Bookies get ready for £200m Cheltenham battle

Bookmakers are preparing to fight it out for a share of an estimated £200m in stakes this week as jump racing’s blue ribbon event gets underway today.

The four-day Cheltenham Festival, described as “this year’s World Cup” by Betfair chief executive Breon Corcoran, has already seen operators ramp-up marketing activity and unveil a number of customer inducements as they seek to win all-important market share.

Speaking to eGaming Review last week, Corcoran said his firm was in “very good shape” ahead of the Cheltenham “battle” with the operator having recently made tweaks to its horseracing product.

Earlier this month Betfair launched each-way betting on the exchange for the first time while punters on the sportsbook will be able to close out their horseracing bets after the off in an extension to its popular cash-out product.

The operator has also supported its ‘Tap Tap Boom’ marketing campaign, which features horses driving rally cars, by offering customers a free bet should they back a winner at 3/1 or greater, or three free bets if on day one.

“This is the most generous offer Betfair has ever offered for the Cheltenham Festival,” Corcoran said.

William Hill and Sky Bet have also taken an aggressive approach, each investing in TV adverts to promote their identical offer of money back as a free bet on all losing bets in tomorrow’s first race.

BetVictor recently kicked-off a new TV campaign to highlight its horseracing product and is also offering new customers 6/1 on Willie Mullins training a winner on Tuesday – boosted from 1/20.

“With no major summer football festival to come, Cheltenham could easily be ‘this year’s World Cup’ but if Irish trainer Willie Mullins saddles four winners on the opening day courtesy of his four short-priced favourites then Cheltenham Tuesday will be a blood-bath for the layers,” Charlie McCann, head of online PR at BetVictor, said.

“We have broken new ground with our latest TV ad in support of our opening day Mullins’ offer and for the first time we have moved away from our best-price football message in our new suite of TV ads.”

Ladbrokes, meanwhile, has also been on the front foot, despite having withdrawn its marketing efforts during last year’s festival. The operator is offering money back if Sprinter Sacre finishes first or second in the Champion Chase.

A spokesperson for Ladbrokes said it would be foolish for the operator to plan its marketing strategy too far ahead this year and would have to “pick its battles”.

“We’re going to be competitive on price and will see how the week unfolds,” the spokesperson said.

“It wouldn’t be wise to make cast-iron commitments to how we might invest later in the week until we see how the first day or two go, but we are confident that we are starting off in a good place and that customers will continue to respond positively.”

Stockholm-listed operator Unibet has also actively ramped up its horse racing efforts in recent months after the recently firm launched a new racing-dedicated iOS app which enables customers to watch and bet within the app and read articles, news, tips and odds.

The operator is offering punters a number of enticing promotions over the four days such as backing Faugheen to win Tuesday’s Champion hurdle at a boosted 5/1 (6/5 at time of writing) while its CRM team is busy with a bespoke set of campaigns targeting many segments of its existing customer database.

However, according to Unibet’s head of UK sportsbook marketing Ed Nicholson, the sector’s approach to customer acquisition and retention during Cheltenham has changed dramatically in recent years.

“In years gone-by sportsbooks (and off line betting shops) fell over themselves to offer new customers incredible boosts and bonuses, but as the industry has learnt much more about the price of attaining these customers and their lifetime values, the size of these offers and promotions have decreased in value, but increased in number,” he said.