multichannel

Tommy Kearns, Xtremepush: Why multichannel player journeys are a must-have for sportsbooks

The multichannel player journey builder has become one of the most popular features of the Xtremepush engagement and analytics platform, said the firm’s CEO Tommy Kearns

Kearns was speaking to SBC News following last month’s SBC Awards, where Xtremepush won the award for best Marketing & Services Provider of the Year (pictured). 

It currently works with industry leaders such as Paddy Power Betfair, Oddschecker, 888 Holdings, Parimatch, Rush Street Interactive, Fortuna Entertainment Group, Funstage and SportPesa as well as a host of emerging brands. The journey builder is one of the many features included in the Xtremepush platform.

“It’s a pretty sophisticated piece of software whilst being very marketer-friendly at the same time,” said Kearns. “Our clients are having a lot of success with it, automating campaigns which serve a variety of use cases; encouraging more deposits and first bets, stimulating in-play bets during live sporting events and even reducing churn.” 

He added: “Automated customer journeys, powered by intelligent delivery, are driving results at speed and scale for the marketing professionals. It’s freeing them up to focus on more creative tasks like campaign ideas and messaging.”

We asked Kearns to outline some of the key components to making multichannel player journeys successful. Here is what he had to say:

Single Customer View

Having a single customer view (SVC) is undeniably the most desirable capability right now for sportsbooks. Having a granular understanding of your customers’ behaviour and interactions gives you a huge range of potential engagement opportunities. We actually unify all of the different data sources, making it readily available for activation during automated campaigns.

Our clients’ most valuable players are the ones who are active on both the mobile app and website betting platforms. For them, it’s essential that they are able to provide a consistent experience as players move between devices. The SCV makes this possible.

Ultimately, the more you know about your players the more bets you can suggest to them. 

And of course, you become so much more accurate in your ability to predict markets they will be interested in. 

At the same time, you also want to be able to layer in data on the likelihood of burnout too, and in this instance, you need the ability to temporarily exclude these players from the workflow.

Adaptive Approach to Segmentation

The traditional segmentation approach, based exclusively on socio-demographic attributes (age, location etc), is no longer effective. The leading sportsbooks are adopting a more nuanced model, factoring in detailed behavioural information and individual bet preferences.

The result is smaller lists or micro-segments (sometimes <100) that are delivered very personalised odds and messages, which are far more likely to get conversions. 

As a result of this approach, you’ll also see that players often move between segments. This actually is a good thing; it means that you are engaging players based on current behaviour and providing what they are looking for right now.

Real-Time Event-Triggers

These are the lifeblood of the really exciting player journeys. We’re seeing more and more of our sports betting clients taking live actions, either on one of their betting platforms (bet placed, odds viewed and so on) or during a sporting event (goal scored, half-time, red card etc), as the trigger for engagement messages. 

In terms of the data-processing and delivery speed, not every provider actually has the capacity to execute at the level required. We work with data-streaming services like Apache Kafka to ensure the best results for our clients.

Clear Goals

Each player journey that you build should be nudging players towards a single, quantifiable goal. That might be the stimulation of an in-play bet, encouraging the first deposit or it could be an attempt to win back a lapsed player.

In the case of the latter, the segment is going to be something like {no bet placed in 1 month} and the goal is simply to get them back on-site or in the app. 

In any case, it’s important to keep each workflow specific. And again, it highlights the importance of the SCV and the precise segmentation that it facilitates.

To learn more about the player journey builder and the work Xtremepush is doing with sports betting and gaming brands, get in touch with them at [email protected].

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