Bookies Merging ~ Good thing or not?

[BillyHills]

I'm not sure what to make of the recent changes in the Betting industry with two high profile mergers plus another buy-out. In the past month or so we have had Coral and Ladbrokes join forces who are two of the original big 3 along with Hills. Then we have had Paddy Power and Betfair which surprised me as i thought they were doing ok on their own. Stan James have sold their online business to Unibet, now that doesnt surprise me really, Stan James have made no friends of late with their attitude towards the online punters from what i can see. It leaves Bet365 as the main online competitor to the above and William Hill as the high street billy no-mate. So how does this affect us as punters? Some experts have said we won't tell the difference, i accept that in the short-term but i do wonder where we are going. Do you think its a good thing or not that we have fewer bigger bookies or not? Thoughts

[Trotter]

Difficult to see how it could be good for the punter Less choice, more concentration of account information in fewer hands I'm trying to think of some positives...... I suppose it might open the market for new entrants if the (now) even bigger boys get complacent or stale