Desmond Buys Betdaq Back

Entain PLC, the owner of powerhouse UK betting brand names, consisting of Ladbrokes and Coral, has now dumped its wagering exchange Betdaq, which it offered back to Dermot Desmond recently.


A brief history of Betdaq


In 2000, Irish businessman Dermot Desmond established the Global Betting Exchange (GBE) with a vision to create a platform where punters could wager versus each other. From GBE, the sports betting exchange Betdaq was launched in 2001.


A few sponsorship deals, including one with Celtic FC and another with Kempton Park Racecourse, saw Betdaq strongly establish itself as the second-largest online betting exchange behind Betfair by 2013, albeit with only a 7% market share. Still, this sufficed to attract wagering giant Ladbrokes to purchase the Global Betting Exchange and its properties for EUR30m from Desmond in the same year.


Despite being backed by Ladbrokes, Betdaq has never got on par with Flutter Entertainment's Betfair. It's played with various promotions, such as offering 0% commission, however the majority of have actually only led to a momentary bump up in users, with absolutely nothing sustained. Contributed to that, Betfair and Paddy Power formed a majority merger, which included hefty marketing power to help keep Betfair at the head of the pack.


What is a betting exchange?


Betting exchanges were implied to revolutionise the gaming market, and while they have to a degree, we can't say they have actually fallen the huge bookmakers, like some thought they might. In a nutshell, a wagering exchange is a peer-to-peer betting platform. Punters wager against each other instead of wagering versus a bookie.


This style of has advantages and disadvantages. The main advantages are that the costs are normally better on an exchange because there is no bookmaker's margin to aspect in; also, winning bettors do not have their accounts limited - something that is understood to take place if you're too effective versus a bookmaker.


The downside of exchanges is that they only grow if adequate users are offering liquidity to the marketplaces. Additionally, they can be a little frustrating for beginners who do not understand how support and laying bets work.


What's Desmond's Plan?


For the time being, we can just speculate why Desmond has chosen to turn the clock back and obtain Betdaq once again. Our feeling is that he's picked up a chance opening up in the market that he can benefit from. The fee spent for Betdaq is undisclosed, so we can't state if the rate was simply too good to reject or not.


What we do understand is that Betfair has actually dealt with increased criticism over its commission rates for both moderate bettors and professional traders, such as Caen Berry. Essentially, Betfair is creaming off as much as possible from gamblers who succeed here and there, in addition to drawing from its big players who have actually earned hundreds of thousands for many years. On top of this, there are now constraints as to just how much under 25s can win.


Whatever the factor, Desmond is taking on a major difficulty if he desires Betdaq to seriously rival Betfair. The bright side for punters is that it keeps competitors healthy. No one desires a Betfair monopoly where they can continue to call all the shots. Because of that, we want Dermot and Betdaq all the very best.