Stuck in Seville? You can now bet on your favourite La Liga and Copa del Rey teams. AC Milan fan? Have a punt on the latest Serie A and Serie B matches. Living in France? Check out the Ligue 1 games we have, or cheer on Thierry Henry in the English Premier League. Sharapova supporter in Germany? We’ve got all the ATP and WTA matches you could want. American expat in Belgium? Try your luck on our NFL Superbowl market.

With the lowest base commission rate in the industry (just 2%), Smarkets is the place to bet and trade on football, horses, tennis and your other favourite events.

How easy is it to get started? Sign up here: https://smarkets.com/sign-up/ (it takes less than 5 minutes). Then deposit and you’re good to go!

You’ll be happy to know that the beta version of our mobile site is now live and ready for use. Simply head to https://m.smarkets.com to check it out. The initial version allows users to place bets on football and tennis matches, and horse races. As always, we love feedback so please get in touch with recommendations for improvement.

We’re hoping that being able to surf on over to Smarkets will make your commute more bearable. Just don’t have too much fun, or you’ll miss your stop.

This is also an opportunity for you to share with us what you’d like to see happen at Smarkets in 2012. We’ve read your comments and are working towards becoming the leading betting exchange in the industry. So whether it’s tennis, football or horse racing you fancy a flutter on, stop by our office to say hello!

This invite is open to all interested in Smarkets and betting – spread the word and invite your friends!

When: 6:30pm to 8:30pm on Thursday 26th January 2012

Where: Smarkets HQ
2nd Floor, White Bear Yard
144a Clerkenwell Road, London EC1R 5DF

Please RSVP by January 24th to amita.parikh@smarkets.com

- New sports pages and markets, including NFL, rugby and an expansion in football leagues
- An improved site search (you can find upcoming football matches and horse races easily)
- New chat (both support and site wide)
- Improved original editorial content on our blog
- A handy Smarkets arb tool that lets you find the best odds
- Moneybookers deposits and withdrawals
- New Account History
- Lays now show backer stake
- New JavaScript that updates your P&L as you’re entering your bet,
- New odds-feed, which has allowed us to start being featured on odds-comparison sites

In 2012 we’re introducing a flat commission rate of 2% (taking effect January 9th), working on a mobile site, implementing multi-currency and adding more markets for you to bet on.

Happy New Year and all the best for 2012!

The Smarkets Team

While you can’t bet on Facebook yet, Smarkets is letting you bet about Facebook.

The tech world is caught up with the impending announcement of Facebook going public. As a tech start-up, we’re also curious as to how it will unfold – so today we’re introducing two new markets where you can bet on the Facebook IPO:

1. When will Facebook hold its Initial Public Offering?

Bet on the month during which Facebook will go public. Will it be a Christmas surprise or will they wait until the summer? Think you know? Well, now you can make some money from it.

2. How much is Facebook worth?

How much do you think Facebook is really worth? Bet on the market capitalisation at the end of the first day following their IPO. We’re personally hoping that they’re worth enough to update Mark Zuckerberg’s wardrobe.

Details on how each contract will be settled and the options for betting can be found on their individual pages.

Happy betting!

The Smarkets Team

Recently, we’ve been having some issues with our settlement system which causes problems with bet placement during very busy periods. To make sure that your bets aren’t affected this weekend (Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th of December), we’ve taken the decision to delay settling events until after the busiest part of the day. We’re aiming have all events settled by midnight each day.

Since we last spoke about changing our commission rates, we’ve been hard at work thinking about the best way to structure our commission moving forward.We quietly ruled out a commission structure based solely on trading volume (it was too easy to game) – so we’ve been left working out what would be fairest to everyone involved.

We’re aiming to implement a structure that ensures our customers continue to enjoy some of the best value on the Internet.

So our plan is this: We will assign customers a commission tier according to their average monthly commission contribution. This average will be calculated over a rolling 3 month period, and reassessed at a regular time each week.

We’ve intentionally set the barriers low, so that most of our active users will quickly find themselves on 2 – 3.5%. That is a big saving compared to the 4% that many are on now.

As always, we want your feedback! Let us know what you think by posting in the comments below, or emailing us directly. We’ll take your thoughts into consideration when it comes time to switch to our new structure, which will be happening shortly.

Update: Many of you have got in touch suggesting that we go off implied commission (taking into account losses as well as wins) instead of actual commission. This is something we are open to doing, so if you want to give feedback on that idea as well, please go ahead!

Just ten short months ago we were chuffed to have passed the £3 million mark. In June we toasted to reaching the £20 million mark. To be up to £50 million less than six months later is no easy feat.

We’d like to thank all our users for their continued support and feedback – we couldn’t have achieved this milestone without you. We’re looking forward to soaring past £100 million in the new year!

In other news, you may remember reading about a Wired UK article that featured our founders Jason Trost and Hunter Morris. If you didn’t get a chance to pick up a print copy, you can now read it online.

Pick up the magazine and flip to page 53 for the full story!