Betting Special other . You ’ ve got the likes of PaddyPower and Sky Bet in one camp and bet365 in the other , and those bookies that are in the middle and aren ’ t resonating from a betslip-click perspective will be found out eventually .
Have you embarked on this type of project before ? No , which is a bit odd really . Although we were allowing punters to check the odds , we weren ’ t doing much analysis ourselves . We ’ re in a unique position to give a credible , unbiased view of the industry and so it made sense for us to start this analysis and there will be plenty of further opportunities for us to utilise our unique and independent ‘ industry-referee ’ position .
Operators very much value the data we provide them , but it is probably too late by the time they get the monthly data we have been sending . We are looking at launching something soon that will be real time .
Are your insights applicable from the operator as well as the affiliate side ? Of course , certain bookies via their brand power can offer inferior odds and still attract significant turnover – I guess the trade-off is whether to spend money on product / marketing or price . However , you could argue that for bettors who conduct all of their business within the Oddschecker ecosystem the benefit of product functionality is diluted . Our new app hopes to keep Oddschecker users in one place , our place , for longer .
Were there patterns / findings that emerged from the data that you found particularly surprising or didn ’ t expect to find before embarking on the project ? The first time I performed this analysis was at the beginning of Premier League season . When I looked at the data for the first half of the season there was no comparison , so it was interesting to see where the brands were placed but I couldn ’ t see any movement period-on-period . But looking back at the second half of the season , January to May versus August to December , there were some quite significant shifts . The most significant was 888 and 32Red becoming a lot wider in their pricing offering . They were two of the most competitive sportsbooks and they became sort of middle-of-the-road by widening their prices on average about two percentage points . 888 and 32Red , as well as Unibet , all rely on Kambi as their pricing provider , so historically they had always had exactly the same prices for the same markets . I picked this up with Kambi and it appears they are now extending to operators the ability to have some discretion over their pricing . So evidently 888 and 32Red have chosen tactically and on a territoryby-territory basis to offer weaker pricing for the UK market and as things stand it hasn ’ t been to the detriment of betslip clicks . They have managed to take margin without haemorrhaging or losing market share . Obviously that may change , but that is how things sit at the moment . In contrast to their moves , Betfair has gone the other way . It has really tightened its pricing and is now , with the exception of Marathonbet , the tightest priced sportsbook on our site .
How have things changed since UK operators started trying to move away from free bet offers ? Free bets offers have diminished , there is no question about that , and enhanced price offerings are probably being more effectively deployed around big events rather than being ‘ always-on ’ where they began to be
seen as wallpaper . I see a lot more emphasis on pricing , as we have seen a huge amount of erosion in overrounds in the last few years . I think it is going to be the enhanced place terms that are going to be the incentive to both new and repeat customers in future . It is not necessarily purely an acquisition tool , it is an enhanced CRM tool as well .
NAME : GUY HARDING DATE : 12 JULY 2017 WHEN : @ 16.00
iGamingBusiness | Issue 105 | July / August 2017 | 53