Betfair Sportsbook On Top Again In May 2015

Enhanced Odds Report

www.freebets.com

May 2015 Enhanced Odds Report

• More offers, more often gave Betfair Sportsbook the edge in May’s Industry analysis of enhanced

odds offers conducted by Freebets.com

• May featured a whole range of big betting events across a variety of sports and Betfair came out

on top having seized every available opportunity to push a price boost to try and bring in new

customers. Runner-up in our research, Paddy Power, still had plenty to shout about despite being

slightly more selective in their approach and prospective punters were able to take a chance on

some impressive enhancements from the Irish bookie throughout the month. 888Sport took third

place with a number of event-specific boosts to promote the treble odds welcome offer, which can

be used to bet on any market and is awarded in cash as opposed to free bets.

• The month began with Mayweather v Pacquiao which resulted in a number of boxing

enhancements, followed by political price boosts centred around the 2015 UK General Election.

There were also a fair amount of tennis offers relating to the 2015 French Open along with

promotions for rugby, golf and darts, but football remained the main focus as the domestic season

came to a close.

The Top 4 Findings From Freebets.com May 2015 Enhanced

Odds Offers Report• 1. Betfair Sportsbook ranked May 2015 Enhanced Odds Bookmaker of the Month

ahead of Paddy Power in second place and 888Sport in third

• 2. Paddy Power provided the best enhanced odds offer in May with new punters able

to stake up to £10 on '9/1 Norwich To Be Promoted' as opposed to the generally

available odds of 4/5.

• 3. 888Sport provided the largest enhancement in May with '60/1 Federer To Win

French Open' offering new customers up to £400.00 in potential extra winnings.

• 4. May was packed full of sporting variety, yet football continued to attract the most

coverage with 77.2% of price boosts across the month attributed to the sport,

putting it well ahead of boxing, horse racing, tennis and rugby.

May 2015 Enhanced Odds Bookmaker Of The Month

• May’s report analysed a total of 242 price boosts from online bookmakers offering

£5,108.24 in enhanced odds value, which was a marked increase on the previous

month's 131 offers representing £2,542.50 of price boosts.

• Accounting for in excess of 32% of those boosts, Betfair offered a staggering 78

enhanced odds offers in May, which was some way ahead of Paddy Power’s 42 and

888Sport’s 41.

• Almost doubling the amount of offers than the nearest competitors undoubtedly

won the day for Betfair and we can see from the graph below just how keen the

firm is to increase its customer base. Betfair even supplemented their

enhancements with money back on losing stakes as a free bet and the opportunity

to earn a further £100 in free bets as additional incentives to tempt in new players.

Number Of Enhanced Odds Offers By Bookmakers In May 2015

May 2015 Enhanced Odds Bookmaker Of The Month

• An aggressive approach may have kept Betfair on top for the month, but Paddy Power definitely deserve a

mention for providing the most compelling enhancements throughout May. In fact, had the Irish firm not

been outdone in terms of volume, then they would have been ahead of Betfair according to our research,

and by quite a considerable margin.

• In many cases Paddy Power’s offers also carried a free bet refund, but it was the enormity of the

enhancements which caught the punter’s attention and led to the firm dominating our Top 10 Enhanced

Odds Offers and making a bold showing in our Top 10 Biggest Enhancements for May, both of which are

discussed in more detail later in this article.

• The graph below shows data resulting from our algorithm for enhanced odds offers in May 2015 which were

honoured in both cash and free bets, indicating that Paddy Power was much closer to Betfair when

comparing the value of price boosts offered.

• Ladbrokes were seventh in terms of the amount of enhancements available, but clearly placed an emphasis

on their pricing to be rated fifth on value, while the remainder appear to follow a similar pattern to the

above graph with the available enhanced odds value relative to the number of offers promoted.

Value Of Enhanced Odds Offers By Bookmakers In 2015

Enhanced Odds Offer Of The Month

• Paddy Power were unlucky to miss out in this section last month, but continued to

promote the most appealing offers throughout May to blow the competition away

and occupy all but one of the slots in our top 10. The offer of '9/1 Norwich To Be

Promoted' was the pick of the bunch with punters able to stake £10 on the boosted

odds as opposed to the generally available 4/5. That came in slightly ahead of

another cracking price boost from Paddy Power, the offer of '9/1 Messi To Score

Anytime v Bayern Munich' allowing new players to back the Barcelona striker to get

on the score-sheet in the Champions League at hugely enhanced odds compared to

the standard price of 5/6.

• After promoting the best offer in April, Boylesports produced another good showing

to be the only other bookie in our top 10 with '8/1 Liverpool & Man Utd Double'

giving punters a sizeable enhancement on the normal odds of 8/11 for both teams to

win their Premier League matches.

May 2015 Top 10 Enhanced Odds Offers

Biggest Odds Enhancement Of The Month

• 888Sport and Paddy Power were responsible for all but one of the top 10

enhancements for the month, with social community based bookie Favourit also in on

the act.

• 888Sport’s '60/1 Federer To Win French Open' was far and away the biggest boost of

the month with any punters taking up the offer with the maximum permitted £10

stake standing to win an additional £400 compared to placing the bet at normal odds.

Favourit allowed up to £20 stake at '29/1 Federer To Win French Open' giving a

potential £220 extra as one of their promotions on the ‘Big Four’ at Roland Garros.

• Paddy Power’s focus was on enhanced football accumulators and five of the firm’s

boosted multiples made it into the top 10, with '28/1 Chelsea, Man City, Arsenal & Man

Utd' being the biggest enhancement and representing a potential £230.30 in

additional winnings.

May 2015 Top 10 Biggest Enhancements

General Findings• Compared to months gone by, there was a lot more diversity in the enhanced odds offers for May

with no fewer than nine different categories covered by online bookmakers.

• Boxing hit the headlines with Mayweather v Pacquiao dividing opinion of even casual fans of the

sport and there were a quite a few enhancements targeted at the ‘Fight of the Century’ in Las Vegas.

This helped boxing to account for 6.1% of the offers in May, ahead of horse racing (4.3%) and tennis

(4.2%).

• The Aviva Premiership and RaboDirect Pro-12 finals took centre stage for Rugby (3.1%) and a handful

of golf offers (2%) represented slightly more than politics (1.6%) with the UK General Election

attracting a different betting audience to the norm.

• Darts and Motor Sport accounted for only a marginal percentage and football was once again the

most covered sport with 77.2% of offers thanks to the Premier League, Football League Play-Offs,

Champions League semi-finals, Europa League Final and FA Cup Final providing a stack of big betting

events throughout the month.

General Findings

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 Juventus are priced at 2/1 to beat Real Madrid in the Champions League, meaning

a £10 stake would return £30 if they win. The bookmaker may offer enhanced odds 4/1 Juventus to

beat Real Madrid, 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

Juventus to beat Real Madrid, 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.