This document discusses marketing strategies for operators entering the regulated Italian online gambling market. It notes that being an early market innovator can be costly due to high education costs without good returns. After licensing, many operators will enter the market quickly, increasing costs. Successful operators will focus on branding, niche markets, and optimizing return on investment through techniques like pay-per-click marketing, search engine optimization, social media marketing, and conversion rate optimization. The regulated Italian market represents a significant opportunity.

1. Practical Marketing In A Regulated Market
© Unibet Group plc 2010

2. 2 © Unibet Group plc 2010
My Specialisations
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
PPC (Pay Per Click Marketing)
Conversion Optimisation
SMM (Social Media Marketing)
Refer a friend (Peer to Peer Marketing)

3. Interesting
Marketing
Principles

4. 4 © Unibet Group plc 2010
Interesting Marketing Principles
Educating a market is costly
Being a market innovator isn't necessarily a good
thing, because it means educating a market
The company who educates the market can
ultimately lose because of poor ROI & lack of
marketing budget

5. Game theory in Gaming
Co: A
Co: B
Co: C
Small Market
Casino /
Sports / Poker
Marketplace
Big Spend on:
- Education
- Brand
Small Spend on:
- Education
- Brand

6. Game theory in Gaming
Co: A
Co: B
Co: C
Casino / Sports Marketplace
Big Spend on:
- Education
- Brand
Small Spend on:
- Education
- Brand
Big Market
Casino / Sports
/ Poker Marketplace

7. 7 © Unibet Group plc 2010
Pre Licence:
What's going on now?
– It’s a waiting game.
– Everyone is guessing everybody else's strategy
– No one really knows what the ROI will be

8. 8 © Unibet Group plc 2010
Post Licence
Many enter the market at the same time
Costs will rise exponentially over a short time
Big operators will burn through budget and
survive because they can sustain poor ROI
Marketing efficiency & great product is critical

9. 9 © Unibet Group plc 2010
Post licence settle down
Market has been carved up
Small specialist operators will move in
More about share of wallet:
– More branding effort needed
– Users less brand loyal
– More money spread across more operators

10. 10 © Unibet Group plc 2010
How does this affect you?
If you have the money and the product, you
can bet on ‘brand’
If you don’t the money, then you have to bet
on niche markets and tight ROI focused
spend.

11. Some ideas on ROI centred marketing

12. PPC

13. PPC Campaign Structure
Logical campaign
structure
Right adverts per
phrase / category
Right landing page
Better conversion path
for user
Equals better ROI

14. PPC: Logical campaign
What’s the meaning of
the phrase?
I.e. ‘Bet Online’ &
‘Online Betting’ same
thing
Group ‘same meaning’
phrases around one ad
For BIG spend words,
run in its own ad group

15. PPC: Right Ads
Right ad for the
keywords
Keyword in ad
Good call to action
Easy to read/scan

16. Ad Copy Examples
Betting Online Casino Poker

17. PPC Blooper!

18. PPC: Landing Pages
Multivariate testing in
place
Right message
Good page flow

19. PPC: ROI
$$ out = $$ profit in
You are now in control

20. SEO

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PPC will not affect your SEO
An operator licence will not affect rankings
Whatever you do, it’s at least 4 months before
you rank on big generic phrases.
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SEO: words of wisdom

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You have to use a dot.it domain
Your tracking has to account for this
localization
Your systems have to feed transactions into
the government for tax purposes.
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Technical Issues (stuff you already know!)

24. Kw ‘Casino’

25. KW scommesse
sportive
A lot of affiliates

26. Licenced in malta
Licenced in malta
Casino

27. Casino

28. 28
If you have old sites i.e. ww12.mysite.com,
then 301 this to the new legal domain
If licensed then its the usual seo story
If you ignore your seo – you will spend on
affiliates. Every affiliate earned sale, happens
because of your internal inefficiencies
© Unibet Group plc 2010
SEO Tricks

29. 29
They are agile
They don’t have to work to local regulations
They are the ones you have to out rank
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Affiliates

30. Social

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Cluetrain: Markets
are conversations
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Social: the BIG idea

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ROI is hard in Social (except for 1 area)
Facebook is nearly ready
Twitter is noise
‘Refer a friend’ is amazing!
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Social: It’s not all Twitter

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Sports: 1 to 1, Forums, Facebook
Poker: 1 to 1, Forums, Facebook
Bingo: 1 to 1, Forums, Facebook
Casino: What ‘conversation’?
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Social: Where are the conversations?

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The ‘traditional’ social
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Refer a Friend
Me Like!
You Like?
You Like!
Me Like!

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Typically 10 – 15% of all new acquisitions
Easy to run
ROI of 4 – 6 (3 – 2 month payback)
Core to all my social activity!
© Unibet Group plc 2010
Refer a Friend

36. Conversion
(is King)

37. Conversion: Poor Funnel (Est. Figures)
Google
PPC Ad
Landing
Page
Register Fund
Active
ROI+ 20%
10,000 Impressions
3%
6%
18%
15%
300 Impressions
18 Register
3 Fund
0.5 good
accounts
@ 1.08% click
To conversion

38. Conversion: Average Funnel (Est. Figures)
Google
PPC Ad
Landing
Page
Register Fund
Active
ROI+ 20%
10,000 Impressions
5%
8%
25%
20%
500 Impressions
40 Register
10 Fund
1.5 good
accounts.
@ 2% click
To conversion.
3x times the
conversion.

39. Landing Page: Typical ‘Grid’
Header
Call to action
1-2-3 ‘lead-in’
Footer
Landing page example

40. Landing page: Comment
Text draws you away
from register button
No Join now button
Distracting content
Landing page example

41. Conversion with A/B and multivariate
Maximise conversion per ‘grouping’ of traffic
Landing
Page A
‘WINNER!’
Web trafficWeb traffic Landing
Page B
Fund
Fund

42. Conversion using propensity tools:
Maximise conversion for every user
Pzyche.com
Cognitivematch.com
Optimost.com
I like
Football
I like
Casino
I like
Poker
I like
Bingo
Football
Casino
Poker
Bingo

43. Final
Thoughts

44. 44
Italy is a BIG market
You love to gamble
You have decent disposable income
It’s a relatively immature market
It’s unique in personality
It’s all to play for!!!
© Unibet Group plc 2010
This is what we know…