SEO Tracker: Paddy Power Betfair leads the bookmakers but multiple rankings see Oddschecker reign supreme

Since Paddy Power and Betfair merged in early 2016, the group has been one of the major players in the sportsbook market, particularly as far as the online search market has been concerned.

Paddy Power was known for its off-piste approach to marketing and creating content that generated huge levels of engagement and applause across the media and social media, and this had historically seen the brand develop significant levels of brand authority through natural, high quality links and brand recognition. Paddy Power has for a long time been among the most visible brands in most of the sub-sectors of egaming that it operates in, but particularly in sportsbook.

For Betfair, it was a slightly different story. Prior to the merger with Paddy Power, it was slightly more conspicuous in the search results. The betting exchange appealed more to a particular customer segment, while its sportsbook product was in its infancy. But now things have changed.

The two brands are now the second and third biggest brands in the sportsbook search market, and the two biggest sportsbook brands, behind the affiliate comparison site Oddschecker. Betfair commands an estimated traffic from organic, non-brand search in the region of 55,000, while Paddy Power enjoys just under 54,000.

Combined, the group generates more traffic from the biggest non-brand keywords in the market than Sky Bet, Betway, 888sport, William Hill and bwin combined.

So how have they done this?

Timing it right on the big events

In the aftermath of a busy period of racing, we see how both Paddy Power and Betfair were able to generate such strong levels of visibility.

Both the Cheltenham Festival and the Grand National fuel big spikes in search activity around the sportsbook market, and both Betfair and Paddy Power were in prime position to capitalise on these spikes.

Betfair in particular ranks prominently in high-volume Grand National terms, including “bet on the grand national”, “the grand national betting” and “grand national bets”, with Paddy Power also ranking in prime position for these and similar terms.

Betfair also generates a good proportion from some high-volume generics, with a number-one ranking for the keyword “betting” contributing 17% of the brand’s visibility alone.

Paddy Power also performs well on some high volume generics and medium volume sport-specific terms, ranking in position one for “golf bet” (a term that peaked during the Masters in April and the PGA Championship in May), “racing betting”, “horse racing betting” and “football betting”.

Multiple rankings pay dividends for Oddschecker

Oddschecker remains the leading brand in the market, although data from Searchmetrics suggests that it has seen a gradual decline in traffic since a peak in January 2019.

We have spoken before about the way in which Oddschecker succeeds in securing rankings from across the keyword set, and this has always underpinned the brand’s strength in the search market. This keyword coverage builds relevancy and brand authority and, along with the brand’s proposition of acting in the consumer’s interest to find the best price, earns it prominent rankings across the keyword set.