Over the past few years it has become evident that the growing trend towards a one-stop shop or portal strategy by gaming operators in regard to product, continues to become commoditised.
Sportsbooks have become gaming entities, and established casino and poker players have looked to sports betting in the growing battle to acquire, retain and increase player lifetime value.
This portal or (ISP internet service provider) strategy has seen many operators move to the provision of the next gamut of services by looking at content or in particular, content that aids or extends the betting decision while on a gaming website.
In this continued war to differentiate your business and offerings, it would seem that many operators, certainly in the area of sports betting, are adding many information services, which span news, expert opinion, streaming live sport and are going head to head with established sports content sites in order to extend dwell or session time on their websites.
As a strategy, this convergence of content through IPTV or internet delivery makes obvious sense, but also poses a problem in the eyes of the consumer as to what content sources will provide the information, which gives the perceived edge before the decision to place a bet is integrated on a sports books website.
The secret of success is for those operators to offer an independent perspective and one company that has this at the front of its agenda is the Betting Channel.
The Betting Channel, which is due to launch this year, is the vision of sports broadcaster, Alan Bentley, who spent six years with Sky Sports before setting up his own production company in 2001, providing betting related content to a variety of clients.
Bentley believes the immediacy of broadcasting on the internet will prove attractive to sports bettors and operators alike. The service will include established names in the world of sports betting such as Alan Brazil and BBC’s Angus Loughran as well as an extensive interactive service where users can post comments and discuss betting strategies.
Internet sports betting and gaming broadcasting certainly looks the next big thing. With the increasingly voracious appetite of bettors for information and operators looking to add more interactive services it looks a winning formula.
