/ THE BRIEFING / NEWS
NO
YES
THE BIG DEBATE
THIS MONTH, WE ASK:
ARE EXCHANGE OPERATORS COMING UNDER GREATER COMPETITIVE
PRESSURE FROM THE EVOLVING FIXED-ODDS SPORTSBOOKS?
MARK BRONSON
LEE RICHARDSON
CEO of exchange operator Matchbook
Former Boylesports CEO and current non-executive director at Btwiice
I
n the midst of the football
World Cup, the betting
exchanges are under greater
threat for market share from
fixed-odds sportsbooks than
ever before.
However, it’s been quite
a journey to this point, from
when the first exchanges arrived with their peer-to-peer
model to challenge the likes
of Coral, Ladbrokes and William Hill, more than a decade
ago. Exchanges were certainly a disruptive influence and
Betfair quickly became the
world’s busiest betting site.
The UK Horserace Levy-paying fixed-odds bookmakers
wanted them banned, or their
activities at least licensed and
taxed on an equal footing. But
the undoubted winners were
the punters, who felt they
were getting terrific value,
particularly on football and
horseracing.
Ten years on, most fixedodds bookmakers have
fought-back, offering more
markets on more sports,
delivered through convenient
W W W. E G R M A G A Z I N E . C O M
new channels to claw back
market-share. Observers
questioned Betfair’s strategy
to expand into fixed-odds
betting after its 2010 float,
citing it as evidence that the