iGB-Blueclaw World Cup PPC report

Welcome to this special iGaming Business-Blueclaw research into World Cup PPC strategies released to coincide with the Amsterdam Affiliate Conference.

With PPC costs lower for sportsbook-led brands with a track record of producing strong football content and organic rankings for football-related terms, this can be a highly effective channel for operators to capitalise on this large but fleeting opportunity.

But as Blueclaw marketing director Martin Calvert points out, this needs to be balanced with the potential risk of overspend and being outwitted by competitors. FIFA has also trademarked a raft of terms, “FIFA”, “Russia 2018” and “World Cup” to less specific terms like “Moscow 2018” (see p4-5 for more on this) for its official brands so gaming brands are needing to be more creative to find ways of working around this.

This World Cup is also several generations of smartphone ahead of the last iteration in 2014, with punters enjoying far greater connectivity, ease of access and more sophisticated platforms.

The UK market has also consolidated considerably since then, meaning many of the big brands from 2014 are now part of one group and that challenger operators are having to pick their fights more carefully to maintain a sensible CPA.

Blueclaw’s data from the opening days of this year’s tournament also reinforces the fact that public interest in betting on the tournament is closely tied to the fortunes of the national team. Their early exit in 2014 saw a sharp decline in search activity which only picked up for the final, so bookies are presumably thanking their lucky stars for England’s best run in a World Cup since 1990.

Click on the e-zine link below or this link to read the report – you will also be able to pick up your own hard copy in the media area at iGB Live! and conference room where Martin is speaking at AAC.