I deleted your post for reasons I’ve stated before. I’ll happily discuss the PC elsewhere, but this blog is not the place.

the last time I passed comment on the premium charge in here my comment was copied into a variety of fora and my blog was deluged with four letter abuse - not funny as my children read it. I think it’s one of those “don’t go there” type arguments for me.

Betfair’s premium charges have recently been the source of much discussion on a number of horseracing forums, and I was wondering if you could confirm if the passage below is an accurate reflection of the company’s stance on successful customers?

The passage details an e-mail from the customer services team in direct response to a question regarding the premium charge policy:

[i]Thank you for your e-mail.

We do spend a huge amount of money on marketing, either to acquire new customers, retain existing ones, or reactivate former ones. For more than 98% of our *winning* customers, the commission they pay when they win meets that cost, because although they win overall, their betting has a healthy mix of wins and losses and its unlikely that they will ever need to pay the Premium charge.

For less than 2% of our winning customers that isn’t true, as the rate at which they win, in the long-term means that they remove money from Betfair having paid less than it cost us to get that money there in the first place.

We have introduced the Premium charge to enable Betfair to continue growing in the long-term, and for there to be ever-increasing amounts available to be won by all customers.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any further enquiries.

Kind regards[/i]

Your thoughts would be much appreciated.