SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
We caught up with Joe Lovelace, Head of PR at Marathonbet, after the firm were awarded with Marketing Campaign of the Year at the recent SBC Awards. Lovelace reflects on a vintage year for Marathonbet, and outlines the plans moving forward into 2018.
SBC: Firstly, how happy were you to receive the award, and why do you believe Marathonbet was chosen over the other candidates?
Joe Lovelace: We were ecstatic to win the award and you could probably guess from the way we reacted. I think we had the noisiest celebration of the night, which is quite apt really considering our campaign was all about just that.
All nominees in our category were brilliant and each offered something different in terms of quality, but I think ours stood out to the judges because we achieved a big impact on a very small budget, which is never easy.
Industries like ours are very saturated and sometimes even when spending lots and lots of money, the end results leave a lot to be desired. The challenge is constantly reinventing ideas and offering bigger and better alternatives – even when the purse strings are being guarded tightly.
Most importantly I think we were recognised for tapping into the non-league market, which not a lot of firms have successfully achieved in recent years.
SBC: Earlier in the year, Marathonbet launched its Casino Mobile site in the UK. How has the site fared?
JL: The Casino site is doing well and continually growing. Our partnership with Manchester United, allowing us to provide various co-branded Live Casino games, emphasises further how we interact with football clubs to bring new and innovative ideas into the market.
SBC: Marathonbet has sponsorship deals and partnerships with a diverse range of European football clubs, including Hibernian, Malaga and Dinamo Moscow, how successful have these partnerships been?
JL: Sponsorships have been a huge part of our business for a few years now. They allow us to tap into huge fanbases located all over the world. These are customers who are passionate about football, love their sport and know their non-league to their Champions League – just like us. It’s our job to get on their level and deliver a trusted partnership with their club and emphasise that the Marathonbet experience is more than just about sports betting. It’s about once-in-a-lifetime experiences, money-can’t-buy prizes and giving fans the chance to interact with their club like never before.
Supporters of our partner clubs know this and we hope, through sponsorship, we continue to build on that message and earn the trust of even more customers in the future.
SBC: Looking to the future, how will Marathonbet ensure continued growth moving into 2018?
JL: As a brand we are continually looking for ways to help us grow across all the countries in which we operate. Key to any business is to learn from our mistakes and build on our successes. We are heading in the right direction and looking forward to executing some exciting initiatives in 2018.
