SEO Tracker: Oddschecker’s rivals close gap as sportsbook market grows

The sportsbook market experienced considerable growth in 2021, as the European Gaming and Betting Association reported a revenue increase of 7.5% for the year, with a growth of 19% for online betting. This is also reflected in a 22% increase in search terms within the market between March and December 2021.

Such growth is big news for all players in the market, and while long-time leaders Oddschecker have seen a slight increase in visibility, it is their rivals who have benefited the most from the greater number of searches that the sector is currently seeing.

Paddy Power Betfair, Oddschecker’s closest rivals, have continued to steadily eat into the gap between the two brands, with an increase of nearly 2,000 estimated monthly clicks since March 2021. The brand has also seen an improvement in its weighted average rank from 20 to 14, the best figure out of the top 10 brands. This may well be part of a more rounded SEO strategy, as although the brand has less than half of the position one rankings it held last March (with a proportionate drop in traffic from these terms), it has still increased overall visibility and average ranking.

This leaves it in a position where if it can reclaim these first position terms, it can really put some distance between itself and competitors like Betfred and William Hill. However, losing any further top rankings could give these brands the upper hand and see Paddy Power Betfair lose ground.

Chasing pack also make gains

Betfred, William Hill and Sky Bet all follow this trend of increased visibility and improved average ranking as well, keeping pace with Paddy Power Betfair as they gain ground on Oddschecker. Betfred, in particular, has benefited from gaining 17 new terms ranking in position one, as well as searches for ‘betting’ more than doubling to bring in just shy of 8,000 monthly clicks as the second most important search term in the sector.

While a large portion of Betfred’s increased visibility has come from the increased interest in ‘betting’ as a search term, the visibility increases that William Hill and Sky Bet have seen are much more evenly distributed across the search terms they rank for. Sky Bet has gained 4,600 extra monthly clicks from terms they rank in the top three positions for, with the remaining 2,075 new clicks coming from terms which they don’t rank as highly for.

Sky Bet will of course look at this as a successful period, with their 37% increase in visibility considerably higher than the increase experienced by the industry as a whole. William Hill, however, despite a notable rise in monthly clicks, just matches the trend that the sportsbook sector has seen with a 22% growth in traffic. Although more traffic is good news, simply holding steady with the industry standard and losing 79 ranking keywords means that when compared to Betfred, William Hill actually finds itself less competitive than in March 2021.

Betway falls out of top 10

While the sector has seen considerable growth, and the rivals that were around Betway last March have been able to convert that into increased traffic, the brand is a notable absentee from the top 10 brands coming into 2022.

In the past 10 months, the brand has lost 78% of its organic traffic and no longer ranks for 588 of the 715 keywords that generated this traffic. While this sounds alarming, the simple explanation is that in March 2021 when we last ran our checks, Betway was right at the top of a peak for organic traffic and keyword rankings. Since then, it has simply declined to a level similar to that which it held throughout the majority of 2020. The brand also still has a reasonable number of keywords in the most important positions, with 14 in position one and 36 in the top three, out of 127 keywords.

Ace Odds and Racing Post show niche strength

Two noteworthy brands that show the value of being the expert voice within a niche are Ace Odds and Racing Post. As we can see from Ace Odds’ position on the far left of the above graph, the brand generates a considerable amount of traffic from far fewer keywords than their rivals. In fact, the vast majority of their traffic comes from the search term ‘betting calculator’, which is so highly searched that despite ranking second to Oddschecker, Ace Odds receives an estimated 16,700 clicks for it.

While the brand could benefit from ranking from a greater number of terms to bring them closer to Oddschecker in other areas, ranking well for the largest term in the sector, which is the most relevant to the brand, brings them enough traffic to make it the seventh most visible brand in the sector.

Racing Post, on the other hand, has benefited from horseracing being the most popular area of sports betting in the UK, with the UK Gambling Commission finding that horseracing is the most popular sport for 69.9% of bettors. As a highly respected brand, Racing Post is in a position where it can really make the most of this UK interest in horseracing, ranking highly for terms such as ‘Cheltenham races’, ‘Cheltenham odds’, and the all-important ‘betting calculator’.

As much as the whole sector is growing and the majority of brands are benefiting from increased visibility as a result, the success of Ace Odds and Racing Post shows how being an expert within an in-demand niche can bring enough visibility to compete with competitors that have a much wider offering.