GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 16 - May 2011

Making the most from one-off sporting events By Simon Eaton T hroughout my involvement with the sports-betting affiliate sector I have seen how important specific events are in the drive to recruit new players. They can be anything from targeting the Super Bowl in the U.S. to the Grand National in the U.K. These large one-off-style sports events are massive player sign-up oppor- tunities for the accomplished sports-bet- ting affiliate. There is a competitive battle to become number one in Google for that specific one-off sports term. The trend by sportsbook affiliates in the past has been to target these events quite late in the game, giving them a very short window to make a signifi- cant difference. This includes the time required to build vital links as well as writing articles in the weeks leading up to the big event, which in turn re- sults in weaker search listings and the possibility of not being listed for the event at all. Some of the more success- ful sportsbook affiliates start build- ing their websites with six months or more to spare before the event. Back in June 2010 people around the world were glued to their TV sets watching the World Cup. As a sports- book affiliate I saw this as an oppor- tunity to reach hundreds of thousands of potential new players looking for places to bet. In my own eyes the World Cup presented additional value to sportsbook affiliates as it was one of the very few sporting events that is global, thus giving me the opportu- nity to decide upon which region and search terms to target. In my case I built a website targeting English-speaking visitors looking for places to watch the World Cup through live streaming as well as placing low- stake bets through a website called worldcuplivestreaming.com. I did not anticipate the amount of traffic my site would receive, and on June 11, 2010, I had already sent in 1,000 funded accounts in the first three hours, which was great news. This was followed, however, by my website getting blocked by the host with the dreaded message “This website has been suspended.” What was even worse in my case is that Google was crawling my website every minute, picking up the “sus- pended” message and displaying it in the search results, which resulted in my losing out on traffic. The lesson learned from my website be- ing temporarily suspended is to make sure, should you target these one-off sporting events, to have your site hosted with a domain host who can handle large spikes in traffic during given time periods. Apart from promoting the World Cup, which only comes around once every four years, there are plenty of other sporting events to promote, with the key focus in the U.S. being: Super Bowl Sunday The Triple Crown (three horse-racing events – Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes) The Breeders’ Cup (14 championship horse races in a two-day event) March Madness Final Four (NCAA college basketball) If you’re interested in more European- focused one-off sports-betting events, then I suggest looking into: The Aintree Grand National Wimbledon Tennis Tournament FA Cup Final (the last match in the Football Association Challenge Cup) As an example, let’s focus on the Ain- tree Grand National as the key event to target. The Aintree Grand National is a handicap horse race run normally in the first week of April in the U.K. which ev- eryone, whatever their color, creed, race or interest, enjoys sitting down on Sat- urday afternoon to watch. It is a heavily televised event and is covered in all the national press and media. A bonus of the Aintree Grand National is that the majority of people who watch it want to back the winning horse through a syndi- cate or actual bet. It is worth noting that this will be the only bet most people will be making for the entire year. With the availability of Internet access in nearly every U.K. household you will find that themajority of people wanting to place a bet prefer to do it from the comfort of their own home rather than visiting their neighborhood bookie. • • • • • • • “ With the availability of Internet access in nearly every U.K. household you will find that the majority of people wanting to place a bet prefer to do it from the comfort of their own home rather than visiting their neighborhood bookie. ” 50 Making the most from one-off sporting events