iGaming Business magazine In-Play Focus 2018 | Page 21

In-Play Focus 2018
GETTING ON MESSAGE
Joe Hannaford says real-time prompts linked to in-play triggers can deliver greater
revenues for operators during this year’s FIFA World Cup than one-size-fi ts-all messaging
In-play markets have long been king of the football-
betting arena, delivering strong revenues for operators.
They have also been a signifi cant driver in propelling the
vertical to gain market share ahead of horse racing since
being introduced a few years ago. With an abundance
of available markets to choose from, ranging from next
goalscorer to three-way handicaps, it’s no surprise that
this channel is so popular with bettors.
Ahead of the FIFA World Cup in Russia, there’s no
doubt the in-play experience will be a key focus for
customer relationship management (CRM) executives,
traders and product developers. One area that is ripe for
improvement is the personalisation of the channel and the
way in which content related to in-play is sent to bettors.
Those with big budgets will be sure to spend heavily
on above-the-line marketing strategies, running TV and
radio advertising around the live matches taking place
daily across June and July. While these are effective in
raising brand awareness on a grand scale, they lack any
personal interaction with the end user.
Many operators will look to complement this approach
with a real-time on-site marketing strategy, supplemented
by apps that send notifi cations featuring odds triggered by
key match events, such as a goal or red card.
Although this is an effective method to engage further
with in-play bettors, much of the content currently
being sent out during in-play is failing to resonate with
the target audience. That’s because the messaging isn’t
personalised, nor is it linked to an in-play trigger.
What we’re currently seeing is a batch-and-blast
process being adopted, which sees messages drafted
before the event and often sent out to the entire customer
base. This approach lacks clarity: not only does it forgo any
personalisation, it also risks upsetting some bettors with
irrelevant content and could lead them to unsubscribe.
An alternative solution is to segment your audience
based on betting behaviours and sporting preferences, by
creating a cohort of bettors who have previously placed
in-play bets, or have a vested interest in the two teams
competing, or have bet on a specifi c in-play market.
The likelihood of them responding to a particular
message then becomes much higher, which can
signifi cantly enhance the return on investment from
these in-play messages. This approach also clearly
targets those who may have cashed out already, with
a view to recycling those funds back into an operator’s
system rather than switching to a competitor.
Dynamic delivery
For these personalised messages to be truly effective,
they need to be delivered in a sophisticated manner that
reaches the bettor at the right time and place. Common
practice will see CRM executives sitting alongside traders
to determine the messaging that will be delivered during
a live football match. However, this manual method not
only takes up valuable resources, it’s also a slow process
and non-scalable, which means on more occasions than
not, the messages become irrelevant by the time they
reach the intended audience.
Only the most advanced messaging platforms can
solve this problem, as they need to marry the functionality
to automatically identify selected match events, with
the specifi c audience that is most likely to respond to
dynamically created, event-relevant real-time messages.
For operators, automating the delivery of relevant
messages helps to drive betting behaviour and increase
revenues. In addition, it simplifi es the process and
reduces the risks involved in sending out odds on
markets that may have been suitable pre-match, but
which have then been surpassed by match events.
Personalisation will be a key way for operators to get
ahead of the game this summer, as they look to increase
betting revenues and their share of customer wallet
during the biggest football tournament of the year. For
those looking to take the lead in the in-play betting
market, deploying sophisticated and dynamic, real-time
in-play messaging that can be personalised will provide
a strong competitive edge.
Joe Hannaford is
a principal consultant
at OtherLevels,
a leading multichannel
messaging platform.
He has a wealth of
experience in various
CRM roles and has
previously worked
with and for leading
operators, including
Paddy Power Betfair.
iGamingBusiness | Issue 109 | March/April 2018 | 49