Gerard Farrell – Global Reviews – Sports bettors expect ease of use as a bare minimum

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Gerard Farrell – Global Reviews

In the year February 2014 to February 2015 Global Reviews conducted three Digital Sales Effectiveness* studies into the Sports Betting Industry in the UK and Ireland. This research examines how effective 888, Bet Fred, Bet Victor, Bet365, Betfair, Coral, Ladbrokes, Matchbook, PaddyPower, Sky Bet and William Hill are at converting customers online.

Bettors expect more online

Prospective bettors are looking for key online capabilities from a sports betting site – a website that is easy to navigate, information that is easy to understand and the ability to register and manage their account online. These factors have remained key to their usage decisions for the past year, and in fact, one in five would immediately abandon the website if they encountered a problem; users just won’t give sites the benefit of the doubt any more, they will seamlessly move on to a competitor. Sites that make registration a faff, or hide key pieces of information such as phone numbers, will suffer as users refuse to make what they see as unnecessary effort.

Features of sports betting providers’ websites that were “nice to have” are now expected to be there by consumers. The key is keeping them “invisible” while delivering a seamless customer journey filled with all the factors bettors need, but that doesn’t get in the way on their pathway to purchase.

Global Reviews uncovered the top six reasons a bettor chooses one sports betting provider over another in our Digital Sales Effectiveness study. One of the six bucks the trend (refer to fig 4 for more info), five of the six reasons show that bettors are becoming less demanding.

Fig 1: Top ten reasons a bettor chooses one sports betting provider over another (mean scores on a ten point scale)

Source: Global Reviews Digital Sales Effectiveness studies into the UK and Ireland Sport Betting Industry 2014 -2015

chart1

Expecting more: Higher abandonment rate

When we asked in market consumers (consumers who are looking to open a sports betting account within the next 90 days) what they would do if they encountered a problem on a sports betting provider’s website, 19% would immediately leave and look for another provider. This has increased from 12% in the last year.

This increase in abandonment rate is a clear sign of change. Consumers are becoming harder to please and should they encounter a problem on the website, they more likely to leave than they were 12 months ago.

It is worth pointing out that the study we ran in June was conducted during the World Cup, when there were consumers opening sports betting account that aren’t regular bettors; so they might have needed more support, which it seems they didn’t get.

Fig 2: What consumers would do if they encountered a problem on a Sports Betting provider’s website

Source: Global Reviews Digital Sales Effectiveness studies into the UK and Ireland Sport Betting Industry 2014 -2015

chart2

Users want an online chat feature

A substantial number of bettors who encounter a problem on sports betting provider’s website would look for an online chat feature for support. At 28% this is a much higher proportion of consumers when compared to other industries – 18% in the motor insurance industry and 17% in the mortgage industry. Why might this be? Well, it may be related to the time sensitive nature of the industry; the urge to lock down certain odds would suggest a need to solve a problem sooner rather than later. This means that sports betting sites need to be alert to users’ demands for immediate support throughout the application and betting process.

Fig 3: Excerpt of what consumers would do if they encountered a problem on a Sports Betting provider’s website

Source: Global Reviews Digital Sales Effectiveness studies into the UK and Ireland Sport Betting Industry 2014 -2015

chart3

So what does this mean for sports betting sites? Our three top tips:

  1. Keep the website simple, but clever – meet consumers expectations on ease of use and account navigation, anticipating issues before they arise
  2. Provide contextual online chat features – anywhere and everywhere relevant
  3. Measure and track customer effort scores to ensure that the website is easy to navigate – where are the points of pain?

Of further interest:

____________________________

 Gerard Farrell  – Global Reviews – gerard.farrell@globalreviews.com

Globalreviews

 

Author Bio

Gerard is a Senior Client Advisor with Global Reviews in Europe. Gerard performs in-depth analyses of the qualitative and quantitative findings from Global Reviews’ digital marketing effectiveness and online sales effectiveness programmes. From which he both advises and provides evidence based actionable insights for their top tier ecommerce customers.

Gerard has a wealth of experience in helping clients achieve their commercial objectives through actionable market research results. He has an extensive background working with a wide range of brands across many different types of categories operating in both B2B and B2C markets.

Leveraging the Global Reviews Digital Marketing Effectiveness and Sales Effectiveness programmes, Gerard continues to help clients achieve their commercial objectives through greater online conversion and ultimately build greater brand equity. Gerard holds a Masters in Science of Advertising (Dublin Institute of Technology), a Diploma in Entrepreneurial Studies (Dublin Institute of Technology), a Diploma in Business Studies (UCD Michael Smurfit Business School) and a degree in History and Geography from University College Cork.

 

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