Betting vertical: we bet you’re gonna love it
Betting or sports betting often comes hand in hand with gambling as an evergreen and high-yielding vertical. Indeed, it’s difficult to find a country or a kind of sport that is not involved in this industry of placing bets on the outcome.
Sports betting covers about 35% of the global gambling market while people bet over $560 billion on their favorite sports every year. The global betting market was valued at about $70 billion in 2021, and it is rapidly growing. Even though the pandemic did hamper land-based sports, at the same time, digital sports betting only received a power boost. In the same 2021, online betting increased in volume by 67%.
The most traditional sports to bet on include football, basketball, baseball, hockey, boxing, and all sorts of racing from cycling and rowing to horse and camel races. This vertical has preserved its attraction over the years as it offers both an opportunity to win money and a chance to entertain oneself.
Who is interested in making bets?
Casino Slot Machine Games Playing. Woman Hand on the Machine Bet Button. Closeup Photo
Sports lovers all over the globe who want to feel closer to their favorite team or would love to share in their triumphs constitute a big share of the betting market. Online betting shops are especially popular in such countries where traditional brick-and-mortar betting is restricted for any reason.
Another group — people who strive to earn money online. It’s highly likely that they are avid gamblers as well. Peak in-demand periods usually coincide with big international championships, annual races, or the Olympics. This is a rush hour for both betting shops and betters because stakes are running higher than ever in such moments.
Most betters fall into the 25-34 age group, while younger sports lovers (18-24) are less likely to bet. Usually, men lean towards betting much more than women due to their general inclination towards sports and risk, though recent studies report that women are luckier in making bets because they are less impulsive and more rational in their decisions.
Seasonality
dice on euro and dollar banknotes, sports betting concept
Betting is a highly seasonal vertical: sure, one can bet on sports events throughout the year, but the major events bring bigger winnings and attract maximum attention.
For instance, here are some of the big sports events with fixed dates.
Summer:
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Winter:
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It’s wise for an affiliate to keep track of such international sports events and adjust the creative angles and approaches, to switch traffic sources and GEOs.
The technical side of the matter
As an affiliate marketer, you may be asking what options are out there for promoting sports betting? For starters, you can work directly with an official betting shop via an affiliate program. At Yep Ads, we have a wide selection of betting offers and our managers will be happy to share their expertise with you. Then, there are always affiliate networks that aggregate betting offers and also often supply marketers with tools and promotional materials.
When it comes to the choice of device targeting, you can work both with mobile and desktop gadgets, as betting websites are usually optimized for any screen. Considering the campaign flow, you have several options. The most traditional approach is to lead users to a website of a betting shop where they register, make bets, withdraw their winnings, etc. The newer and significantly more popular way is attracting people to a WebView application. Facebook and Google hold the reign among the traffic sources for such campaigns. With a WebView app, affiliates can still list betting and iGaming offers in official app stores.
The shift towards app-wrapped offers is a nod to the growing number of mobile users vs PC users.
SEO websites with sports-related content are also a great shot for betting campaigns. However, this traffic source takes a long time to prepare: roughly 6 months to push the site to the top search results. On the other hand, the conversion rate is usually higher than with other traffic sources.
Either way, the most important thing for you as an intermediary is to make the user journey convenient and enjoyable. After all, people come to betting because they want to have fun and win some money.
Traffic sources
Contextual advertising and search traffic are some of the biggest hits when it comes to betting traffic sources. The first thing many budding gamblers would do — is to Google the sport they like, a player they admire, or a sportsbook they trust.
SEO traffic from themed blogs and websites is a great choice when the content leans towards betting tips, winning schemes, and success stories. It has a vibe of usefulness and attracts new gamblers who want to know more about sports betting.
YouTube and Twitch influencer campaigns can be very profitable if you manage to find the right person to deliver the message. It can be sports reviews, comparisons of different betting shops and their features, live commentaries, etc. Such channels may be very engaging for the audience and contribute to high user engagement.
Social media traffic comes from chats and groups where users flock to find like-minded people that are likely to share some interesting facts or useful insights. Native ads and banners are used most often for social media campaigns.
Creative approaches
To decide on a creative angle, you need to put yourself in your audience’s shoes: what are they thinking of when they browse for a betting shop? If they are looking for ways of entertaining themselves after a hard day at work — go for the emotional approach. Such creatives feature people having fun and enjoying themselves and their favorite sport.
For those who treat betting as a potential source of income — the more “cold-blooded” nations and new users who join the throng during the big championships — it is better to opt for the success/winner angle. Use pictures and videos of excited people with big winnings, tell success stories of how someone joined a new platform — and now they are rich.
Do’s and don’ts
Businessman holding a stack of wooden dices carrying a dont sign turning in to do it sign. Over navy blue background.
✓ Always consider the exact GEO before making a creative: sports may be nation-specific (e.g. lacrosse or rodeo), or people may simply like baseball more than football in some countries. This will also be helpful in choosing the perfect image for your creatives: a famous player or the favorite sport will always attract more attention than a generic “ball+flag+ticket” creative.
✓ Use spy tools and available creative libraries (Facebook Ad Library, for instance) to research popular angles and decide on the most suitable approach. But remember that spying doesn’t mean stealing, it’s a source of inspiration, check out the 4th episode of YepCast for more information about spy tools.
✓ If possible, use promo codes, gifts, and bonuses to attract users. Betting is a highly-competitive industry, so a little extra persuasion won’t go amiss.
✗ Don’t use misleading information in your campaigns. The main point is not to attract more users, but to convert them. So, if you promise a discount or a gift that does not exist on the betting shop’s lander — you will simply lose the leads.
✗ Don’t be pushy or aggressive in your approaches, especially during big events like the Olympics: many people try betting for the first time on such occasions and will turn away if they feel pressure.
Whatever way you go, sports betting vertical will not disappoint you, and our managers will be more than happy to assist you with choosing the most suitable GEO and angle.