iGaming Business magazine iGB 112 Sept/Oct 2018 | Page 45

Sports Betting
“A weekly
social-led acca is more
about the chat and group dynamics
and not really about the revenue”
more of this sooner. All of it is based on social proof, an
age-old technique that we all are susceptible to, and for that
reason I think it has a lot of potential.”
Marc Thomas, formerly of William Hill and Sportingbet
and now working as a consultant with Propus Partners,
agrees that it is more about harnessing social features than
going ‘all in on social’. Referring to Sky Bet’s accomplishments,
Thomas says, “Request A Bet was something of a happy
accident and prior to it the customer journey and experience
for specific bet requests was very clunky and slow, so it
has played a major part in moving the sector forward.
A social platform like Twitter was also ideal, because it
enabled positive engagement with customers, differentiation
for Sky Bet and fast service for pricing up markets.
Where Sky Bet’s qualities really came through is that it is
more progressive as a company than many of its competitors
and uses the best tech and strong marketing to come up
with excellent products.”
This is certainly true, and in 2018 it is not unfair to say
that where Sky Bet leads, the rest of the industry follows.
In corporate terms the group also benefited hugely from
being associated with its broadcasting parent company
Sky and long-standing association with the TV show
Soccer Saturday. That said, having huge brand recognition
isn’t enough on its own as the Sun Bets experience of the past
two years has shown. To succeed, operators must combine
operational excellence with the best strategy execution.
In terms of product development it will be interesting to see
where the whole social-group betting, build-your-bet products head
to next. They generate some margins for the operators, but how
sustainable are they? Surely some player fatigue at rarely winning
will slow the juggernaut down. Unfortunately, BetBright did not
return requests for comment from iGaming Business, while
Sky Bet said it was “too early to share anything on Group Bets
at the moment”.
When it comes to financials, a quick look at William Hill’s most
recent results revealed that Your Odds, its own version of Request
A Bet, generated 25% of the group’s World Cup-related gross
win. While this is impressive, it didn’t lead to any substantial rise
in betting revenues across the group, which implies that punters
are simply switching spend from existing products to Your Odds.
Nonetheless, there is no denying that having a crack at a potential
major accumulator payout is fun and same-game multiples are
now standard across the betting portfolio.
MacSweeney is unequivocal in his thinking. “A weekly social-led
acca is more about the chat and group dynamics and not really
about the revenue,” he insists. “Where the value is likely to be is in
keeping a group with the brand and helping acquire friends who
may not already have a Sky Bet account. It is another addition to
betting, which is turning into a rich tapestry of options from the
days when a single bet on the league outright winner was the
only offer.”
As to how much extra revenue these products bring in, William
Hill’s figures suggest punters’ leisure spend is being spread around
more, rather than increasing. Sky Bet might change that with Group
Bets, but the focus will remain on real-time feeds of overall betting
activity to provide stimulus and data to players.
More likely, bookmakers’ homepages will soon have players’
and their friends’ activity showing personalised offerings
according to latest bets and suggestions for related markets.
In other words, betting with a side of personalisation, social and
recommended products.
i GamingBusiness | Issue 112 | September/October 2018
43