The Press Association is sponsoring Betting on Sports 2018, the 3rd edition of the largest international sports and betting trade conference at Olympia London.
Ahead of the 18-21 September event, we asked Commercial Director of Racing & Sports Betting Andrea Owers to disclose some of the firm’s plans for #boscon2018 and to pick out the sporting event she would most like to attend.
SBC: What are you looking forward to at Betting on Sports?
AO: Last year was the first year I attended BOS as a delegate and when I opened the door to the first conference session I was greeted by a room full of delegates, 80% of whom I knew and all senior players within the sports betting industry. We liked the conference so much that this year we have decided to exhibit and currently feel this could be a permanent fixture on the Press Association calendar.
The smaller show format, with a more targeted delegate and speaker attendance, provides a fabulous networking opportunity and the discussions we have with the major decisions makers within the sports betting arena, provides a valuable view on the strategic direction off the industry, which in turn allows PA to prepare for our customer’s requirements in the future.
SBC: What are you promoting at Betting on Sports?
AO: Content for betting including our new US focused portfolio of services to help our customers engage with the emerging US market.
The Press Association has long been known for our fast and accurate data services delivered with the PA’s seal of integrity that benefits all stakeholders within sports betting. Which I think is fair to say makes us a supplier of choice for sports data, especially in remote global racing data where we are generally recognised as the industry leader.
But The Press Association is also a 24/7 news agency who supply all major news and broadcast companies within the UK with breaking news and content. In recent years we have concentrated our efforts in using these core news agency skills to develop compelling betting focused content and recently this has included setting up an operation in New Jersey.
Our team of dedicated journalists, photographers, statisticians and designers who understand social media as well as the main stream media, allows us to offer a dedicated betting content portfolio to help our customers improve their ROI on marketing and promotion spend.
SBC: Which sports betting operator has impressed you the most in 2018?
AO: There’s been so many great innovations in the industry this year, it’s hard to choose a single operator. But I think the moves within the UK racing industry to launch a new Tote platform has to be recognised and hopefully the outcome will benefit not only the racing industry but also betting operators alike.
SBC: What sports betting partnership has stood out in the past 12 months?
AO: For completely selfish reasons, it has to be Betdaq’s recent sponsorship of Sunderland AFC. I’m a lifelong fan, as is Mr Sloanes of Betdaq, and just when Sunderland needs all the help we can get, Betdaq has stepped up. Good business move too with our average gate surpassing seven Premier League clubs. Let’s hope they bring us some much needed ‘Luck of the Irish’.
SBC: If you could attend one sporting event, what would it be?
AO: I’ve been lucky enough to attend a lot of amazing sporting fixtures and a number of my bucket list events have already been ticked off. But I have yet to visit the Dubai Festival and this has to be my target for 2019. Fabulous racing under Arabian night skies sounds good to me!