SBC News Freebets.com - UK bookmaker promotion & value report October 2014

Freebets.com – UK bookmaker promotion & value report October 2014

Dave Archer
Dave Archer

Winner Sports has been crowned as Freebets.com enhanced odds bookie for a second consecutive month following our industry analysis into enhanced odds offers in October.

As an alternative to an already appealing sign-up offer which entitles qualifying customers to a 400% bonus on their first bet, Winner promoted enhanced odds offers for new customers on high-profile sporting events throughout the entire month. The firm once again came out well ahead of the chasing pack, with two-time winner of the monthly award Paddy Power some way behind in second place and ahead of the improving 888Sport in third.

With the Flat racing season fizzling out and National Hunt horses dusting off the cobwebs following their summer break, horse racing took a bit of a back seat and football accounted for almost all of the enhanced odds offers in October, with darts contributing to a mere fraction.

The Top 4 Findings From Freebets.com October 2014 Enhanced Odds Offers Report

1. Winner ranked October 2014 Enhanced Odds Bookmaker of the Month ahead of Paddy Power in second place and 888Sport in third

2. BetBright’s ‘4/1 England To Beat San Marino’ offer is rated Enhanced Odds Offer Of The Month for October 2014.

3.Paddy Power offered the largest odds enhancement in October with their ‘28/1 Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Greece To Win’ offer.

4. Football increased in coverage and remained responsible for the majority of enhanced odds offers in October by the biggest margin yet with 95% being focused on the sport ahead of horse racing with just 4%.

If you’d like to find out more about how enhanced offers work and how we calculate the value of enhanced offers, please read the relevant sections at the end of this article.

October 2014 Enhanced Odds Bookmaker Of The Month

Winner Sports pretty much picked up where they left off in September by continuing to offer a good volume of odds enhancements throughout October to remain top of the pile.

888Sport were the big movers in October; by more than doubling their enhanced odds offering on the previous month they ran Paddy Power close for second spot. Coral were also on the up, moving into fourth place with a number of cracking promotions, while relative newcomers on the gambling scene BetBright entered calculations for the first time since our research into enhanced odds offers began in July 2014, more on them later in the report.

The graph below is for enhanced odds offers which were paid in cash only and while it shows that while the firms outside of the top three still have a fair bit of ground to make up, the chasing pack are getting closer compared to data from months gone by.

October 2014 Offer Value by Bookmaker (excluding Free Bet payback).jpg

October 2014 Enhanced Odds Bookmaker Of The Month – Free Bet Payback Inclusive

Betfair Sportsbook’s preference for paying their odds enhancements in free bets prevents them from appearing in our initial findings, but when including free bet payback they jump to the head of proceedings. Barely a day went by in October when a prospective punter couldn’t make use of a Betfair enhanced odds offer instead of the standard bet £10 get £30 in free bets and they hold an impressive lead in this category.

The same filter sees 10Bet move up the pecking order to fifth spot ahead of Coral and BetBright, while Boylesports also enter the fray ahead of Betvictor and William Hill who were more selective with their promotions in October.

The data below shows enhanced odds offers which were paid in both cash and free bets, with Betfair way out in front once again.

October 2014 Offer Value By Bookmaker (including Free Bet payback).jpg

Enhanced Odds Offer Of The Month

BetBright became the first bookmaker to beat Betfair in this category since research began with their ‘4/1 England To Beat San Marino’ enhanced odds offer. The Three Lions were generally available to back at 1/100 to win their Euro 2016 Qualifier, so the bet was highly likely to come off. In fact some firms decided not to lay England in the match odds market given the gulf in class between the sides, so BetBright’s offer gave new punters the opportunity to win up to an additional £39.90 on an incredibly safe bet.

Betfair had to settle for second spot in October, ending their three month winning streak despite providing an attractive proposition with their ‘6/1 Man City To Beat Spurs’ price boost. Coral took third spot with their ‘4/1 Real Madrid To Score v Liverpool’ promotion just edging them ahead of 10Bet’s ‘7/1 Real Madrid To Beat Liverpool’ which was available on the same Champions League game.

The table below shows the top 10 enhanced odds offers when using our algorithm and features five individual bookmakers, the most since research began.

October 2014 Top 10 Best Enhanced Odds Offers.jpg

Biggest Odds Enhancement Of The Month

Paddy Power promoted the enhanced odds offer which would potentially return the biggest additional payout with the four-fold of ‘28/1 Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Greece To Win’ offering first-time punters up to an extra £221 in winnings. The Irish bookie promoted two similar treble offers on the Euro 2016 qualifiers which ended up being the second and third best enhancements of October.

Paddy Power’s offers accounted for the first six positions in the table below, with Betfair’s ‘12/1 Madrid, Arsenal & Liverpool To Win’ in the Champions League quite some way off, despite offering up to £80 potential extra winnings.

October 2014 Top 10 Biggest Enhancements.jpg

General Findings

Football lends itself best to the enhanced odds offer and therefore has always accounted for the lions share of coverage. But October saw the most dominant month for football so far with a whopping 95% of enhanced odds offer attributed to the sport.

The Euro 2016 Qualifiers in the middle of the month may have produced some of the better offers for October, but Champions League, Europa League and Premier League football ensured there was always something for bookmakers to go at. The La Liga clash between Barcelona and Real Madrid also garnered much interest and a raft of El Clasico offers no doubt helped increase football’s coverage.

There were also a handful of good horse racing offers in October, accounting for 4% of price boosts, while darts featured in just 1% of enhanced odds promotions.

October 2014 Enhanced Odds Offers By Sport.jpg

About Enhanced Odds Offers

Enhanced Odds offers, sometimes also known as Price Boosts, are becoming an increasingly popular means of online bookmakers acquiring new customers. Many firms now use such promotions to either accompany or replace the more traditional free bet welcome offers altogether.

Here at Freebets.com, we decided to investigate which online betting operators provided the best proposition to any customers making use of any such promotions. In order to do so we devised a formula to factor in the maximum allowed stake, enhanced odds offered and probability of the punter placing a winning bet. It is on this basis that we decide which offer is best and in turn, which offer costs the bookmaker the most money.

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 Manchester City 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 Manchester City, 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 Man City, 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.

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.

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