Horses for courses: Is Cheltenham still crucial for cross-sell?

The fiercely competitive nature of the online gambling industry is well documented and that rivalry really comes to a head each year during Cheltenham Festival in March.

Operator executives scramble around in planning meetings for months on end to try and work out how best to capitalise on the inevitable influx of casual horseracing punters. Cross-selling initiatives are wheeled out to casino customers, brand ambassadors are signed up on extraordinary contracts and welcome offers and bonuses explode with value – all to attract new customers.

According to The Stars Group, its recently-acquired UK operator Sky Bet gained 170,000 new sign-ups and an additional quarter of a million reactivated customers over the four days of the famous festival due to its £20 free bet offer on the first race each morning.

According to Eilers & Krejcik Gaming analyst Alun Bowden, the offer was cited as the main cause of sports betting margin coming in between 6% and 7% in the first quarter, a couple of points behind Sky Bet’s average norm as the offer made a big impact on short-term revenues.

“Was this genius or was this hubris?” asks Bowden. “In this market there is an increasingly fine line between the two as operators throw money at promotions, pricing, offers, sponsorships, advertising and whatever else they can do to stand-out. This isn’t a battle any more, it’s a warzone,” he adds.

This was reinforced in a tweet penned by Eoin Ryan, director of product at BetVictor. He took to the social media site to say: “Cheltenham this year felt particularly generous on the promotions front, even by festival standards. Sky Bet’s alone appears to have cost somewhere in the region of £20-25m, delivering them record actives (one million in the week) and 170,000 new registrations.”

Social media savvy

But the Cheltenham-inspired race for acquisitions is not only exclusive to operators in the egaming sector. Affiliates, suppliers and all facets of the industry you can think of will have had their own contingency plans in place for the four-day festival of racing.

CheckdMedia is one of those affiliate firms. The Manchester-based digital marketing agency did what it does best and harnessed the power of social media to appeal to horseracing bettors. Instead of preaching to the choir by catering to the users of its Winners’ Enclosure brand, CheckdMedia broadcast a Facebook live show on its flagship Footy Accumulators channel to engage those football fans who had become honorary racing enthusiasts for the week.

“It was the first time we had done anything like this,” says Will Tyrell, head of content and brand strategy at CheckdMedia. “We went live for four hours to encompass all of the day’s races that were broadcast on ITV.”

The firm recruited Sky Sports’ Gillette Soccer Saturday favourite Alan McInally to host the broadcast, while former Manchester United striker Danny Webber and Altrincham FC footballer Jordan Hulme were drafted in on the couch as pundits. Footy Accumulators sponsors Altrincham FC.

The show was called McInally’s Horse Box, a playful tribute to popular Channel 4 programme Gogglebox where viewers watch people on television while they watch television. Tyrell tells EGR Marketing: “Alan was an unbelievable host and a big name, and it became a kind of horseracing hybrid with Gogglebox. The boys were watching the racing and we did some competitions, which included giving £400 away in prize money.”

The prizes – retro football shirts, free bet offers and a £50 voucher for UK high street bakers Greggs – went a long way to driving social engagement throughout the afternoon. The broadcast reached 71,000 people and attracted 6,000 engagements, including 479 comments. “The reach was all organic as it was a live stream so it was difficult to boost,” says Tyrell. “We didn’t really put any money behind it but it was off-the-cuff, laid back and a really good set-up.”

Supply and demand

The supplier side of the industry was also keen to hit the jackpot during the biggest racing event in the UK calendar outside of the Grand National at Aintree which happens one month later in April. Playtech’s director of casino James Frendo says quarterly discussions with licensees can inspire the 10-month development of a specialised slots title if Cheltenham is looming on the horizon.

Frendo spent more than four years in a B2C role as head of casino at Paddy Power Betfair before arriving at the London-listed supplier in 2017. He says: “When I came to the B2B side I knew how the operators worked and I wanted to come to Playtech and put my B2C hat on to think about how we can help our partners with their content. I used to think, what would I get shouted at for during my time at Paddy Power Betfair, if I didn’t hit my numbers? That would usually depend on player acquisition and retaining the player, and now there is so much content out there, we have to ask how we are going to keep it all relevant.”

To keep slots relevant during the annual horseracing frenzy, Playtech recruited champion jockey Tony McCoy to front slots title AP McCoy from its Sporting Legends brand portfolio. The supplier previously agreed similar Sporting Legends deals with another famous jockey in Frankie Dettori, as well as snooker legend Ronnie O’Sullivan, as part of its integral cross-selling strategy.

“We have a lot of licensees that need to increase their share of wallet by getting those sportsbook customers over into the casino site,” says Frendo. “To do that, we can help by identifying markers and brand recognition. The first thing we asked is ‘what do we know is constant?’ Cheltenham is obviously a constant event and the Grand National is too. These things happen every year and people rely heavily on them to boost player actives. They need to make sure they recirculate those players to increase share of wallet, especially in markets where advertising restrictions are in place, because those operators depend massively on cross-selling ability,” he adds.

According to Frendo, an ordinary slots title might take a typical industry supplier four months to invent, design and release. However, he estimated that a branded slot from a suite like Sporting Legends is likely to take at least 25% longer, with the full development process often ranging between eight and 10 months.

“You can get a slot out in no time but with Playtech that is especially difficult because we are connected to 140 licensees and 280 brands worldwide,” says Frendo. “It is not as simple as just building a slot and plugging it in – our licensees have restrictions by country and regulation that might mean we need to cap winnings or change the game’s behaviour.” He adds: “We also prefer that everybody gets the game at the same time, so it has to be compliant with all those different regulations at the same time – it could take almost a year to tick those boxes.”

Jockeys and trainers devote their entire lives to the sport of horseracing – it takes real discipline, endeavour and sacrifice to earn a victory as Bryony Frost did upon Frodon in this year’s Ryanair Chase. The gambling industry is often prepared to put in the same amount of effort to have a shot at reaping the rewards of the week-long betting bonanza, whichever side of the sector you work on.