Working in collaboration with online bookmaker Bet Butler and Club Website, an enterprise which builds sites for amateur sports clubs to facilitate betting, a UK company titled The Betting Service promises to give something back to its clients, and says its business model is poised to exploit a large market comprising British sports clubs.
TBS told the business publication This Is Money that it plans to initially attract 30,000 clubs, out of an estimated 151,000 such organisations, and estimates that the average punter will lose GBP 50 a month, of which GBP 10 will go to the club.
The company can claim some experience in the field, having operated as the official betting partner of the Rugby Football League for the 2013 World Cup and expects a rise in traffic with next year’s FIFA World Cup.
Portraying the company as the “Robin Hood of betting”, marketing director Neil Riches said TBS was looking to give GBP 2 million to grassroots rugby alone in 2014, claiming:
“We’re the Robin Hood of bookmaking. Traditional bookmakers are greedy and don’t give anything back, whereas we are supporting the clubs and put cash back into the local community.”
The TBS business model enables sports club members and supporters sign up to the club’s website and start betting, whereupon the team is rewarded with free sports equipment. In addition, 20 percent of gamblers’ losses are paid to the club, with each club encouraged to persuade more supporters to sign up.