Matchbook acquires Betdaq, shrinking UK exchange market to four

Matchbook has acquired rival betting exchange Betdaq, a deal that reduces the number of major exchanges operating in the UK to four, according to SBC News.

The other three remaining platforms are the Betfair Exchange, Spreadex and Smarkets. The takeover sees one established exchange absorbed by another, rather than a new entrant disrupting the sector.

Matchbook has linked the acquisition to the wider growth of prediction markets, which it says has renewed demand for peer-to-peer pricing models of the kind exchanges have long offered.

Ronan McDonagh, chief executive of Matchbook, said Betdaq and Matchbook "grew up proving the same idea — that bettors get a better deal when prices are made by a market rather than a margin." He added: "A quarter of a century on, that idea is winning: exchanges and prediction markets are bringing peer-to-peer pricing to new audiences around the world, and this acquisition deepens the pool at the heart of everything we build."

Matchbook was founded in 2004 and is based in Alderney in the Channel Islands. Betdaq, founded in 2000, is headquartered in Dublin and was set up by Irish businessman and racehorse owner Dermot Desmond, a former Manchester United shareholder and current Celtic stakeholder.

The deal comes as Matchbook has spent 2026 ramping up its activity in prediction markets and B2B partnerships, with the former increasingly central to the latter. In December 2025 the company became the first UK firm to launch a prediction markets platform, as the sector expanded rapidly in the United States.

That push has brought Matchbook significant visibility over the past six months. In June the company signed a white label agreement with ADI Predictstreet, the official prediction market partner of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Gross gambling yield for betting exchanges in the UK fell again in 2025/26, but McDonagh has said Matchbook has been steadily increasing its market share despite the wider decline. The Betdaq acquisition is expected to accelerate that growth immediately rather than incrementally, reflecting Matchbook's broader strategy of evolving in a sector where growth has slowed even as prediction markets open up fresh opportunity in the US.

Matchbook said its objective is to combine its own pricing, liquidity and technology with Betdaq's standing as a long-established exchange brand, creating a larger combined liquidity pool.

Betdaq customers will continue to be able to trade on the platform until 21 October, with account withdrawals remaining available until 4 November. Matchbook said customer funds would remain protected throughout the transition in line with regulatory requirements.

McDonagh said the priority through the changeover was Betdaq's customer base: "their funds are safe, their options are clear, and in one combined pool they should find better prices and deeper liquidity than either exchange could offer alone." He added: "Everything we are doing — this deal included — is about making the exchange first choice."