Matchbook buys Betdaq, leaving just four major UK exchanges

Matchbook has acquired Betdaq, one of the UK and Ireland's longest-standing betting exchanges, in a deal announced last week that reduces the sector to four recognisable major players: Matchbook, Betfair Exchange, Smarkets and Spreadex.

Speaking to SBC News at the SBC Summit in Lisbon two weeks before the deal was confirmed, Matchbook chief executive Ronan McDonagh said the scarcity of peer-to-peer licences in the UK gave operators in the space a structural edge over the crowded sportsbook market.

The exchange sector has been contracting for years. According to figures cited by SBC News, UK gross gambling yield from exchanges fell again in 2025/26 to £92.66m, down from £171.53m in 2016/17 — nearly half the total a decade ago.

McDonagh described the exchange market and its customer base as "a bit old-fashioned" but said Matchbook was "trying to eat away at that" through recent product development, arguing the company had grown its share even as the wider market shrank.

"It's quite clear that we're actually trending in the opposite direction. So while the overall piece of the pie is shrinking, our market share has increased quite a lot," he said. He pointed to partnerships with racetrack bookmakers in the UK and Ireland feeding alert volume to the exchange as a factor behind the improved product.

The Betdaq deal brings a significant operational benefit on-course, where Betdaq held the largest share of connections from on-course bookmakers across the UK and Ireland who use exchange pricing for hedging. That network now moves to Matchbook.

The acquisition also extends Matchbook's international footprint. Betdaq operated across 26 countries, including Argentina, Mexico, Croatia and Costa Rica, while Matchbook already runs in the UK and Ireland, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa, with a US launch planned around the prediction markets sector.

McDonagh said Matchbook had applied for a licence from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and reskinned its platform to pursue that opportunity, alongside expansion into Brazil and South Africa. "We've been quite busy. If we were UK-only, it would have been quite challenging, but now we can grow a lot more diversely," he said.

Global visibility has also come through a white-label arrangement with ADI Predictstreet, the official prediction market partner for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Matchbook's LED advertising during Scotland's World Cup opener against Haiti, a 2am kick-off, generated what McDonagh said were more page views than Grand National Day — exposure he said the company had never achieved before and "probably never will again".

The deal carries personal weight for McDonagh, who began his career in the exchange sector as a senior trader at Betdaq between 2005 and 2014. Writing on LinkedIn, he said he regularly meets former Betdaq staff now working across the industry, adding: "The education they received at Betdaq stands to them because exchanges are hard. If you understand exchanges, you'll understand the wider gambling world too."

He added that the Betdaq acquisition deepens the liquidity pool underpinning Matchbook's product, as the combined business looks to challenge Betfair Exchange's dominant position in the UK market.