Sportradar introduced ad:s, its data-driven digital marketing service, to the market in 2019. Four years later and the service goes from strength to strength. Florian Geheeb, Global Director Advertising Sales, Fan Engagement at Sportradar, discusses how the product has changed since its launch and what the future holds.
You launched ad:s in 2019, how has the service changed in that time?
When Sportradar launched ad:s in 2019, the focus was very much on delivering efficient marketing activities for our operator clients. To do this, we paired programmatic advertising capabilities with a Demand Side Platform (DSP) developed specifically for the betting industry. This combination allowed us to provide operators with highly targeted display campaigns that significantly reduced advertising waste.
Looking longer term, and as we move further into 2023, we’ll focus on developing a more insightful measurement of marketing performance
Marketing efficiency has been a key driver of our services and we’ve looked to apply these technical capabilities across multiple customer acquisition channels and platforms, such as our programmatic video advertising solution. But as the market has evolved and our clients place equal emphasis on marketing effectiveness, we expanded the ad:s offering to support top-of-funnel activity such as brand awareness and consideration.
The result is the ad:s multi-channel performance marketing platform, which provides our clients with a greater range of options to optimize their digital advertising campaigns including paid social, connected TV and digital out-of-home. And, actually, paid social media advertising is performing really well for clients and I’m excited about its potential.
You work with over 100 clients for ad:s – why do they choose Sportradar?
Operators work with Sportradar because we offer the industry’s only betting-specific marketing solution. For example, by integrating our DSP into their display marketing campaigns, operators can reach customers they would not otherwise be able to if they used a generic DSP provider. It’s hard for operators to acquire new customers in such a competitive marketplace, but with ad:s our clients can connect with relevant customers across multiple channels and jurisdictions that are regulated for sports betting.
It’s this hyper-targeted approach that delivers results for clients. For some operators, ad:s’ range of services has achieved a
reduction of up to a 60% in cost-per-acquisition, increased net gaming revenue (NGR) by 110%, and increased click-through rates for rightsholder-operator sponsorships by 225%. Furthermore, a lifetime value analysis of the customers acquired
through the ad:s platform shows that these bettors are generating more positive revenue for our clients’ businesses and actively use their services. So, the quality of the customers acquired through ad:s is incredibly high.
These advanced technical capabilities are underpinned by a world-class team of channel strategists who are focused on engaging sports audiences more effectively and delivering positive ROI for clients. Our paid social media advertising team, for example, works in partnership with clients. They invest significant time getting to know the client’s business and how they can best use the ad:s technology to deliver against short-term and long-term goals. It’s a true partnership and that really is key.
What’s more, Sportradar continues to invest in developing bespoke technology for individual channels and betting industry-specific products. The industry doesn’t sit still and nor do we – we’re constantly innovating to provide our clients with the solutions they need to enhance targeting precision.
What can we expect from ad:s in the future?
In the near term, we’re going to build out our paid social media offering. With more than three billion people engaging with social media each month, it’s become a key channel for operators and we’re working to unlock its full potential for customer acquisition. The ad:s technology is deeply integrated into the META platforms of Facebook and Instagram, and we recently announced its integration into Snapchat. I anticipate expanding on to new channels as the year progresses.
Looking longer term, and as we move further into 2023, we’ll focus on developing a more insightful measurement of marketing performance. We’re creating a betting-specific, multi-touch attribution solution that provides operators with complete visibility of all their customer touchpoints. This data and insight allows them to have greater visibility of their advertising spend, helping to prioritise their best-performing platforms and understand the true value of their customer cost-per-acquisition. This will ultimately reduce advertising waste and provide better value for their business.
