How the betting world was rocked by sports fans’ desire to discuss and copy bets
When placing bets, people rely on statistics, coefficients, news, and their intuition. But often conclusions based on previous matches and looking at standings may produce ambiguous results. For this reason, players often go to each other for consultation.
It would seem that sports can be discussed anywhere — from social networks to comments on broadcasts and highlights. But your perspective on a match is going to be different, depending upon whether you are a team fan or someone betting on the likely winner of a given match. The latter case produces a very particular perspective to viewing and analysis, and people in this position often feel themselves in need of various supports.
Betting companies in different countries have realized this, and seeing the great transaction potential (recently confirmed by Global Web and PwC research), now test real-time engagement and betting discussions right on platform. Users’ needs boost when they start to communicate, whether by subscribing to an expert, launching a survey or copying another person’s bets. Thus, social betting is gaining momentum.
Let’s talk about some of the most striking recent cases.
DraftKings
The aim was to turn the platform into a social network for bettors.
The question that concerned the American betting platform DraftKings (Daily Fantasy Sports and Sportsbook!) was how to lure people away from Twitter. Another question of interest was how to convince users to stay on platform to inform others of their gains and failures, rather than leaving to Twitter to do the same.
DraftKings was convinced that the social aspect was important both for viewing sports and for betting, and reckoned that the combination would be even more dynamic. If you are trying to convince your friends that a team will win, why not place a bet to demonstrate just how strongly you believe in their victory? As Chief Officer of DraftKings said — “put your money where your mouth is.” After this feature was introduced, the company shared the results: 175% revenue growth in Q1 to $312 million and upgraded its 2021 revenue guidance. The new guidance is $1.05 billion — $1.15 billion, up from $900 million — $1 billion. Monthly Unique Payers (MUPs) climbed 114% to 1.5 million for the quarter.
Despite this success, news in the press and on the exchanges was that though the roll out of this functionality had been a success, DraftKings also had massive losses in terms of operating costs. Nevertheless, more and more companies offering social betting integration are appearing in the States and Europe.
Sky Bet
The goal was to develop group rates.
Way back in 2018, this British betting giant introduced group betting, which allowed users to cheer on teams and place bets together with friends. Several users can place a common bet without acting as a syndicate — everyone bets their own money and receives their own winnings. This aids in the accumulation of rates and attracts more users to each event. Group chats were also integrated into the platform, where you can discuss the process and results in real time.
Sky Bet and Sky Sports have gone beyond built-in social tools in their collaboration by inviting famous athletes to broadcasts, and have synchronized on-platform activities with YouTube activities. This cross-platform approach has been fruitful, yielding a 10% increase in bids and a 35% increase in brand awareness.
BetBull (US+UK)
The aim was to make betting social.
A British company founded back in 2015, BetBull was initially focused on European markets, but from 2018 cooperated with the United States and entered the market for social betting. BetBull partnered with Wynn to integrate social tools right into its online service. At first this experiment was quite successful. Users could find and add friends, repeat their bets, and discuss both in public chats and private groups. *quote*
BetBull actively shared its results — the interactive approach brought revenue growth of $ 20 million.
Unfortunately, by mid-2022, when 70% of the platform had already been bought out by American partners, BetBull announced its closure. Some commentators interpret this turn of events by saying that in Britain the culture of discussing bets is less developed than in the States, where people discuss absolutely everything. Others believe that the reason for BetBull’s closure lies in its merger with Wynn, and is less related market-based issues.
CopyBet
The aim was the creation of an innovative betting app.
Launched in 2016, the CopyBet app was the first online platform where you could automatically copy another user’s bet. Today, CopyBet works in conjunction with the BetFair platform, and continues to focus on the stimulation of copy betting, by developing a network of influencers and experts on-platform.
Of course the app can be used for simple betting without the considering or copying of other people’s behaviour. A user can ignore expert ratings and do his own thing…but then why is he sitting on Copybet?
In addition to copying, any user, if he desires, can become an expert himself. In this case, his bets will be copied by other users.
Liga Stavok (The League of Bets)
The aim was to add real-time engagement to the platform.
In 2022, the Russian platform Liga Stavok also joined the social race and added chats to all its events. There are live streams of matches on the platform, and the chats are a bit like YouTube. After a quick A/B test, the company rolled out the new functionality to all platforms and users. Liga Stavok has not yet announced its results as it has been just four months since the launch. It has, however, already managed to invite influencers to the chat.
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More and more platforms are involving social betting, realizing the profit growth and retention potential, and platform development opportunities overall. But it seems not everyone knows which way to go: public chats? closed groups? copy betting? expert profiles? Or maybe all of this together would be the way to go.
Want to figure out what will make your platform more attractive to users — whether chats, audio broadcasts, engagement widgets or copy betting? Are you ready to discuss integration of these features? Please, contact our sales manager or book a meeting through watchers.io.
