Marketing lies at the core of all industries. Most people understand this simple fact, but few realize just how many resources go into the advertisement side of things in any given industry. Take a film’s marketing budget, for example, which often exceeds tens of millions.
But why is marketing such a huge aspect of any industry? It makes sense when we stop to think that advertisement is the only way that the greater public is going to become aware of a given product. That means that a poor marketing approach often leads to an industry’s downfall.
But there are also plenty of industries that must work around certain restrictions on marketing. Governments often impose advertising bans for one reason or another, which makes it difficult for certain segments to stay ahead.
Marketing and sports betting
This brings us to the sports betting industry; where marketing is certainly underwhelming. A big reason for that is government restrictions. A lot of governments have imposed laws and restrictions on online gambling platforms to market in different ways.
While the reason for these restrictions may be noble, with Governments maybe doing their best to enforce safer gambling measures and protect vulnerable audiences, what do they mean for the industry itself?
A lot of people believe that the effect is crippling. Yet even with these impositions, sports betting has become one of the biggest online entertainment markets. Billions of pounds go into the sports betting industry in the United Kingdom alone. But that doesn’t mean that the industry can’t improve. With a little help from a specialised marketing agency, sportsbooks might be able to reach greater heights than one would think possible.
What is the future of sports betting marketing? How can sportsbooks navigate government measures in order to build a better and safer industry going forward? There are marketing techniques that will surely rise to the top of the industry in the decades to come.
Acquisition versus Retention
Marketing experts often discuss two concepts in reference to advertisement; acquisition and retention. These refer to the users’ interest in the product being marketed. Acquisition is the process of attracting a user to said product; in this case, sportsbooks. Advertisers have come up with a reverse-pyramid graph to touch on the most important aspects of acquisition, which consists of three main pillars:
- Discovering the Product: The first phase covers the first impression upon seeing the product and how quickly it takes for a user to click on it.
- User Acquisition Phase: The second phase consists of the user acquiring the product. For sportsbooks this would be downloading the app or creating an account on the website.
- Retention Phase: The third and final phase refers to how long the user will remain interested in the product being advertised.
The acquisition aspect is the one most impacted by the rigid and strict marketing rules that the United Kingdom government has imposed on sports betting advertisement. But as PLYR Media’s Bart Crebolder says, “[the common mistakes affiliates make when trying to please search engines] has a lot to do with the pursuit of clicks over actually informing an audience.” Informing the population is the best way to market the sports betting industry in the current landscape. By doing that, clicks will come by themselves.
“Sacrificing the ability to entertain and inform in pursuit of clicks is a bit of an oxymoron,” Crebolder adds.
But acquisition is only the first step in the marketing process. Once you’ve accumulated fans there are things that you must do as a business to keep them satisfied. The good news is that sportsbooks thrive in this category. It may be difficult to get eyes on them; but once they’ve got their fans, sportsbooks know how to keep them. They use loyalty programs and custom interactions to make sure that every single visitor gets exactly what they want out of their stay with the website. Many sportsbooks have also taken cues from video games and launched leaderboards and tournament-style competitive events. All of this serves a single purpose; retaining customers and keeping them happy.
Positionless Marketing
Advertisers are beginning to hear rumors of a new age in marketing. Positionless marketing is the new advertisement framework through which sports betting businesses can adapt to rigid government impositions. The idea behind the new concept is quite simple really; advertisers discard the old-school assembly line view on customer service and focus instead on a flexible and fluid approach to markets. Artificial intelligence plays a big role in this new era of customer outreach.
The idea is to analyze data in real time. Machine learning software play a key role here; as it would be impossible for a human agent to pour through the stats in a timely manner. This is where the first issue comes up – a lot of people are quite critical of generative artificial intelligence; which is the type of software being used with this new approach. The damage to the natural world has been well-documented. That is why many believe that an evergreen approach is necessary if AI exploration will continue growing.
The ups and downs of positionless marketing can be discussed ad nauseam. There is no denying that a savvy advertiser could draw a lot of potential from this new approach to customer outreach. But it is also true that the public perception of AI might swerve into mostly negative. Environmental groups are hard at work to spread awareness of the electric waste and water shortages that come about as a result of artificial intelligence. Until a greener solution is discovered, AI-based markets will continue to be shaky at best.
