Is Inplay betting the only way to make money

I no longer can have a bet on anything without the option to trade a position.

Sign of the times, innit?

There is so much competition between the in-running track players now that horses regularly trade at 1.01 before the final hurdle/fence....and in the place market they regularly hit 1.03/1.04 with 2 to jump if they are far enough clear. In the past you could back them at much bigger, but with the number of on-course sharks increasing rapidly they are forced to go shorter in desperation to get to the front of the queue.

That couldn't be further from the truth, Spacey.

I never said that. With all the changes (more on-course competition, less cannon-fodder players, premium charges etc) the days where the track players were making 5-figure sums every week are long gone, but I personally know around half a dozen guys who are still making it pay (enough to cover the considerable expenses and leave a decent profit) so the stronger/more talented are still going strong despite Betfair doing their best to eradicate them.

There are also people like myself who play from home who continue to beat the odds, but you have to move with the times to keep ahead of the changing dynamics which threaten to upset the applecart and destroy your edge.

Betfair ideally want no consistent winners and no consistent losers - they want everyone to win,lose,win,lose,win,lose so the money keeps going back and forth between accounts with commission slowly eating away at it - the more it's turned over the more they make and the less chance of the losers giving up and walking away.

Which makes a mockery of their early slogan (which they have conspicuously dropped).....

"Betfair - where winners are welcome"

I'm hopeless at footy betting, as I've admitted several times before - anyone who can make regular profits from betting on footy (not trading in-running) must be very, very good, for the reasons you state. The only time I play on the footy now is trading late on the correct score market, hoping for a couple of late goals at monster odds or perhaps a goal in the last minute of added time. Only small fun bets so small loss/big win factor, just checked my last 3 months on BF and on footy betting I'm in profit to £37.17, which equals around 40p per day

Earlier this afternoon there was an interesting race over in Ireland, 2 horses had skipped clear and had 2 to jump, both fell at the 2nd last, one (Jakros) had been backed at 1.01 and the other (Island Oscar) at 1.04 in the place market. Now bearing in mind that this was a beginners chase, so these were inexperienced jumpers, just what kind of desperate fool takes such short odds when they still had 2 to jump? Unbelievable.

The PC takes such abuse because it deserves to take abuse, an absolute shambles of a decision where the only thing that saved them was the fact that they have such a strong monopoly on the exchange market.

The original 20% PC was bad enough, but the new 60% one is just unbelievable.

The £250K rule is just for the 40%-60% charge, but the 'normal' Premium Charge can hit small staking ordinary punters if they are successful - anyone who has played in more than 250 markets (ffs, I play in more than that a week) can be hit.

My lifetime charges are currently at 21.54% so I'm avoiding it at the moment but my usual weekly commission is now around 10% so obviously my lifetime charge is decreasing towards the 20% cut-off point. I've paid almost £8,500 in commission/PC to BF over the years, and believe me I'm no big-staking punter, just a disciplined and careful one, yet the greedy fuckers want more.

Another monumental fuck-up by the short-odds backers today....at Gowran Park in the 4.05, RUBI LIGHT was clear only to crash out at the last fence. Around £500 was matched in the place market at 1.01 and many thousands in the win market right down to 1.02.

Crazy.