betinternet Poises to Cash in on Euro 2000

6 June 2000
Tiny Isle of Man is home to at least one aggressive Internet bookmaker--betinternet.com plc--proving the old adage that big things can come from small packages (or islands!). The company announced today the signing of two marketing deals for Euro 2000, along with the launching of a new informational site targeting the Hong Kong market.

During the nearly month-long Euro 2000 soccer tournament, betinternet will be the sole bookmaker for Eurosport, a leading provider of sporting content to the European market via analogue and digital platforms. That means the bookmaker will have reach to more than 86 million homes and 230 million viewers in 54 countries.

Under terms of the agreement, betinternet will offer Eurosport.com visitors the opportunity to bet from their homes via the Euro 2000 Live Score section of Eurosport's website. The site typically sees 700,000 unique viewers and 300,000 page impressions per day. Mark McGuiness, betinternet's marketing manager, says those number will likely triple for the tournament. Bookmakers estimate that £2 billion will be bet on the soccer tournament, mainly by European and Far Eastern punters.

"We'll be offering the opportunity to bet while the game is running," McGuiness said. "They can bet right up to the end of the game." This twist on betting is called "live betting in-running," which works similar to stock market and spread betting. Betinternet will constantly update the odds throughout the game giving punters more options or outcomes to bet upon as the game progresses and the odds fluctuate.

Additionally, Eurosport's customers can use the live In-vision service, which enables viewers to watch the games while viewing the latest betting odds on their TV screens. (Viewers access the odds on page 595, which then will run concurrently while the game is watched.) Viewers can then bet either via telephone or Internet.

betinternet is promoting the Eurosport betting initiative on Eurosport's teletext pages, which will mainly target Germany, Italy and the Far East. The company is also sponsoring Eurosport's daily newspaper, which is emailed to more than 16,000 registered readers.

betinternet is spreading its name further via a new information-only website in Hong Kong that launched May 31. The company employs both Mandarin and Cantonese-speaking customer support agents for the site.

The Hong Kong site has already proven successful. McGuiness wouldn't provide details, but said that it has already "more than paid for the cost of constructing the site."