Betfair retains Oddschecker lead despite horseracing slide
Operator sees gap at the top halved by bet365 with Cheltenham looming.
Bet365 has halved the five percent gap to leaders Betfair at the top of February’s Oddschecker Top 10 after a strong horseracing performance.
The Stoke-based operator gained ground on its London-listed rival as the industry prepares for next week’s Cheltenham festival, where last year punters bet a total of around £600m on the week’s racing.
Elsewhere, Coral and Ladbrokes both moved up in the rankings, with 4.76% and 4.29% of UK market clicks respectively, though both are comfortably behind Betfair’s 20.1% total.
Despite its lead being cut this month, Betfair’s proposed acquisition of Blue Square Bet could help the operator maintain its advantage in the coming months by strengthening its player base. The newly-launched fixed-odds sportsbook has performed strongly, with sports revenue up 39% quarter-on-quarter to £7.5m in the operator’s third-quarter numbers.
Ladbrokes’ rise to eighth place comes in part due to a strong rugby union showing as the Six Nations Championship got underway last month, and coincides with the continued rollout of the operator’s new sportsbook site to UK bettors.
BetVictor remains in third after reaching its record high position in January, however Paddy Power made up some ground by virtue of a strong showing in the specials market, largely as a consequence of betting on the identity of the next Pope.
Betfred was the biggest faller, dropping two places to ninth, however the Gibraltar licensee will hope for a strong Cheltenham after announcing the launch of its new TV channel this week.
February’s Oddschecker Top 10:
| Operator | Market share |
| Betfair | 20.10% |
| bet365 | 17.63% |
| BetVictor | 9.44% |
| Paddy Power | 9.14% |
| William Hill | 7.59% |
| Stan James | 5.96% |
| Coral | 4.76% |
| Ladbrokes | 4.29% |
| Betfred | 4.27% |
| SkyBet | 3.15% |