The afternoon of day one at the Mobile and Tablet Gambling Summit in London kicked off with a fascinating panel session with four young players of sportsbook apps, talking about their experiences and relationships with various brands.
The four male panellists talked of being drawn in by offers and warming to websites or apps that made the experience smoother and allowed them to bet on their own terms rather than pressing them to bet more or on sports or bet types they are not familiar with.
Free bet offers also came under fire; enticing players in and then perhaps not trying nearly as hard “or at all” to build loyalty after that.
They like to bet comparatively little and often – low-stake, impulsive bets. Patterns vary between players with one only ever betting on “boring” win-lose bets in football while another will always seek out the slightly quirky or unusual bets.
The overall tone was positive. The passcode access on BetVictor was very popular with the panel as was transparency with regards to likely payouts – again the simplicity of the BetVictor interface came in for praise. Television campaigns were widely praised at prompting in-play and mobile bets.
Chair Aideen Shortt asked what first prompted the panellists to bet on their mobile phone: “Ray Winstone’s head popping up at half-time in the football,” came the reply. It raised a laugh but it follows the theme of day one that TV has, along with social media and word of mouth, shifted the way in which players find mobile sports books and casino sites as an alternative to simply searching Google or the App Store.
Asked about potential improvements, the players were happy for operators to use the data collected on betting patterns to tailor the betting offering. In one’s words: “You know I like betting on football and horse racing so why offer me ice hockey bets?” App or operator-led tips should be avoided, agreed the panel, while knowing what the wider live betting trends were was considered very useful.
