Sports Integrity with iGaming Sponsorship
18th November, 2010
I was recently asked to sit on a panel at the Sport Business Group’s event: Sport & iGaming. Our panel topic was about how to maintain integrity in sport with the inclusion of iGaming sponsors.
After a lively debate, I realised I completely forgot to add some of the key points I wanted to say so thought I’d blog them down instead.
Benefits of iGaming Sponsorship into Sport
- iGaming has helped fill a revenue gap in the market for sport rights holders. With the decline in sport sponsorship funding, iGaming has not only helped fill this, but have drastically added to the sport itself. Many of the iGaming companies have utilised the concept of partnership and have introduced many sport related offers, games, and betting options for their customers. Betfair even goes as far as providing any 5-a-side and 11-a-side football kit if they play at Betfair.
- iGaming sponsor companies illustrate how the right sponsorship ‘fit’ can create synergies. One of the most important decisions on whether or not to sponsor is the audience fit. As sport typically attracts a demographic of males aged 30-50 and this is the iGaming target market, this has allowed iGaming sponsors to really build brand awareness cost-effectively by tapping into their target market in a way that is meaningful to them.
- iGaming companies lead digital marketing resource and expertise to sponsorship activations. In my opinion, I believe that the sponsorship industry lacks the innovation that is seen in some other marketing brand campaigns. This is due to the traditional sponsorship rights and being able to contract only what is available. However, with the introduction of the most state of the art platforms, forums, and e-commerce within iGaming sites, this has provided a much needed surge for sponsorship activation to this outside the box.
For more information on sport and iGaming, be sure to check out the video of the event here.
