Mobile apps – could they be an alternative to TV adverts?

Betting operators and affiliates are having to reconsider the marketing strategies that they utilise before and during live sporting matches after the Industry Group for Responsible Gambling (IGRG) announced more stringent guidelines for television advertising.
The changes, which will include a ‘whistle to whistle’ ban on all TV betting adverts during pre-watershed live sport , are set to start five minutes before the event begins, and ending five minutes after it finishes.
While the guidelines are set to impact live sporting events as well as re-runs, the decision will not affect horse-racing or greyhound racing. The sports are said to receive the majority of their funding from the betting industry, and the changes from IGRG would be too detrimental to both sports.
IGRG’s decision will mean that both betting operators and affiliates will need to develop new ways to reach out to their customers that will adhere to the new guidelines set out.
Mobile applications are set to pave the way for operators to reach their growing customer base, with push notifications being a possibility for in-play bets and changing odds.
Push notifications, in their simplest form, are messages that pop up on a mobile device, typically from an app. Apps will allow operators to adhere to IGRG’s decision to restrict television advertising, whilst also being a means for tailoring promotions to the individual needs of customers.
Mark Donnelly, Marketing Manager and Online Services at Toals.com Bookmakers commented: “At Toals.com we always follow the Responsible Gambling Guidelines and this opens up the opportunity for other media to become more prevalent in our marketing strategy.”
In the UK, individuals approximately spend 29 hours per month browsing on their desktops, but over double that on mobile devices, with the average person spending 66 hours on mobile devices.It is safe to say that mobile traffic is considerably on the rise, and mobile betting is becoming a key feature in the majority of sports books that cannot and should not be ignored as an important traffic source.
It is estimated that over 50 per cent of internet traffic now stems from mobile devices, and so affiliates need to consider fully optimising their affiliate portal across all devices and media  channels.
Lee-Ann Johnstone, founder of Affiverse added: “Affiliates with platforms and communities have the ability to do push notifications on devices that are accessible during matches. The changes may well enable affiliates with these channels to make use of this opportunity and diversify audience engagement in real time.
“Digital marketing is disrupting all the time and affiliates are generally the early adopters and agile enough to try things quicker than an operator would or could.”
Affiliates may able to capitalise on the mobile market with the potential to offer enhanced price boost and exclusive offers, while also being able to tailor marketing strategies to individual consumers. Whilst the news of IGRG’s changes to television advertising may sound like bad news, it may have positive effects for affiliates by giving them wider access to more mediums for brand promotion.
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