INSIGHT
WORLD CUP MARKETING
AND THE WINNER IS…
The pending World Cup is likely to usher in a whole host of marketing offers and gimmicks aimed at
increasing market share and profits for sportsbooks. But what offers should affiliates promote to win
the hearts, minds and share of wallets, asks Mark McGuinness
BC – NOT BEFORE CHRIST. I mean,
“before bitcoin” and the decentralised
internet and crypto-enabled powered
sportsbooks. I’m talking about back in
the days when our society had to wait
for almost everything. A standard
international cheque took weeks to send
by snail-mail, never mind trying to cash it.
Oh, and a wire transfer wasn’t much faster.
How did we survive those incongruous
times and situations?
Fast-forward a few years, and the digital
revolution brings with it the need for
hours or even days. With the likes of Uber,
we track our taxi in minutes and with
Tinder we locate potential partners to date
in half the time...
Time restraints
Time, of course, is our mortal enemy, in
the sense that we neither have enough of it
nor can we buy more of it as a commodity,
although perhaps Tesla will be selling it
soon. In fact, if you are reading this article,
some publishing platforms now suggest a
time length in which to read.
“All digital businesses should make the time metric
central to the customer experience charter and
to customer satisfaction”
speed and immediate instant gratification,
whereby we are tethered to our devices and
enslaved to the necessary technology.
Just like our coffee, everything is about
instant gratification and communication
for our always digitally connected and
demanding society. This, of course, has
had an equal and opposite reaction and
has resulted in the goldfish effect or DAD
– digital attentive disorder. It is affecting
our willingness to be patient and, dare I
say, wait in either a physical line or virtual
one at the registration, deposit, betting and
withdrawals pages.
Instant communication abounds,
from messaging apps such as Snapchat,
WhatsApp, WeChat, and Telegram. Digital
consumers now measure communication
and customer fulfilment and/or satisfaction
responses in seconds, not minutes, not
Take the gambling industry and pending
World Cup in Russia. Before bitcoin was
adopted as a payment method, players had
to endure not only a tedious registration
process but a limited means to deposit and
bet. It was not a frictionless process.
Furthermore, if you won your bet you
had to wait days before it hit your bank
account, which varied considerably from
operator to operator. And woe betide
the player who hit the jackpot at the
weekend or on a bank holiday – even
longer waiting times.
In today’s digital economy, satisfaction,
as we stated, is measured in the time it
takes for a service provider [the sportsbook]
to complete a player’s request.
Affiliates should avoid the promotional
incentive gimmicks given the headwinds
around this form of advertising, and they
should focus on promoting operator brands
that have the best fulfilment on accessing
their winnings in the shortest time, as an
example. After all, it’s the players’ money
and you should be able to access it as
quickly as possible, right?
Time metric
All digital businesses should make
the time metric central to the customer
experience charter and to customer
satisfaction. And for those igaming
operators that do not recognise time as
a satisfaction or customer experience
component – well, they shall undoubtedly
struggle to recruit and retain players in the
digital gambling economy which ultimately
affects the affiliates’ potential to convert
and monetise its traffic funnel.
Only time will tell. But perhaps it will
just be the affiliates that focus on the
drivers of player behaviour and satisfaction
– as opposed to short-term promotions
that really are just a race to the marketing
bottom – that will ultimately win out.
MARK MCGUINNESS
has more than 22 years’
experience in digital
marketing director roles with
private and public igaming
operators. He currently serves as
the resident igaming futurologist and
CMO of BetOlimp, and is the founder of
esportsbet.com a resource for gamers
and sports bettors who wish to start
betting on esports.
iGB Affiliate Issue 68 APR/MAY 2018
45