Bet365 closer than ever to Oddschecker top spot

BET365 IS CLOSER THAN it has ever been to taking Betfair’s place as the most popular sportsbetting operator on leading odds comparison site Oddschecker, lagging just 0.6 of a percentage point behind the betting exchange in October.

Oddschecker is the UK’s most popular odds comparison site, boasting more than 600,000 unique users a month.

The site’s October figures, seen by eGaming Review exclusively, reveal a dip in Betfair’s share of total traffic, from 15.3% of total Oddschecker traffic in September to 14.1%, while Bet365’s experienced a rise from 13.4% to 13.5% in the same period, the fifth month in a row that the site’s share has increased.

The changes brings the two operators closer even than in May, when Bet365 was set to take Betfair’s place as the leading bookmaker on Oddschecker after six-months growth in market share at Betfair’s expense, but lost out when Betfair also increased its share in June at the expense of other rivals, preserving its lead in the last month before Bet365 was unable to maintain growth in July.

Oddschecker commercial manager Simon Miller said: “The big news is that it has got tighter at the top, with the gap between Bet365 and Betfair the smallest it has ever been.

“This is down to Betfair market share diminishing, particularly in the second half of October, where its market share of horse racing bets shrunk. Betfair seem to have taken the biggest hits on Sunday racing, when the meetings are more minor ““ perhaps the traditional market-makers on Betfair are having lie-ins.”

As reported on EGRmagazine.com, both Bet365 and Betfair are shortlisted for this year’s Operator of the Year trophy at the EGR Awards, while Betfair is also shortlised for UK Sports Operator of the Year.

Among other bookies, William Hill fell from third to fourth place despite managing to reverse a three-month decline, losing out to Stan James, which jumped up from fifth.

Ladbrokes rose from seventh to fifth place by continuing its four month increase. Like tenth-placed Betfred, Ladbrokes faired particularly well over the weekend of the 17^th October, when the two bookies were competitive on prices for meetings at Cheltenham and Newmarket, and also saw its market share of UK football rise steadily through the month.

Coral, which won back its place among the top 10 bookmakers in September on the back of the resumption of Premiership football, stuck at seventh place despite increasing its share to 5.5%.

October’s top 10 bookmakers on Oddschecker (share of referred traffic)

1) Betfair (14.1%)

2) Bet365 (13.5%)

3) Stan James (9.5%

4) William Hill (9.3%)

5) Ladbrokes (8.8%)

6) Paddy Power (8.5%)

7) Coral (5.5%)

8) SkyBet (4.8%)

9) Sportingbet (4.3%)

10) Betfred (4.3)

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