BetFair Poker Review

Overview

Betfair Poker is owned and operated by The Sporting Exchange Ltd., the biggest sports exchange in the world, and is a part of the massively popular Ongame Poker Network.

Betfair Poker has always had a solid reputation and a very active player base. Betfair is home to 2007 WSOPE Runner up and Aussie Millions 2009 champion John Tabatabai. And with dependable software, massive promotions and access to an enormous sports exchange customer base, Betfair’s now a major player in the European online poker market.

The Betfair Poker software is developed by the Ongame Poker Network and offers good functionality and stability. Game play is very good overall, with player notes, easy-to-use stats functions and a solid overall feel. The “player buddy” program, where players can analyze hand histories and replay hands, is another big plus.

Perhaps the best feature of Betfair is the loose play, which tends to come from sports bettors looking to try a hand of poker with new found cash. The downside is that there are no American players on Betfair and subsequently if it isn’t prime time in Europe there’s a serious lack of action on the site.

Traffic volume overall is in the middle segment of the industry. Real-money player statistics as of February 2011 show 1200 ring-game players at peak hours, and 4000 tournament players at peak hours.

Tournaments & Freerolls

Betfair Poker hosts a wide variety of tournaments with buy-ins ranging from a couple of bucks to hundreds of dollars for larger tournaments. On any given day Betfair Poker runs a number of tournaments with guaranteed prize pools. The biggest is the weekly $200,000 guaranteed ChampionChip on Sundays, which attracts large fields.

Betfair also runs satellites to almost every big live poker event including the WSOP, WPT and the EPT. Betfair has recently launched Betfair Live! Events touring countries from Estonia to Ibiza.

Betfair Poker also offers over 30 free tournaments every week. Winning a freeroll can earn a seat at one of the biggest tournaments at Betfair, including the large weekly guaranteed tournaments and even live tournaments around the globe.

Software & Graphics

The Betfair Poker software is provided by the Ongame Poker Network and offers both speed and a clean interface.

The software continues to evolve over time with some great features added, such as a multi-table mini-view, improved graphics, enhanced search functions and the option to play at more than 15 tables simultaneously. It is still a little confusing in places however (No tool-tips that pop up to explain what the buttons do; some odd design decisions), but it does run well when you get the windows where you want them.

Table functions are easy to learn and well oriented and it’s easy to customize for preferred limits, table size, currency and game. Cash games, MTTs and sit-and-gos have their own sections in the software, which helps navigation.

Betfair Poker is also one of the only rooms to offer multi-media content in its software. For a direct and free Betfair Poker download, click the download link above.

Soft Competition

Competition at Betfair Poker ranges from loose at the micro and low limits to relatively loose at higher stakes. In general, the competition is loose and passive, making the site a great place for skilled poker players to clean up.