Opinion: The changing face of acquisition

For over a decade the free bet offer has formed a core marketing message for online acquisition channels across the majority of companies within the betting landscape. It’s simple and seemingly effective but do we really know what an industry without free bets would look like?

More frequently than ever, focus groups, surveys and research tells us that a large percentage of bettors who sign-up for an online account do so without being directly motivated by a free bet incentive. Even more frequently, business intelligence tells us that the category of customer that is motivated by a free bet bonus has a much higher propensity to churn.

A simple glance at any betting offer comparison site just shows how uniform the industry must look to the consumer, with seven operators marketing a £50 free bet and six others offering a £25 free bet.

So the question being asked by many betting brands today is how much does a free bet really matter in the overall path to conversion and is it crucial in the purchase consideration process? Perhaps old school marketing and an innate fear to step away from the pack, creates the perception that acquisition strategies must hinge on free bets, while quantitative and qualitative research regularly suggests the opposite.

Acquisition bonus costs are something that we as operators have simply accepted as a given cost, without continually examining or asking the customer whether they would like something else.

The presumption is that offering a sign-up bonus stimulates online acquisition but for brands that spend eight figure budgets building extensive TV campaigns, surely this investment in corporate identity is what really sells, not an offer which is replicated by a dozen other operators. A unique brand message should set you apart from your competitors, not put you in an orderly queue of sites offering £25 or £50 free bet offers.

In a departure from the accepted acquisition strategy of always promoting free bet bonuses to entice new sign-ups, Coral have started to engage betting audiences with a varied range of creative. Whether that’s 3/1 on Real Madrid to win the Champions League final or offering a free Chelsea jersey to match your initial deposit, at Coral we are continually looking for call to action messages that actually capture the public’s imagination.

When creating acquisition campaigns, the question we always ask at Coral is: “Does this offer give value to the consumer, while creating a unique identity for our brand and potentially increasing our share of voice?”

Continuing in this vain, Coral have a very unique World Cup acquisition offer coming up this week which will both raise questions and cause a few furrowed brows. The thinking behind the strategy on this offer is to engage sports fans and create fun for recreational bettors, who normally wouldn’t be inclined to engage with betting products.

As the industry speeds towards the point of consumption tax in December, questions around the relevancy of the free bet offer will come under heavy scrutiny, with companies striving to significantly reduce their cost per acquisition and company directors asking questions about the necessity of this cost in the sales funnel.

Free bet offers have become the bread and butter of gaming marketing over the last ten years, but it could be time to switch the menu for something that consumers can really sink their teeth into. With a number of operators adopting a price led strategy for acquiring new customers over the last 12 months, does this signal the beginning of the end for the free bet?

Something tells me that this topic, which may have been a frequent topic of conversastion in boardrooms across the UK for quite some time, will become exactly 15% more interesting when the point of consumption tax starts knocking on the door.