Social Media Tracker: how have sports betting operators adapted their social media content during Covid-19?
In a series of monthly articles, Crystal Content looks at how sports betting operators have approached their social media strategy during the coronavirus pandemic
Covid-19 has affected the lives of many people with some industries being hit harder than others. For those in the online gambling industry, it was noted that there was a decrease in sports betting revenue due to cancellation of live sports. Of course, this did allow operators to focus more on the promotion of online slots and casino games through this time.
After three months of postponement, it has been announced that the English Premier League will restart on 17 June 2020. This news is welcomed not only by sports fans but also by sports betting operators that have suffered losses over this time. In light of this news, we thought we would look at how sports betting operators have adapted their social media focus through Covid-19 below.
Sports beginning to resume
The English Premier League is not the first large sporting event to kick off. Back in May, Germany’s Bundesliga received a lot of attention from football fans around the world as it completed a full programme of matches over a weekend. Fans who had never paid any attention to the Bundesliga were keen to support a team and get a taste of live football again.
The Premier League resumes today with the first matches being played between Sheffield United and Aston Villa and also Manchester United facing Arsenal. This announcement has been well received by both fans and those in the sports betting industry.
While some sports betting brands have welcomed the news and have only recently started pushing content on their social channels, others have not stopped pushing sports content over the past few months. Let’s look at what some of the big brands have been doing below.
NetBet
NetBet is one of the most well-known sports betting operators in the UK. This site has 226K likes on Facebook and over 8K followers on Twitter. When the pandemic first hit and sporting events were up for debate, a spokesperson for NetBet was quoted saying that professional leagues being played out behind closed doors would “not impact on the betting industry quite as much”. They also mentioned that betting behaviour “may change”. Luckily for NetBet, it has a large casino site that would accommodate those hoping to change their betting behaviours. So, how did NetBet adapt to a lack of sporting events?
Over the past few months, the social media channels for NetBet have continued to push content related to sport. Instead of pushing its casino site, the NetBet Sport Facebook page has stayed relevant to its audience. In order to engage customers and fans of their social media channels, it created posts that asked questions such as “Can you guess who this player is?”.
One of the most popular posts on its Facebook page showed two team line-ups with the caption asking fans to choose the winner. This post received a lot of engagement with 603 comments and 50 shares on Facebook. This kind of content is perfect for football fans missing watching their favourite teams play.
As football matches in Germany started to begin again, NetBet switched to promoting odds on these matches and sharing blogs with betting tips. This is incredibly helpful for those not familiar with the Bundesliga. Overall, we are impressed with the content created by NetBet at this time.
Paddy Power
Another noteworthy brand in the world of online sports betting is Paddy Power. This brand has over 1.5 million likes on Facebook and typically receives a lot of engagement. Like NetBet, Paddy Power also has an extremely popular casino site, but it too decided to continue with sports content to keep fans engaged.
Interestingly, Paddy Power has decided to create its own sporting events in order to generate content that will appeal to their fans and players. This comes in the form of their Paddy Power Golf Shootout campaign. The competition promised to adhere to government guidelines and featured celebrities such as Peter Crouch, Tommy Fleetwood, Thomas Bjorn and Piers Morgan.
This campaign is very interesting and has already received a lot of engagement. Paddy Power used YouTube to broadcast the tournament live and selected big names such as Piers Morgan that they know will boost engagement and trend on Twitter. A recent live broadcast on Facebook received 122K views, 645 likes and 54 shares. Other posts on 5 June featured highlights from the tournament and some of the players discussing their performance.
This campaign has been very successful, and it shows Paddy Power is thinking outside of the box. While they have too promoted the Bundesliga, they are focusing on creating new and exciting content that will appeal to their fans.
With the commencement of the English Premier League from today, many sports betting operators will be springing into action onsite and across their social channels. For fans, brands that have been continuing to produce engaging content over the past few months will be their first stop for placing a bet.
Keep an eye on operators to see how they react to sports taking place again and how they promote their odds across their social channels.
Sharon McFarlane is the managing director of Crystal Content – a digital marketing agency that specialises in igaming. She has eight years’ experience in the industry and has contributed regularly to industry magazines and conferences sharing her expertise on all things digital marketing. Her company (www.crystalcontent.co.uk) offers an outsourced solution for igaming businesses when it comes to content marketing, social media, UX design, website design, branding and conversion rate optimisation.