INSIGHT
Q&A: JOAKIM NILSSON,
SOCIAL MONITOR
iGB’s Social Monitor has been analysing and comparing the social media buzz of English-language
iGaming brands since the start of 2014. We caught up with lead consultant Joakim Nilsson to find out
how the performances, strategies and key metrics of the leading brands have evolved in this time.
You have been tracking sportsbooks’
share of voice since the start of 2014.
Which brands have seen the biggest rise
and fall in their rankings since then, and
what has been driving this?
Paddy Power is, as everyone knows, the
most talked-about sportsbook of all,
making up more than 50% of the total
online sportsbook brand buzz. The share
of voice between brands was pretty
even across 2014, except for one notable
instance, when 888 came from practically
nowhere to being mentioned more than
100,000 times during the World Cup in
Brazil. Twitter is clearly the channel that
drives the volume. Of the 8.2 million
online mentions we analysed, 89% were
tweets, and that’s after filtering out a big
Figure 1: Channel split across all brands in English language for 2014
1% 3%
0%
3%
1%
0%
3%
0%
89%
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portion of the “noise” from spammy
affiliate accounts on Twitter sending out
the same kinds of bonus tweets thousands
of times per month.
Spikes in brand mentions, especially on
Twitter, are very much influenced by what
the brands themselves are doing. 888sport’s
jump in mention volumes during the World
Cup was heavily related to content that
they tweeted, in particular, a couple of
well-curated vines from @FootyHumour
with Thomas Muller spring to mind here:
https://vine.co/v/MFUTdPuQeAH
Paddy Power is always cited as the
example of how to do social media and
always appears to come out top on Social
Monitor. Are any of the other brands
actually managing to close the gap on
Paddy’s, and if not, why not?
If we look at Twitter, then yes, Paddy
Power is playing in its own league.
But once you remove Twitter from the
equation and look at all other online
sources such as blogs, forums, news
sites and affiliates, then the picture is
completely different and Sky Bet comes
out as the most talked-about brand.
The number one reason that Sky Bet
comes out as the winner here is their
headline sponsorship of the Sky Bet
Championship, as that is how the various
news and content sources now refer to the
second tier of English professional football.