Sportsbook SEO Consulting and Marketing

The online gambling and online sportsbook vertical is rightly considered to be one of the most competitive business markets from more than an SEO point of view.

The online gaming industry is one of the most challenging industries for Marketing online or off line.

The challenges have increased in 2018 with the introduction of State level Sportsbooks and Gambling Licenses in the United States. This has introduced big players with big budgets such as Fan Duel, Draft Kings, Penn via Barstool Sportsbook, MGM and others.

Not only is it highly competitive with competition from public companies, government organizations and major news outlets, there are thousands of savvy affiliates in direct competition with the private, regulated Sportsbook providers themselves.

I’ve been involved in the gaming industry and Sportsbook marketing since 2002.  Below I’ve provided a brief overview of my experience in the the gaming space including highlights, acquisition milestones, search ranking and business development achievements.

We engage with licensed Sportsbooks, Online Casinos, Racebooks and iGaming platforms through Honeypot Marketing, a Digital Marketing Agency I founded in 2001. Our team of experienced Digital Marketing professionals are able to provide 360 degree support for established and growing iGaming businesses. SEO is only one of the core service provided by Honeypot Marketing, additional services include Business Strategy, Go-to-Market Strategies, Customer Acquisition and Retention, and Business Model Development.

Beyond SEO strategies & tactics, I have developed a number of long term strategic marketing plans which go far beyond SEO, encompassing other marketing channels such as:

1. Social Media Engagement and Conversion Strategy.
2. Paid Search and Acquisition Management (across numerous networks and channels).
3. Affiliate Marketing Strategy and Execution.
4. Email Marketing.
5. Web and Conversion Analytics.
6. Conversion Rate Optimization.
7. Sports Marketing Campaign Strategy Development.
8. Online Press and Public Relations.
9. Video Marketing and Conversion Optimization.
10. Podcasting Strategy and Distribution.
11. Landing Page Optimization.

Search Engine Optimization is only the beginning of the process and one tactic in an arsenal of Digital Marketing Strategies which lead to an increase in online lead generation and customer sales (otherwise known as the Joined and Depositing customer).

Sportsbooks have a distinct benefit over other forms of online gambling such as Casino and Racebook. In one word: content.

Sportsbooks in general have a near endless supply of material for content marketing programs.

The Lines pages have the best opportunity to create domain authority, which can acquire new customers via high intent searches.

After seven years 14 years 21 years I have the experience (and scars) to prove my time in the world of Sportsbook, Casino, Poker and general iGaming (Gambling) SEO and Marketing.

For more information you can visit Honeypot Marketing, check out my LinkedIn profile or view my detailed profile page here.

Sportsbooks and Sports Betting Exchanges have unique issues when it comes to Search Engines. Sportsbook “money” pages, the lines pages are alot like a weather or stock market listing website.

Hundreds of games are being updated at any given time, once a game is over, the listing disappears from the content on the page.

The end result? Sportsbook Lines pages are actually considered “thin” content. Evaporating lines, content constantly updated and little meaningful content. 

Making matters more complicated, we also want to have content that’s strongly related to the sport or league lines page that has both static anchor (that remains relevant) and dynamic properties (deeper fresh content). 

Sound complicated? 

Good news.

I’ve implemented this structure many times in a way that’s entirely customized for the brand, product, sport and league.

Have a look at a sample Sportsbook SEO Information Architecture…

Bodog Sportsbook

1. First in-house SEO for Bodog, later made “Web Manager” and a member of the Senior Management Team,
2. Oversaw the development of the Internet Marketing Team including all hiring, team structure and budgetary issues.
3. Provided 2 years of Strategic Planning and SEO execution.
4. Key stakeholder in a major overhaul of the Bodog Sportsbook Website.
5. Created an SEO strategy which saturated the Search Engines and provided Bodog with over 100 top 3 rankings across 3 search engines.
6. Implmented Web Analytics and Omniture Site Catalyst.

BetUS Sportsbook

1. Created entire SEO Strategy and built their Digital Marketing Team.
2. Create 2 years of Strategic Digital Marketing Plans.
3. Key stakeholder in a major redesign of their website.
4. Key stakeholder in Campaigns throughout the sports season.
5. Implemented a highly successful podcasting strategy.
6. Hired and mentored a young team which continues in place today (very successfully I have to add).
7. Top Terms: Sportsbook #2 – when I started with BetUS they were ranked #76
8. Top Terms: “sports betting” #1 (currently #4)
9. Top Terms: Football Betting #1 Google US
10. Top Term: Baseball Betting #1 Google US
11. Top Term: Basketball Betting #1 Google US

Sports Interaction

1. Worked with them in a limited consulting capacity.
2. Provided strategic SEO and site structure direction.
3. Provided technical SEO consultation for their custom build ColdFusion betting engine and CMS.

Belmont Sportsbook

1. Created a portal and subdomain strategy.
2. Implemented content and linking guidelines.
3. Successfully captured niche markets for an otherwise small operation.

That’s the brief summary of my Sportsbook, Gaming and Online Gambling SEO and marketing experience – as I mentioned these are simply highlights of my gaming marketing experience. Additional gaming projects have included working with Sports Insights, The Spread, The Ontario Lottery Gaming Corporation, Niagara Fallsview Casino.

Gambyl

Gambyl is a sports and pop culture blog covering the latest Liga MX, Serie A, MLS, UFC, MMA and eSports news, odds, lines, picks and viral sports highlights each and everyday with blogs, videos and podcasts. The Gambyl website has initially been designed to focus on the LATAM, Mexican and Brazilian markets. Content is served in English, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese.

You can also find custom merchandise at the Gambyl Online Store – we’ve created dozens of one-of-a-kind merchandise that caters to UFC, MMA, American Football, Soccer, Video Game and eSports fans.

There’s much more coming from Gambyl in 2021, check out https://gambyl.com for news and updates.

Deadhit Sports

Additional Sports and Sportsbook Projects include the creation of Deadhit Sports, a no-nonsense sports betting news and information website created to bring together real sports fans interested in quality content and building a community around the concept of casual, fun and informed gaming content of all kinds.

MyBookie Sportsbook

A more recent entry into the online sportsbook and live betting market, MyBookie is a WordPress driven online sportsbook with a DGI backend, fully licensed by the government & Laws of Curacao.

Initially we had to tackle some extensive information architecture issues on the site including the format and structure of the Sportsbook wagering pages, internal content structure, on-page content and the overall health of the link profile.

Remember there are always two portions of the equation from a SEO perspective: indexation and ranking. If the website is not indexed properly then the site will never rank properly. It was critical to ensure the site was properly indexed, we then moved on to the development of a more robust link profile and a complete over-haul of the content strategy.

If you’re ready to make your Digital Marketing and Search Engine Optimization efforts show bottom line results, simply contact me and we can discuss in further detail.

How to Market Sportsbook and Online Gaming

All Marketing is Psychology. Having the ability to get an emotional reaction from your audience is both impactful and can make of the difference in the world.

Search Engine Optimization is much more than content and technical optimization of messaging and code.

Let’s think about it for a moment. When someone sites in front of their phone, tablet or laptop and taps in a search.

What are they doing?

They’re revealing their motivations, needs, wants, desires and intent.

Having the ability to rank your content based on these searches is key to success.

We also need to convert those searchers into visitors, return visitors and ultimately customers or clients.

This requires creativity, an understanding of the psychology of the gaming customer and how to appeal to that psychology.

The Psychology of Gambling & Other Great Resources for the iGaming Marketer

The Advertising and Marketing of Online Sports Betting via Psychology Today

Totally hooked: Angling, gambling, and ‘fishing addiction’ via Dr.Mark Griffiths

Social media copies gambling methods ‘to create psychological cravings‘ via The Guardian