Ahead of the sixth edition of Betting on Football, which is set to be sponsored by BETEGY, we had a chat with Alex Kornilov who is BETEGY’s managing director. We chatted about how marketing content for a betting company is integral to retaining and engaging with an audience, as well as discussing the promotion of BETEGY’s new product, IMPACT, which will be showcased at #bofcon.
This year’s event is due to take place from 19-22 March. Betting on Football is an international sports betting trade conference featuring more than 2,000 senior executives, 200 of which will be speaking across 40 conference sessions at Chelsea FC’s Stamford Bridge.
What are you looking forward to at Betting on Football?
This event is specific and is to the point. BOF targets precisely the part of the industry in which BETEGY operates – an intersection of technology, sports and betting. Therefore, I am personally looking forward to listening to the speakers from the marketing and innovation parts of the conference. Since there are many executives from betting companies, it will be interesting to discuss future trends in these areas with them. Of course, nothing can replace good networking and personal meetings with colleagues from the industry.
What are you promoting at Betting on Football?
Our new product, IMPACT, creates vivid sports media in one click. It uses the latest technology in data processing and data visualisation. The system automates content creation and turns sports data into engaging graphics, widgets, banners, texts and animations. Now operators can win back the hearts of fans by delivering valuable and engaging content on a scale. Our unique rendering engine pulls live data from all available sources and instantly creates rich-media content for all marketing channels.
What industry innovation will capture the most attention in 2019?
Sports data is an integral part of any sport and football in particular. In recent years football goes through “data transformation” and becomes the data-driven sport. The same change happened before with American sports. As a result, the way the teams are managed and the way they play will change dramatically.
Since betting on football is interrelated on the actual game, the big data development will play a significant role in this industry too. Notably, this will be true in marketing. The data opens new ways to engage and connect with football bettors.
Do you expect speed of innovation to slow in the absence of a major football tournament?
In my experience, surprisingly, the pace of innovation picks up when there is a break (e.g. summer 2019). Operators and other players in the industry have the time and resources to focus on the actual integration of innovative solutions in their companies. Historically, it is tough to put the focus on new processes when all the attention goes to ongoing operations.
Therefore, I am very confident that many big players will introduce new things in their arsenal by August 2019. However, still, they need to start to look into summer now to plan and successfully execute such actives.
How can betting and football stakeholders work together more effectively?
We know that in general, the betting industry drives the development of the sport. I think the best cooperation between these two very much related stakeholders can be done in marketing efforts to bring the game closer to the fans. Everyone will only benefit from such development. In particular, betting companies will be able to compete with media companies for the attention of the fans in social media.
A quality content based on hard facts will play a significant role here. Stats, odds, analytics – all these data can create preparatory marketing content which engages football fans into action like never before.
Which parts of the conference agenda have caught your eye?
Innovation and marketing parts of the conference