Betfair fixed odds sportsbook launches in UK
Customers will be able to bet on exchange or fixed odds using 'price switch' tab " described as latest step in development of 'next generation sports site' by group operations director.
After announcing that a fixed odds sportsbook would be added to its core exchange betting product earlier this week, Betfair has now launched the service for UK customers.
The fixed odds solution, developed using OpenBet software, has been integrated onto the exchange platform, allowing bettors to switch between the two different prices using a ‘price switch’ tab above the market screen. Betgenius will supply a sportsbook management solution for the product, while platform provider Amelco provides a mobile trading platform.
In a blog posted on the Betfair site group operations director Ian Chuter (pictured) discussed the development of the sportsbook, reiterating sports operations director Nick Hagen’s comments made earlier this week about the addition of fixed odds allowing the operator to gain a larger share of customer wallets:
“Estimates tell us that we currently lose about 30% of our customers’ sports betting wallets to competitors’ products”¦ For us as a business it clearly makes sense to start getting this 30% back by becoming a ‘one stop shop’ “ plugging the gaps and creating a more flexible product. So from today, Betfair customers can now bet whatever way they choose,” Chuter explained.
In preparation for the launch Betfair recruited a trading team headed up by former Ladbrokes head of sports trading product Craig Mucklow, who joined the operator in April this year, based in the firm’s Dublin office.
Fixed odds represents the latest step in Betfair’s development of a ‘next generation sports site’, with the company looking to offer as flexible and intuitive a betting experience as possible. Chuter explained that “Over the past few months [the operator has] made a number of improvements to the Betfair experience, significantly speeding up the site, adding predictive event-based search, and making betting on multiples much easier.
“This is the latest piece in the jigsaw, allowing our customers flexibility to bet their way,” he said, adding that over the coming months Betfair will look to offer fixed odds on all markets covered by the exchange, ultimately aiming to increase the 30,000 markets on which it offers odds to 120,000 by next May.
In order to publicise the redeveloped site Betfair will launch a campaign designed to educate players to “allow customers to make the right choice for them.” The site will explain the benefits of the enhanced offering, and will be followed by a marketing push to publicise the fixed odds sportsbook to the wider public.
Chuter concluded by saying that “it’s impossible to predict the results of this project at this early stage “ but what we do know is that there is a genuine demand, it is a world class product, and we have experienced teams behind it to make it work.”
The proposed launch of a fixed odds offering was announced by interim CEO Stephen Morana in February this year, who explained that it was designed to “complement the exchange, not compete with it.” The company already operates a traditional sportsbook in Italy, where the European Commission has today approved an exchange betting decree introduced in January, and plans to launch a similar offering in South Africa’s Western Cape province, where fixed odds is the only type of online gambling permitted by the country’s government. It has already launched the sportsbook in some of its smaller markets including Cyprus, with the UK launch on schedule and in advance of this summer’s European football championships.