SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Royal Ascot arrived last week amidst its usual fanfare, as people flocked in their droves to the Berkshire racecourse for what Oddschecker describes as “a fairly standard affair” on the face of it, with the trend of the previous two year continuing with seven winning favourites.
From a margin perspective it is detailed bookies enjoyed a successful week, with Friday’s three winning favourites the only blip, but “scratch beneath the surface” and “a few more interesting trends emerge”.
One factor deemed “the key thing” is the importance of place terms from both a marketing and trading perspective, with Sky Bet used as a case study for the Royal Hunt and Wokingham races.
Paying seven places, their clickshare rose by a third to over 20 per cent, eclipsing bet365, with Oddschecker concluding “it seems that the importance of comparing place terms will become a more and more vital part of the bet journey for racing punters”.
Addressing the winners and losers of this years meet, from its clickshare perspective Betfair Sportsbook have been hailed “the standout winners” after seeing their share rise almost 3 per cent year-on-year (YoY).
Upon further inspection, it is stated that “this success can be largely attributed to their betting API integration which now allows Betfair customers to place bets directly through Oddschecker”.
Despite a 270bps YoY fall Bet365 “still comfortably maintain their dominant position,” placing almost nine per cent ahead of Sky Bet.
Oddschecker’s breakdown also assesses the landscape from a pricing perspective, which seems to highlight different pricing strategies from the Ladbrokes and Coral: “Sportingbet, 888 and Spreadex were the three most competitively priced books across the week. But again, one needs to dig a little deeper to unearth the real nuggets.
“Coral, who ranked 14th for the most competitive book last year climbed 9 places to rank 5th. This is consistent with their World Cup pricing strategy. Incidentally, Ladbrokes’ pricing generosity deteriorated markedly (again consistent with their WC Football stance). Further evidence that the brands are beginning to pursue different strategies. As you can see from the graphic, Ladbrokes’ clickshare was impacted by the widening prices (falling 118bps YoY).
