Opinion: Standing out from the crowd
Following on from a generally encouraging year for sports betting operators, the industry now sets it sights on opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. And as the impact of PoC is felt across much of the industry, the issues of business optimisation will be more critical than ever.
This is not a time to rest and take stock, as, irrespective of how competitive the industry seems now, a new era of innovation is always around the corner. And those sports betting businesses that continue to adapt, as their technological capabilities and that of their suppliers improve, will be those that will thrive in 2015.
While product maturity in the sports betting space has reached a plateau, innovation and differentiation in this area can still act as a USP. For example, while mobile and in-play betting will continue to dominate sports betting revenue, it will be an understanding of content and how to present it for a fast moving product that will be pivotal to success.
Working with the right tools
Very few operators have the advantage of total technological autonomy, and this is a route unlikely to be taken by either new or existing businesses today. A sports betting business and its operations can now be outsourced in its entirety, which is something that is fast becoming a viable option for even established names.
Such solutions allow an operator to be more streamlined and focus on its core skill set and areas of expertise. However, operators face the danger of having a nigh on identical shop window, product and customer journey to a competitor unless it nurtures and develops its own ways of differentiation.
Even with a more traditional model, with a greater number of key functions of the sports betting business being outsourced, operators must have the vision to adapt generic user interfaces and present their shop window in a manner in keeping with their brand and its values.
Subsequently, effective management of supplier and third-party relationships will continue to be a key internal challenge for operators. Increased external reliance naturally represents a business risk, which an operator must address and be mindful of.
Innovation overload
Many firms struggle to keep pace with their own ideas, concepts for growth and innovation, and are likely to have congested development roadmaps. Suppliers can find themselves oversubscribed due to the increased demand for their services, requiring a strong collaborative effort by both parties to ensure the timely delivery of new products.
This year is likely to usher in a number of new initiatives in the sports betting space, with personalisation one of the biggest issues facing operators hoping to stand out. It’s inevitable that a more personalised user experience is an area operators will invest in during the course of the year.
Sports betting businesses are able to gain an intimate understanding of their users’ behaviour by analysing huge amounts of data from customer interactions with the site. And technology advances mean they have the ability to scrutinise this customer base in far greater depth than previously possible.
Utilising such data and incorporating it into a well-planned customer engagement strategy will allow an operator to create a personal journey, be it through pushing device specific content, customer specific content or allowing its clientele to customise the user interface based.
The high street, too, still has an important part to play. As we gravitate towards cashless societies, the retail experience is embarking on an era of considerable change. But operators with retail arms can utilise this channel to maximise a customer’s value and lifetime by incorporating it into its cross-selling strategies.
The industry has come a long way in the past 12 months, but there is a great deal more change yet to come. The early adopters of such initiatives, and the businesses who invest in R&D and fine tune their delivery pipelines, will continue to gain the competitive edge.