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BetRankings.com placed Bet365.com as the number two most trafficked sports betting site in Europe. Oddschecker.com this week said they were numero uno. No matter which way you cut it, Bet365.com is faring mighty well in the world of online bookmakers, better than both Ladbrokes and William Hill, the number one and two biggest UK bookie firms, respectively.
The John Coates run operation combined with Bowmans, one of the first “offshore bookies” that at one time took sports bets from U.S. customers and was considered among the biggest before offshore sports betting took off in the States during the early to mid 1990’s. It was indeed rare since Bowmans had British ownership but was actually based in the African nation of Mauritius. Ironically, Bowmans was among the last to go online and that ultimately led to their demise/acquisition.
Bet365 has over 4 million customers in 200 different countries. The Group employs over 1,000 people.
Coates is chairman of Stoke City F.C. and the 19th richest person in British football.
Oddschecker.com claims Bet365’s success is “due to competitive pricing on horse racing and gaining a large share of football bets at the start of the season”.
Dave Watkins, commercial manager at Oddschecker, told eGaming Review Magazine this week: “Interestingly Bet365 seem to pick up more of the weekend traffic for horseracing, whereas Betfair are far closer in terms of market share during the week. This would suggest bet365 is succeeding in attracting the casual and recreational bettor.”
Betfair was ranked number one on BetRankings.com but claimed that No.2 Bet365 was the only site in the Top 10 that saw an upward trend in traffic, quite possibly because of its horse racing dominance.
Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
