Financial Transaction Exchange at Betfair
Matt Youill, Chief Technologist at Betfair, discusses the core transaction engine behind the Betfair exhange, its similarity with financial exchanges, and how it led to a spin-off company and product called TradeFair in this QCon 2008 presentation
Matt begins his talk by explaining the principles behind Betfair and why their betting transactions are so similar to those of any other financial exchange. He then outlines key problems facing any financial exchange operating across the Web: security, low capability devices (phones, browsers), channel predictability, very low latency requirements, and cost per transaction. Financial exchanges have very large capacity demands and transaction volumes (currently 1,000 transactions per second with a goal of 50,000 tps in the near future).
Betfair transactions, unlike typical financial exchanges, can be for very small amounts, so there is intense pressure to reduce the per-transaction costs for the system.
The presentation concludes with a discussion of technology options and choices incorporated in Betfair's 100x project. Enjoy this informative presentation: Financial Transaction Exchange at Betfair.com.
