What's the full SP with Paddy Power Betfair's new non-show prices?
Betting editor Keith Melrose investigates the changes
Last Saturday, while we were all watching British Champions Day, Flutter Entertainment (the group behind Paddy Power and Betfair) sent out a limited press release stating that, effective from Monday, they would be providing their own prices on UK and Irish racing right up until off time.
Despite the overwhelming benefit to punters the release promised ('a price greater than or equal to the traditional board price, on average, 75 per cent of the time'), the announcement very much counts as what would be termed a 'soft launch', one with the minimum fanfare.
The story appeared in Sunday's Racing Post and duly raised a few eyebrows. Was the decision not to use show prices an attack on the starting-price system, so long an uneasy ally of the off-course firms?
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