Bookmaker Enhanced Odds Report for February 2015

Betfair Sportsbook Enhanced Odds Bookmaker Of The Month In February 2015

www.freebets.com

FreeBets.com February Report

• Betfair Sportsbook once again emerged as the best bookie when it comes to enhanced odds offers, following

industry analysis conducted by Freebets.com on price boosts offered by online bookmakers in February 2015

• In a busy month of sport, Betfair easily beat off a host of online bookmakers for top spot, with Apollo Bet the

newcomers on the scene edging Paddy Power for second spot and a clutch of other household names not far

from the top three.

• February saw the return of Champions League football along with some great FA Cup action adding to the usual

Premier League offering. Two of the biggest matches of the month were local derbies as Everton played host to

Liverpool and Arsenal made the short trip to face Tottenham, with many bookmakers citing an opportunity to

push a big price boost on the games to attract new customers.

• National Hunt racing was in full swing as trainers gave some of their leading stars one last prep run ahead of the

Cheltenham Festival, with the likes of the Betfair Chase taking centre stage, while the start of the Six Nations

Championship produced a few rugby union offers, as did the Cricket World Cup.

FreeBets.com February Report

• The Top 4 Findings From Freebets.com February 2015 Enhanced Odds Offers Report

• 1. Betfair Sportsbook ranked February 2015 Enhanced Odds Bookmaker of the Month ahead of Apollo Bet in

second place and Paddy Power in third.

• 2. Boylesports had the best offer in February with their ‘2/1 A Goal To Be Scored’ enhancement, requiring just a

single goal from each of Man Utd v Sunderland, West Brom v Southampton and Burnley v Swansea to win the bet.

• 3. 888Sport provided the largest enhancement in February with their '33/1 Newcastle To Beat Man City' boost

offering new customers up to £230 extra winnings.

• 4. With a massive 90% of all enhanced odds offers in February, football was the clear leader as other sports

accounted for only a marginal amount of price boosts.

February 2015 Enhanced Odds Bookmaker Of The Month

• Betfair never seem to miss an opportunity to offer a tempting price boost and throughout

February there were few days when a prospective new customer couldn’t pick up a tasty

enhancement. Of the 112 total offers from all bookmakers throughout the month, Betfair were

responsible for a whopping 39. The firm quite simply blew the competition away when it comes to

the amount of enhanced odds offers as the graph below clearly shows.


• But it wasn’t just volume of offers that won the day for Betfair as they quite often went a point or two over the

enhancements being offered by competitors to offer more compelling odds, leading to four of their offers making

it into our top 10 for the month and three into our top 10 biggest enhancements.

• It’s worth mentioning at this point that while Betfair’s offers were honoured in free bets, they also offered first-

time punters a safety net of getting their stake refunded as a free bet if they lost. Not only that, but in most cases

Betfair offered the additional incentive of up to £100 in free bets on top of the enhanced odds offer to provide a

superb welcome basket.

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

honoured in both cash and free bets and shows just how far some of the other bookies have to go to get on terms

with Betfair. Apollo Bet have promoted some great offers as they try to make a name for themselves in a

competitive arena, while Paddy Power offered fewer boosts than 888Sport, but still beat them to third spot.

Ladbrokes and Winner Sports were not far off making the top three of February, while the remainder were more

selective and their offer value mirrors the amount of enhancements they promoted.


Enhanced Odds Offer Of The Month

• Boylesports had the best offer in February with their ‘2/1 A Goal To Be Scored’ enhancement for

new mobile customers, requiring just a single goal from each of Man Utd v Sunderland, West Brom

v Southampton and Burnley v Swansea to win the bet. The industry odds of around 1/5 made the

offer extremely likely to click and plenty of customers will have been tempted in by the boosted

odds of 2/1.

• Betfred’s novelty offer of ‘3/1 Gerrard To Play In Merseyside Derby’ looked like a ‘no-brainer’

considering the Liverpool captains record against Everton, but there were no guarantees he would

play as the Reds skipper has missed a few games this season.

• Three of the top 10 offers were focused around the 'Derby Day' matches, including Paddy Power's

'10/ Spurs To Beat Arsenal' which will have ended up costing the firm a few quid after Tottenham

won the match.

Enhanced Odds Offer Of The Month

Biggest Odds Enhancement Of The Month

• 888Sport took a big risk in offering a cash payout on ‘33/1 Newcastle To Beat Man City’ especially

considering that the magpies had already won at The Etihad in the Capital One Cup earlier in the

season. The bookie will have been relieved that Man City ran out easy winners, though the offer

did prove to be the biggest enhancement for February with a massive £230 extra winnings for new

customers

• 888Sport’s offers were honoured in cash as opposed to free bets and also included an £88 free bet

and £5 no lose mobile bet welcome basket. The firm also had another offer in our top 10 biggest

enhancements with their ‘12/1 Moen Ali To Be England Top Batsman’ at the Cricket World Cup.

• Betfair Sportsbook, Betway and Paddy Power offered some pretty tasty looking enhanced football

trebles to tempt new punters in, while Ladbrokes were the other bookie to make it into our top 10

with their ‘10/1 Man City To Beat Barcelona’ enhancement offering potential extra winnings of £77

on a high profile Champions League match.

Biggest Odds Enhancement Of The Month

General Findings

• Football was by far the most popular sport for bookmakers to focus their enhanced odds offers

around with prospective punters keen to back their side in a host of crucial matches from the

Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup.

• The start of the Six Nations Championship produced a handful outright and match result price

boosts centred around rugby, while the Cricket World Cup also created some interest along with

the odds enhancement for Premier League Darts.

• Popular National Hunt races such as the Betfair Chase helped horse racing to account for a few

offers, though the sport remained marginalised by football in February. However, it’s incredibly

likely that there will be an increase in horse racing price boosts over the next couple of months at

least, with the Cheltenham Festival and Grand National both golden opportunities for online

bookmakers to offer a range of compelling offers.

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 Everton are priced at 2/1 to beat Liverpool in the Premier League, meaning a £10 stake would

return £30 if they win. The bookmaker may offer enhanced odds 4/1 Everton to beat Liverpool, 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 Everton to beat Liverpool,

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 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.