In a 19 March statement emailed to Chinese customers, Bet365 announced it will now focus on “core markets [and] regions that provide long-term sustainable revenue”.
Founded in 2001, the UK company has long occupied a grey area in China. Gambling in the People’s Republic is strictly prohibited with the exception of two special administrative regions (SARs): Macau and Hong Kong.
Even so, a 2024 Financial Times report called China a “cash machine” for the family business helmed by Denise Coates. Bet365 reportedly sought out unregulated markets as UK sports betting reached saturation.
By 2014, per Regulus Partners, China “was probably Bet365’s second largest market behind the UK”, although it kicked in less than 20% of revenue at the time.
“Mirror sites” foiled China censors
A 2022 article in Business Insider described Bet365 as a major player in China’s “shadowy world of online gambling”. It and other recognised operators used dozens of “mirror sites” hosted by subsidiaries to evade detection by authorities.
As soon as monitors found and blocked the sites, new ones popped up to replace them. Ben Lee, managing partner at IGamiX Management and Consulting in Macau, called it “a game of whack-a-mole”.
Yet Bet365 has repeatedly denied breaking Chinese law or imperilling Chinese consumers, who face fines and detention for illegal gambling.
In 2020, a Bet365 representative told the Telegraph: “There is no legislation which expressly prohibits the supply of remote gambling by offshore operators into China. In the view of Bet365 and its lawyers, Chinese law does not extend to the provision of services into China by offshore gambling operators.”
Beyond China, greener pastures
For Bet365, the grass is likely to be greener (not to mention legal) elsewhere.
The company reportedly is looking to expand in regulated markets, including Brazil, which opened its legal online sports betting market on 1 January. There, Bet365 joins a throng of competitors including Entain, MGM, Flutter and Stake.
But Eilers & Krejcik analyst Alun Bowden told Covers that Coates is really “gunning for US market share” and will make stateside expansion a top priority.
The sportsbook is already live in 13 US states. It launched in Illinois just in time for March Madness and will debut in Missouri this fall. On 24 March, it signed a deal with the St Louis Cardinals to become the team’s first mobile sports betting partner.
Analysts: China not worth the hassle
Regulus analysts called China “Bet365’s last material ‘dark grey’ market”. Its departure leaves the group “with a domestically regulated mix of over 90%”, now that Brazil is licensed.
At bottom, with China’s ongoing crackdown on illegal gambling – citizens are not even permitted to gamble in legal casinos outside the PRC – China is more trouble than its worth.
Regulus cited “deliberate declining operational focus on China, increasingly effective state disruption and growth elsewhere…. As a controversial and increasingly difficult market to operate in, China has therefore become relatively easy for Bet365 to exit.”
Original article: https://igamingbusiness.com/sports-betting/online-sports-betting/bet-365-exits-chinese-sports-betting-market/
