A Forecast for the British Bookmaking Sector
With Britain set to drop its 9 percent betting tax in January and replace it with a 15 percent levy on bookmakers' gross profits, Mintel leisure analyst Amanda White recently took a look at how the new system will affect businesses which already enjoyed the benefits of low or no taxes. In an article for MediaGuardian, White wrote, "Although the abolition of betting tax will benefit the industry overall, it will take away the advantages currently enjoyed by the websites. . . . The online bookmakers will have to work harder to attract new players and promote loyalty among their existing customers."
The change can be partly attributed to the fact that traditional bookmakers tend to attract a very different kind of punter than those attracted by online bookies. Further, sites that can best use target marketing are the ones likely to succeed--at least in the near future.
White also gave Web betting site Sportingbet.com kudos for having the ability to offer its customers personalized information based on their betting habits and interests. White further suggested, "The success of online betting may depend upon the quality of the impartial information given to customers to help them place their bets."
She also acknowledged that brand recognition is a key factor in attracting players, something that will benefit well known land-based operators--like William Hill, Coral and Ladbrokes--that have entered the Internet arena.
Betting Turnover Drops in Ireland
Irish bookmakers suffered significantly when hoof and mouth disease ravaged the racing industry. The Irish government reported that betting shops saw as much as a 4 percent drop in turnover during the first quarter of the year, mainly attributable to the disease's effect on racing. Further, the government found that the number of on-course bettors dropped. This is despite more international races being listed to make up for losses incurred as a result of local races being cancelled to prevent the disease from spreading.
Too Many HK Punters Are Gambling Addicts
A Hong Kong hospital official is concerned that the number of problem gamblers there will swell far beyond 102,000, as currently identified, if football betting is legalized, the Hong Kong Mail reports. According to Leung Yiu-kin, an associate professor of psychology for the Chinese University of Hong Kong, about 1.5 percent of the territory's population suffers from this obsession. Football betting and offshore betting over the Internet is only compounding the problem, he added.
Real or Not, Online Credit Card Fraud Scares Consumers
Is fraud really a problem when consumers pay for their online purchases with a credit card? In a recent article, Reuters addressed the question and found that many companies are trying to convince customers that there's no need for concern. A study by Jupiter Media Metrix, however, shows that fear of fraud is the No. 1 reason that more consumers don't shop online. And even though analysts at Media Metrix say that overall credit card fraud is at an all-time low, Visa officials tell a different story. Visa reports a far larger percentage of fraudulent transactions for online purchases versus what occurs offline. Visa's figures attribute 25 to 30 cents per $100 spent online to online fraud, whereas overall fraud is much lower--about 7 cents per $100.
Who's Missing out on the Internet?
Considering the astounding penetration achieved by the Internet throughout the world in a relatively short amount of time, it's more than a bit astonishing to hear that there are still billions of people who've never gone online even once.
How can that be?
In a recent survey, people from 30 nations were asked why they hadn't ventured to the World Wide Web. The largest portion of respondents, 40 percent, said they simply didn’t have a need to go there. Another 33 percent said they had no computer with which to access Web. Twenty-five percent said they just weren't interested in the Internet.
"In the developed world, a substantial number of people who could very easily go online have decided not to," explained a spokesman for Ipsos-Reid, which performed the survey. "They see no compelling reason to be on the Web. The hype and promise of the Internet clearly hasn't impressed them. . . Not yet, at least."
Residents from the United States and nearby English-speaking nations, Japan, parts of Europe and other countries were polled.