FEATURE and so , aside from paying a few legal bills to make sure we had everything spot on , the challenge hasn ’ t been huge . Moreover , we ’ ve always been keen for standards across our industry to improve and we want to play our part in helping affiliates to keep raising the bar .
iGBA : How much of your traffic is now coming from mobile , compared with desktop ? RM : Mobile traffic is continuing to grow , although with our big app presence we may be seeing this more than SEO-only affiliates . We hope to hit one million installs of our sports-betting tips app within the next year , which is significant because much of the younger demographic is betting almost entirely within apps .
Our development team is looking to make sure our content is as effective as it can be on a smaller screen . Initially , perhaps as older users switched from desktop to mobile , conversion was a challenge but we are seeing improvements all the time . We ’ ve just completed a split test for a new design on one of our key mobile pages , which saw an uplift of 15 % in conversion .
iGBA : The busy World Cup period has just ended . Were bookmakers better this time at getting their new punters to reload and continue to bet , having burnt through their acquisition bonus ? RM : I think UK punters especially enjoyed betting on this tournament but it ’ s too early to tell if bookmakers improved in that area . One benefit of the next World Cup being played in the winter is that there won ’ t be such a gap between its climax and the next round of Premier League matches . I expect that plenty of bettors had success because there were lots of goals and many of the goalscorers were popular players . The games were very entertaining and I expect many people from the UK who enjoyed betting on the World Cup will enjoy betting on the Premier League once it ’ s back in full flow . It will be no surprise to see lots of bets placed on Harry Kane to score .
iGBA : Our recent survey of affiliates and operators showed a drop in confidence regarding the outlook for the affiliate space . Does that tally with your outlook ?
RM : There are more than 80 sportsbooks licensed in the UK for remote gambling , with new ones starting up almost weekly . Many of them are well funded but they won ’ t get far without the support of affiliates . We have seen how some have tried to grow market share through predominantly above-the-line marketing , without success .
“ A benefit of the next World Cup being played in the winter is that there won ’ t be such a gap between its climax and the next round of Premier League matches ”
The reason we haven ’ t seen programmes closing completely is that a well-managed affiliate programme is still the most costeffective way for operators to grow their business . For sure , it won ’ t be like it has been in the past , with almost anyone being accepted onto a programme and operators trying to manage thousands of affiliates with one full-time manager .
But 20 or 30 good-sized , quality affiliates may well be enough to assist a UK sportsbook with its growth , especially if the value of affiliates is truly recognised . The billions of brand impressions , millions of bet completions and thousands of untracked accounts all add up to a huge amount of value that isn ’ t directly attributed to the affiliate . For example , as many as four out of every five accounts that an affiliate helps to generate aren ’ t tracked to the affiliate because there is rarely a need for the customer to click on the specific link .
I can see a number of constraints in other areas where operators currently spend their UK marketing budgets . The waiving of the watershed for TV advertising around live sports , for example , will continue to come under scrutiny . Imagine the millions of pounds spent there which may well have to be invested elsewhere . Having run TV campaigns in the past ourselves , we know it won ’ t all fit after 9pm .
We can also see pressure on high-street betting shops and the continued move from bricks and mortar to online .
So the affiliate industry is suffering from some negativity , brought on by some bad journalism , some small rogue affiliates and some very badly run affiliate programmes . But I ’ m confident that operators need affiliates more than ever in an industry that ’ s not losing any of its competitiveness . iGB Affiliate Issue 70 AUG / SEP 2018
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