Personalization: Augmenting the bettor experience
With the sportsbook business heating up, and everyone leading with their mobile apps, it is high time that operators began to differentiate their digital offering. Russell Karp, senior vice president of DataArt says that there is a tremendous opportunity for companies to leverage the power of personalization to drive retention.
Personalization is powering the future of the media industry, helping businesses stand out from the competition and nurture a loyal fan base.
Most mainstream platforms deliver personalized experiences on their apps, yet when it comes to sports betting, users are still often faced with static interfaces devoid of any personal touches.
As Jonathan Power, Managing Director at Voxbet, said in a recent interview with DataArt, “Everybody looks the same now. […] You’re still offering an old-style user interface, which is going through endless clicks of menus. And that doesn’t happen anywhere else in the digital world. It doesn’t happen on Spotify, it doesn’t happen on Twitter, it doesn’t happen on TikTok, it doesn’t happen on Amazon. But it happens in sports betting”.
Operators are potentially missing out on significant payoffs by not implementing personalized digital offerings. These payoffs range from immediate returns such as improved usability and customer satisfaction, to mid- and long-term benefits such as increased engagement and enhanced user retention.
Personalization has a direct and positive impact on the bottom line of businesses.
Improving usability
While operators may prioritize innovative data solutions such as machine learning or blockchain when developing their apps, they can sometimes overlook fundamental elements like user experience (UX).
A strong understanding of UX is essential, as even a platform that boasts the latest features and capabilities will struggle to succeed if it has poor usability and is difficult to navigate. Therefore, prioritizing UX is critical for operators to create an app that is user-friendly and successful in the marketplace.
A fast and intuitive platform design in terms of technology doesn’t always translate into a positive real-life user experience. That’s why it’s important to adopt a fan-centric approach when developing a betting product.
To achieve a good user experience, focus on three key factors: ease of use, personalization, and localization. Ensure that your betting solution is newbie-friendly and mobile-optimized, making it easy for users to understand the different types of bets, how to place bets, and how to cancel them. Include security features without being overly restrictive, provide clear payment and payout options, and consider other UX factors like speed, accessibility, and customer support.
Having a good tech stack is important, but adoption will be impeded if users can’t navigate or engage with your app.
Prioritizing usability is crucial as it provides a solid foundation for building personalized features. By ensuring that users can easily and intuitively navigate your app, you create a strong user experience that sets the stage for more advanced features like personalization.
Therefore, usability is a critical component in creating a successful app that meets user needs and expectations.
A customized interface for every bettor
Creating a customized interface is the first step towards providing a satisfying fan experience.
By allowing users to select their favorite sports or teams, you can display relevant content and events on their home page. Providing personalized content feeds tailored to the user’s interests — such as news, analysis, and educational material on their selected sports or betting — can enhance the experience even further.
Complementing this with a notification system that keeps users updated on their favorite sports or events is an excellent addition; a number of operators have already implemented this feature, but this should be standard in every app.
To make sports betting apps even more personalized, you can add features like “My Stats”, “My Events”, or “My Rewards”. These elements summarize a user’s betting history and performance, interests, and pay-offs, allowing them to better manage their betting activity. By incorporating these personalized elements, you can significantly improve user experience and foster a more engaging and satisfying experience for your users.
Nurturing with social elements
Going beyond simply having social media widgets linking to Facebook or Twitter, leveraging the power of human connections is crucial to increasing fan engagement and retention.
Incorporating forums or message boards where users can discuss bets and share information can increase “dwell time” and usage, and also fosters a sense of community among users. Additionally, offering a feature that lets users create an avatar adds another layer of personalization to the app, which can further increase engagement.
Another effective way to leverage social media is by allowing users to set up and manage their own betting groups or leagues within the app and displaying the results and standings. FanDuel’s Friends Mode is a great example of this.
By adding sharing features and gamified elements, FanDuel simplified league management, increased user engagement, and also created a new revenue stream in the process.
Therefore, incorporating social media features that foster community and connection among users is an effective way to enhance user engagement and retention.
Utilizing emerging technologies like AI or real-time business intelligence can help you analyze bettor’s data and gain valuable insights that can be used to personalize communication.
Chalkline Sports, for example, analyzes the passion points for each user of its games, including the games they engage with and how long they spend playing each game, and then uses this information to personalize messaging.
This involves campaigns that are best aligned with users’ tracked activity. Incorporating these technologies into your app can provide insights that help personalize your messaging and create a more engaging experience for users.
As CEO and co-founder Daniel Kustelski illustrated during our recent conversation: “We collect a lot of data on behalf of our clients. But on a weekly basis, that report really looks like this: how many games we created, the types of players that played, how many times player X or player Y played which games.”
The collected data can subsequently be used to understand what works for users to nudge them to make more or bigger bets, and to try bets in sports where they haven’t historically.
“We understand the value of every single thing that the client does on our site,” Kustelski said. “[For example,] fifty percent of all the real money players are going to be playing a free play for various reasons.”
“If there are ways that we can maybe entice people to deposit money if they’ve already signed up, what are some of those games? And what are some of those passion points that we can use [to say] “Hey, here are campaigns that work for various personas and registrations down into the funnel.””
Optimove’s Mapping CRM Solution is another excellent example of how technology can be used to personalize communication with bettors. Their solution leverages statistical and algorithmic techniques to segment bettors based on historical and transactional data. This process is done continuously and dynamically, as individuals’ preferences and behaviors change over time.
By analyzing this data, operators can generate patterns, predict future bettor actions, and tailor their communication accordingly. Personalized communication has been proven to be effective in cementing relationships with customers, and if integrated with a sportsbook’s wider CRM strategy, it can be a powerful tool.
Another example of personalization technology is start-up Epoxy AI. Originally a voice-led tech product, Epoxy AI has since developed a customer personalization platform technology.
Their Audience Cloud product enables sports and betting industry players to build precise customer profiles in order to deliver tailored content for a more personalized experience. By using this technology, operators can gain valuable insights into their customers’ preferences, enabling them to create more engaging and personalized experiences.
Tapping into in-play betting opportunities
The last two years especially have been good for micro-betting, with consumer interest and operator priorities trending in this direction.
And for anyone not fully convinced, this is what Chris Bevilacqua, Simplebet’s CEO, had to say late last year: “As marketing and user experience around micro-betting become a priority for operators, I’d expect micro-markets to make up the majority of in-play volume; and for MLB specifically I think that will be as soon as 2023.”
Voice assistance technology
Voice assistance technology is becoming more prevalent, with companies like Google and Amazon leading the way.
Voxbet, a UK-based company, has seized on this trend and developed a product that enables users to navigate apps using voice commands and even place bets through verbal interactions.
“The reason for providing a [voice assisted] experience for all bettors is that currently, there’s only one way of navigating content, which is through endless menus, says Jonathan Power, CEO at Voxbet. “And when you do that, you have no room for anything else. But if you can navigate the whole sportsbook by speaking […], you free up probably 90% of the real estate […].”
By freeing up digital real estate on your app, you can offer users more interactive features and options for customization. One way to do this is by enabling users to place bets through voice commands, which is becoming increasingly popular among younger generations who are accustomed to using voice technology.
This allows your app to stay on trend and attract a wider range of users.
Personalization is user engagement 101
User engagement and customer retention are closely linked. After the initial rush to market, sportsbook operators should focus on improving user experience and retention.
Thanks to ongoing advances in mobile technology and cross-platform adaptability, the necessary solutions are readily available for operators to implement.
Today’s app users demand personalized digital experiences, yet most sports betting apps fail to meet these expectations. In order to remain competitive and expand market share, operators need to provide these capabilities. It really is that simple.
By Russell Karp,
Vice President of Media and Entertainment Practice at DataArt
Originally published at https://www.igbnorthamerica.com
