ELECTION SPECIAL
UK ELECTION BETTING:
THE SEARCH DATA
This year’s UK General Election is certainly the most hyped non-sports betting event of recent times, but
is this translating into greater search volumes? Manuel Berndorfler from The Media Image digs into the
data for iGB Affiliate and shares some insights arising from their industry trackers.
How has the market developed
since 2010?
Political betting has thrown off its
“novelty” status and is fast establishing
itself as a growing business, with the 2014
Scottish Referendum turning out to be the
biggest non-sports betting event of all time
in the UK.
Internal Google data supports a 213%
rise in searches around politics betting since
2010, with a total 105 million searches
broadly related to the UK election expected
in April. Mobile will deliver most of the
growth, with searches up 630% YoY.
Whilst not all of these searchers will be
looking to place a bet, they still provide a
massive pool for new player acquisition.
Diving into volumes around the UK
election as a whole (i.e. not just related to
betting) we can expect a roughly 53% uplift
against 2010 totals.
Looking more specifically at search
volumes around UK election betting, trend
data clearly shows the spikes around April
36
iGB Affiliate Issue 50 APR/MAY 2015
2010 and a more recent uptick in volumes
around this year’s vote. What’s interesting
to see, is that searches started almost a
year ago to date and have gradually been
increasing going into April 2015. Looking
Bid prices have remained surprisingly stable,
with clicks hovering around the £3/click
mark, offering a significant discount to
more mainstream betting terms. This will
inevitably rise as more operators are entering
“Searches started almost a year ago to date and have
gradually been increasing going into April 2015, but there
hasn’t yet been a large spike in search volume when
compared to 2010 – against the index, searches are up
marginally by around 15%.”
closely however, this graph doesn’t seem
to support a large spike in search volume
just yet when compared to 2010 – against
the index, searches are up marginally by
around 15%.
With all the hype around the UK
election betting market, it’s surprising that
only a relatively small number of operators
seem to be targeting these searches
specifically. Our industry trackers clearly
show Ladbrokes, William Hill, Coral and
Paddy Power being dominant, with Winner
and bwin showing spurts of activity.
the auction, but for now, there’s huge value
to be had for proactive advertisers.
YouTube – the untapped
opportunity
With the competition in the search results
pages heating up, online video sites such
as YouTube might offer an untapped
opportunity for advertisers to get in front of
this new audience.
Politics is a fast growing category on
YouTube, with searches increasing
200% since 2010 and many controversial
Figure 1: Google search volumes around the UK election as a
whole since 2004
uk election
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
+53%
+41%
2004-01
2004-04
2004-07
2004-10
2005-01
2005-04
2005-07
2005-10
2006-01
2006-04
2006-07
2006-10
2007-01
2007-04
2007-07
2007-10
2008-01
2008-04
2008-07
2008-10
2009-01
2009-04
2009-07
2009-10
2010-01
2010-04
2010-07
2010-10
2011-01
2011-04
2011-07
2011-10
2012-01
2012-04
2012-07
2012-10
2013-01
2013-04
2013-07
2013-10
2014-01
2014-04
2014-07
2014-10
2015-01
2015-04
2015-07
WITH THE AINTREE and Cheltenham
festivals having come and gone, it seems
that the UK bookies are betting it all on
the up-coming UK election to provide
a welcome boost to player acquis