SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Daily fantasy sports operator Premier Punt credits the integration of its fantasy and sportsbook betting platforms for standing out in in a saturated market.
Since being awarded a license by the Gambling Commission in April, Premier Punt has aimed to offer a sportsbook product that is specifically tailored to attract DFS players, focusing on individual player bets.
The operator’s CEO, John Gordon underlined that “the combination of fantasy and sportsbook betting within the same platform and using a single wallet is something that no other company is currently doing.”
He told SBC: “Sky Bet’s Fantasy 6-a-side also provides proposition bets based on your fantasy team selection, as we do, but if the user wants to place a bet they have to download a separate app or log in to a different site to do that which is a bit inconvenient.
“Moreover, Sky Bet’s product only provides users with the opportunity to pick a team for one match a week (generally the Premier League) whereas our users can select line-ups for all the week’s PL fixtures, as well as a selection of Champions League, Europa League, Championship and World Cup Qualifier matches.”
Looking ahead Gordon revealed that Premier Punt “will also be introducing a new feature to our product in the near future which is essentially a knockout tournament over the course of a weekend of fixtures. It is new additions like this that also help set us apart from other fantasy football products.”
Gordon went onto point out that due to the ‘instant gratification’ that millennials desire, the future for fantasy football and sportsbook products is on mobile. He commented: “You see it with newspapers, books, etc. now being more popular in their electronic formats. It’s the world we’re living in now and if you don’t move with the times then you get left behind.
“Millennials want instant gratification now and for everything to be done at the touch of a button and that’s why we’ve tried to make the design of our app as slick and as simple as possible.
“We have removed the web based weekly 11-a-side game and focused on the single 6-a-side game for the app. That is what millennials want; they won’t be logging onto a desktop and taking hours to choose a team, they want to enter a team in seconds and this is exactly what we provide. 11-a-side fantasy football is dead.”
He then emphasised how the 6-a-side game is helping Premier Punt ‘bridge the gap between fantasy football and sportsbook betting: “We thought that when users select their 6-a-side fantasy line-ups that they have convinced themselves those players will perform well and if they select players mostly from one team as opposed to the other then they think that team will win.
“Therefore, they may be more likely to place a sportsbook bet offered to them tailored to their team selection, e.g. if they have selected Harry Kane then they may be more inclined to think he will score first or anytime. And we were proven right, our conversion from fantasy to sportsbook is compelling to say the least.
“Combining the two kinds of betting seemed the next logical step for us, particularly since it appeared that daily fantasy sports in the UK would not take off like it did in North America. We had to adapt in order to survive and this is one of the ways in which we have done that.”
It’s been just over nine months since Premier Punt hit hit its £200,000 Seedrs crowdfunding target, Gordon spoke of how much of a boost it was in helping ‘integrate sportsbook’ into its products, as well as ensuring that its site and were consistent with each other by revamping them during the close season.
Gordon continued: “Our focus last season was on developing the app so the website fell behind a bit and did not have the same functionality as the app. That was something we wanted to rectify since a decent (albeit a minority) percentage of our users use the desktop.
“The addition of sportsbook has been pivotal in helping us stand out from our competitors and was a welcome boost to our revenues.”
Premier Punt have been nominated for best DFS product at this year’s SBC awards to find out more about the event, click here.
