SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Xtremepush has bolstered its omnichannel customer engagement platform by launching its betting-specific ‘Real-Time Sports Feeds’ designed to optimise operators ‘live campaigns’ reach and engagement with target audiences. New Business Executive Will Hansen states that Xtremepush’s sports feed can deliver new dynamics to bookmakers’ standardise marketing plays.
SBC: Hi Will; thanks for the catch-up… Why are Real-Time Sports Feeds such an important tool for the Xtremepush marketing suite?
Will Hansen: Real-Time Sports Feeds is a feature built specifically for our Sports Betting and Gaming clients. It enables operators to deliver real-time campaigns triggered by live sporting events like match started, goals scored and many more. This creates a more immersive sporting experience for the player, delivering increased interaction between the player and the sporting event they have placed a bet on.
It’s a win-win for both operators and players.
Players want to find out scores in real-time and keep on top of what’s happening in the games they’ve placed a bet on, but the majority of players are out of session during a match. Xtremepush’s Real-Time Sports Feed keep players up to date and part of the action in real time and alert to key match events.
From an operator perspective, we are seeing that there is a large appetite to maintain a conversation with players for the duration of the betting journey. This is before a bet is placed and also after a bet has been placed. With these notifications, the operator has the option to continue the conversation with the player after the bet has been placed or on games that the player has expressed an interest in.
SBC: Do operators (especially bookmakers) understand the importance of Push Notifications to optimise their multi-million marketing campaigns?
WH: It is a channel that is used well by some operators but also very poorly by others. So it depends on the operator. One of the challenges has been ease of use and set-up for CRM teams that might traditionally view it as a technical channel requiring development resources. That is far from the case. In the Xtremepush platform, CRM teams can easily add images, videos, CTAs and dynamic content to Push messages all from the interface, giving them maximum flexibility with this channel.
We see that operators who have a very good app focus are the ones leading the way with this channel. It’s a powerful channel when used in the right way, particularly around live Sporting Events where real-time communication is so important.
Push notifications are just one channel which must form part of a wider strategy, but when used correctly, they both enhance the end-user experience while also delivering great results for CRM teams.
SBC: Can you summarise the success of Real-Time Sports Feeds during the 2022 World Cup?
WH: Real-Time Sports Feed notifications were used by Xtremepush clients throughout the 2022 World Cup with some great results. yThe enabled players to keep up with the action on games they had placed a bet on or were following, which created some amazing user experiences, and the net result was an increase in engagement with the operators and an increase in player activity.
We saw that players bought into this feature with the average player who placed a bet on the World Cup enabling goal notifications on multiple matches throughout the tournament. 52% of players enabled match and goal notifications on multiple games and 20% enabled the feature on 5 or more matches.
SBC: Beyond messaging, how should bookmakers review the engagement data from their push notifications to improve a player’s experience?
WH: Push metrics are an interesting one. Obviously, the usual conversion metrics matter, like the number of bets placed, deposit uplift, LTV of push engagement players, CTRs etc. In other areas we see operators starting to get a good handle on push as a channel who are looking at overall brand uplift through metrics like addressable audiences, opt-in and out rates and delivered statistics.
Overall, brands that are doing proper segmentation to target push-accessible and engaged players, rather than a ‘send to all, pray and spray’ method are seeing great results. Seeing the channel as more than just a conversion tool and tying it to your overall content and branding strategy is crucial.
SBC: How does Xtremepush work with clients to provide ‘quality control’ on in-play push notifications – what are the good and bad practices?
WH: First of all, we advise an explicit opt-in for Real-Time Sports Feed pushes – this can be on the bet slip, where players view a match or in a preference center. This means the player has full control of what match updates they are receiving. There is also the option to choose what live events will trigger a Real-Time Sports Feed push. For example, in football, there may be 1-5 goals scored in a game which is reasonable in terms of notification volume, whereas in a sport like basketball, a point can be scored every few seconds so in this instance quarter-end updates may be a better option.
SBC: How do you see Real-Time Sports Feeds evolving for bookmakers? What new functions will you bring to this product?
WH: Tying into more markets and offerings will be key. Some sports lend themselves to a wider offering of live markets. Look at the NFL and Major League Baseball which play out over hours at a much slower pace than football. Using a channel like push to promote fun, engaging markets to engaged punters is a powerful channel tool in any bookmaker’s arsenal.
We will also look at building out communication models before and after a sporting event, which will enable operators to share relevant content with players which will add value and build brand loyalty as the operator becomes more than just a platform where players place bets.
SBC: Xtremepush will be at ICE London 2023, what more products and solutions will you be displaying to delegates?
WH: We will be showcasing the full Xtremepush customer engagement platform powered by our built-in CDP.
We’ll be sharing some of the recent updates to our CDP, BI Tools, customer intelligence and modelling and how operators can leverage them to understand and engage with players.
Push Notifications are just one channel within our omnichannel offering, used by leading brands like LiveScore, Oddschecker, Superbet and Betsson to drive player engagement, acquisition and retention.
Come and see us at stand S6-301 to learn more about how you could use Real-Time Sports Feeds in your player engagement strategy.
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Will Hansen – New Business Executive – Xtremepush
