Facing pressure from European oversight bodies, the betting sector is adjusting its promotional tactics to align with the new circumstances. By Scott Langley.
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The Evolution of Gambling Promotion
“This came as a major surprise to us,” stated Christoph Winterling, Commercial and Marketing Director of Serie A football club Bologna, referencing the advertising prohibition in Italy last year.
“At that time, Serie A was experiencing financial difficulties, as we would lose customers for the LED billboards, so we had to think outside the box and discover avenues where we could still provide gambling companies the chance to utilize our global exposure, but exclude visibility in Italy,” Winterling added.
This resulted in the development of “virtual advertising” packages, which utilize LED technology and screen overlays to “place” behind the goal, giving Asian gambling partners the chance to appear on the pitch-side advertising boards during regional broadcasts.
This is an illustration of how the betting industry and its associates are adapting to the new landscape of gambling regulation in Europe, which is undergoing further transformation due to the response of gambling authorities to the ongoing pandemic.
Significant areas, such as Italy (where advertising prohibitions existed before the outbreak) and Spain, have implemented policies to strongly limit or prohibit direct advertising and impose additional restrictions on all types of marketing.
Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, although a voluntary “whistle-to-whistle” restriction has been put into effect, anti-gambling industry advocacy groups have suggested a complete ban on television gambling commercials and sports sponsorships.
At the same time, as noted in a recent online post by Regulus Partners analysts, actions taken by nations such as Sweden, Belgium, and Spain (again), specifically the establishment of deposit and bonus limitations, will also have a negative impact on marketing endeavors.
“Establishing mandatory deposit limits is not a new concept, but the policy has become more widespread during the pandemic as a temporary emergency measure,” the Regulus team stated.
Changing Channels
“It’s a new reality,” said Florian Geheeb, Global Director of Advertising Sales at Sportradar. “However, operators have learned to adjust to regulations.”
Moving away from traditional advertising and marketing towards other forms of digital marketing techniques is now the primary focus. In its recent six-month report, affiliate marketing company XLMedia highlighted that technology has been identified as a key area where the company can utilize its traditional strengths to better guide viewers.
Its essential to leverage our own data as much as possible, employing cutting-edge data science tools to provide users with enhanced and more customized recommendations,” CEO Stuart Sims conveyed to investors during the earnings conference call.
This will contribute to making the company’s website more effective. “We need to effectively segment our clientele and comprehend their behavior, particularly when it comes to generating more revenue from less popular products, which we haven’t given sufficient attention to in the past,” Sims further elaborated.
Naturally, this is the realm of advertising technology and automated advertising, a domain some assert the gambling sector hasn’t fully explored.
“There’s a plethora of technology available,” Geheeb stated. “Marketing has always revolved around crafting compelling messages, but who you target and when should be grounded in facts, hence making data-driven decisions.”
Advertising technology has undergone a significant transformation over the past decade, and it’s been a turbulent journey for those observing the fluctuations of the field.
However, it has now attained a certain level of maturity in its approach to targeting players. This marks a pivotal moment for the gambling industry, as Geheeb highlighted, just a few years ago, the industry could acquire new customers at a lower cost than it can today.
“The industry has historically been highly lucrative, and they may not have required the efficiency that advertising technology can deliver today,” he added. “There wasn’t a compelling need to prudently allocate every marketing dollar.”
Nevertheless, this pattern has changed as more stringent regulatory actions are being put into effect, accompanied by related tax policy modifications. “All of these aspects have altered and generated a shift,” stated Geheeb.
Looking back, within the gambling consumer environment, both operators and partners possessed a vast amount of information, as XLMedia’s Simms described it, which enabled them to better comprehend player behavior.
For XLMedia, this signifies that website inventory will “become more flexible as it propels more personalized consumer experiences.”
For Geheeb, a deeper comprehension of the player base will result in a greater emphasis on player retention. “You are most familiar with your customers,” he highlighted. “If you utilize the information you already possess, you are more likely to consistently interact with them and enhance their lifetime value to you.”
An added advantage of this approach is that you can more clearly avoid targeting susceptible groups.
“AdTech permits you to concentrate on specific components of your audience,” he remarked.
These endeavors can only contribute to addressing the concerns of regulators and those who believe that excessive gambling advertising inflicts more harm than benefit.
As Bologna Football Club’s Winterling indicated, an outright prohibition is a crude tool that would ultimately damage sports while also limiting gambling operators.
The sector anticipates thriving in the new framework by employing clever strategies, while sidestepping additional measures.
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