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

[Cassius Marcellus]

Paddy Power are a shower. I've had 4 accas so far on the U,.S. Tennis Open, Coral's prices were better than PP's prices on all players except 2, which were the same. I can't see where the Betfair Sportsbook makes any money, nobody is going to back anything in singles on there, and the rest of the high street mob are just as competitive with prices for multiples.

[arsenalfh]

Great podcast on the state of the betting industry. Would definitely recommend giving it a listen. http://soundcloud.com/emmet-kennedy/...ng-tony-calvin

[MPLouis]

Although punters like me will complain about the evil bookies, I do think in many ways there has never been a better time to be a punter than right now in the UK - huge availability of bets, big choice of firms and 24-hour access online. Huge competition has been good for punters and bad for bookies - some of them have to merge or die. I'd say merging is bad news for punters, but the current market is big enough to accommodate a lot of mergers and still be very competitive. If we are left with, say 4 or 5 online bookies in a few years, that will spell bad news for punters, but good news for the bookies that survive.

[BillyHills]

I personally think its completely split into two different business's these days. The high street will always have plenty of betting shops to accommodate the machines more than anything. Now does this really matter to these customers who's name is above the front door, i don't think so. They just want the machines to be changed at regular intervals or they will move on, the betting side of things is incidental and the people who work in them will become less and less interested in sports, betting or indeed loyal customers. In the end they won't bother if they go down the road and bash their machines instead. The customers will get younger also, thats a fact. The online business is full of offers and loss leaders and you would think there would have to be an end to it at some stage, i mean how many people haven't got a bet365 or Power account or whatever by now? All these offers of backing Faugheeen at 5/1 or whatever and all of the similar bets was just crazy and i'm sure it will continue. Corals did that thing with the corner for Man Utd, cost them 1/4 of a million apparently but will supposedly get their money back in new accounts!!! The mergers will strengthen the firms for sure and they should be in a better position to offer the punters a better deal, thats the theory anyway. Offer better prices for longer. They need to brush up their customer services on current customers if they really want to increase market share and let people have a decent bet without losing them to the exchanges or even all together.

[Jimmy2shoes]

Lots of the shops are just arcades now with the machines, i cant speak for others but have said before a lot of the shops around my area open early doors, and whatever the time you will see people sitting playing the games. And a lot of the shops i feel have went right down hill, carpets - toilets etc etc Until about 5 or 6 weeks ago i was always a shop punter, would place my bets and happily watch re-runs at night Via Sportinglife.com Or would select a day maybe more and spend a few hours maybe more depending on my luck sitting in my local Lads, must admit i was always sick fed up at not getting the same offers regarding odds, i always found Corals the worst, my town centre has most of the bookmakers and all in a small area, Betfed, Corals, Lads & Hills, i know its a tax thing but i still feel the man or woman on his or her PC should get the very same odds as the man or woman standing in a shop with cash. I have a few friends ''Bookmaker Staff'' that work for the Magic Sign, two of them are Managers and nothing has been said about them losing jobs, however we all know when there is any takeover / merger it is certain ''in the long run'' staff will be cut. Time will tell.

[Mindfulness]

Great podcast on the state of the betting industry. Would definitely recommend giving it a listen. http://soundcloud.com/emmet-kennedy/...ng-tony-calvin

Yeh that was an interesting podcast mate, the story about Channing trying to get a first goal scorer bet on in Coral made me laugh.