Following on from recent interviews with both Matchbook & Smarkets, today you can find our latest interview with another betting exchange worth checking out – World Bet Exchange (or WBX for short)
WBX offer markets on sports such as football, horse racing, cricket, tennis alongside many other popular betting events. For those of you impacted by the withdrawal of the likes of Pinnacle Sports from the UK market, they offer another solution for you.
In fact, whether or not you are a UK based punter or not, there is every chance that WBX might well be of interest to you, especially given the wide range of sports they cover.
To find out more on what they offer, Peter over at WBX was kind enough to answer a variety of our questions on their service.
All new WBX accounts can also earn up to £25/ €25/ $35 in free bets (depending on the currency you use)
SBC: For those unaware of your service, can you briefly introduce WBX and what it is you offer punters? WBX:
WBX (World Bet Exchange) is a leading sports betting exchange that launched in 2006 when the founders saw an opportunity to put control back into the hands of punters by offering an alternative betting exchange to market leader Betfair.
WBX has competitive odds that are often better than those found at traditional bookmakers. The odds are comparable to other leading exchanges.
There is a large selection of sporting events, covering over 20 sports internationally, with better live odds especially on high interest sporting events such as Australian Open Tennis, Cricket ODI/Twenty20, Premier League matches and more.
Many punters are now looking for alternatives to the likes of Pinnacle Sports & SBOBet who have recently left the UK market due to the new gambling and licensing act and its Point Of Consumption (POC) Tax.
Can you confirm you will be trading beyond the 1st November with UK punters and detail how the new gambling act impacts you as a business if at all?
I can confirm that WBX and its members will not be affected by the legislative change. WBX has been licensed in the UK for more than ten years since before its launch and have always paid duty to the HMRC for all its members.
The main effect is that it will put our competitors on an even playing field with WBX in the UK. With several major players dropping out of the UK betting market, there will be many punters looking for new sites to bet with.
Those that are applying for the license in order to continue operating in the UK will likely look to recoup these costs somehow, with some passing it along to their members in the form of lower odds for bookies and higher commission for betting exchanges. WBX commission rates will remain unchanged.
The new POC tax has knocked out plenty of your competitors for the time being at least. What would you say to those people looking for an alternative place to bet and considering WBX?
As you mentioned in the previous question, Pinnacle Sports is one of the top bookmakers leaving the UK market. Relative to other bookmakers they have a good reputation for offering good odds and welcoming winners. These are two of the core strengths that WBX offers its members. The odds available at WBX are often much better than those you can find with bookmakers, and we do not discriminate against winners. After all, if you aren’t allowed to win then what is the point of betting?
As an added incentive to switch to WBX, we will match existing discount rates with competitor betting exchanges. For example, if you have a 30% commission discount rate with Betfair or Ladbrokes Exchange/Betdaq, simply sign up with WBX and contact our Member Services team to carry over your discount at WBX.
Traders can look at WBX as an alternative to bet with when the odds are favourable. With lower commission and no premium charges, you can make the same bets at WBX with added security in the event of unscheduled maintenance at the exchange you normally bet with – you will be able to trade out at WBX if you find yourself heavily exposed during downtime.
What are your current fees and commission rates and will these be changing in the future, especially in regards to the new point of consumption tax?
The commission rate varies from 3% to 5% charged on net winnings in a market and is based on the number of entrants.
The way it works is if a market has 3 entrants or less, for example a football match with win/lose/draw, a basketball match with win/lose, cricket match with win/lose/draw, in fact most team sports, we charge 3% on net winnings in a market. Other sports with more than 3 entrants such as horse racing, greyhounds or winner markets will be charged 5% on net winnings in a market.
Most payment types offered such as Skrill/Moneybookers and NETeller have no charges, with a few at a small fee. These fees are often subsidized by WBX to be lower than the actual cost price so it is very fair for the member. For a full list, check it out here.
As mentioned earlier, WBX is positively affected by the new legislation, with no plans to increase the commission rate or increase any costs to our members.
Can you tell me more about your loyalty discounts and how they work? How much does a customer need to trade on WBX to start to benefit from them?
The WBX Loyalty Discount is based on how many WBX points you have accumulated. Members receive 1 WBX Point for every £1 in commission generated by their bets. Whether this is on the winning side or losing side of the bet, Members will still receive 1 point. For example, if you win £40 on a horse race and pay £2 commission, you will get a 1% discount on your commission. If you reach 8 WBX points, it is a 2% discount and so on.
The more you bet, the more WBX points you get and this increases your WBX Loyalty Discount percentage that is capped at 60%, equating to a rate as low as 1.2%. The 60% discount rate is generally achieved by high volume traders and market makers giving them an added incentive to bet more at WBX.
However, getting a 20% discount rate is much more achievable to the mid-range punter. For example if you tend to bet on horses or greyhounds a 20% discount from 5% to 4% commission would account for a win/loss record of £15.6k or 780 WBX points.
Furthermore, WBX is the only betting exchange to offer a Loyalty Refund. The way that this works is if you improve your discount rate, any commission paid in the previous 60 days will automatically be counted with your discount applied. If you trade in high volumes this can benefit you, knowing you’ll get to 60% rate within 2 months of joining. You can rest assure that all of your earlier bets will be on the lowered rate as well, because WBX will refund you the difference.
How does your take on commission compare with your competitors?
If you were to bet on football at Betfair, compared to WBX you’re paying nearly twice the commission there. When our odds are very similar it means you are winning more on your bets at WBX and don’t need to worry about additional ‘premium charges’ that are aimed at Betfair accounts who are showing a profit. These charges can be as high as 60% of the gross profits on winning punters, so if you have a gross profit of £10,000 you would be handing them back £6,000 in premium charges.
In fact once you factor in WBX Loyalty Discount, WBX actually charges the lowest commission of any betting exchange. For serious traders that focus on sports such as football and tennis, WBX commission can be as low as 1.2% on wins. This is far lower than Betfair and Betdaq, nearly half Smarkets, and when you factor in Matchbook charging 1% on wins and losses it beats their rate as well.
We also do not vary the commission rate from one country to another, as we have seen others increase their rates as high as 7.5%.
Which markets and sports offer the best liquidity at WBX?
Horse racing is the top sport on offer at WBX. In the minutes leading up to each race the betting activity picks up to a furious pace with odds rapidly moving as members get their bets down in a flurry. It can be a very exciting sport to bet on at the exchange, and part of the attraction to that is the ability to both back and lay bets, as well as seeing much higher odds on outsiders than you would get at a bookmaker. For example middle of the pack horses in big races are paying between 13.0 to 16.0 at the bookies, but are paying 40.0 and higher at WBX so there are opportunities to win 2-3 times as much on the exchange.
Football is another very popular sport, particularly the bigger leagues like Premier League and Champions League. WBX offers over 3,000 football markets weekly and has an excellent selection of live betting markets with a lot of activity on the bigger matches. However, we also offer a varied number of other leagues the average punter can easily get bets down on local tournaments if betting on them is of interest, for example Singapore S League, or Paraguay Primera Division.
Tennis, is undoubtedly another of our Members’ favourites to bet on. Every match from the ATP and WTA tours is offered live. There are great opportunities to trade and lock in profits as odds swing from one point to the next.
Cricket and Greyhound racing are also very popular, American sports such as NFL and NBA, and Australian sports like AFL and NRL also have a growing following on the exchange.
For live betting, WBX offers better live odds with good liquidity on high interest sporting events such as Australian Open Tennis, Cricket ODI/Twenty20 and Premier League.
Do you have any stats or details on how your liquidity compares with your competitors? Are there certain markets or sports where there are specific advantages to using WBX?
WBX members have wagered over £1,000,000,000 on the exchange and over 3 million bets are processed daily. Most markets offer competitive odds and members can easily get their bets matched. The advantage to betting at WBX is that it combines the best of both worlds when it comes to lower commission, and a large selection of pre-match and live markets to bet on.
There are exchanges that have high liquidity and charge hidden fees and commissions, there are also exchanges that have low commission but the liquidity and selection of markets can be quite poor. WBX is a well-balanced medium, in that it is one of the major players in the exchange betting market, while also having low commissions and a reputation as a trusted betting exchange.
What odds comparison (if any) websites do you appear on?
Odds Monkey and Sports Punter are just a few sites that carry WBX odds, there’s far too many to list. Our affiliate program offers the XML odds feed so webmasters can promote our better odds. In return we give them a generous 50% of the revenue that’s generated by those referrals so it is a win-win-win situation for us, the affiliate and the member.
Do you have a mobile website or app?
Yes, unlike other sites that have members to download an app we’ve simplified the experience for the visitor. When a visitor accesses WBX with their mobile or tablet, it’ll automatically detect it and give them the choice to access the standard WBX.com website, or a version that is optimised to their device. There are 3 versions of the site suited for smartphones, tablet devices, or for older mobile phones, offering them the same secure experience with the same odds and markets available as the main WBX website.
We also run promotions occasionally for mobile users, and we recently had a £10 free bet for tablet users which was quite popular.
A regular criticism of the likes of Betfair is in relation to their website downtime – how does WBX compare on this front and how stable is your platform?
WBX.com boasts a 99.9% uptime. It is uncommon to have any unscheduled downtime. The technical team runs a very tight ship and understand how important it is for traders to have access to a reliable exchange betting platform. Nobody wants to have a large bet exposed and suddenly see a down for maintenance message appear.
How safe and secure is money deposited with WBX?
Member funds are extremely safe. In fact, WBX is possibly the single safest website to bet at. There are a few reasons for this, firstly, WBX is not like any normal bookmaker where they are exposed to large bets going against their expectation and suffering heavy losses. Our members bet against each other so there is no risk no matter the outcome – one side will win, one side will lose, WBX simply acts as a broker to facilitate people betting against each other.
Member funds are kept secure in a trust fund under a separate company, WBX Member Funds Limited. This trust fund can only be used to pay out winning member bets, and undergoes regular independent external audits with the results published quarterly on the WBX website.
WBX does not make slow pay outs or give customers the run around. With WBX you are betting with a reputable betting exchange and can rest assured that when you bet and win you will receive your winnings.
Do you have any other developments or upcoming improvements to the WBX service you can tell us about?
We are looking to further improve our live betting offerings available for basketball and other sports. Although we often receive positive feedback for our website’s intuitive and quick response design and feel, we are planning to improve it in the near future.
WBX have been around for several years – what would you say to those who may have tried you in the past as to why they should revisit your website?
As WBX continues to grow in popularity, the betting experience also improves because it is the members on the exchange that dictate the quality of the odds on offer. Our live betting offering has improved and for those that have been betting at other exchanges, as mentioned earlier we will match their commission discount rate.
Also, if anyone reading this found something lacking in their experience with WBX, we welcome constructive criticism and would love to hear from you first hand on what can be improved, what you liked, what you didn’t like. Our member services team will value any feedback that you have to offer.
Finally, do you offer any incentives or free bet offers for those registering for the first time with your website?
Yes, WBX members receive £25 / €25 / $35 in free bets. The first free bet is given as a £/€10 free bet when the member has won or lost £/€100. The way that this works is that they can win £/€50 then lose £/€50 and this will be enough to generate their first £/€10 free bet, with more free bets to come in £/€5 increments.
Something that sets our free bets aside from most is that winnings from those free bets can be withdrawn immediately without having to roll it over x number of times at certain odds. Members are free to bet at the odds they choose, which is something that many bonuses do not allow in their fine print.
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Our thanks go to WBX for taking the time to answer these
questions. Find out more and open a WBX account
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