SEO: iGaming Business and Blueclaw analyse The Masters

The Masters is the first major of the year and starts on April 7 in Augusta, Georgia. Blueclaw’s Alex Humphries has looked into the search terms and content factors affecting betting on the sport. 

Key findings show that golf, as expected, does not drive anywhere near the volume of traffic that football or horse racing does, but the punters’ need for information, betting tips in other words, is there, and that creates opportunity for affiliates and webmasters.  

“Firstly, we analyse the search interest around the ‘golf betting’ term. 

Looking at the Google Trends graph below, there’s a clear pattern, with two very prominent spikes appearing in April and July of each year.

These peaks in search interest correlate with The Masters, traditionally held in April, and The Open Championship, which is usually held in July of each year. This suggests that, unsurprisingly, the bigger the event, the more likely punters are to bet on it.

What is also noticeable about these trends is that there has been an upward curve since 2009, with the largest peak coming around the time of last year’s Open Championship. 

Similarly, search interest around ‘The Masters betting’ has also been on the rise, peaking in 2013. Since then however, the trends have remained relatively steady.

Next we look at the keywords associated with golf betting. Here we have a rare occurrence, with the phrase ‘golf betting tips’ attracting more searches that ‘golf betting’, which suggests a considerable demand from prospective punters.

Golf is arguably one of the more difficult sports to call from a betting perspective, with there rarely being a clear favourite unlike horse racing or football, and as a result, punters are more likely to look for tips, hence the average of 6600 searches per month, which in turn presents a huge opportunity to affiliates.

With this many searches, there is real potential for affiliates to increase their number of conversions, if the content is right. 

Putting up a ‘golf betting tips’ page on your site isn’t going to mean you rank for that keyphrase overnight, however if you are wanting to add another string to your bow and enter the world of golf betting tips, then it would be advisable to do just that, and write some good quality content to fill it.  

Also apparent from the keyword data is that branded terms feature heavily, where 19 of the top 50 keywords* (38%) are operator-specific. 

This could suggest that searchers are familiar with the brand they are searching for, they could be a customer of that operator, and want to access their golf offering straight away. 

Alternatively, the searcher could be a customer of Bookmaker X but wants to see the markets which Bookmaker Y offers, and so searches for them specifically.

Overall, the data suggests interest in golf betting is on the rise, with particular interest in specific tournaments such as The Masters. 

As a result, the potential is there for affiliates to cash in on the high volume of traffic around golf betting tips and the sport shouldn’t be written off by webmasters.”  

Affiliates or operators interested in optimising their site in order to increase search visibility should contact Blueclaw.

*Top 40 only shown in the graphic.