William Hill most trusted brand, says YouGov
Operator comes out top in YouGov and Barclays survey which also finds free bet offers to have the biggest influence on new account sign-ups
William Hill is the most trusted online brand in the UK online market, according to a recent survey which also found free bets to be the biggest driver of new account sign-ups.
The survey, which was conducted by YouGov and Barclays, also saw Betfair judged to offer the most attractive odds while just a quarter of participants compared betting odds before placing a bet.
From the 1,085 consumers surveyed, 46% said free bet offers was the biggest factor when choosing an online account with brand reputation (37%), favourable odds (27%) and quality of website (25%) also viewed as major considerations.
Despite the millions ploughed into advertising by operators, this factor was judged to be one of the least important with just 4% of the vote, although Barclays noted customers could be less likely to admit to being influenced by advertising.
Participants viewed William Hill as having the best brand reputation with 22% voting it to be the most trustworthy, followed by Paddy Power (16%), Betfair (16%) and bet365 (13%).
However, Betfair (29%) came out top when consumers were asked to name which operator offered the best odds, followed by Paddy Power (21%), bet365 (15%) and William Hill (9%).
And although 27% of consumers said favourable odds were important when opening an account, only 25% of those surveyed said they regularly checked operators’ prices against those offered by rivals.
Of those that did compare odds, 43% said they would use a range of websites while 39% said they would log on to either the Oddschecker desktop or mobile site – only 3% said they used alternative price comparison websites.
Meanwhile, the widely held view that Paddy Power leads its peers on marketing was backed-up by the survey after 52% of consumers named the Irish operator as producing the best advertising, well ahead of bet365 (14%) and Ladbrokes (6%).