Sports betting isn’t something new in the Australian market. However, COVID-19 and the proliferation of internet-enabled devices, especially smartphones, are pushing online betting companies both large and small to work at breakneck speeds to adapt to the new normal of today. More Australians are placing bets online and using mobile apps to do so, as apps are the easiest and most convenient way for betting whenever and wherever.
More than one in ten Australians (11%) bet online in the first six months of 2021, up from 8% in 2020, according to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
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We expect Australia to continue being one of the hottest regions for the sports betting industry in 2022. For mobile marketers looking to drive customers either into retail stores or online, there are best practices we recommend for sports betting apps to improve the user experience. For instance, deep linking from your mobile website into your app as well as personalization across touchpoints in the customer journey will help drive higher mobile app installs.
In an ultra-competitive space like sports betting, you need to find the nuanced loopholes or gaps that exist in your user experience. Missed opportunities—such as reaching out to the right customer at the right moment with a personalized offer, or ensuring they reach the accurate content in your mobile app—can dramatically impact your campaigns’ performance.
For example, let’s consider the app onboarding process. If a user clicks on a Facebook ad, are they redirected to a landing page? Or are they accurately redirected to the exact same product page in their mobile app? Do you have data to understand the number of users that actually end up using the app long term, rather than just for a single download interaction?
Let’s look at how Australia’s biggest sports betting app drives user acquisition and accurately measures attribution.
Tabcorp: The largest Australian sports betting company
Tabcorp hosts thousands of players and offers a wide variety of betting services including sports betting, race wagering, and machine gaming, primarily in Australia. Their wagering parlors include more than 2,500 retail betting facilities and on-course betting at more than 260 race tracks. Tabcorp also provides and monitors nearly 13,000 gaming machines in more than 260 licensed hotel venues and clubs across Victoria.
While the company started out in the retail channel, they has grown their channel presence dramatically. You can now place bets via satellite TV service Sky Racing, Sky Sports Radio network, and online. This multi-channel approach has allowed Tabcorp to deliver engaging betting experiences for Australian players. Even for players who used to bet on racing sports in retail, Tabcorp has provided digital betting experiences allowing them to participate in major betting events including the World Cup and F1 Australian Grand Prix.
As Tabcorp expanded their offerings, the team quickly realized they needed an innovative solution that ensured a seamless user experience for their players. In addition, superabundant amounts of raw data were coming in from various channels which needed to be properly attributed so Tabcorp could measure the performance of their campaigns. Tabcorp knew there was room for improvement and focused on three key goals:
- Higher lifetime value
- Reduced customer acquisition cost (CAC)
- Long-term survival
In an industry as fragile as sports betting, it is critical to focus just as much effort on retaining customers as on acquiring new customers. Here’s how Tabcorp did just that.
Give users the flexibility of a digital and retail experience
One of the biggest challenges for Tabcorp during COVID was the increased demand by users for a digital-first experience. Consumers wanted a seamless experience when betting online through their mobile devices.
Tabcorp offered digital promotions that complemented their retail offerings, such as specific offers on the user’s mobile app that were only available in retail locations. This combined the best of both worlds, where users could enjoy the benefits of being in a retail environment and get opportunities online for a holistic experience. This could also be done via QR codes in-store.
Australia’s leading sports betting app, Tabcorp, offers specific promos and discount to users using deep linking
Enhance personalization for a better user experience
For Tabcorp, it was essential to have a scalable growth tool that would help them drive users to their app and personalize the user experience. They implemented Journeys, smart banners from Branch that drive organic web traffic into a very effective source of app installs by delivering targeted app download call-to-actions (CTAs) to users who land on a mobile website.
To deliver a better user experience and increase conversion and retention rates, companies like Tabcorp migrate organic traffic from mobile web, social media, and email directly to their mobile app. This is crucial since mobile app users are 3x more likely to convert and spend 20x more time in mobile apps.
In many channels, consumers are constantly interrupted by unnecessary pop-ups that aren’t relevant to their buying intent. In a mobile app, users are in an ecosystem where they can enjoy personalized content, relevant offers, and overall a targeted experience that matches their buying intent. Therefore, shifting them to your mobile app is one of the most effective ways to acquire high-value, loyal customers.
Being an Australian sports betting app, one of the biggest user acquisition events for Tabcorp is the Melbourne Cup. Tabcorp leverages event-specific promotions to target their potential customers. For example, they are able to customize their smart banners to match the event’s context and entice users to download their app while providing offers specific to the tournament.
Customised smart banners to direct mobile web users to the Tabcorp mobile app
In the above example, Branch deep links users from Tabcorp’s mobile website and redirects them directly in-app from the smart banner or to the app store if the app isn’t installed. Using the Branch mobile linking platform (MLP), Tabcorp leverages their organic traffic by offering seamless app onboarding and a personalized user experience throughout the customer journey.
Why accurate attribution is so important
Instead of getting into the weeds of organic and paid channels, Tabcorp’s team directly tracks user conversions from their original digital sources. They have complete visibility of their user acquisition pipeline in the Branch dashboard, which in turn, presents a consolidated view of their tracking data in an easy-to-read format.
Data from mobile attribution and measurement is the most precious asset for a marketer. The more the data collection, organization, and analysis process can be automated, the faster you can draw insights and jump directly to implementing better processes. For this, you need a reliable mobile measurement partner (MMP) that accurately provides powerful insights and captures paid channel activity like how many installs come from ads, which platform drives the highest user acquisition, what’s the lifetime value of a user, and how many repeat users engage with your mobile app.
To ensure they are accurately capturing data and insights, Tabcorp uses Branch’s MMP to capture key metrics including the number of installs, conversion rate, install to registration, turnover, and overall lifetime value (LTV).
Final thoughts
In a mature industry like sports betting, effective mobile retention strategies are key to growth. They drive higher lifetime value and revenue growth, especially when you’re looking at long-term value from users. With Branch’s mobile linking and mobile measurement solutions, Tabcorp has a full spectrum view of user acquisition, engagement, and retention.
If you want to learn more about how you can drive daily app user engagement, watch our sports betting apps webinar where Branch experts share a deep dive into the most successful sports betting apps including the strategic processes behind their success.
Branch is ready to support you in any of your digital growth strategies and help you meet your goals.
Branch provides the industry’s leading mobile linking and measurement platforms, offering solutions that unify user experience and attribution across devices and channels. Branch has been selected by over 100,000 apps since 2014 including Adobe, BuzzFeed, Yelp, and many more, improving experiences for more than 3 billion monthly users across the globe. Learn more about Branch or contact sales today.