New High Street Exchange Venture Faces Same Old problems
JIM CREMIN in the Racing Post this week reported on a new attempt to turn exchange betting into a mass market, high street product, was launched this week in a King's Cross, London betting shop.
The shop hosted the launch of Better, a new bookmaking company, which in addition to 'normal' betting offers cash betting terminals linked to Betdaq that allow punters to back or lay selections without having to register personal or bank details.
It operates in a similar way to a fixed-odds betting terminal, with a note acceptor and touch-screen technology designed as a simple route into exchange betting for punters who may never have seen it before.
Concern betting exchanges make it easier for criminals to become involved with the alleged stopping of horses forced assurances from market leaders Betfair that sophisticated monitoring exists to trace those who open accounts, follow their patterns of trading and locate the eventual deposit of winnings.
Betdaq's move into untraceable cash may raise new disquiet, although Ian Hogg, managing director of Better, explained this is a different market.
He said: "We've spoken to the Jockey Club and Levy Board about this and, obviously, we have no interest in seeing racing corrupted. The core difference to this and exchange betting from home is that our machines operate with a built-in margin that includes commission for both ourselves and Betdaq - crucially, that overall margin is similar to that involved in the SP. Therefore, we are in the same realm as a punter backing all the other horses if he wanted to oppose a short-priced favourite.
"At 1.01 (1-100) there is no commission, but from 1.02 to 2.00 it is two per cent, and as the prices get bigger it can rise to 15 per cent. This is unlikely to interest sophisticated gamblers, who will get better value betting directly with exchanges."
As the note acceptor only accepts £5, £10 and £20, anyone planning a coup would have to carry a lot of cash, and would also be monitored on CCTV cameras within the shop. "If there was any dubious activity, we would be happy to let the Jockey Club see who had been at the terminal," said Hogg.
Hogg's in Better is Derek Woods. Their first shop is in a former bank at 286 Pentonville Road - turn left out of the main entrance to King's Cross station, and walk around 100 yards past a McDonalds on the corner.
Woods hopes to have 15 shops open by this time next year, mostly within the M25, and the long-term aim is for 250 outlets. "Next is likely to be Wood Green, followed by Hatton Garden, then Tolworth."
He added: "The budget is around £250,000 per shop, although King's Cross is costing slightly more. Much of the money has gone on some fantastic high definition screens, the counter and graphics. Sky says we will be the first shop in the country to have HD when it launches in a few weeks."
The big problem Better's exchange terminals venture faces is that, like Easibet up in Edinburgh, they are trying to fuse high-margin High Street operating costs with low-margin exchange commission revenues.
To combat this they are charging up to 15 per cent commission but this simply removes much of the value compared to taking a traditional bookmakers' price, and kills much of the reason betting shop punters, who are predominately recreational anyway and wouldn't relish have to get to grips with a less user friendly way of betting, would have to use the terminals rather than betting conventionally with their bookie. These new terminals consequently, may struggle to catch on.
BBC
