SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Suzy Sliwczynski Marketing Manager at user experience and digital consultancy Global Reviews breaks down sports betting brand factors with regards to consumer intent and engagement on desktop and mobile experiences.
In an ultra-saturated market does branding count towards a consumer’s final choice and purchase?
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When placing a bet online, there are many considerations that punters go through when they are shortlisting brands to decide which website they will ultimately place a bet with. The top criteria for many punters is being familiar with the brand name and a site that has good odds/offers. Whilst these are the top 2 reasons for considering a brand, there are variances in preferences when using a desktop or mobile device.
For those researching and betting on a desktop computer having good odds/offers is on par with being familiar with the brand name coming in at 53% and 52% respectively. Meanwhile, those researching on a mobile device are more likely to consider a brand because of familiarity with the name (53%) rather than a brand that has good odds/offers (41%).
A visually appealing website and previous use are the next most common reasons for shortlisting a brand for those on desktop computers. Previous use also ranks highly for those on mobile devices along with the site appearing to look easy to use.
These small differences in what makes a punter consider one brand over another is reflected in which brands are put on the shortlist.
Ladbrokes, Paddy Power and William Hill are by far the most considered brands overall, however, there is a bit of a difference between devices. On desktop the 3 brands are within 1% of each other with Ladbrokes and William Hill both on 51% and Paddy Power on 50%. For those on mobile devices, Paddy Power does not rate as closely. William Hill and Ladbrokes are considered by 47% and 46% respectively, while Paddy Power sits further behind on 38% putting them just 3 points ahead of Sky Bet and Bet365 compared to the 14-point difference on desktop.
Why is there such a difference for Paddy Power?
On both desktop and mobile, the top reason for considering Paddy Power was familiarity with the brand name. In fact, in both cases, this reason ranked higher than the average with 55% on desktop and 63% on mobile. This in itself is a strength for Paddy Power in that their name alone is a carrier for being considered as a brand to place a bet through.
The next most common reason for considering Paddy Power amongst desktop users is the good odds/offers. This is not the case amongst mobile users. To better understand why this is the case we looked at the online experience for locating the betting options. On desktop site, the evaluation of locating the betting options was much higher than on the mobile site. On desktop punters evaluated the experience at 50% compared to 38% on mobile. Far more people encountered a problem whilst locating betting options when using the mobile site than using the desktop site.
Information about the odds on offer is of great importance for punters when they’re using betting sites with punters rating it at 4.4/5 for importance. If this information is not easily accessible as appears to be the case on the Paddy Power mobile site, then punters will consider other brands and place their bets through another site.
Paddy Power is not alone here. Betfair has the opposite problem whereby punters experienced fewer problems on their mobile site than on their desktop site and this is reflected in the number of punters considering them across the 2 devices.
As a general rule, straight replication of a site across devices is not recommended and rarely works. Even so, it is important to review how each site is performing and where they may be falling short against each other.
Learning from yourself can be just as beneficial as learning from competitors and can make a difference in the online experience presented to customers.
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Suzy Sliwczynski – Marketing Manager – Global Reviews
