taker bet with the same odds as someone else who's offer gets matched first?

The order the money was offered in.

**Barrakuda** · 07-09-18, 04:42 AM

Originally posted by PharaohUB

That means nothing. I've worked for top 200 company and been "the guy" if something went down on a specific application that had thousands of users. If I was flying it would have stayed down until I got to an internet connection. It's way too expensive to keep tons of system admins on your payroll if you're not like google. There's likely 1 guy internal, and probably a consultant or 2, who actually understands their infrastructure (website, servers, application, databases, etc), well enough to troubleshoot an issue quickly. And consultants cost money. They seem to operate at fairly low margins, so I doubt the consultant route makes much sense to them.

There was no problem with their systems going down. The problem was the with the guy's laptop -- i.e., he simply had no internet access and so all payments were held up. I.e., one person manually processed every payout via a laptop, often using public wifi. That was the inexplicable protocol they had designed, and that choice is what makes them so much more small-time than most books.