SEO Tracker: Oddschecker extends its lead in the betting search market

For some time, our analysis of the search results for the betting market have followed a similar theme, with some strong competition among the main bookmaking brands being overshadowed by the strength of one affiliate brand in particular – Oddschecker.

Oddschecker has dominated the search results for the 986 keywords that we monitor in the sports betting market for the last three years. The most recent analysis of any betting results that Stickyeyes has conducted where Oddschecker wasn’t leading the market was back in November 2016. That analysis coincided with an update to Google’s Penguin update and, even then, it was clear the odds comparison service was on the rise.

Since then, we have seen Oddschecker continue to go from strength to strength in the market, with various factors in the market and the Google search algorithm playing to the brand’s strengths.

The comparison service was one of the few brands to be unscathed by the issues surrounding affiliates that emerged in the latter part of 2017. Concerned about trust and responsibility issues of being associated with affiliate sites promoting unrealistic “tips”, several bookmakers, including Sky Bet and Paddy Power, overhauled or even closed their affiliate schemes.

The brand also has a proposition that has aligned with many of Google’s algorithmic changes, particularly the ‘EAT’ update and the widening of features such as featured snippets, supplementary links and the growth of multiple rankings for keywords.

So where does this leave the market today?

The lead is stretched further

Twelve months ago, we noted that the competition within the market had actually grown, with bookmaking brands in particular capitalising on the fall of many affiliate brands that were previously commanding significant search engine real estate and visibility.

In November 2019, we see bookmaking brands continue to pick up visibility but it appears to be from each other rather than the affiliates.

Oddschecker continues to lead the market, with its lead over Paddy Power increasing slightly. We’ve also seen another affiliate brand, OLBG, increase its visibility while Sportinglife.com has moved into the top 10.

Sporting Life is a significant gainer in terms of position, jumping from position 17 to 10^th in the market but in terms of visibility gain, it is Sky Bet that is the big winner.

The brand has gained around 12,900 visits from organic non-brand search, benefiting from an increase in the number of top-three rankings (up from 131 to 143) as well as multiple listings for a number of high-volume keyword terms, including the term “bets”.

William Hill and Betfair lose out

The notable fallers within the top 10 are Betfair and William Hill, which have lost 21,959 and 10,739 estimated clicks respectively.

Betfair has lost a significant number of high-ranking positions, with the number of top-three rankings held by the brand falling from 119 to just 47 in November 2019. This includes the loss of position one for the term “betting” and position two rankings for terms such as “premier league odds”, “football betting”, and a third-position ranking for “betting odds”.

It is a similar story with William Hill, although the brand still holds prominent position for some high-volume terms. The brand has 222 top-three keyword rankings compared to 311 last year.

A large part of the brand’s visibility drop has been down to the loss of top-three rankings for two high-volume keywords, “betting” (down from three to 11) and “mobile betting” (down from position one to position 10).

Is the drive for quality and trust consolidating the market

This analysis has revealed some recurring and familiar themes; Oddschecker leading the market, Paddy Power and Sky Bet leading the chasing pack, with quality affiliates making up the top 10.

Regular readers may feel a sense of deja-vu, but this appears to be where the search market is headed. Google has gone on record that it wants to clean-up and bring trust to the search results. The industry itself, conscious of the increased scrutiny of the industry and the need to ensure that the industry is operating responsibly, is equally taking measures to ensure that it can keep the trust of consumers. Those factors will, invariably, benefit the bigger brands when it comes to the search market. It will make it harder for smaller operators and lower-quality affiliates to gain position and that will only strengthen the position of those credible brands that consumers come to know and trust.