Member Article

EastEnders murder opens door for UK betting market

With a reported one million bets being placed last month on the identity of Lucy Beale’s killer in EastEnders, novelty betting is growing phenomenon in the UK. As well as the sports markets, bookmakers now offer odds on big celebrity events such as The Oscars, The Brits and Big Brother as a way of attracting non-traditional customers.

According to Dan Ezekiel, Head of Operations and Director of social gambling start-up Eclectic Gaming Solutions, novelty or ‘celebrity’ betting had been growing steadily until the huge gambling interest in the recent EastEnders plot took everyone by surprise. He says:

“The betting industry has changed considerably in the UK over the last couple of years with mobile technology enabling people to interact in a different way. Now that the technology is in place we are now seeing a second level where people who might not normally bet are being attracted by celebrity markets.”

Last month, Eclectic Gaming Solutions (www.eclectic-gaming.com) became the first company to offer the opportunity to send unusual and personalised bets to sports or entertainment loving friends or family as a fun gift as demonstrated with the launch of Bettagift (www.bettagift.com) a fresh, never-seen-before, online social sports betting product.

By cleverly updating the idea of gifting friends and family with betting slips, coupons and scratch cards, Bettagift.com combines two very popular markets: sport and gifting that have long been at the heart of British culture.

Eclectic Gaming who are new entrants in the online gaming and social gambling sectors have identified a fresh way to embrace both the UK’s passion for big sporting and entertainment events, whilst offering the excitement and anticipation of a prize-winning result.

Through the Eclectic Gaming technology platform, users will be able to select an appropriate bet from those displayed and add their own personal message. The recipient is then notified that they have been given a ‘Bettagift’ by email, or SMS and via the social networks, and if the bet wins, the recipient claims the prize via sign up to the operator site.

Eclectic Gaming are licensed by the UK Gambling Commission and is a “bolt-on” social product that operators can integrate into their existing online operations and back office as an additional product offering to their customers. A White Label solution allows rebranding of certain elements which can be customised to fit within any brand.

Dan Ezekiel explains:

“Our aim is to provide a fresh, innovative approach that offers an alternative to the traditional betting experience by adding anticipation and passion into the mix. We want to attract those who enjoy football and the possibilities it brings who may find traditional betting sites daunting or confusing.

Unlike normal bookmakers who offer a wide array of sports and markets, Eclectic Gaming offers a smaller hand-picked selection of markets that stand out for being temporally topical, or targeted towards a specific demographic.

Dan continues:

“We believe Bettagift is attractive on many levels. For social integrations, bets are sent to recipients and shareable through various social networks.

The product is multi-platform and is available in various configurations, with multiple markets, as a web app and a mobile website, with native iOs and Android apps in the pipeline.

In essence we are looking to revitalise components of the UK betting market which we feel are under serviced, particularly around delivery to the casual consumer. In addition, we feel that there are learnings from the social gaming space that can be leveraged to provide a better consumer proposition and provide operators with a layer of data that can help maximise their revenues.

Our software is fully licenced by the UK Gambling Commission and accredited by GLI (Gaming Labs International).“

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by David Pacini .