SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Oddschecker has released its report of betting trends during the 2021 Cheltenham Festival, revealing positive results for numerous operators with bet365 heading the betslip leaderboard.
The Stoke-on-Trent based online bookmaker accumulated the largest share of betslip clicks on the odds comparison website throughout the four-day festival at 19.4%, whilst Flutter Entertainment’s Sky Bet and Paddy Power finished second and third with 13.1% and 12.% respectively.
Meanwhile, Betfair Sportsbook took fourth place, generating 11.4% of betslips, whilst Oddschecker sponsor William Hill came in fifth, but benefited from extensive customer engagement as a result of the partnership.
The campaign – the first exclusive app takeover campaign conducted by the odds comparison website – enabled William Hill to gain ‘extensive exposure to the higher value app-based punter,’ claiming a 42% share of app acquisition over the week.
Although finishing outside of the top five, Irish operator BoyleSports had a successful week, rising from 14th place in 2020 to seventh place.
Additionally, bet365 offered the ‘tightest pricing’ of all sportsbooks for both Win and Each Way betting, with an average turnout of 118.2%, followed by BetVictor at 119.8% and 10bet at 120.2%.
Finally, in terms of places, Flutter Entertainment’s three brands paid out the most, with Sky Bet leading the table at 4.5 horses per race, with Betfair and Paddy Power following with 4.3 and 4.2.
Overall, Oddschecker’s result continues to demonstrate the huge interest in this year’s edition of the festival, with QuickBets placed via its platform growing by 36% year-on-year, and an uplift of 74% recorded against the 2020 figure.
Furthermore, over 100,000 YouTube views were recorded across the site’s Cheltenham content, whilst the website also recorded over 31,000 new customer registrations, a 93% increase on the previous year.
It was reported last week that the Racecourse Media Group (RMG) secured 500,000 streams on individual races utilising its partnership with Phenix, a year-on-year growth rate of 60%.
The first day of the festival attracted a viewership of 1.1 million, with over 1.5 million watching the Champions Hurdle, the largest audience since records began in 2003.
