The major bookmakers, particularly their internet betting divisions, are simply marketing operations with betting tacked on. Sports betting is now used as a way to attract customers and then the idea is the get them to play other online games like poker, bingo, and roulette where profit margins are more stable. The notion of making a book, taking an opinion, and laying a bet is very much a secondary concern.
Ahead of last weekend’s Investec Derby the racing press headlines read along the lines of ‘Bookies out to get Dawn Approach’.
Much was made of the fact that Ladbrokes would be offering the top price of 7/4 for Dawn Approach, having been offering just 10/11 earlier in the week.
Brave move by Ladbrokes you might have thought, taking an opinion about a short-priced favourite in the big race. But read on …
The article went on to say that Ladbrokes would be offering this standout price “for an initial 15 minutes from 8.15am to a maximum stake of £50.”
I’m sure Ladbrokes can take a lot of bets in 15 minutes but if they think I’m going to crawl out of bed at 8.15 on a Saturday morning in the hope of getting 7/4 for 15 minutes about a horse that was happily available at 11/8 or 6/4 elsewhere they are a sadly mistaken. I enjoy my sleep more than getting an extra point (not that I wanted to back Dawn Approach in the first place).
Not that the bookmakers care much. The price is more for show and enabling them to shout they are ‘best priced’ or ‘best odds guaranteed’ in their adverts.
Sometimes, however, the marketing exercise backfires.
Ahead of the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham in March, Coral were offering even money about Sprinter Sacre, who was generally heavily odds-on and eventually returned 1/4.
The decision to offer even money was not a bookmaking one, it was a marketing decision. Coral took the view that a £1,000,000 liability on Sprinter Sacre was worth it in marketing terms for the coverage they would get and the new customers who would open an account with them. The maximum bet on this offer was £20.
Sprinter Sacre duly won by 19 lengths. Unfortunately for Coral all of its customers then logged in to collect their ‘free money’ after the race and the new website crashed. Any hope that these customers might then recycle some of their winnings in the subsequent races on the card was lost as the site remained down. This must have been particularly frustrating for Coral when the winning prices for the rest of the afternoon were: 33/1, 25/1, and 25/1.
