Between you, there is a combined 35 years of industry experience that has led to your latest venture in the Tenth Man. Talk us through your respective journeys and what the vision is moving forward.
Ken Robertson: So, my career in the sports betting world started in the last millennium, I went to work for Paddy Power back in 1999. I was the first person brought in to essentially set up a marketing function for the business back then. At that time, Paddy Power was an Irish high street betting chain. My first job as a marketer was to help launch Paddy Power.com, which was the first time any high street sports betting brand made that transition from the high street to the online space. So, Paddy Power.com was the first ever online sports betting website and obviously became a massive success. I spent the following 18 years really crafting that very unique, disruptive brand into something that just became synonymous with sports betting- but also, from a brand point of view, just really leaning into that unique secret sauce the Paddy Power brand had.
I worked with Paddy Power right up to 2017 and, along the way, I guess my own name became very closely attached to Paddy Power and specifically to that more disruptive side of the marketing mix. Then, after a little bit of time going solo, we set up the Tenth Man in January 2018. So, that’s essentially my history in sports betting: 18 years, all with Paddy Power. I was on an incredible journey with Paddy Power in terms of the online launch, then mobile betting comes along. Through a series of acquisitions and mergers, Paddy Power went from being this small little Irish high street betting chain to – when I left – the biggest thing around. It was a phenomenal journey to be on and I got to work with some pretty smart people along the way.
Gethin Evans: My background in sports betting is relatively quirky. I spent probably the first five or six years of my career in risk management. Then I worked for Coral for a long time, was very involved in horseracing and football. I was keen to move into the marketing space and that all fell into place when I joined Betfair about six months before Breon Corcoran joined. They were looking for people who had strong sportsbook experience and operational experience to help the marketing evolve as they launch a sportsbook. That led me into leading promotions and working with effectively the marketing planning team. So, linking commercial with finance guys and then the trading guys with the marketing guys, and just putting all that together at Betfair. I was very lucky. Then I moved to work in exchange licensing in the US, which was a great opportunity for me. After that I moved again and did seven years at Paddy Power. I was too scared to speak to Ken because I was in awe of this genius. Then I moved to work on Virgin Bet which, again, was good experience for me. I was the first person, really, who’d done tier-one work in the UK to go and work on that product. I was offered the chance to go and work on the media site. After doing 15 years on sportsbook, I was happy to go and test myself outside of that environment, and that was with Racing Post Group, which is now part of Spotlight Sports Group. I had a great five-year ride, really enjoyed it and it was a brilliant case study in terms of how to get things done. Then, Ken rang me a few months ago, and here we are.
Out of the campaigns that you’ve worked on with Tenth Man so far, which have stood out to you the most?
GE: I really love the Shaquille O’Neil campaign on PointsBet in Australia. I think taking that American personality and making that work in the local (Australian) market is not easy. You can see the strategic thought being pulled through and I think it’s a great campaign. It’s got the right tone. It’ll play into thelocal audience having spent time out there, and obviously Ken spent time out there for many years.
KR: For me, the one that’s probably most relevant to the sports betting category is what we did for PointsBet at the time in the US after they moved from Australia. This is before they were obviously bought by Fanatics last year. We’ve been working with them since mid-2023. One of the challenges we were given was to try and create a standout brand moment. Almost from the Paddy Power playbook. So, we came up with this campaign, where we’d take one of the brand ambassadors, a guy called Drew Brees, who was a brand ambassador for the NFL. He was quite a legendary player back in the day, an MVP, and just a really interesting guy. We were trying to create a campaign to market a new product called lightning bets. Lightning bets are very fast in-play betting markets. It’s very hyper focused, in-running betting offering and they’re branded as lightning bets. So the idea then was – we bring Drew Brees, our brand ambassador, down to a place in Colombia called Catatumbo, which is famous for being the home of lightning. There are loads of lightning strikes per day in in this particular place. So we shot an ad and created a video moment which essentially looked like Drew Brees had been struck by lightning.
Then, we very craftily over the course of the following couple of days, released the clip in the depths of Reddit and left it to work its magic. It percolated up and suddenly became this massive story. So that was one that was a clear highlight for me in the past year or two. Although it was fascinating to hang out with Shaq as well.
Gethin, with your international reach, how do you navigate targeting your advertising campaigns for different audiences whil adhering to local and international regulations?
GE: What I think is really valuable is the fact the UK market is more mature than a lot of markets in terms of regulation. Ken and I’s starting point is, ‘what would pass the test in the UK?’ As long as you’re starting there, I think you can’t go too far wrong. As long as you’re in that space, that’s the right place to be because the UK is ahead of the regulatory curve really, in many ways. But equally if it passes the moral test, too, in terms of making sure we’re not misleading anyone, I think that’s also very important.
Ken, you told the Irish Times that the ‘money back if he walks’ campaign on Oscar Pistorius’ trial was your proudest moment with Paddy Power for a ‘variety of reasons;’ would you say that’s still the case? How do you feel about the legacy you left behind there?
KR: In terms of the second part there, incredibly proud. Some of the highlights along the way from taking bets in St. Peter’s Square to the Pistorius campaign, to Nicholas Bendtner, it really was an extraordinary run. Paddy Power is one of those very unique brands that gives me as a senior marketing person a lot of latitude and creative freedom to do that type of thing.
"The Pistorius campaign maybe hasn’t aged that well, but it still remains the most complained about ad in British advertising history. So I guess I do take a little bit of satisfaction from that!"
I know it was after your time, but what were your thoughts on Paddy Power’s ad with Rhodri Giggs, Ryan Giggs’ brother? The Gambling Insider team feels it may be the best advert of all time...
KR:
"I think that campaign really captured the essence of Paddy Power uniquely. There remains something incredibly strong in the Paddy Power marketing team. I love to see the brand continue to do so well."
What has changed in sports betting advertising since you came into the industry?
GE: I think what’s changed is people trying to find distinctive positions that they can use over time, that then compound and allow you to make an impact with marketing, and that’s what it should do. In turn, that’s made it harder to take a position and own something distinctive that makes you stand out for customers in a homogenous market. Really good marketing should be when people are thinking about sports betting, they should be thinking what’s the value proposition for this brand? Why does it mean something to me?
With gambling brands to be banned from football shirts and increased responsible gambling regulations, what are your predictions for the evolution of sports betting advertisement over the next 5-10 years?
KR: I think it’s actually a good thing. A lot of the past 10 years has been – to a point – a bit of a race to the bottom in terms of: find a football team, stick your logo on it and job done. Well, you know what? It’s not that easy. The beauty of Paddy Power from the very get-go was that they were always keen to explore nontraditional means of advertising, of marketing, of communication. So in in a way, I think a lot of the operators will look to Paddy Power in terms of how they have been so successful at doing what they’re doing. I suppose to try and answer your question, I think it’s just going to force operators to be less traditional in the way they promote their brands.
GE: I would agree with that. I think one thing we know for sure is what’s happening today won’t be the same in 12 months, two years, three years, five years.
"Sports fans won’t change."
What will change is how sportsbooks market, like other sectors that are regulated, which channels they can use and when they can use those channels. I feel the fundamentals will be: unless these brands can still be super authentic at every touch point, their users, prospects or people they want to bring back into their ecosystem – they just won’t work.
