The global betting & gaming market is estimated to be in excess of £675 billion annually in terms of gross yield to the industry (i.e. total turnover of £6.0 trillion). There are few reliable sources of segmented market size data and trends on a global or regional basis, and therefore in order to build a conservative business plan grounded on an observable market, it is necessary to refine the definition of the addressable market for Matchbet, for forecasting purposes.
The market definition that is used for forecasting in our business plan is based on the estimated size of the EU and UK online betting exchange market, calculated from numerous data sources using a top down and bottom up methodology. The actual addressable market for the Matchbet exchange model is of course much broader than this in terms of geography, including but not limited to USA, Australia, Asia Pacific, and South America. However, reasonable assumptions of narrowly defined market shares in the UK market illustrate that our business plan results in a scale which will lead to a viable and successful business, with significant upside opportunities. Matchbet feel that this is a reasonable approach to take as in the first instance it will be targeting clients with a EU/UK footprint.
The EU Betting Exchange market was forecast to grow from £8.6bn annual transaction volume (bets matched) to over £110bn in matched bets by the end of 2009. The market has experienced explosive growth since 2000 and grown by 5 times over the last 12 months.
Currently the UK market (i.e. bets placed by UK resident customers) represents over 63% of the total EU business, but as the Betting Exchange phenomenon spreads from its early roots in the UK and Eire, the share of other EU countries is expected to grow to over 55%. MECN project that two-thirds of the annual growth on an EU basis will come from new users of betting exchanges, with one-third coming from increased betting activities of existing users, especially heavy traders.
