An overview of BETDAQ

Founded in 2000 by Dermot Desmond, Betdaq is a trailblazer betting exchange that has been a market leader for over three decades. At its inception, Desmond aimed to build a social betting place where peers would place wagers against each other as opposed to the bookmaker. Initially, Betdaq target market was high-rollers players and prices were quoted in dollars to give an “international” appeal. However, this didn’t work out well since Betdaq and Betfair were established at the same time, and many customers opted for Betfair instead of Betdaq. Up to date, Betfair has maintained the betting exchange market lead with Betdaq trailing at 7%.

Fast forward to February 2013, Ladbrokes Plc acquired Betdaq for a €30m. This didn’t come as a surprise since Ladbrokes has its winged spread out in the gambling space and has always been on acquisitions spree with acquisitions such as Coral group. Later in December 2017, GVC Holdings — the parent company to popular gambling brands such as Bwin and Sporting Bet— acquired Ladbrokes Plc for £4 billion. Currently, Betdaq is operated by LC International Limited a licensed company regulated by the UK Gambling Commission for UK operations and Gibraltar Gambling Commissioner for operations outside the UK.

Yan Zhylinski Updated: 14 July 2021

Operations

Since Betdaq’s official launch in 2000, the firm has grown in leaps and bounds to become the globe’s largest provider of betting exchange technology and UK’s second largest betting exchange firm. With 90 employees, the Betdaq team of management includes Noel Browne who is the Operations Director, Paul Dowling (Head of Liquidity), and Mark McKenna (Commercial Manager).

Betdaq efficiently runs several websites and sports wagering brokerages from an epicenter exchange hub to provide their associates with market prices for sports wagering and crisis management. The central Global Betting Exchange Alderney, a firm that owns and operates gambling and betting websites matches over £75 million worth of wagers from member and brokerage firms across the globe weekly to a value that surpasses $7 billion yearly. To date, it boasts of an efficient team of 50 IT experts, along with an investment of more than $30 million in the platform. In the early months of 2011, sealed a deal to acquire a technology software from a CryptoLogic Inc firm, GTS. They followed this by launching Betdaq Games which they integrated into their network.

A year later in 2012, Betdaq commissioned BetdaqNFL. BetdaqNFL is a micro site meant to offer live video commentary matches direct from the United States of America. A site purely dedicated to the NFL, BetdaqNFL comes with live video previews of NFL, results, chat, and strategies from resident analyst John Arnette.

Sponsorship

The sponsorship activity of Betdaq including the latest sponsorship deals says a lot about this firm. In January 2011, Betdaq penciled a “six-figure” accord with the owners of Kempton Park Racecourse to allow the account holders of Betdaq free access to Kempton Park on night fixtures that take place every Wednesday. This sort of arrangement meant that Betdaq would sponsor 176 races over the year.

A few months later in July 2011, Betdaq went ahead to become Celtic Football Club’s official online betting partner, a partnership announced by Sky Sport analyst Alan McInally at a ceremony that took place at Celtic Park. Alan McInally is a former Scottish striker working as Betdaq’s brand ambassador.

The year 2011 was an active year for Betdaq in terms of striking sponsorship deals. In September 2011, two months after becoming Celtic Football Club’s official online betting partner, Betdaq became London Irish Rugby Club sponsor. The terms of the agreement stated that Betdaq’s logo was to be displayed on the back of London Irish Rugby Club team jerseys for all Heineken Cup matches and Aviva Premiership games.

In the 2018/19 English Premier League season, Betdaq sponsored Sunderland Football Club despite their relegation to the third tier of English football.