FEATURE
ROUND TABLE:
WORLD CUP STRATEGIES
With the most prestigious event of the football calendar almost upon us, we look at what strategies
operators and affiliates will be adopting to make the most of the rare chance to attract the attention of
billions of viewers
The marketing and regulatory
landscape has shifted considerably
since 2014. How is this reflected in
the operator and affiliate strategies
for this World Cup?
Richard Moffat: The 2014 World
Cup took place just before the point of
consumption tax came in and I recall some
pretty aggressive marketing from leading
operators, which were fighting over market
share at that time. The landscape since has
seen a degree of M&A and cost savings
right at the top of the ecosystem so it will
be interesting to see the tactics employed by
the big players this time round.
What I find interesting is that we haven’t
seen any let up in new entrants recently.
There are a huge number of UK-licensed
operators for remote sports betting now, and
this number seems to be growing weekly.
Every few days we are being approached by
a new operator to see how we can help it
grow its brand ahead of the World Cup.
Gavin Moore: Some of the biggest changes
in the affiliate landscape since 2014 are the
trends toward consolidation and the extra
focus on compliance. I think these two
factors will be working in tandem to have an
impact on the strategies for operators and
affiliates during the World Cup this year.
“The number of UK-licensed operators for remote sports
betting seems to be growing weekly. Every few days
we are approached by a new operator to see how
we can help it grow its brand ahead of the World Cup”
Richard Moffat, OLBG
While I thoroughly expect to see the
larger UK operators investing heavily in
activating their existing customers, this will
be their biggest opportunity ever to grow
market share. We all know that affiliates
offer the most cost-effective opportunity to
gain new players so we expect to be under
huge demand.
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The consolidation we have seen allows
for a smaller number of bigger affiliates to
offer more global coverage to their partners.
Consequently, the consolidation we have
seen has also given rise to affiliates that are
prioritising compliance. Therefore, for this
World Cup, operators will be working with
fewer affiliates – those that still maintain
their global demand for traffic, but have
much more control of how their brands
are being promoted and presented to
the end users.
Oshri Kostiner: The regulatory
environment, especially in the UK, has
recently become much more challenging,
with operators now directly responsible
for all affiliate activities. However, like
every change affecting the industry, this
presented an opportunity to improve our
acquisition efforts by focusing on quality
affiliate partners, narrowing down our
portfolio to ensure the highest standards
of professionalism ahead of the World
Cup. With players increasingly aware of
social responsibility safeguards, we were
one of the first operators to achieve full
on-site compliance, even before the new
regulations came into force, providing full
material terms on banners, for example.
We’ve also conducted extensive training
for all our customer-facing units to increase
trust as well as lifetime value.
Operators are often criticised for
using huge bonuses to acquire
new punters, most of whom fail
to reload. Is the problem with
bonuses, or is it the way they
are used — could they work
better if structured differently?