So What About the Betfair Float?

I see sports betting site Bodog UK has odds on the new Betfair float:

Bodog bet:

* Company market cap £1.5bn at IPO: Over Even, Under 8-11
* End Day 1 trading above issue price: Yes 1-6, No 15-4
* End of week trading trading above issue price: Yes 4-6, No 11-10

I was asked Wednesday if I will buy some. I am honestly not sure. I have been investing a bit the last couple of years, but I am mostly playing the horses.

I am pretty sure that long-term this is a solid investment, because the people who are running it are forward thinkers. As well, barriers are coming down every day in online betting. Governments can only protect and monopolize sectors for so long before opening them up - the consumer always wins. See Ontario for that with their new online betting mechanism.

This company will be offered to US patrons, and probably some time soon. I expect further expansion all over the world.

In addition this is a growth business because they offer something unique, that people want. It might take time, but not unlike a conversation you and I might have had ten years ago about Blockbuster where we would have opined that long-term this is a good short, long term, betfair, for the opposite reasons should be a long. It has a purpose in modern society, and new businesses that have that win. As well, they have critical mass, which is vital for any web business and there are extreme barriers to entry that they enjoy, just like Ebay has on the auction front.

I do not have the slightest what I will do (and it does not matter to you one way or another anyway, I am certain), but with their amazing back-end processing power, lightning fast execution, and the void they fill with new, young bettors who are screaming for this kind of system, I am pretty comfortable in having the opinion that things will be well for this company and they will be bigger tomorrow, than they are today.

Just my opinion of course (insert fancy disclaimer here).