Poll: Will Sky Sports’ new channels help sportsbooks improve their TV marketing ROI?

Sky has replaced its numbered sports channels in favour of specific sports-focused channels for football, golf and rugby.

The revamp will include a new customer package two-thirds cheaper than current prices and sportsbook operators have said the decision could lead to new opportunities for marketing departments to be more targeted with their TV advertising.

Ladbrokes Coral’s director of marketing, Alexis Zamboglou told EGR: “The advertising impact from this change by Sky will allow the industry to be a lot more strategic in terms of audience targeting and how we shape our TV advertising strategy to pinpoint niche sports fans.

“You’ll see a greater emphasis on sport-centric creative which will need to resonate with very different audience profiles.

“It’s also an obvious strategy change by Sky to combat falling live sports viewership numbers which if works, will have an obvious upside to advertisers.”

However, Pinnacle marketing director Harry Lang questioned whether the underlying cause of the change – falling TV viewership – meant firms should be moving their spend away from TV entirely.

“Sky is a huge commercial entity (and with significant rights fees to cover) so it’ll be interesting to see whether betting operators can benefit alongside rights owners, the viewing public and Sky themselves – or if this will simply make premium sports advertising in the UK even more expensive and drive advertisers towards streaming and digital channels.”

With that in mind, this week we ask if the move will boost TV marketing ROI, or whether firms should be taking their spend elsewhere

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