As part of the firm’s ongoing commitment to supporting sport in West Lancashire, BetSid recently signed its biggest partnership yet, to become the principal sponsor of League One side Blackpool FC.
Paul Kirkby, Managing Director of the BetSid Group spoke to Affiverse about how the brand is looking to stay ahead in a tough retail betting market, as well as how it’s looking to maximise its partnerships.
Hi Paul, thanks for talking to us, could you tell us a little more about how BetSid continues to thrive in a tough retail market?
We are fortunate to have the substantial backing of our owner Simon Rigby. Being part of the Rigby organisation has helped massively. It’s allowed us to compete with the “Big Boys” in terms of shop fits and acquiring prominent freehold positions. Day to day we are very proud of our customer service and special offers.
We try and get the message across that you are better off with an independent. We’ve also worked closely with numerous local football clubs which proved a fantastic launch bad for the retail business. We’ve expanded to eight shops in four years only to be stopped by the pending government restrictions on the FOBTs.
How much can your partnership with Blackpool help you appeal to the local audience and also help you expand the establish the BetSid name to a UK audience?
Unfortunately, the local perception of the club isn’t what it used to be but we hope that this will change as the season progresses. We hope that people will see we are getting behind our local teams, this has always been a key part of our philosophy. In terms of the UK it provides us with a vital national audience on every social media channel and of course TV. We are really pleased with the clear branding on the shirts and in the TV arc at the ground. A great testament to our marking dept and Blackpool’s commercial dept.
Can you reveal an activation plans for this sponsorship in the coming season?
Well we are very close to signing with another football club to carry on the trend of supporting the local teams. Looking further ahead we will be looking at race meetings and other sporting events, however nothing is confirmed as yet.
Could you detail further to us your marketing vision for the brand and how important is it that our strong retail brand is mirrored online?
Our Vision is quite simple. We want to be seen as the UK’s Local Bookmaker, everything you get from your local independent online. We feel this is very important, there’s a lot of new online start-ups hitting the UK mostly from foreign entities. We want people to know and to trust who they are betting with. Betsid Bet Local
Could you tell us more about why you went with the home of the luckies for your launch?
We went for this because it is STAND OUT BEST, we wanted to do something that no-body else is doing, there’s a lot of plagiarism in this industry and we wanted to do something different. So, we went 3x 4x 5x on the respective Lucky bets across ALL SPORTS!
How can the BetSid brand stand out against larger competition in the online market?
I touched on this in a previous answer but we are UK based and we want people to trust who they are betting with. Even with this we will have to push the brand through the different channels. The affiliate set up is something we had great interest in and we are very pleased to of chosen Lee-Anne Johnstone and Affiverse to manage this for us.
