The New Age
Bookmaking is very different all around the world. Given the differences in geography every book knows the kind of betting markets their customers will demand. Some shops are in business to take the largest limits out there, others cater more to recreational players, and of course some fall right in the middle. As we’ve seen recently there’s an increased trend among offshore shops dealing to North American customers to offer a higher volume of novelty or entertainment props. This type of bet is still prohibited by the Gaming Control Board here in the state of Nevada. On the heels of last night’s Grammys with the Oscars looming, I wanted to get a perspective of how fringe betting markets are viewed throughout the UK where every shop offers them. I had a chance to talk to Nick Goff, head of football trading at Coral and he shared a very unique perspective on the topic.
How has the UK market changed the past few years when it comes to exotic type wagers?
There is more pressure put on traders from PR/marketing departments to offer a lot more markets now. And as one bookmaker offers more, their rivals are pressured to follow suit, and even overtake, and this leads to a never-ending battle to have the most betting content available.
Why do you think this is…that the traditional is no longer an option?
From a trading perspective we understand the way the industry has moved and why the marketing guys demand this of us. It’s simply not acceptable for any firm to lag behind in attracting new customers because we don’t have the level of betting content available that some rivals have. This means sometimes we now price lots of events we would have elected to leave alone in the past for various reasons, but now need to be seen to be offering odds to satisfy these PR/marketing demands. For that reason, sometimes our appetite for risk on those events will be much lower than on even a low level domestic or international match.
How does this come into play for say a very popular market like “to be named next manager” in international football?
For a market like “to be named next manager” the first thing we know for sure is the last bet we are offered will be for the winner. Someone out there knows the winner of those markets before we do, and it’s very likely there are people who are privy to more information than we have at all points within the trading of that book. Secondly, we know overall demand for a market like this will be low. Even if a manager market is open for two weeks before the new manager is named, we might only take £10,000 in bets in total. Compare that with a Premier League match live on television. We can take that in a couple of minutes.
So if you worry about someone having advanced knowledge of the winner, why even go through the exercise of dealing these markets to customers?
As outlined above, these can no longer be valid reasons for not trading the market, but it stands to reason they make it much tougher to make a profit on those books, or even break even on them. To give ourselves the best chance to do so we’ll be a bit more defensive with bet acceptance than we’d usually be.
Safe to assume the limits for these markets are substantially lower for a reason?
That’s not to say we’ll never take a £1,000+ bet on a manager market. We can and do if we’re comfortable with the bet, it suits our book, and it’s a customer we have dealt with in the past. But if someone walks into one of our shops who our staff have never seen before, or opens a brand new online account, wanting £5,000 on a next manager market as their first bet with us we’re not going to accept all of that bet. Ask for £5,000 on a Premier League game as a first bet with us and we’ll take it without thinking. But on a manager market? Well, that’s not going to happen with us, or anyone else in the UK market. Typically, there just aren’t the customers out there wanting to have that size of bet on a manager market as a “normal bet”. It’ll happen very occasionally, but far more often it transpires the bet request has come someone who has inside information, and by accepting all of those bets we’d make a huge loss, and that’s not what we’re here to do!
