“Socialising” sportsbook will drive growth, says bwin.party CEO
CEO Norbert Teufelberger claims closer partnerships with European football’s biggest clubs will start bearing fruit after soft Q3 sportsbook performance
Bwin.party is backing the launch of new mobile apps and a “completely new” social-focused sports betting product to turnaround performance in 2014, according to CEO Norbert Teufelberger.
The operator, which today revealed Q3 sportsbook revenues had dropped 10% to €52.9m compared to the same period last year as overall revenues tumbled 21%.
Teufelberger blamed poor sportsbook margin and the shutdown of its Greek-facing site for the decline, but said a “completely new sports product” due for launch next month would be the first of many innovations.
He said 35% of sports betting revenues now come from mobile and that a “revamped” mobile sportsbook client and CRM techniques would emerge in the next three to six months.
Teufelberger also pointed towards new mobile releases in Italy – where it launched a new in-play betting product this week – and Belgium as key areas of focus.
While remaining coy on the exact details of the product, Teufelberger stressed that greater engagement with fans would be a core part of the new offering.
And he said bwin.party’s high profile sponsorship partnerships with the likes of Manchester United, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid would help boost growth with bwin.party working closer on targeted content for the clubs.
“This is about much more than [putting] banner ads on [the clubs’] websites. There are a lot of things we are doing with those clubs that haven’t been done in the past,” he said.
“For us it is all about using new channels and products, engaging their fans and trying to activate directly from those channels,” he said.
He added that bwin.party was working with the clubs to supply relevant content for their own apps for fans, including live scores, commentaries and betting content.
In addition to the product development bwin.party will place a greater onus on virality in order to boost its brand. Teufelberger said the ad campaign featuring Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney had attracted some five million hits on YouTube.
“We are now using the top players at these clubs and developed some very nice concepts, plus we have just launched new products where these clubs are competing with each other and we will create our own virtual bwin Champions League for the six club [we partner with],” he said.
Source: EGR
