Betfair beats Bet365, Ladbrokes as year's top Oddschecker site 27/05/2009

Jon Parker

Betfair, Bet365, Ladbrokes and Paddy Power are the year’s most popular brands on Oddschecker, a ranking of the site’s top bookmakers seen exclusively by eGaming Review has revealed.

Over the 12 months ending end of April, the four brands together accounted for nearly half of all the traffic from the odds comparison site, which boasts 500,000 unique users a month.

Betfair is the leading bookie, with 17% of traffic, followed by Bet365 with 12%, and Ladbrokes and Paddy Power on 9% each.

Oddschecker spokesperson Caitlin Hanks told eGaming Review: “Our users are massively price-conscious and are also very interested in the best coverage. The sites that are doing best are those offering the best odds and the widest range of markets.”

William Hill was the next most popular e-bookie, with 8% of clicks, followed by Stan James, which has 7%.

However Stan James is likely to be a front runner in coming months, after increasing its market share significantly from February when it incorporated liquidity from Bet Direct, the betting site it acquired from 32 Red in September 2007 (more). Its share for February was 8.6%, up from 6.9% the month before, and rose to 8.9% in March, and to 10.3% in April.

Competition in the tiers below is fierce. Blue Square , Skybet and Sportingbet all have 5% of clicks each, with Betfred, Boylesports, Coral, Totesport and VC Bet all close behind with 4% each.

In an effort to differentiate themselves from competitors, Oddschecker has found that bookies are offering a wider range of markets than previously.

“People are betting on a wider variety of markets than they used to five years ago. Bookies are pricing a wider range of races, more football events are priced than before and more and more firms are covering sports like handball and bandy that they never used to bother with," Hanks said.

"Firms in the top ten are covering a lot of events and markets, and people who aren’t in the top ten might want to look at that.”

The full year's statistics will be published in the July edition of eGaming Review.

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Posted: 27/05/2009