New football season sees bet365 stretch Oddschecker lead
Market leading UK football performance helps bet365 almost double lead over nearest rival Betfair
Bet365 has extended its lead at the top of the Oddschecker monthly slip-click rankings after making a strong start to the new domestic football season.
The Stoke-headquartered operator attracted 21.18% of all bet referrals in August, an increase on the 20.85% recorded the during previous month and enough to see it move clear of nearest rival Betfair, whose market share fell from 17.90% to 16.42%.
Bet365 was boosted by a market leading UK football performance, a sport normally dominated by BetVictor, as it took a 15.88% share of referrals with BetVictor having to settle for second best on 12.62%.
However, the return of the domestic football season did help BetVictor climb from sixth to fourth place in the overall standings on 8.71%, just behind Paddy Power which retained third place with 8.91%.
The rise of BetVictor came at the expense of William Hill which fell from fourth in July (8.31%) to sixth in August (7.42%), with Sky Bet sandwiched in between in fifth on 8.00%.
Potential merger partners Coral (5.50%) and Ladbrokes (4.76%) were unchanged in seventh and eighth positions while Betfred and Stan James completed the top 10 with shares of 3.93% and 2.48% respectively.
August also saw increased activity on political betting markets as the race to become Labour’s leader, deputy leader and London mayoral candidate hit the headlines – predominantly due to a huge gamble on backbencher Jeremy Corbyn becoming Labour leader.
And it was Betfair’s exchange which saw most of the action as it attracted 28.63% of Oddschecker’s political bet referrals, way ahead of bet365 on 16.34% with Ladbrokes next on 10.69%.