Poll: Will fixed-odds sportsbook help Betfair conquer new markets?
Launch still on track for this summer, with licence application filed in South Africa.
After revelations in an interview with eGaming Review last December, interim Betfair CEO Stephen Morana has reaffirmed the operator’s plans to introduce a fixed-odds sportsbook offering.
The product will sit alongside the company’s core betting exchange, and observers have suggested its introduction could give Betfair a foothold in those markets which have previously failed to embrace exchange betting.
A ban on betting exchanges in Greece’s egaming legislation prompted a complaint from Betfair last June, while the regulations have continued to be met by opposition from the operator and from the Remote Gambling Association (over separate elements of the law) in the months since.
Meanwhile this month saw Betfair’s head of legal and regulatory affairs Martin Cruddace criticise updated German proposals as “clearly a long way short” of what was required by the European Commission.
Betfair has applied for a fixed-odds betting licence in South Africa, where no other forms of egaming are legal, although it has made it clear on numerous occasions that the new launch will in no way compromise its core offering.
But with exchange betting by no means at the forefront of various countries’ regulatory proposals “ indeed it took until early this year for Italy to introduce an exchange betting decree “ the introduction of a fixed-odds sportsbook could provide a smoother entrance into new markets for Betfair.
Do you anticipate the new product helping Betfair crack new markets in the coming months? To vote, see the right-hand side of the page or visit the eGaming Review LinkedIn group.