GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 24 - April 2013

The leading brand within the horse racing betting keyword market is William Hill, this position being mirrored within both the organic and paid click share index. With a 20.3 percent click share, William Hill dominates this sub-vertical and is the most aggressive brand leveraging both search channels to gain maximum expo- sure (see graph 5). Football betting is a highly competitive sub-vertical within sports betting. While William Hill leads with over 15 percent click share, brands like SkyBet, Ladbrokes and Betfair are closing the gap (see graph 6). Also in themix is a range of betting odds comparison services such as Oddschecker. These comparison sites provide many of the big gambling brands with the neces- sary means to advertise their products on- line. However, these comparison websites will also go head-to-head with the very same operators as they compete for pre- mium positions within the search engines to maximize their exposure. Exposure for terms that relate to key events is critical to the conversion process. For example, keywords for the Champions League include terms such as Champions League odds, Champions League betting and Champions League bet. Looking at the 2012 Champions League, the most visible brand across both organic and paid search was Betfair, with a click share of 14.5 percent, followed by Bet365 (12.9 percent) and Ladbrokes (11.2 percent) (see graph 7). Although the high-volume terms are dominated by the big brands in both the organic and paid search listings, there are still a number of search terms that affili- ates are able to leverage to generate valu- able traffic. These are primarily within the area of specific event searches (e.g., Grand National) and also comparison-friendly search terms (e.g., free bets). So although the market is dominated by the operators, affiliates are still able to compete with the right strategy and by concentrating on the right keyword mix. Phil Kissane is the Managing Director of Stickyeyes, a leading digital marketing agency working with a large number of gambling operators across a variety of verticals and territories to deliver compelling recruitment-focused digital solutions. Prior to joining Stickyeyes Phil had over 10 years’ experience working for some of the world’s leading gambling brands across sports betting, casino, poker and bingo. Stickyeyes will be exhibiting at GiGSE 2013, where they will be launching their U.S. Gambling Market Intelligence Report. If you would like a copy of the U.K. Gambling Insight Report or to reserve your copy of the U.S. Gambling Market Intelligence Report available at GiGSE, please e-mail hello@stickyeyes.com . 12 Sports betting leads growth within online gambling in the U.K.