TANC (The Actuarial Network at CASS) - The Story of Betfair - The world's biggest betting community
Speaker: Mark Davies, Camberton
Agenda:
- 6.00 - 6.30 - Registration
- 6.30 - 7.30 - Lecture
- 7.30 - 8.00 - Q&A
- 8.00 - 9.00 - Refreshments and networking
About the event:
When Betfair changed the landscape of betting upon their launch in June 2000, they marketed themselves as a person-to-person betting site; and that differentiator over their competition has been seen to be the driver of their business to this day.
In reality, though, what they did differently was managed their risk in a completely new way - essentially, by not taking any. As such, they changed betting from a reinsurance business into a syndication one, bringing new technology to a world which had thrived for more than a century with a consistent business model.
Mark Davies was part of the team that launched the business, and for ten years acted as their spokesman to the outside world. He is coming to Cass to talk to tell us the stories behind the company's success in its first decade.
About the speaker:
Mark runs Camberton, a strategic communications consultancy which advises on reputation management through government and media relations. Before that, he was part of the founder management team of Betfair, one of Britain’s most successful online start-ups, and spent ten years managing their external affairs. During that time, Betfair went from a founder team of 8 to 2,500 employees worldwide. He holds a number of Board Directorships including Probability plc.
About TANC:
TANC is a special interest group aimed at Actuarial Alumni of Cass Business School & City University. We aim to organise unique events of actuarial interest, which add value to attendees and provide networking opportunities.
Although TANC is aimed primarily at Alumni, we also welcome friends or colleagues who have an interest in any of our events.