July 8th, 2022, Oliver Rowe
In a custom research study conducted by YouGov for our recent webinar – Stay Ahead of the Game – we made an interesting finding. Bet365, which made a promotional £5 offer for the Champions League final, logged a significant spike in share of UK bettors that actually ended up using the sportsbook compared to the shares of bettors who had intended to use the site in lead up to the game.
While 42% of monthly bettors in Britain had said they planned to use Bet365 to place a bet on the Liverpool-Real Madrid game on May 28, 50% ended up using the sportsbook. But this uptick was not seen among gamblers who spent more than £5, with a lower 40% of bettors in this group saying they eventually used Bet365.
On the face of it, this data suggests that low-spending bettors are more swayed by promotional offers than high-spending bettors. Indeed 41% of those wagering £10 or less on the match strongly agreed that they waited to see if their existing provider offered a free bet or special offer before placing a bet on the game versus only 29% of those who wagered over £10. To gain a more nuanced view of the topic though, we dive into the data in Global Gambling Profiles that explores brand loyalty towards betting companies.
Our data from Global Gambling Profiles shows that those who spend more on gambling each month (all categories) are more likely to say they “look out for special promotions that give away free bets”. Just over a third (37%) of those that spend under £15 on bets monthly say they look out for special promos that offer free bets compared with 55% of those that spend over £100.
This pattern is consistent across a diverse range of markets globally. A third of US gamblers (32%) who spend between 1-15 USD monthly say they look out for free bets, compared to half of those who spend over 100 dollars each month (49%). Similarly, among Australian gamblers, a third of those that spend under AUD 15 monthly look out for free bets (32%), a figure that doubles among those that spend more than 100 AUD monthly (64%). Among Indian gamblers who spend under INR 500 each month, two in five seek free bets (40%) and the proportion rises to 51% of those who spend over INR 10,000 on bets each month.
But if gamblers who wager more on bets each month (barring those who spend very high amounts, who make up a smaller portion of the overall pie) are more likely to look for free bets, what kept higher-spending punters from flocking to Bet365’s promotional offer on the Champions League final? The answer to that may lie in the fact that those who spend bigger amounts are likelier to use loyalty schemes.
Just under one in five bettors (18%) that spend between under £15 on bets each month show a preference for websites that offer loyalty schemes. Of those that wager more than £100 each month, the proportion of consumers who say they look for websites that offer loyalty schemes rises to 34%.
Looking at other markets, the patterns stay consistent. Half of US gamblers that spend over 100 USD monthly say they “only use sites that offer loyalty schemes” (49%), compared to just over a quarter of those who spend under 15 USD each month (27%). Three in five Australians who spend over 100 AUD monthly show a preference for loyalty schemes (59%, vs 23% of those that spend under 15 AUD). While nearly half of Indians who gamble less than INR 500 each month say they stick to websites that offer loyalty schemes (47%), the proportion lifts substantially among those that spend over INR 10,000 to 65%.
This could mean that while high-spenders look for free wagers more often than the low-spenders, they are likelier to look for those offers on the websites and sportsbooks that reward them for their loyalty or simply use the free bet without switching their main activity to that provider. Looking again at Champions League Final bettors, almost a quarter (23%) of them said they placed a bet with more than one provider, but this rises to well over half (58%) for those who wagered over £20 on the match, plus 1 in 5 (20%) of this higher spending group opened a new account specifically for this game.
That means sudden promotional offers on a different website might have a less pronounced effect on them overall.
Attracting this type of punter might require brands to offer consistent offers, ones that keep them coming back. Our research shows that promotional free wagers can be used more effectively to draw in (younger) low spenders and those that weren’t expecting to bet on that specific event, but these customers may end up being less loyal once they are through the door so there needs to be clarity about lifetime value and likely acquisition payback period. Perhaps though Bet365 had one eye on new customer acquisition ahead of what might be an even more competitive environment around this autumn’s FIFA World Cup.
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