Betonmarkets - Casino or valid trading platform?

The reason I ask is that although I used to see trading as the biggest gambling scene in the world I have had to re-assess this idea in the fact that some systems do work in achieving consistent gain in trading.
This is compared with a Casino where the house has it stacked and over a long enough time period you will lose your money. Card counters are removed from casinos as they have a system which places the advantage in their hands. Big wins on the markets and in casinos happen from time to time but you can run a system in trading, this is not allowed in the casinos.

So that was my thinking, which brought me back to betonmarkets, this fixed odds betting as I understand it does not use hedging so unlike, for example Fins, it can lose money unless it balances the books. With Fins they make the commision on the spread and volume of trades is crucial to them, how does betonmarkets see the customer? Would they assume that over a long enough period you will end up losing money or do they assume the 3% who make a regular income (guess) are balanced by the 97% (guess) who place bets but overall have no direction or false hope (whatever you want to call it).

Any / all opinions welcome.


Thank you.
Andrew.

Betonmarkets looks like a dreadful company to me.

1) They are not regulated

2) They have no address on their website (how anybody can do business with a financial firm that hides its identity is beyond me). Perhaps it means they have sensitive information to hide.

3) If you look at its Links pages there are links to 'Debt Recovery Services. This lowers the tone of the whole company so much imo. Can you imagine IG Index or City promoting firms like Ocean Finance?

Problems with BoM:

1) Very pricey. Look on Bullpig.co.uk and you will see that some people did make a lot of money out of BoM but have now stopped using them as the commission they charge is enormous

2) If you check the forums on betonmarkets.com a lot of people have real problems withdrawing their money

3) Vince Stanzione owns some of the company

However, their support is quite good. I have had problems before and clicked on "Live Help" and they have been very helpful.

anley said:

Betonmarkets looks like a dreadful company to me.

1) They are not regulated

2) They have no address on their website (how anybody can do business with a financial firm that hides its identity is beyond me). Perhaps it means they have sensitive information to hide.

Click to expand...

I think they are registered in Malta...not sure

I use BOM since 2 years. You can make winning bets if you follow some reliable technical system to predict short term trend (1 day)

I've been using BOM on and off for nearly 4 years now (by "on and off" I mean every week, but not every day). It's true that some of their "spreads" are very high. But some are also very low. The intraday doubles, for instance, are very good. I've always found their service and customer support outstandingly good and have never had any cause for complaint at all. There are many interesting things available there, some of which I've only ever discovered by very detailed examination of the "small-print"; that's to say, they don't always promote their wares very well, IMHO. They are owned by Regent Markets, which is registered in the Isle of Man. Some of the technical support staff (their "live chat" facility works very well) are indeed in Malta.

i use them every day and so far have had no problems , for intraday trades on fx i bet most peoples commisions work out far higher than the spread you actually end up paying with beton mkts !!

not sure gamma , but you just ask for money to be credited to your own card ( on the site)at its done

anley said:

Betonmarkets looks like a dreadful company to me.

1) They are not regulated

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The same goes with e.g. Binarybet.com (IG Index-affiliated company). If the company goes belly up, their clients will lose their monies.

Interesting Charle, I didn't realise that the Binary Betting firms based in the UK don't have to be regulated.

At least they put their address on their websites though and also don't link to 'Debt Management Firms' or 'Dating Agencies'. That lowers the tone of the BOM company so much and I'm surprised that they don't realise this.

anley said:

Interesting Charle, I didn't realise that the Binary Betting firms based in the UK don't have to be regulated.

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At Binarybet website it says:

"Is binarybet.com regulated by the FSA?
No, all our bets are fixed-odds bets, so binarybet.com is not subject to regulation by the Financial Services Authority."

I asked them what happens to the client monies if the company goes belly up, and the answer was that the client monies would be lost also.

At Binexx.com website it reads, "We are located in the United Kingdom and operate within the confines of the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Act 1963. We hold a bookmaker's permit in England and Wales." Does this make a difference in the case of bankruptcy, I do not know.

I must admit that because of their lack of UK regulation (BOM, I mean), I never leave a lot of money in my account there; but I've been using them for nearly 4 years and there's nothing wrong with their paying-out system (funds go back into your bank account exactly as promptly as advertised). The "commissions" on all the intraday up and intraday down bets are only 2%. When they've become part of the way one makes a living, it's a little difficult to understand why/how people are apparently so critical of them. But then again, there are people who post here who don't believe that other members make a living from intraday spreadbetting either ... ultimately all one can do is register one's disagreement and leave them to it.

totally agree roberto, theres always a risk , some offshore companies very risky , but the commissions do work out cheap as lets face it most trades( intraday )don't win big( meaning normal commisions eat a lot of profit) , anyways if i get any trouble getting my money out i'll let you know , but my feeling is they are basically ok , if i have a million with them,then i'll worry!!

I'd just like to clarify that my comments apply only to those two companies I mentioned, namely binarybet and Betxx. I do not have any experience of BOM. From my own experience I can tell it is possible to lose money when one of your bookies goes bankrupt, so I think regulation - or lack of it - is an issue. However, one should not exaggerate the risk either. I have an acct at binarybet, haven't yet funded it, but will certainly do so, regardless of their lack of protection for customer funds.

Making consistent profits in spread or binary betting is not a miracle, many people do it. For example, I have traded Betfair financials for two years now. I've had losing weeks, but not a single losing month. I couldn't yet make a living off my monthly profits, but I'm not too far away from that situation either.

well i think we agree charlemagne , i'm also saying it's an issue , but for me the risk appears worthwhile at the moment!!

anley said:

Betonmarkets looks like a dreadful company to me.
1) They are not regulated
2) They have no address on their website (how anybody can do business with a financial firm that hides its identity is beyond me). Perhaps it means they have sensitive information to hide.

Click to expand...

If you'll permit a brief correction to your post without it turning into an argument ... I just had the quickest of looks on their website and discovered immediately the full details of their main trading address, the fact that they are both licensed and regulated, and by whom. All you have to do is click on the usual link that says "About us".

I have no connection with BetOnMarkets other than being a frequent and happy customer, but I'm rather surprised that people are so quick to draw adverse conclusions and publish them on the basis of such mistaken information, when 20 seconds' investigation proves it all wrong.

I'll stand corrected if you tell me where the 'About Us' button is, I can't see it anywhere.

I like BoM and I think it has a useful place. I think the initial question was 'is it betting or trading'.

I think we can divide that into two, the intraday bets that cannot be resold to the cashier and the others which can.

With the intraday bets, I think it is trading as in doing the nessasary analysis and choosing the point to pull the trigger. Once the trigger has been pulled I see it as a bet. Because from then on only 2 things can happen either you win or lose. There is no trade management involved, no b/e,no stops being triggered, no trailing stop management, no decision where to take profits. none of that it's just about pulling the trigger.

I had a mate that blew a 40K account, thing is he was brilliant at picking his entry and had no fear at pulling the trigger, but after that he was useless, never traded with stops and had no idea where he was getting out. So often good profits turned to loses. We had a standing joke in the office that as soon as he pulled the trigger we should jank him out the chair and bundle him into a cupboard for the rest of the day and let someone else take over and finish the job.
Anyway for guys like this, who struggle with trade management I think this is a very useful method. People that struggle to manage trades or take a tiny profit as soon as it appears on the screen afraid it will disappear could definately improve their trading using this BoM.

The other types of bets like 'no touches' which are really alot like short puts and calls, and one touches etc which are more like long options, and display all the characteristcs of time decay etc. these are more like traditional trading, with more variables and trade management decisions required.

So I think there is some thing there for everyone

apparantly -Regent Markets (UK) Ltd. (formerly known as Fixed-Odds Capital (UK) Ltd.) was incorporated on 22 August 2000 under the U.K. Companies Act 1985 (Registered #4060275). Regent Markets (UK) Ltd. is a licensed bookmaker in the U.K., with a permit issued under the Betting and Gaming and Lotteries Act 1963. View Bookmakers Permit Regent Markets (UK) Ltd.

Regent Markets (UK) Ltd.'s address is:
1st Floor, Ireland House,
150 New Bond Street, London
W1S 2AQ, Great Britain
Tel 0800 0195838 (freephone)
Fax 020 76813557 or 020 76811574

Yes indeed ... and the details of their Isle of Man head office are also shown on their website. Hardly fair to criticise them for not being FSA-regulated when they are not even eligible to be FSA-regulated.

compared with the risk of losing through bad trades the risk of losing through bom going bust appears small , i suggest most punters using this site highly gear thier trades!!( most of us don't need much help losing , can manage that without any help from anyone else!!