Another Enhanced Odds Bookmaker Of The Month Award For Winner In

October 2014

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EVERYDAY AT

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• Winner Sports has been crowned as Freebets.com enhanced odds bookie for a second

consecutive month following our industry analysis into enhanced odds offers in October.

• As an alternative to an already appealing sign-up offer which entitles qualifying

customers to a 400% bonus on their first bet, Winner promoted enhanced odds offers for

new customers on high-profile sporting events throughout the entire month. The firm

once again came out well ahead of the chasing pack, with two-time winner of the

monthly award Paddy Power some way behind in second place and ahead of the

improving 888Sport in third.

• With the Flat racing season fizzling out and National Hunt horses dusting off the cobwebs

following their summer break, horse racing took a bit of a back seat and football

accounted for almost all of the enhanced odds offers in October, with darts contributing

to a mere fraction.

The Top 4 Findings From Freebets.com October 2014 Enhanced Odds Offers

Report• 1. Winner ranked October 2014 Enhanced Odds Bookmaker of the Month ahead of Paddy Power

in second place and 888Sport in third

• 2. BetBright’s ‘4/1 England To Beat San Marino’ offer is rated Enhanced Odds Offer Of The

Month for October 2014.

• 3. Paddy Power offered the largest odds enhancement in October with their ‘28/1 Poland,

Portugal, Serbia, Greece To Win’ offer.

• 4. Football increased in coverage and remained responsible for the majority of enhanced odds

offers in October by the biggest margin yet with 95% being focused on the sport ahead of

horse racing with just 4%.

• If you’d like to find out more about how enhanced offers work and how we calculate the value

of enhanced offers, please read the relevant sections at the end of this article.

October 2014 Enhanced Odds Bookmaker Of The Month

• Winner Sports pretty much picked up where they left off in September by continuing to

offer a good volume of odds enhancements throughout October to remain top of the

pile.

• 888Sport were the big movers in October; by more than doubling their enhanced odds

offering on the previous month they ran Paddy Power close for second spot. Coral

were also on the up, moving into fourth place with a number of cracking promotions,

while relative newcomers on the gambling scene BetBright entered calculations for the

first time since our research into enhanced odds offers began in July 2014, more on

them later in the report.

• The graph below is for enhanced odds offers which were paid in cash only and while it

shows that while the firms outside of the top three still have a fair bit of ground to

make up, the chasing pack are getting closer compared to data from months gone by.

October 2014 Offer Value By Bookmaker (excluding Free Bet

payback)

October 2014 Enhanced Odds Bookmaker Of The Month - Free

Bet Payback Inclusive• Betfair Sportsbook’s preference for paying their odds enhancements in free bets

prevents them from appearing in our initial findings, but when including free bet

payback they jump to the head of proceedings. Barely a day went by in October

when a prospective punter couldn’t make use of a Betfair enhanced odds offer

instead of the standard bet £10 get £30 in free bets and they hold an impressive

lead in this category.

• The same filter sees 10Bet move up the pecking order to fifth spot ahead of

Coral and BetBright, while Boylesports also enter the fray ahead of Betvictor and

William Hill who were more selective with their promotions in October.

• The data below shows enhanced odds offers which were paid in both cash and

free bets, with Betfair way out in front once again.

October 2014 Offer Value By Bookmaker (Including Free Bet

Payback)

Enhanced Odds Offer Of The Month

• BetBright became the first bookmaker to beat Betfair in this category since research began

with their ‘4/1 England To Beat San Marino’ enhanced odds offer. The Three Lions were

generally available to back at 1/100 to win their Euro 2016 Qualifier, so the bet was highly

likely to come off. In fact some firms decided not to lay England in the match odds market

given the gulf in class between the sides, so BetBright’s offer gave new punters the

opportunity to win up to an additional £39.90 on an incredibly safe bet.

• Betfair had to settle for second spot in October, ending their three month winning streak

despite providing an attractive proposition with their ‘6/1 Man City To Beat Spurs’ price

boost. Coral took third spot with their ‘4/1 Real Madrid To Score v Liverpool’ promotion just

edging them ahead of 10Bet’s ‘7/1 Real Madrid To Beat Liverpool’ which was available on

the same Champions League game.

• The table below shows the top 10 enhanced odds offers when using our algorithm and

features five individual bookmakers, the most since research began.

October 2014 Top 10 Best Enhanced Odds Offers

Biggest Odds Enhancement Of The Month

• Paddy Power promoted the enhanced odds offer which would potentially

return the biggest additional payout with the four-fold of ‘28/1 Poland,

Portugal, Serbia, Greece To Win’ offering first-time punters up to an

extra £221 in winnings. The Irish bookie promoted two similar treble

offers on the Euro 2016 qualifiers which ended up being the second and

third best enhancements of October.

• Paddy Power’s offers accounted for the first six positions in the table

below, with Betfair’s ‘12/1 Madrid, Arsenal & Liverpool To Win’ in the

Champions League quite some way off, despite offering up to £80

potential extra winnings.

October 2014 Top 10 Biggest Enhancements

General Findings• Football lends itself best to the enhanced odds offer and therefore has always

accounted for the lions share of coverage. But October saw the most dominant

month for football so far with a whopping 95% of enhanced odds offer attributed to

the sport.

• The Euro 2016 Qualifiers in the middle of the month may have produced some of

the better offers for October, but Champions League, Europa League and Premier

League football ensured there was always something for bookmakers to go at. The

La Liga clash between Barcelona and Real Madrid also garnered much interest and

a raft of El Clasico offers no doubt helped increase football’s coverage.

• There were also a handful of good horse racing offers in October, accounting for 4%

of price boosts, while darts featured in just 1% of enhanced odds promotions.

Enhanced Offers By Sport October 2014

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.

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 Chelsea are priced at 2/1 to beat Manchester City in the Premier League, meaning

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

beat Manchester 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.

How We Calculate The Value• 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

Chelsea 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!

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.