Match Book, an Irish betting exchange company, is launching its online casino site. This is in response to the overwhelming success of the beta program, which was launched in the spring of 2005. The sports betting market is a 100 billion dollar in the US, and the majority of current profits are going to offshore online casino groups. The Antigua-licensed group would like to make its way into the US market in an attempt to overthrow the online casino.
Unlike conventional bookmaking, used by the online casino, where the house accepts bets, the betting exchange lets gamblers directly bet against one another. This eliminates the need for 'middleman' as it is a person-to-person program. In addition to this feature, Match book will only take a 2% commission on bets; as opposed to the 5-10% taken by other online casino sites. When introduced to Europe, Match Book made a significant dent in the $30 billion market by introducing players to a better, more affordable method to bet on their favorite sporting events.
Currently, in North America, Match Book is matching an average of $10 million bets a week. This leads the company to believe that American's are quickly changing over from the traditional online casino bookmakers to the new betting exchange method. The website offers sports betting on a plethora of sporting events including NFL, NCAA, hockey and soccer games. In addition, movie fans can bet on weekly box office returns and the Oscar winners.
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