Betfair Sportsbook On Top Again In April 2015 Enhanced Odds Report

www.freebets.com

Betfair Sportsbook On Top Again In April 2015 Enhanced Odds Report

• Industry analysis of enhanced odds offers conducted by Freebets.com reveals that

Betfair Sportsbook was once again the place to pick up a price boost in April 2015.

• Betfair priced up nearly double the amount of price boosts that runner-up Paddy Power

promoted in April, although the Irish firm’s enhancements were often bigger and bolder

which helped in closing the gap. Established bookie Coral edged out a trio of other

firms to take third place, with little to pick between Ladbrokes, Winner Sports and

newcomers Apollo Bet, each narrowly missing out on a place in the top three.

• The 2015 Grand National caught the imagination of the nation as the biggest betting

event in April, though only a handful of enhanced odds offers were focused on the big

race. Instead most price boosts concerned football as the domestic leagues across

Europe edged nearer to a climax, with the Champions League quarter-finals providing

the highest profile games in the month.

The Top 4 Findings From Freebets.com April 2015 Enhanced

Odds Offers Report• 1. Betfair Sportsbook ranked April 2015 Enhanced Odds Bookmaker of the Month

ahead of Paddy Power in second place and Coral in third.

• 2. Boylesports provided the best enhanced odds offer in April with new punters able

to stake up to £20 via mobile on '3/1 Liverpool & Man City To Score' as opposed to the

generally available odds of 1/5.

• 3. Paddy Power provided the largest enhancement in April with a '25/1 Celtic, Man Utd

& Juventus Treble' offering new customers up to £204.20 in potential extra winnings.

• 4. Football accounted for the lion's share of enhanced odds offers during April with an

increased 92.4% attributed to the sport, which in-turn saw a reduced 6.5% of offers

relating to horse racing.

April 2015 Enhanced Odds Bookmaker Of The Month

• April’s report analysed a total of 131 price boosts from online bookmakers

offering £2,542.50 in enhanced odds value, which was a reduction on the

previous month's 195 offers representing £3,365.55 of price boosts. Of the

131 offers, Betfair accounted for 52, while Paddy Power had 28 and it was

that sheer volume that won the day for Betfair.

• The graph below makes it easier to see just how many offers Betfair

promoted compared to the competition and shows just how keen the firm is

to increase its customer base. Betfair even supplemented their

enhancements with money back on losing stakes as a free bet and the

opportunity to earn a further £100 in free bets as additional incentives to

tempt in new players.

April 2015 Enhanced Odds Bookmaker Of The Month

April 2015 Enhanced Odds Bookmaker Of The Month

• Betfair’s aggressive approach kept them on top in April, but Paddy Power definitely deserve a mention for

providing the most compelling enhancements time and time again, in fact had Betfair promoted the same

amount of offers as the Irish firm, Paddy Power would have easily come out ahead.

• In some cases Paddy Power’s offers also carried a free bet refund, but it was the enormity of the enhancements

which caught the punter’s attention and lead to the firm dominating our Top 10 Enhanced Odds Offers and Top

10 Biggest Enhancements for April, which are discussed in more detail later in this article.

• Coral also deserve credit for their approach in April with many of their price boosts including a £20 free bet

refund if the new customer lost the bet. Apollo Bet continue to make a name for themselves with some unique

offers on events not covered by other bookies, while Winner and Ladbrokes looked to focus efforts on the bigger

betting events in April.

• The data below shows data resulting from our algorithm for enhanced odds offers in April 2015 which were

honoured in both cash and free bets, indicating that Paddy Power was much closer to Betfair when compared to

the amount of price boosts offered. Generally speaking though, there does appear to be a correlation between

the amount of offers available in the first graph and the total value of the enhancements for the month, with

Boylesports being the obvious exception.

April 2015 Enhanced Odds Bookmaker Of The Month

Enhanced Odds Offer Of The Month

• Having stolen the show with the best price boost in our February report, Boylesports

were back with a bang to offer '3/1 Liverpool & Man City To Score' to new customers

registering via mobile. With Liverpool away to West Brom and Man City at home to

Aston Villa, the generally available odds of both teams finding the net were 1/5 and

punters could stake up to £20 at the 3/1 enhanced odds.

• Paddy Power’s '14/1 Chelsea To Beat Arsenal' was the pick of no fewer than 8 of the

bookie’s promotions to make our top 10. With normal odds at a shade above 2/1, the

offer's value could easily have resulted in a win for Paddy Power and the data below

shows just how good some of the firm’s promotions were throughout April.

• Betfair's best offer in the month was enhanced odds '4/1 Man City To Beat Aston Villa'

as opposed to a normal price of 2/9, while Apollo Bet's '8/1 Chelsea To Keep Clean

Sheet' is an example of the up and coming bookie's alternative approach.

Enhanced Odds Offer Of The Month

Biggest Odds Enhancement Of The Month

• Removing the filter of whether an offer is likely to be won and looking purely

at the potential extra payout of offers in April reveals that Paddy Power's

‘25/1 Celtic, Man Utd & Juventus Treble’ was the best on offer. Punters

taking up the treble with the maximum permitted stake of £10 stood to win

an additional £204.20 as opposed to placing the bet at standard odds and

could have picked up various similar enhancements throughout the month

with Paddy Power contributing to 9 offers in our top 10.

• The only other booie to make an appearance here, Coral, promoted 'Grand

National Treble Odds' which allowed new players to place a win single bet

up to £5 on any horse in the race for a potential payout of triple the normal

price in cash as opposed to free bets offered by the majority of other firms.

Biggest Odds Enhancement Of The Month

General Findings• With the Cheltenham Festival creating a spike in the amount of horse racing offers

in March, normality resumed in April with just 6.5% of the promotions offered by

online bookmakers targeted at the sport, which is rather surprising given that the

Grand National took place during the month.

• This meant that football dominated the focus of price boosts throughout the

month with a coverage of 92.4%, a trend which is expected to continue into May

with domestic and European competitions coming to a conclusion and the Football

league Play-Offs likely to garner much attention from the punting public.

• The only other sport to appear in our findings was golf, with a few offers aimed at

the 2015 Masters in Augusta equating to just 1.1% of the total number of price

boosts in April. The chart below shows the percentage of enhanced odds coverage

by sport, with football once again coming out with a majority share ahead of

horse racing and golf.

General Findings

How Enhanced Odds Offers Work

• Having priced up a particular sporting event accordingly, the bookmaker will then offer enhanced

odds on a selection or a number of selections from that event. The enhancement means that the

punter taking up the offer stands to win more than they would by placing the bet at normal odds,

should they be successful. An example of an enhanced odds offer is shown below.

• At normal odds Chelsea are priced at 2/1 to beat Arsenal in the Premier League, meaning a £10

stake would return £30 if they win. The bookmaker may offer enhanced odds 4/1 Chelsea to beat

Arsenal, which would return £50 from a £10 stake, giving a punter the potential to double their

profit.

• In most cases the bookmaker will put a cap on the amount a customer can stake at the enhanced

odds (typically £10) any stakes above that cap have the remainder settled at the normal price.

Bookmakers also tend to settle the bet at the normal price immediately before later topping up

the customer’s account to reflect the enhancement, although this can vary depending on the

company in question. Some firms also pay the enhancement as a free bet rather than as cash

which can be withdrawn with no rollover requirements.

How We Calculate Value Of The Enhanced Offer

• The value of the enhanced offer depends on the level of odds

enhancement, the maximum stake and the probability of the offer

being claimed. To illustrate if we use the same example as above

£10 maximum stake enhanced odds offer was offering 4/1 on

Chelsea to beat Arsenal, and the normal odds at the time of the

offer for this bet were 2/1 (equivalent to 33% probability), the

expected cost to the bookmaker of someone taking up this offer

would be the enhanced odds (4/1 - 2/1 = 2/1 enhancement) x £10 x

33% probability = £6.66. This is the measure we have used to

calculate which offers will cost the bookmakers the most, and are

really are providing the best value to the punters!

About The Analysis• Freebets.com conducts in-depth analysis of Enhanced Odds offers promoted on the websites of

leading online bookmakers every month. The list of monitored bookmakers reads; 10Bet,

188BET, 888sport, bet365, Betfair Sportsbook, Betfred, BetVictor, Betway, Boylesports, Coral,

Ladbrokes, Paddy Power, Sky Bet, Sportingbet, Stan James, Titan Bet, Unibet, William Hill and

Winner. The analysis focused specifically on Enhanced Odds offers and other promotions such

as Money Back specials, bonuses, concessions and guarantees are not included.

• In order to determine its Bookmaker of the Month for Enhanced Odds Offers, www.freebets.com

uses an algorithm which takes into account the maximum permitted stake, chance of winning

the bet, extra potential winnings from the enhancement and whether or not it is paid in free

bets for all enhanced odds offers available that month.

• The www.freebets.com team draws on over 50 years’ experience in the betting industry to

attribute weightings for the various factors in the formula in order to provide comparative

values to the complex array of promotions.

About The Analysis

• DISCLAIMER – whilst every effort is

taken to prepare detailed and

accurate information, any third party

relying on this information does so

entirely at their own risk.