GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 32 - June 2015

How important is this type of service to a sports bettor? I think it’s an essential service. Before buying something like a laptop or a phone, a smart customer will look for the best price in stores and online. Why wouldn’t smart punters look for the best return on their bets, given that the differences can sometimes be as high as 30 percent between bookmakers? In the beginning the service was targeting professional punters, but as time passed we saw that the product appealed increas- ingly to more casual bettors who are look- ing for better value in their bets. We pro- vide a service to smart consumers. What are some of the advantages of tar- geting players that are looking for the best possible odds? Are there any dis- advantages? Customers who are looking for the best odds tend to be more profes- sional, so on one hand you take a risk on the more knowledgeable punters winning more regularly, but on the other hand the engagement from those customers is very high as they have strong intent on placing bets and opening newaccounts. Those cus- tomers also bet in high volume and their account life expectancy is much greater. In the end, we believe in the old adage that in the long term, the house always wins. You also make your odds-comparison services available to third-party sites. Can you describe how those relation- ships developed? Do you worry that, while it's nice to get the fees they pay, you're losing potential affiliate revenue from players who are seeing your prod- uct on someone else's site? A few years ago we started to offer odds-comparison solutions to third parties — companies that don’t want to build an odds-com- parison offering from scratch due to the required investment in time, manpower and expertise. Those agreements initially started from personal relationship with other affiliates. From there it was word of mouth. In my humble opinion, we have a great service and very competitive prices. We got a big boost by cultivating relationships and gaining valuable feedback on the GPWA forums, too. Ten years ago, we wouldn’t have even thought about providing services to other sites. But as the competition in the field of odds comparison increased. We under- stood that the benefits outweighed the risk of losing some traffic. One of the results of comparing odds is that your site is able to identify arbitrage opportunities. Can you give those who may not know what arbitrage is a quick definition? Bookmakers use traders to calculate their odds, and sometimes, due to different opinions and other internal factors, a situation emerges where if you back both outcomes in a two-way market on two different betting sites, you’ll lock in a guaranteed profit. Here’s an example that will explain it simply – let’s say Roger Federer is facing Rafael Nadal in tennis: At Bookmaker #1, Federer is priced at 2.1 (+110). At Bookmaker #2, Nadal is priced at 2.05 (+105). Backing them both on those two sites will guarantee you a profit of 3.7 percent. You even offer a calculator for players to indicate how much they should bet on each side on each site. How difficult was it to build this technology? What do affil- iate programs think of this function? To tell you the truth, once you have the accu- rate odds it’s not hard to add this feature. The issue here is that bookmakers watch out for arb players and change these odds in seconds to avoid this kind of situation. AGE 40 HOMETOWN Haifa LIVING IN Israel FAVORITE FOOD Indian MUST-READ BOOK Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig SITES odds1x2.com cheltenham-odds.me.uk grandnational-odds.me.uk Traveling in India 47 GPWA Affiliate Interview Series