Online Tactics Heat Up Ahead of the World Cup

As the World’s finest Football managers prepare for their team’s first match, the online battle is heating up between the giants and pretenders from the Sports Betting Industry.

A notorious battle ground for acquiring New Players, with millions being punted by the so called ‘casual player’, we take a look at how some of the operators are approaching the biggest event of the year.

When it comes to the World Cup I have always placed a lot of importance on timings. To keep things simple I would probably place things in two buckets. ‘Pre tournament’ – a time to increase brand awareness, generate new business and engage previously lapsed players. Then, once the ‘Tournament Kicks off’ you turn your attention to retention, engaging your players across different communication channels and try to ensure that you retain their attention across the tournament.

Let’s take a look at things from the players perspective to see what operators may have a successful tournament this year.

World Cup Special Offers

This Time Next Year Punters, We Will Be Millionaires!

Well at least that’s what quite a few operators want you to think prior to the World Cup this year. There is a new craze in town for insuring against big Jackpots and although it grabs a few headlines, predicting who will win every game of the 64 in the tournament or the finishing positions for every qualifying group is tough, very tough.

Although the thought is very eye catching, its also very unrealistic. In the day and age of instant gratification being required for almost anything, operators need to offer more post the initial attraction, to keep players engaged.

Here are a few operators investing heavily in World Cup Campaigns this year.

BWIN – Maradona’s Millions

Bwin are back with a bang for this World Cup. Previously well known for big football sponsorship’s and ambassador deals, Bwin have tied up with arguably the Worlds greatest ever player Maradona to push their 5 Million Pound challenge.

All you have to do is predict the 1st and 2nd of each Group and the Winner of every knockout match, sounds easy no? Well if you correctly predict the outcomes and no one else does you calmly walk away with 5 Million Pounds. More than likely though no one will get this right so there is a £25k ‘Last Man Standing Prize’ on offer as well.

SPORTSvox +

• Nice Headline, engaging prize and not as unrealistic as some predictors

SPORTSvox –

• Your entry could be blown away very quickly and there is no incentive to hang around. I hope they have some good activity planned during the World Cup to back this up.

To find out more about the BWIN promotion and to see the full terms and conditions go to BwinCom Sports Betting

BETVICTOR – Million Pound Bet

BetVictor have really upped their game over the last few years and are constantly trying to engage the player with new functionality and different promotions. This promotion doesn’t focus on a predictor format across the tournament but encourages to play against your peers to find a winning bet with the highest odds available.

Whilst I understand that this promotion will generate a lot of interest, keep social channels busy for a while and keep players interested across the World Cup, I can’t but help feel that this isn’t a socially responsible campaign. It encourages more reckless betting behaviour than normal and I am surprised it passed the regulators watchful eye. With that said they are trying to engage the player every day with incentives so it will be interesting to see how this one goes.

SPORTSvox +

• Nice top prize, engaging leaderboard format, daily prizes of 5k ongoing through World Cup

SPORTSvox –

• Very difficult to know what will actually win each day, encourages reckless betting behaviour

To find out more about the BetVictor promotion and full terms and conditions https://www.betvictor.com/en-gb/million-pound-bet#/

BETSTARS – 100 Million Challenge

If you ever wanted a life changing sum, Stars are offering that up with this promotion, however predicting the correct result of all 64 matches during the World Cup might just be something even Mystic Meg or ‘Paul the Octopus’ would struggle with.

What I do like about the Stars offer however is that it will engage you across the tournament with a large leaderboard and offers across the Sportsbook but also Poker and Casino products.

Stars have chosen Freddy Flintoff to headline the promotion and there is no better personality to add some engagement to the campaign. Watch out for the unofficial World Cup song that is being produced, I have heard its got Eurovision written all over it!

SPORTSvox +

• £100 Million definitely grabs the headline, large leaderboard, cross product offers

SPORTSvox –

• Unrealistic overall predictor, could have incorporated some daily prizes or incentives but that may come in the Stars retention activity

To find out more about the STARS 100 million challenge, including full terms and conditions https://starschallenge.betstars.uk/

In part 2 we will be looking at operators that have chosen to move away from a headline prize and invest in promotions and offers across the World Cup in other ways.