If Carlsberg did bookmakers.......

Good point, but then what deal did Oddschecker give to lure them back?

If the biggest firms aren't interested, your odds comparison site looks a bit feeble, doesn't it?

Wouldn't surprise me if Ladbrokes/Coral have got back on there virtually for free - I'd imagine it's the independent relative start ups that need marketing shop windows the most.

But they won't get the "lad" recreational betting pound via an Oddschecker presence - they'll get too many punters they don't want....like some of us!
 
Ian_Davies said:
The whole Oddschecker business model has always had one fundamental flaw - bookmakers don't want punters who shop around so have never been keen to pay to be on there and price sensitive punters who shop around would knock your granny over to get 5/2 and a 9/4 shot, are tight as the proverbial with money and wouldn't be seen dead paying to find out what the collective betting show is and couldn't care less what some "tipster" thinks.

No bookmaker and no serious punter wants to pay and the recreational punters just bet with whoever they've been seduced by the initial marketing into having their losing account with.

I reckon this is a sign Oddschecker's days are numbered tbh, but that wouldn't be any great loss.
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This day and age i reckon they only need to show the prices of three firms at the most. Because as we all know, as soon as Powers have gone up, the copy and pasters do their stuff and all of a sudden you have a row of about twenty firms all going the same price. It looks ridiculous and IS ridiculous.
Bet365 do their thing and Hills sometimes do theirs. But after that, if you are waiting for a price and any of the other firms are yet to go up, i guarantee that they will be the same as all the others and not a stand out price from any of the ones that hang back.

Its the same at the tracks. Gone are the days of walking up and down the line trying to nick an extra quarter or half point or whatever. There will very rarely be any difference between them all with 90% of them with the same prices and just the odd one or two who are prepared to be different and actually try and take the punter on.

How times have changed both on and off course. And definitely NOT for the better. Far from it. Change isnt always good. And change isnt always progress.

Have a good day all.
 
Grey said:
Ladbrokes decided for a few years that they didn’t need to be on Oddschecker but they and stablemate Coral are back on it nowadays.
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There’s a balance to be struck though. Presumably the bookies pay OC for the benefit of being on there but now the tossers are getting greedy and want money from bookies, advertisers AND the people who are the reason that the bookies and advertisers want to be there. It can only end one way. People will find alternatives and the traffic will drop massively meaning less incentive for the bookies and advertisers to be there. Rinse and repeat .

The only saving grace for OC are people like us who don’t log in and go via their site to the bookies which means the bookies they will only notice the drop in numbers placing bets via the OC portal which will be a fraction of the numbers that have given OC the elbow.

Hopefully the greed will cost OC in the long run . They will know their traffic numbers are falling but that doesn’t mean they will admit that to anyone else.
 
I am no industry insider, but presumably it doesn’t cost a fortune to run a basic comparison site once the participating firms agree to share their data.

Oddschecker seems to me to be the virtual equivalent, as Dessie suggested, of the front row of bookies at the track. It performs a useful service for both betting firms and punters but if its owners (Skybet/Sporting Life?) overcharge for it, bookmakers could quite easily group together and set up their own site.

Bookies would of course prefer to deal with lazy punters who don’t shop around or hoover up all their free offers under multiple identities, but they all seem keen to attract new business and it’s hard to see how they can do that if they are not in the shop window.

However there are some firms not on Oddschecker doing ok by relying on a strong regional/national identity (eg Dragonbet, Macbet, Bar One Racing), but presumably that approach also puts a ceiling on their growth.
 
As I said on an earlier post, during the time Lad-coral were not on oddschecker I don't think I had a bet with them. I know I did very occasionally lose out on the odd better price but it was no big deal to me.

I presume turnover fell with them during that spell with other like-minded punters not bothering visiting their sites and they've obviously decided oddschecker is a necessary evil for them.

(I also presume they renegotiated terms with oddschecker in order to reach a mutually satisfactory conclusion.)

I'm not in the habit of checking out other comparison sites. There was another several years ago but I think it closed down, possibly because it couldn't garner the same volume of traffic as oddschecker. Wish I could remember its name. I'd have had it bookmarked but deleted it.
 
Desert Orchid said:
As I said on an earlier post, during the time Lad-coral were not on oddschecker I don't think I had a bet with them. I know I did very occasionally lose out on the odd better price but it was no big deal to me.

I presume turnover fell with them during that spell with other like-minded punters not bothering visiting their sites and they've obviously decided oddschecker is a necessary evil for them.

(I also presume they renegotiated terms with oddschecker in order to reach a mutually satisfactory conclusion.)

I'm not in the habit of checking out other comparison sites. There was another several years ago but I think it closed down, possibly because it couldn't garner the same volume of traffic as oddschecker. Wish I could remember its name. I'd have had it bookmarked but deleted it.
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Probably Easyodds or Bestbetting.
 
Grey said:
I am no industry insider, but presumably it doesn’t cost a fortune to run a basic comparison site once the participating firms agree to share their data.

Oddschecker seems to me to be the virtual equivalent, as Dessie suggested, of the front row of bookies at the track. It performs a useful service for both betting firms and punters but if its owners (Skybet/Sporting Life?) overcharge for it, bookmakers could quite easily group together and set up their own site.

Bookies would of course prefer to deal with lazy punters who don’t shop around or hoover up all their free offers under multiple identities, but they all seem keen to attract new business and it’s hard to see how they can do that if they are not in the shop window.

However there are some firms not on Oddschecker doing ok by relying on a strong regional/national identity (eg Dragonbet, Macbet, Bar One Racing), but presumably that approach also puts a ceiling on their growth.
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It is owned by Bruin Capital who bought it from Flutter for around £155m. I remember reading something about the deal a few months ago and one thing stuck in my mind. So i've searched around and found the piece. In it, it says that Bruin thought that Flutter had underinvested in Oddschecker. And that got me thinking. How far can you actually go with an odds comparison site ? What sort of "underinvesting" did they mean ? In what area ?
Surely, all you want it to do is what it says on the tin. Compare odds. Isnt that what everyone on here and every punter in the land wants ? To be able to go to a site and compare odds. I cant for the life of me think of anything "extra" that i would want.
Is it just advertising/marketing "speak" ? Maybe someone on here could enlighten me or give me a clue as to what they could mean. My very limited dealings with advertising/marketing was liasing with those depts when our advert was going in the paper or on the website. Making sure every price was right and that if, for instance the prices were for Ascot, they didnt have a picture of Sedgefield in the background.
But in my opinion, if i operated an odds comparison site, my number one concern would be that EVERY price was accurate and up to date. Isnt that all the punters want ?

Anybody ?????
 
I 100% agree.

The web is already full of "tipsters" etc - Oddschecker is an odds comparison site and I'd say the only punters who use it are punters trying to make the game pay.

Most won't, but some will (until restricted) and many will just about break even.

These punters really aren't "recreational" and are instead independently-minded, hence not interested in "tipsters" or any of that nonsense.

I don't like using it - I feel it loads in a purposely-sluggish way designed to make the user click on things they don't want to click on.

It forever tries to lead me towards products that don't interest me.

But then nothing I do puts cash in their pocket - I just do a quick check to see if the top price is one I can organise obtaining to win more than the price of a Waitrose tiramisu, compare it with "the machine," then depart.

I'm amazed it was ever valued at £155 million - I must be missing something big time!
 
Before reading this thread I would have said I use oddschecker all the time.

If I'm going to put in the hard hours poring through form, coming up with meaningful figures, collating all the information and thinking about a bet then I want to know where I can get the best odds but I don't want to have to fanny about spending more time checking all the sites.

Oddschecker gives me it all at a glance. It also tells me which bookie will go BOG or extra places.

I find it an invaluable site.

Occasionally when checking the RP cards, I'll use the odds link on the main card. It kind of gives a comparison and highlights the BOG (where applicable) so that can be useful too.

What it doesn't do, as far as I know, is highlight which bookies offer boosts. Some bookies seem happy to offer boosts on [seemingly] every horse but I've noticed that Hills don't always allow me a boost even if it's my first bet of the day in a televised race.

Ladbrokes seem okay on that score but whenever I visit Coral I get a message saying I have x number of boosts available but when I've clicked through to the horse I have NEVER been offered the boost. Maybe they've disqualified me from them. If another bookie is going the same price and offering a boost then, naturally, I'll bet with them.

The one bookie I cannot speak lowly enough about is Boylesports. To this day I do not know why they will not take a bet off me. I do not recall ever winning money off them.
 
Ian_Davies said:
I 100% agree.

The web is already full of "tipsters" etc - Oddschecker is an odds comparison site and I'd say the only punters who use it are punters trying to make the game pay.

Most won't, but some will (until restricted) and many will just about break even.

These punters really aren't "recreational" and are instead independently-minded, hence not interested in "tipsters" or any of that nonsense.

I don't like using it - I feel it loads in a purposely-sluggish way designed to make the user click on things they don't want to click on.

It forever tries to lead me towards products that don't interest me.

But then nothing I do puts cash in their pocket - I just do a quick check to see if the top price is one I can organise obtaining to win more than the price of a Waitrose tiramisu, compare it with "the machine," then depart.

I'm amazed it was ever valued at £155 million - I must be missing something big time!
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Well done to the people who set Oddschecker up i say. I do like to hear stories of other peoples good fortune and i think "fortune" is definitely the right word here. And it also tickles me when i read of occasions where, to me, it is obvious that some people (or companies) have far more money than sense.

What they planned to do with it after buying it i just cannot fathom. I cant think of anything they could come up with that would appeal to Joe Punter more than the site does now. I go on it to check a price and then i click it off. And thats all it would ever be to me and i would assume, 99.9% of punters.
What else could they possibly invest in ??? How could they "further" it and enhance it ?
 
any site (Oddschecker , Racing Post etc) that is providing click thru's to bookmaker sites will be getting a cut of some sort from the bookmaker, a flat fee and/or a % of what the punter then feeds to the bookmaker
 
pawras said:
any site (Oddschecker , Racing Post etc) that is providing click thru's to bookmaker sites will be getting a cut of some sort from the bookmaker, a flat fee and/or a % of what the punter then feeds to the bookmaker
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Thats right mate. And some individual affiliates made some bloody good money years ago with their cuts.
 
pawras said:
I think punters would be surprised at just what proportion of their income it is for some
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Dead right mate. As i said earlier, i didnt have a great deal to do with the marketing/advertising teams apart from a half hour meeting on a Monday morning to plan the week ahead and a quick check in with them just before they released the adverts with the race betting and offers. But in a quick conversation with one or two of them from time to time, i have to say i was shocked by just how much these affiliates were earning.
 
Quixall Crossett said:
Dead right mate. As i said earlier, i didnt have a great deal to do with the marketing/advertising teams apart from a half hour meeting on a Monday morning to plan the week ahead and a quick check in with them just before they released the adverts with the race betting and offers. But in a quick conversation with one or two of them from time to time, i have to say i was shocked by just how much these affiliates were earning.
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who did you work for?
 
pawras said:
who did you work for?
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:)
Just like the last forum i was on, i will keep that to myself. I made that decision when i joined the last forum (Letsbet) because i had no doubt that there would be one or two people, maybe more, who had been closed or restricted or whatever by the firm and i didnt really want the hassle and didnt want to maybe have to repeat myself over and over again. I can honestly say that i only ever closed two punters in my time. One was for him trying to take the piss when i had rang him over his account and he thought he was being clever. And the other was more serious. He had found a glitch in the system which meant that every bet he placed was a winner. He couldnt lose. I found it quite by chance one day and he had made a lot of money out of it. That should have really went further but the hierarchy didnt want to go down that route and he was just closed. And NO !!!!! i am not going to tell you what he did. There may be other firms out there with the same glitch. :)

Another reason was that if they did something good or worthwhile, i didnt want to be accused of bias towards them if i praised them . Likewise, i didnt want people suggesting other reasons if i slagged them off. As it as turned out over the years, i have never had one single reason to praise them but i have had a dig at them a few times and i had a right old rant on the previous forum about them a few years ago.

Time for the Cartmel decs. To be honest, i've just had a quick look at them before i typed this and they are fairly disappointing. The last race will be the only race i am looking at. There are ten runners in that so it hopefully will be worthwhile but all the other handicaps are either 5, 6 or 7 runners. They are no good to me.

Have a good day all.
 
Speak of the devil...

I went on to oddschecker this morning and was greeted with a message saying I'd reached my limit :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

I presume, therefore, it's an all-time limit and not a period-defined 'allowance'.

Anyone know if a VPN would get round this?
 
Desert Orchid said:
Speak of the devil...

I went on to oddschecker this morning and was greeted with a message saying I'd reached my limit :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

I presume, therefore, it's an all-time limit and not a period-defined 'allowance'.

Anyone know if a VPN would get round this?
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:(
Oh dear.

I havent looked at the site since they kicked me out a few days ago. I find the ATR site more than adequate.
 
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Desert Orchid said:
Anyone know if a VPN would get round this?
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Assuming you haven't created an account on Oddschecker (I don't know why anyone would - you can get the odds lists without logging in and the only thing I can see that benefits anyone creating an account is it gives the potential to personalize what you see), then yes logically a VPN would get around it.

Without them knowing who you are (via an account login), the only way they can tell is by your IP address (your phone will have an IP, your laptop/broadband will have an IP). If you log in to a VPN, then it's the VPN's IP address that OC will see, and it will be different from your phone or laptop. Theoretically, you'll be able to use it until whatever limit they've set is reached.
 
Desert Orchid said:
Speak of the devil...

I went on to oddschecker this morning and was greeted with a message saying I'd reached my limit :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

I presume, therefore, it's an all-time limit and not a period-defined 'allowance'.

Anyone know if a VPN would get round this?
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It's a cookie. Limit should re-set at some point.

Easiest workaround is to use incognito mode. Have the OC racing page open in normal for when you want to use the direct link to a logged-in bookie account.
 
Desert Orchid said:
Speak of the

I went on to oddschecker this morning and was greeted with a message saying I'd reached my

I presume, therefore, it's an all-time limit and not a period-defined 'allowance'.

Anyone know if a VPN would get round this?
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It’s a daily limit. Possibly around 15 views or so, resetting at midnight .

Way around it ?
Desert Orchid said:
Speak of the devil...

I went on to oddschecker this morning and was greeted with a message saying I'd reached my limit :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

I presume, therefore, it's an all-time limit and not a period-defined 'allowance'.

Anyone know if a VPN would get round this?
Click to expand...
It’s a daily limit, possible around 15 views . Ways around it? use different devices or browsers or just use an alternative who aren’t such greedy wankers.

I don’t know if anyone else has noticed but their blue and red movers can’t be trusted. You can look at something that’s blue across the board at 10/1, then to to Bet365 and william hill and see that they’ve drifted in both from 7/1.

It’s useful if you’re in a hurry to find the bookie with the best price that you have an account with but, as I said before , most of the time if a horse is blue across oddschecker it’s because it’s been priced up incorrectly in the first place .
 
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