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What is "predatory pricing"?

Desert Orchid

Desert Orchid

Senior Jockey
Joined
Aug 2, 2005
Messages
27,455
It's when you have a dominant market position and use it to eliminate competition by setting prices at an impossibly low rate for a temporary period until they are forced out of the market.
 
I'd say spot on, Grey. You typically see this term applied to overly unfavourable Ts & Cs which affect players/bettors/affiliate operators within the various arms of the gambling industry (ie costs/loses them money in one way or another).

In this case, it's specifically referring to industry competitiveness, so although it ultimately affects bettors it's specifically referring to business to/against business practices - as Grey said
 
Come on, Maurice, I first heard the term "predatory pricing" when studying for my Economics O Level in the late 70s. 😂

"Fighting companies" was another term used.

Big outfits with deep pockets offering products at no profit-margin (or even a loss) to drive the smaller operator out of the market.
 
Reading Grey's and Chaumi's replies, they contradict each other to my reading.

If the likes of Ts & Cs were unfavourable to bettors surely that would help the opposition as punters would migrate to them?

Is it meant to be effectively what Wetherspoons are doing to the pub industry?
 
Bet36 5 have been doing it for years, they hold out with bigger prices on the gambles (blue bet fair). Hills have court on and started to do the same, to a degree...
 
It's normal in any commercial enterprise to try and stick it to your competition one way or another to ultimately transfer their customers to you.

Supermarkets will sell some things at a loss to get people in buy stuff that has big margins, it's the overall bottom line that counts to them.

And that's why there's no Sporting Life newspaper.......
 
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I worked in the betting industry for most of my career - mainly head office for various companies ( now gladly out of it ) and I could tell you many tales of what goes on ' behind closed doors ', one tale that sticks in my mind from the early days of internet betting - one particular firm was nearly always first up with their odds on oddschecker, they would frequently be ' copied ' by another bookmaker - it looks to go on even more these days - anyway one day the traders and compilation team decided to get even on the bookmaker doing all the copying, this particular day they put a horse in at around 25/1 on their website ( it was only really around a 6's chance ) but put a block on it in order that it couldn't actually be laid at a price - only SP, the 25's ' quote ' was still visible on oddschecker and low & behold was copied by the guilty bookmaker for their own website. As soon as the price went Live the traders and compilers went steaming in and took the bookmaker for several thousand, a few further unavailable quotes of 16's 12's 10's and 8's were listed before the first available quote of 6/1 appeared on the first bookmakers site. Revenge was sweet that day and several accounts were closed, but it goes to show that if you don't know what you're doing then it will cost you in the end.
 
Off course SP returns need investigating ....... I am aware of an incident recently where on track there was a punter close to the off of a race trying to place a £1000 EW on a horse at 6's which was freely available with most of the bookmakers - the starting price returned was 7/2.
 


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