Pull the social media lever

Probability Jones co-founder David Newstead explains how online gambling operators are cranking the handle of social media marketing

Social media – you either love it or you don’t see the point. But it can’t be avoided. In the past five years most gambling operators and casinos have flocked to sites like Twitter to promote brand awareness. This field has grown so rapidly that many of these companies now employ dedicated employees and in some cases departments to handle their outreach. But what are the most commonly used strategies adopted by this industry?

Over the years casinos and operators have learnt that liberal use of free cash and bonus offers has always been a key strategy in bringing more players to the tables. With Twitter this is no different, with big names such as bet365 putting out competitions where you can re-tweet or post with a notable hashtag to stand a chance of winning some extra funds that will be dropped into your account. While we do not have any figures on how many players take advantage of these incentives, they are effective at spreading social media outreach.

Pundit power
Not many people take a used car salesman at their word, but that doesn’t stop online betting channels from grabbing a number of pundits to front video posts on their Twitter accounts. No doubt the thinking is that bettors have their favourite personalities and will follow their advice leading them into making bets or at least generating interest in various markets. This is one area that gives each of the betting channels a distinct and unique flavour. However we predict that this kind of service will not stand up to the heat of pundit only channels. The most proficient and interesting of all experts should develop their own brands over time, which will vastly outperform the offering of operators’ in-house personalities.

Look at the Twitter feeds of the top operators and you’ll be hard pushed to find any posts about their casino offering at all. In fact, you’ll need to look at the brands that have a clearly defined casino section to find many posts or activity. Sky Bet’s page, for example, uses the same out of the box sports boosters as you’ll find on other channels, while the Sky Vegas page is a non-stop feed of offers and winners. This is a dry and stale way of promoting a Twitter channel, and is shown in the number of followers, which are around 5% of the number enjoyed by their sports betting cousins.

One thing that will always fly well on social media is news. As a result many of the gambling channels you’ll find on Twitter are stacked full of the latest sports updates most appropriate to their local area. In order to sell their services these titbits of information usually come stapled to the next live in-play offer, taking something off the shine for the casual user. There are considerably faster and more engaging sports news services out there, making this seem like the low hanging fruit of gambling’s social media output.

Luck of the Irish
If you want to see social media marketing at its best, then one place you can trust is the excellent Irish bookmaker turned online operator Paddy Power. These guys have their game down pat, giving you a real blend of comedy and sports. Fortunately for them they staked their claim to this corner of the market many years ago when the whole online gambling industry was in its infancy. By carefully selecting many novelty bets and money back offers they were able to stir up controversy and intrigue in the market. This is a strategy that’s now paying dividends for the operator with comedy photographs and tweets that give a sometimes rude, sometime wry look at the world of sport and casino.

It seems like many of the operators are ultimately struggling with Twitter in the same manner as most small to medium enterprises. They’ve been told that they need to have channels and accounts, but there is a struggle to produce effective content and promote a unique message.