New football season sees bet365 stretch Oddschecker lead

Bet365 has extended its lead at the top of the Oddschecker monthly slip-click rankings after making a strong start to the new domestic football season.

The Stoke-headquartered operator attracted 21.18% of all bet referrals in August, an increase on the 20.85% recorded the during previous month and enough to see it move clear of nearest rival Betfair, whose market share fell from 17.90% to 16.42%.

Bet365 was boosted by a market leading UK football performance, a sport normally dominated by BetVictor, as it took a 15.88% share of referrals with BetVictor having to settle for second best on 12.62%.

However, the return of the domestic football season did help BetVictor climb from sixth to fourth place in the overall standings on 8.71%, just behind Paddy Power which retained third place with 8.91%.

The rise of BetVictor came at the expense of William Hill which fell from fourth in July (8.31%) to sixth in August (7.42%), with Sky Bet sandwiched in between in fifth on 8.00%.

Potential merger partners Coral (5.50%) and Ladbrokes (4.76%) were unchanged in seventh and eighth positions while Betfred and Stan James completed the top 10 with shares of 3.93% and 2.48% respectively.

August also saw increased activity on political betting markets as the race to become Labour’s leader, deputy leader and London mayoral candidate hit the headlines – predominantly due to a huge gamble on backbencher Jeremy Corbyn becoming Labour leader.

And it was Betfair’s exchange which saw most of the action as it attracted 28.63% of Oddschecker’s political bet referrals, way ahead of bet365 on 16.34% with Ladbrokes next on 10.69%.