Market make-up #2: Bet builders in French sportsbooks
UCL bet builder analysis, German inefficiency, England ad ban &Co
Good morning, on Gaming&Co today:
Market make-up #2: Missed opportunities for some during Champions League
DSWV calls for inquiry as German operators suffer IT outage
Football sponsorship ban in England blocked by HoL
News shorts: Portugal, Denmark, MaxBet
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Market make-up #2: Build it and they will come
Expert analysis examines Champions League bet builders offered by French sportsbooks
Key combinations: Gaming&Co publishes the final part of Orbital Bet CEO Matt Howard’s analysis of French bookmakers’ odds and markets during last week’s Round of 16 Champions League ties, looking at the all-important bet builder markets.
High expectations: Their importance as a key sportsbook product means customers now expect to have them on their betting apps as soon as they log in to the accounts. In addition, the high margins they tend to generate means operators can offset the aggressive prices they promote in single markets.
Some (surprising) takeaways:
Missed opportunities: bwin and VBet did not offer bet builders during last week’s Champions League games despite offering the product to players in other jurisdictions.
Low block: Every other operator surveyed offered a bet builder, at least in pre-match. We could not view the Winamax bet builder, as it was hidden behind login. This, in itself, is interesting as by doing this it removes the possibility for a new and unregistered customer to ‘test’ the operator fully.
There can be numerous reasons for this, but it might negatively impact the user experience for some customers.
Market forces
As per the above visual, we can see that on pre-match markets Betclic, Betsson and Unibet all offer extensive bet builders with over 50 markets available to customers. Netbet only offered 13 markets, which does compare poorly against their French competitors that have the product, even if it is better than not having any at all. ParionsSport-FDJ was in the middle with around 25 markets available.
In-play features: Moving to in-play we saw only Betclic and Winamax (behind login) offering a bet builder. An often unmentioned attractiveness to an in-play bet builder is the possibility to monitor and cash out a bet builder that was made pre-match.
Offering this product feature to customers is a significant advantage for Betclic and Winamax.
Upping the stakes: It’s worth noting that Betclic offered two types of bet builder to their customers:
once players add two or more selections from the same event to a bet slip it becomes a bet builder, and
as a product feature in its own right.
This is a clever way to appeal to two different types of players. Those who simply feel it should mirror ‘normal’ bet placement and those who could be attracted by turning it into a standalone feature.
Further reading: Read part 1 of Matt’s analysis of French bookmakers’ odds.
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German operators left reeling by 10-hour outage
DSWV call for investigation after IT malfunction created an open goal for black market
Inquest: The German Sports Betting Association (DSWV) has called for a “proper investigation” from the regulator after an IT outage in the central compliance system on Saturday meant customers were unable to register or deposit for 10 hours.
Cashing in: The issue with the LUGAS network was an open goal for black market operators, according to DSWV President Mathias Dahms.
“If legal sports betting offers cannot be used by customers from Germany on a Bundesliga Saturday, the illegal betting providers, who are very happy to accept new customers and deposits, will benefit first and foremost,” he said.
0/10: “There is no player protection in the black market. The German tax authorities are also left empty-handed,” Dahms added.
Lack of support: The DSWV said “a proper investigation into the errors that led to the legal market coming to a standstill” was required and restated calls for operators to be provided with 24/7 support from Dataport, the technical operator of the regulatory platform.
Sponsorship and ad ban vetoed in England
Amendment in Football Governance Bill rejected by House of Lords
Kicked into touch: The House of Lords has rejected an amendment to ban gambling sponsorship and advertising in football in England. The amendment, put forward by Liberal Democrat Lord Addington (aka Dominic Hubbard), proposed a gradual phasing out of gambling advertising in English football.
Level playing field: Opponents of the amendment said the ban would harm smaller clubs that relied on gambling sponsorships for funding and that such a move could politicise the regulator.
The government said the gambling industry was already tasked with improving advertising standards. Hubbard’s amendment was part of the Football Governance Bill, which aims to establish an independent football regulator.
Red card: The Premier League has already moved to reduce gambling's presence, removing betting company logos from team jerseys by 2026. The bill now moves to the House of Commons for further readings.
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News shorts
Portugal’s online gambling revenues grew 42% YoY to nearly €1.1bn in 2024 as stakes hit a record €19.5bn and player winnings topped out at €18.5bn in the past 12 months. Operators enjoyed a record Q4 GGR of €323m, up 41% on 2023 and +21% QoQ. Sports betting revenue, in particular was up, 89% to €138m during the period.
The Danish Gambling Authority (DGA) has called on Roblox to improve its surveillance policies on skin betting, which allows users to gamble with the game’s in-house virtual currency, the Robux. With half the worldwide Roblox user base under 18 and over a quarter under 13, the DGA said the trend was a major cause for concern.
The DGA has also secured partnerships with Google, Facebook and Twitch to access gambling content distributed across each platform and alert the companies when an illegal product or firm is targeted at Danish consumers.
Kero Gaming will supply its live betting product FlashBets to Serbia’s leading sportsbook MaxBet. FlashBets combines in-play betting, live streaming and player chat rooms into a single experience.
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