Oddschecker insights: bookmakers battle as betting appetite soars during Royal Ascot

Royal Ascot 2020 did not disappoint. Stradivarius shone, Crowley conquered, bookmakers battled and two brilliant female riders in the form of Hollie Doyle and Hayley Turner got in front at the first Royal Meeting ‘behind closed doors’.

This was a unique Royal Ascot due to the lack of form punters’ had at their disposal as a result of a curtailed racing calendar since 1 June. Consequently, field sizes were larger and contained significant ‘form unknowns’ meaning favourites were vulnerable and operator pricing as a whole involved additional guesswork. We saw this evidenced by winning prices of 33/1 (twice), 20/1 (twice), 18/1, 16/1, 14/1 and 150/1 (the largest ever winning SP at Royal Ascot) while the average win price was up to 10.86 from 10.46 in 2019.

The 25% of winning favourites as a whole was considerably lower than the long-term horseracing average (37%) and 3.5pp lighter than we saw at this year’s Cheltenham Festival. Oddschecker commercial manager Alex Keating commented: “Although a reduced build-up made finding winners more difficult last week, the generosity of enhanced place terms, offers, free bet streaks and much more provided some welcome padding to punter losses and operator gain in what was a thoroughly well-delivered meeting in extreme circumstances.”

Betting appetite soars for Royal Ascot 2020

There were high hopes for Royal Ascot 2020. The festival offered up the first major racing event in just shy of three months, and in itself was an extended 36-race version of the meeting, with an additional race per day and two on a bumper Saturday. Furthermore, bettors would be enjoying the spectacle exclusively from the comfort of their own sofas for the first time – and with the direct correlation between televised events and betting activity well established, bookmakers were optimistic heading into the week. ITV’s record 1.4 million peak audience for the 2000 Guineas 10 days earlier can only have helped pique that excitement, which was well justified by week-end.

Measuring the bet-slip clicks on oddschecker allows an accurate gauge into betting appetite. As seen in the figure below, Royal Ascot 2020 surpassed all expectations in terms of the volume of punting activity.

Across the board, bookmakers saw more than twice the number of betslip clicks as during last year’s Royal Meeting, with Ladbrokes in particular managing nearly five times as much activity during the 2020 renewal (measured Monday-Saturday).

William Hill performed admirably when racing returned in the first week of June, placing a marginal third behind bet365 and Sky Bet from a betslip clicks perspective. However, they were eclipsed by Paddy Power during the Royal Meeting into third place.

Overall, very few would have forecast the extreme volume of betting appetite that was seen on oddschecker last week. Even when accounting for the simultaneous return of the Premier League football, the growth in betslip clicks, bookmaker registrations and page views was significant.

Bookmakers battle for market share of clicks

One product of the coronavirus pandemic might be that punters are more susceptible to moving away from their preferred bookmakers. With accounts empty, bettors might be more easily lured in by the offers and promotions of rivals. This made Royal Ascot 2020 a crucial event – where bookmakers could seize upon the predisposed changeability of punters to secure both new acquisition and ever-vital share of wallet.

Studying the portion of betslip clicks obtained by each of the established ‘Big seven’ bookmakers over the course of Royal Ascot gives a good insight into which bookmakers managed to garner market share.

The data shows a jostling between William Hill, Sky Bet and Paddy Power for second place in the click-share rankings throughout the week, while bet365 retained pole position on oddschecker. William Hill started the week strongly, garnering the second most clicks in the build-up to Royal Ascot on Monday, partly attributing to their standout five place offering on the traditional Tuesday curtain-raiser – the Queen Anne Stakes.

Sky Bet then moved into second place for the majority of the week owing to the consistency of their Money Back as Cash offering on the daily 1.50 as well as significant place generosity, such as seven places in Wednesday’s Royal Hunt Cup and a standout five in Friday’s Duke of Edinburgh. Thursday saw Paddy Power manage an impressive 24% of all betslip clicks on the oddschecker site which allowed them to claw second. Aside from offering the best or equal best place terms in six of the seven races, the Dublin-based operator was joint best price on Sir Dragonet, King Leonidas and Technician who were all the rage on Thursday’s card and who were subsequently all beaten.

The market leader was bet365, which comfortably managed to harvest the greatest portion of betslip clicks throughout the week – including a massive 43% of Saturday’s click-share. While others looked to use generosity and offers, the Stoke-based giant was able to offer the tightest book, including the tightest over-round throughout Wednesday’s card and in the majority of other races during the week. Betfair Sportsbook, Ladbrokes and Coral (the rest of the ‘Big seven’) maintained fairly consistent performances throughout the week, with Ladbrokes’ sixth place performance significantly up versus Royal Ascot 2019 where they only obtained the eighth most clicks.

Punters migrate to online bookmakers

There has been speculation that another consequence of the coronavirus pandemic will be a migration of punters from retail bookmakers to online bookies. The betting shops have only recently reopened; in the interim, those who frequented retail establishments were forced to take to the online equivalents or rival counterparts.

With public sentiment still cautious towards returning to the betting shops, oddschecker has been able to take full advantage. The leading odds comparison site has seen website traffic soar since sport begun to make its gradual return.

Indeed, Royal Ascot 2020 saw a 136% increase in organic search traffic to racing tip pages from last year’s event. Organic sessions on the site’s Free Bets Page were up 181% year-on-year, while Andy Holding’s racing tips on Monday received the third most viewers ever (behind Cheltenham 2020 and the Grand National in 2019).

The increase in performance can be attributed to oddschecker’s improved SEO ranking on Google. Following the latest Google release, oddschecker now ranks first for terms ‘Royal Ascot tips’, ‘Free bets’ and ‘Racing odds’.

Commenting on a strong Royal Ascot performance, oddschecker’s SEO manager Ross Whent added: “Google will reward sites which genuinely serve a purpose to their users – oddschecker’s quicker prices, deeper insight and superior tips offering means that it continues to strengthen both its authority and importance as the go-to destination for punters across the country.”