Betfair looks to international growth for flat-lining exchange

Paddy Power Betfair is looking for international growth to help boost its flat-lining exchange revenues.

The firm last week reported exchange revenues up 1% for Q3, although analysts pointed out the figure was boosted by the latter half of the World Cup, as well as a soft comparative period in 2017 where revenues were down 5%.

When asked by analysts how he planned to breathe life back into the exchange, group CEO Peter Jackson said pointed to international opportunities, saying: “The big thing to support the growth internationally is being able to offer a broader range of languages, to provide content to people in local languages and accept local payment methods.

“We’ll deploy those things together with what we call local scale projects over the next 6-12 months which will help grow the business in the future.”

Jackson said the fierce competition for the exchange in the UK had not abated, although he pointed to other bookmakers rather than rival exchanges.

“People like bet365 continue to push hard,” the exec said. “We operate in a very competitive market for customers. We’re fighting for those customers in the same way bet365 or someone like William Hill is.

Jackson said last quarter that that bet365’s low overrounds on racing were attracting potential Exchange customers.

The CEO added: “I don’t think its right to keep going back to Smarkets and Matchbook as competitors. There are clearly some differences. The important thing to remember is Betfair is focused on core sports bettors so our competitors are high street and online bookmakers.

Wider online performance was more positive for the group with online revenues up 15% year-on-year to £248m.