良好的机遇和优秀的创意是一家公司成功的基础，更是促进企业成功的动力。然而，这两者的结合往往属于少数情况的。但一些企业尽管有此二者的结合，它们也很少能创建像必发博彩公司那样成功的企业。必发博彩公司是英国最成功的互联网创业公司之一。

　　必发博彩公司创始人诞生成立一家博彩公司的想法刚好是在网络泡沫结束之后。和其他所有的创意点子相比，这个想法简单得让人难以置信。尽管互联网市场发生了翻天覆地的变化，也革命性地改变了消费者和企业之间的关系，但此场互联网变革并没有触及到博彩世界。如果亚马逊可以关闭书店而直接使用互联网向公众销售图书，为什么博彩行业不使用互联网下注呢？

　　有些创意不止一个人能想到，安德鲁是想到这个创意的其中之一。他不仅是一个古怪的天才，还是一个狂热的赌徒以及计算机专家。他从事的工作白天很清闲。他的工作是为英国政府的情报部门收集情报。他在每天傍晚五点把自己锁定办公室里埋头工作，直至第二天凌晨。由于厌倦了小农舍的独自生活，他产生了成立一家网络博彩交易所以改变现有的投注交易模式。他还是一个桥牌高手，因此他有缘与摩根大通的交易者爱德华·雷相识。爱德华·雷很喜欢他的想法，于是放弃了投资银行的工作，帮助安德鲁创建必发网络博彩公司。

　　在旧金山，一个精明的业务顾问家也产生了类似的想法，他通过风险投资筹集了4000万美元创业资金创办了flutter公司，与安德鲁和爱德华创建的必发公司开始了激烈的竞争。尽管看似胜负未分，但最具商业投资价值的地方往往是投资者群聚的地方。这两个网络博彩公司的竞争趋势说明一山不容二虎。大概十年后，flutter公司破产倒闭了，必发成为该行业的巨头。

　　究其原因，尽管两家公司之间存在很大相似性，但必发在创意方面略胜一筹。flutter公司的支持者多是来自城市，他们依然沉迷于互联网热潮中，还没有寻找到互联网尚未触及的领域。必发的榜样是eBay，一个联系买家与卖家的在线拍卖网站。按照同样的原则，必发为赌徒们提供一个博彩下注的中介平台。与此同时，必发公司的创建过程还直接借鉴了资本市场的模式。一个庄家设了一个1000美元的赌注可能会由十个愿意投注的赌客分摊。

　　译文：

　　CHANCE encounters and good ideas explain the birth of most successful companies. Yet in few cases did they come together quite as serendipitously as in the creation of Betfair, one of Britain’s most successful internet start-ups.

　　The idea was of its time, arriving at the end of the dotcom boom. And like all good ideas, it was deceptively simple. Although the internet was turning markets upside down and revolutionising relationships between consumers and companies, it had barely touched the world of betting. If Amazon could cut out bookshops and sell books directly to the public, why should one not use the internet to let people place bets with one another?

　　As happens with good ideas, it occurred to several people. One of them was Andrew Black, an eccentric genius, gambler and computer expert with too much time on his hands. While working on something secret for GCHQ, the British government’s spying headquarters, he was locked out of his office every evening at five. Bored living alone in a little farmhouse, he came up with a model for a betting exchange. He was also a dab hand at bridge, which led to a chance encounter with Edward Wray, a trader at JPMorgan who liked his idea enough to leave the investment bank and help start Betfair.

　　A similar idea took root across the Atlantic. Vince Monical, a polished business consultant in San Francisco, raised $40m from venture capitalists to start Flutter. When the Betfair duo tried to raise money they realised they had been beaten to the capital markets and were politely shown the door. Though neither exchange had yet been launched, the tendency of traders to congregate where business is briskest made it clear that only one could triumph.

　　But almost a decade later Flutter, the likeliest-seeming victor, is gone, taken over by its erstwhile rival. The reason is that, despite the similarities between the two, Betfair’s idea was better in one crucial respect. The backers of Flutter, coming from a city still drunk on the dotcom boom, were simply looking for any market that was as yet untouched by the internet. Their model was eBay, an online auction site that matched buyers with sellers. Following the same principle, they hoped with Flutter to match a person offering a bet of, say, $10 with someone who wanted to place a bet of the same value. Big gamblers were often forced to place irritatingly small bets. Betfair’s idea for an exchange came straight out of the capital markets. A person offering a bet of $1,000 might be matched with tens of people each wishing to bet a fraction of that amount.