Footprints in the Market: What we have learned so far

Over the last five weeks, Sharon McFarlane, Managing Director of Digital Footprints, has been joined on the Footprints in the Market webinar series by “some of the biggest marketing minds in igaming”.

Marking the halfway stage of the series, aimed at CMOs and senior marketing representatives, we’ve broken down what we’ve learned so far.

iGaming operators are wasting ‘astronomical marketing budgets’

Kicking off the series was Adam Azor, Sportsradar’s EVP of Global Marketing, who revealed that many igaming operators are squandering “astronomical amounts of their marketing budgets.

“There’s so much wastage and so much opportunity for improvement,” Azor claimed. “When we think about the iGaming industry, between 20 and 30% of turnover is typically allocated to marketing. But the real question is, how are operators using this budget? A good marketer’s job is to make sure every part of that spend is effective.”

Operators have just seconds to grab a player’s attention

Dan Shannon, Head of Affiliate Marketing & SEO at CBS Global, outlined the importance of site speed, explaining that operators have just seconds to get the attention of customers.

Appearing on episode two, he said: “Site speed is up there as one of the most important things. Your site needs to load quickly, especially in the igaming industry. If someone is waiting more than three or four seconds to get onto your site, they’re clicking back and clicking on your competitor instead.”

Despite his emphasis on speed, Shannon also spoke about the importance of preparation ahead of launch to ensure that all aspects of a product are in place and working, rather than rushing to market and subsequently dealing with issues post-launch.

Google treats every industry differently

Next up on the series was Martin Calvert, Marketing Director of ICS-Digital. During the episode, Calvert revealed that one of the keys to mastering Google’s algorithms is understanding that the search engine treats every industry differently.

“When it comes to SEO, Google’s view of the world is the most important,” explained Calvert. “Google doesn’t treat every industry quite the same and that’s partly because the customers within each industry don’t all behave in the same way. There are different things they look for in terms of their threshold for quality.

“What they see as a good site or a useful site might differ depending on how serious the decision is, if it’s a professional service or if it’s just an entertainment type search in gaming.”

Calvert also urged operators seeking to market in new locations to not “mimic” entities with larger marketing budgets, and instead deploy a strategy that “leans into what you’re already successful at”.

Standing out in the crowd

For episode four, McFarlane was joined by Michael Baker-Mosley, Chief Marketing Officer of iGP, who spoke about how flexibility is key to standing out in the “crowded” igaming market.

He said: “We’re not trying to make any huge claims but we are trying to be a little more flexible than your average platform in the industry. We are trying to move a lot faster and more agile and we’re trying to offer operators through our technology, but also our partners, real depth to the features they can access.”

“We use this term about taking control. We’re trying to offer operators the ability to take control because of the tools they’ve got available and that message, thankfully, is starting to penetrate for operators. There are so many new entrants into the marketplace that taking that step of being flexible is working for us because it’s not easy to do. We talk about building it right and we’ve built the product up to be able to scale.”

During the interview, Baker-Mosley also recalled some of the more effective marketing strategies used by iGP, including an elaborate stunt, which involved faking the robbery of a signed Pele shirt.

Unlocking the ‘untapped’ commercial potential of women’s football

Rounding off the series so far, Jamie Mitchell, ex-professional footballer and the Commercial Director of Game Changing Media, joined McFarlane to detail how the industry is yet to unlock the “untapped” commercial potential of women’s football.

Mitchell explained: “[Women’s football] is booming right now, certainly in England and across Europe. From an igaming perspective, there’s a large audience and, if you look at the percentages, there are a lot of women who gamble. I think it’s a great opportunity for igaming companies to get involved in women’s sports and increase the visibility of women’s sports.

“If a large igaming company or a betting company invested in a large sports club, it could encourage other brands to get involved as well. It could be the catalyst for other brands to get involved and put a lot of money into the women’s game. It will have a large impact on the game, on the coaches and the players and on the infrastructure.”

To catch up on the series, as well as keep up-to-date with future episodes, released every Thursday, click HERE.