Bookmaker Enhanced Odds Report for August 2014

Paddy Power Retains Enhanced Odds Bookmaker Of The Month Title In

August 2014

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Paddy Power• Paddy Power remains on top after clinching back-to-back Enhanced Odds

Bookmaker of the month accolades following industry analysis by

Freebets.comThe punter friendly firm which was also top in our inaugural

enhanced odds report conducted in July, continued to welcome new

customers with irresistible price boosts throughout August in place of the

regular sign up offer and once again beat Titanbet to the punch, while

Winner made its first appearance in our top three.The return of the domestic

football season in August saw many of the enhanced odds revolve around

the big kick-off. There were still a number of offers relating to other sports

such as horse racing, golf and tennis, but it was the beautiful game that took

centre stage.


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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.


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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 Arsenal are priced at 2/1 to beat Man City, meaning a £10 stake

would return £30 if they win. The bookmaker may offer enhanced odds 4/1 Arsenal to beat

Man 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.


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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 Arsenal 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!


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The Top 4 Findings

Paddy Power ranked August 2014 Enhanced Odds Bookmaker of

the Month ahead of Titanbet in second place and Winner in third

Betfair Sportsbook’s ‘12/1 Arsenal To Win The Community Shield’

offer is rated Enhanced Odds Offer Of The Month for August

2014.Paddy Power offered the largest odds enhancement in

August with their ‘30/1 Liverpool To Win Premier League’ offer.

Football was responsible for the majority of enhanced odds offers

in August by some distance with 87% being focused on the sport

ahead of horse racing with just 7%.


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August 2014 Enhanced Odds Bookmaker Of The Month

• Paddy Power’s penchant for presenting would-be customers with an attractive

proposition saw the Irish firm crowned Enhanced Odds Bookmaker for the second

consecutive month in August. The bookie’s ‘30/1 Liverpool To Win Premier League’

offer was rated as the biggest enhancement for August 2014, while also being the

fourth best offer of the month when factoring in the likelihood of a first time punter

placing a winning bet.Last month Titanbet and Betfair Sportsbook were snapping at

Paddy’s heels for the award, but the former was some way behind the tongue-in-

cheek bookmaker on this occasion. Once again, Paddy Power’s preference for

paying enhanced odds as withdrawable cash as opposed to topping up price boosts

with free bet funds helped to retain top spot. The graph below shows enhanced

odds offers which were paid in cash only and we can see that Paddy’s rivals have

some way to go to get on terms.


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August 2014 Offer Value by Bookmaker (excluding Free Bet payback)


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August 2014 Enhanced Odds Bookmaker Of The Month - Free Bet Payback Inclusive

In strikingly similar fashion to July’s report, when enhanced odds offers paid in free

bets are included, Betfair move firmly to the front of the queue. In this instance,

Betfair Sportsbook have more than double the amount of value on offer than Paddy

Power and it’s interesting to see Titanbet moving up from third to second when using

this algorithm.As we suggested in last month’s report, Betfair who also welcome new

customers with a bet £10 get £30 in free bets offer appear to be making a conscious

effort to increase their customer base using enhanced odds offers. Regular punters

may well be happy to utilise one such offer, whereas the one time bettor could be put

off by the need to place further bets before being able to reap the benefit of the

enhanced odds. This could be part of Betfair’s thinking as they will naturally be

hoping for repeat purchases on the back of such generous offers.


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August 2014 Offer Value by Bookmaker (including Free Bet payback)


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Enhanced Odds Offer Of The Month

• Betfair really upped the ante in August, particularly in pre-season with offers

on the Community Shield and International Champions Cup occupying the top

three positions for Enhanced Odds Offer of the Month. They dominated this

category with nine out of the top ten offers and only Paddy Power managed to

prevent a clean-sweep by nicking fourth position.Betfair’s ‘12/1 Arsenal To

Win The Community Shield’ offer was deemed to be one of the best

enhancements in August and when cross referenced with the likelihood of

coming off at actual odds of 6/5, was awarded Enhanced Odds Offer Of The

Month for August 2014. Even if a prospective customer fancied going against

Arsenal in that game they could have used Betfair’s ‘8/1 Man City To Win The

Community Shield’ offer, which was the second best price boost of the month.


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August 2014 Top Ten Enhanced Odds Offers


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Biggest Odds Enhancement Of The Month

• As mentioned earlier in the article, Paddy Power was responsible for the biggest odds

enhancement in August 2014 with ‘30/1 Liverpool To Win Premier League’ enhanced

from 11/2, coming out way ahead of any other offers. Two of the firms other Premier

League Outright enhancements featured in the top three for the month with ‘20/1

Arsenal’ enhanced from 8/1, and ‘16/1 Man Utd’ enhanced from 9/2, offering punters

exceptional value.The only horse racing offer to feature in the top ten also marked

Winner’s first appearance in the upper reaches of this category. ‘20/1 Velox To Win The

Betfred Mile’ was quite a hike from the standard odds of 10/1 and will have garnered

plenty of interest from shrewd punters during Glorious Goodwood.Elsewhere new Betfair

customers stood to earn up to an extra £108 when backing Arsenal to win the

Community Shield, while first time Titanbet players were given the potential to pick up an

additional £90 if Wolfsburg could upset the mighty Bayern Munich in the opening match

of the new Bundesliga season.


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August 2014 Biggest Enhancements


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General Findings

• Football was once again the dominant sport related to enhanced odds offers, with

an increase from 71% to 81% of price boosts offered by bookmakers targeted at

football bettors in August compared with July. As was the case with the World Cup,

the beginning of a new football season tends to generate a huge interest in betting

with many punters keen to have their say in the outright markets. Bookmakers were

therefore all too happy to offer seemingly crazy prices in the build up to the big kick

off in an attempt to gain as many new customers as possible ahead of the 2014/15

campaign.While football looks set to retain the most coverage in the coming

months, it would seem unlikely that such a bias will be seen in our next report now

that the new season is underway. Golf was the least covered of all sports in August

with just 1% of offers related to the sport, but with the Ryder Cup on the horizon,

that percentage could be about to increase.


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Enhanced Odds Offers By Sport August 2014


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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.


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• 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.