Is there really such a thing as a No-Risk Sportsbook? Answer: Yes

Anyone familiar with the bookmaking (betting) business understands there is always an element of risk when offering and taking a bet as a bookmaker. So when a few colleagues and I started specialising in developing No-Risk Sportsbook solutions back in 2005, it was a bit of an oddity to associate “No-Risk” with a betting business, and it’s still the same today. How could it be possible for a bookmaker to run his operations without taking any risk whatsoever, and make a profit on every bet win or loose - regardless of the outcome of the event?

Well, for us it all started with the introduction of Betting Exchanges in the late 1990’s, specifically, market leading online betting exchange Betfair, a company at one-time had a pre-float market valuation of £1.5 Billion. After doing some consultancy work for the Hammersmith, W. London based venture, about 250 strong at the time, and getting involved with the Betfair Developers Program, we started providing bespoke software development services to Betfair using the Betfair API. One project that comes to mind that we delivered in the early days was something called the Betfair Barometer - a project developed for the Betfair Strategy Team and their requirement to generate on the fly graphical and statistical data based on Live and Historical sports betting data:

Betfair had outsourced to me about a half dozen or so projects between 2004 and 2005, and from this experience and the newly acquired business intelligence in the betting exchange domain, larger projects started to land on my table which lead to the development of the first White-Label betting exchange developed targeting a specific niche - Cricket and the Indian Rupee Currency:

For 6-months, I found myself traveling back and forth from Paris, London, Kathmandu, Nepal, Delhi and Kolkata, West Bengal India where I had a dedicated software development team providing the services to deliver the solution. NOTE: Although the project delivery was a success, the operations of the system never got off the ground, and not a single bet was taken by the bookmaker/operator which the system was built for.

With the encouragement and support from Betfair, I and a small team of specialists consisting of an experienced Senior Technical Architect, and Product Manager embarked on designing and developing B2B No-Risk Sportsbook solutions through the entity BetXTech. Our model was to create sports betting solutions for operators that offered them no risk or liability on any bets taken through the system. We would accomplish this through the use of the Betfair API as outlined in the the following animation:

Our first product released in 2005 focused on the Retail channel was XC-EPOS (which stands for Exchange Cashier-Electronic Point Of Sale), a No-Risk Over the Counter (OTC) Sportsbook Bet Capture system:

The system was innovative and a first to market opportunity that allowed operators to take bets at absolutely no risk! This success lead to other opportunities and next up was the Self-Service Kiosk channel which we developed a working prototype in 2006 and showcased at the 2006 Birmingham Betting Show and received coverage in the Racing Post:

Our second product XSS-EPOS (which stands for Exchange Self Service-Electronic Point Of Sale) released in 2007 supporting trials in several high street bookmakers in the UK and Ireland, and officially launched as a commercial system approved and authorised by the Betfair in early 2008.

So there you have it in a nutshell - a bit of history on the origins of 100% No-Risk Sports Betting Solutions. My experience has since branched out to Self-Service EPOS Payment Systems for Casinos, namely, Voucher Redemption Terminals integrated with IGT EZ-PAY and Bally Technologies casino management ticketing systems:

This system has been deployed at multiple sites under the Rank Grosvenor Casino, G-Casino estate in the United Kingdom supporting their 24/7 E-Casino roll-outs.

–
Melcom Copeland, Senior Consultant and Advisor to the Board
BetXTech (IOM) Limited
34 Athol Street
Douglas
Isle of Man
IM1 1JB

t: +44 (0)20 8123 0968
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w: http://www.betxtech.co.im
w: http://xcepos.betxtech.com

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