Thomas McBride – MintBet: In depth industry knowledge

SBC News caught up with Thomas McBride, the Public Relations Officer for online casino and sportsbook brand MintBet, to find out what the firm can offer to an already saturated market; how its recently-launched affiliate programme is faring; and which horses are worth backing in this weekend’s Grand National.

SBC: Hi Thomas, for those who are uninitiated, can you briefly introduce MintBet as a company, and describe what it is you do?

Thomas McBride: Mintbet.com is an online sportsbook and casino borne from McBride Racing, an Irish retail betting chain with over 40 years of experience in the industry. We are passionate about sport and offer a wide range of sports betting covering all the main sports with an excellent in-play service and cash out option for most sporting events.

We pride ourselves in the fact that our customer service team have an in depth knowledge of sports betting and the complexities that are involved and are quick to give an informed response that will be well thought out. Alongside our sports betting business we offer an array of casino games, slots and table games and live casino.

SBC: With the Grand National just around the corner, what predictions can you offer to those looking for a hot tip?

TM: The Grand National requires a horse and jockey with endurance, skill and often a large amount of luck, the going will play a major part this year and if it remains soft/heavy I would expect horses low in the weights to be in the shake-up. I am going to tip Baie Des Iles, a young horse hailing from France that is expected to be ridden by Katie Walsh at a decent price of around 40/1, wouldn’t that be a great win.

SBC: The online sportsbook market is becoming increasingly saturated. Why should customers choose MintBet when placing bets online?

TM: Choosing mintbet.com as your online betting provider really is a no brainer, we give a superior level of one to one customer service that is just not always possible with the bigger betting firms. We know what our customers want and expect and we deliver – it’s all about good solid customer service.

We offer quick payment and withdrawals, very competitive odds and unique promotions. We are extremely proud of our brand and this reflects in the way we operator our betting service. Every customer counts and we have set ourselves a task to serve serious punters with innovative marketing offers because we know we are competing in an already crowded space. Our conversion and retention rate is strong for an independent brand and we constantly strive to do better.

SBC: At the tail-end of 2017, MintBet launched its own affiliate programme, in partnership with the Income Access Affiliate Network. The programme is of course still very much in its infancy, but how has it fared in the first few months?

TM: An affiliate programme is a necessity in this day and age regardless of what certain larger operators may think. Affiliates make up a large part of our acquisition strategy and we’ve hired industry veteran Lee-Ann Johnstone at Affiliate Insider to initiate and run our affiliate programme strategy. Having this expertise in house – has been invaluable to our start up growth.

From knowing which affiliates are best suited to our ethos and brand strategy to understanding the finer detail of complex commercial negotiations she has helped us to literally hit the ground running. In less than three months we have secured some of the top volume driving affiliates to our programme, built a solid profitable start to our revenues and had exponential growth month on month with partners who are delivering quality customers to our site.

I believe affiliate marketing is skill and requires a strong partnership based on trust. Working in the secure setting of an established affiliate network is the perfect solution for a new startup to handle the large amount of transactions and time managing a programme like this entails.