Smarkets Blog

As promised we’ve rounded up some past trends for Cheltenham’s Arkle Challenge Trophy Chase. We hope these will help you back the winner (which, in this race, is not necessarily the favourite):

• Horses trained by Alan King have won this race twice in the past 5 years
• Only 2 favourites in the last 20 runnings have gone on to win the race
• Horses bred in France have triumphed 7 times out of the past 18 runnings
• 5 year-olds have had a bad record since their weight allowance was scrapped
• 23 of the past 25 winners finished either 1st or 2nd in the last race before the festival
• Jockey Robert Thornton has won 2 races in the past 5 years
• 4 of the winners in the last decade were trained by Martin Pipe

The Cheltenham Festival takes place from March 13th – 16th, 2012. With a reputation for being one of the biggest racing events on the calendar, it’s also a prime time for those looking to back and lay. The Supreme Novices Hurdle happens next Tuesday afternoon, on Champions Day. We did some digging and came up with the following stats that might help you when it comes to picking the winners. We’ll be putting up a post for each market on our site, so remember to check back daily.

• 9 of the 11 past winners since 2000 were aged 5 or 6 (except for when horses were owned by JP McManus)

• Favourites have a poor record – the last favourite to win the race was Brave Inca in 2004.

• 12 out of the 18 past runners at Cheltenham were first time runners

• Paul Nicholls has trained 2 of the past 6 winners

• 13 of the past 15 winners won on their last time out (past 45 days)

• 8 of the past 10 last winners were National Hunt bred

• Horses from Ireland have won on 10 out of the past 18 runnings

• Since 2000, Paul Carberry and Ruby Walsh have both won twice

Since we announced our new fee structure we’ve been listening to customer comments via emails, on our site and in online forums. From your feedback we have established that the major concern was that under this structure customers would have no means of moving money in and out of Smarkets without making the overall cost of using us prohibitive, even at a commission rate of 2%.

As such we’ve revised the structure to make debit card and bank transfer* transactions free of charge. There will be no limits on the number of times you can deposit or withdraw. A lower free Moneybookers limit will apply, and fee changes to credit cards and Moneybookers payments will still take effect on March 12th, 2012.

We hope you understand that the fee changes we are still implementing are not a result of a desire to make more money. Every single time a payment transaction is processed, a charge is incurred. We have tried to absorb these costs as much as possible in a bid to offer you better value – and we hope that down the road customers will be free to deposit and withdraw by any method, free of charge. For the time being however, we feel that the proposed scheme is as fair as we can make it for both parties. A revised table outlining the new fee structure follows:

*Please note that international bank transfers outside of the UK or EEA will be subject to a fee of £10.00 or €12.00 per withdrawal.

**Fees are calculated per calendar month. So a user would be free to make two Moneybookers withdrawals up to £500 or €500 on March 30th and then on April 1st, for example, before incurring any charges.

To follow up on our recently announced revised Fee Structure we thought you’d like to know the reasoning behind it. The current state of the payment industry is one of gross inefficiency and high fees. This infrastructure currently means that businesses like ours are highly susceptible to suffering greatly at the hands of multiple types of fraud, and charge backs – especially when customers are withdrawing and depositing multiple times a week. As we strive to further lower our already industry low 2% commission rate we need to further increase our own levels of efficiency and security to minimize the losses that this infrastructure can impose.

Therefore we feel that our upcoming fee structure strikes the fairest balance for both you and us. Unfortunately we know that this will introduce a level of inconvenience for some of our customers but it is still possible to bet on Smarkets without being charged for depositing or withdrawing. Debit cards are a great option, as you can deposit an unlimited amount free of charge. If you keep your withdrawals to once per month, you’ll avoid having to pay any fees at all. We know that Moneybookers is quite a popular option with our users – the first £1,000 or €1,000 you deposit won’t be charged, and you can make one withdrawal per month without incurring any fees as well.

To summarise, we really wish this charges weren’t necessary and, ideally, we’re aiming to drag the industry to a place where they wouldn’t be any charges to move your money around at all. However for the moment, to maintain the levels of efficiency we require to give you the best commission rate in the industry, this a necessary step.

As always we value your feedback and can assure you we will constantly be assessing this new structure for revision. Please contact us at support@smarkets.com