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About Sportsbook SEO - Sports Betting 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.

SEO Experience and Skills

  • SEO Fundamentals
  • Site Speed (Core Web Vitals) Optimization 
  • Backlink strategy, review, management & analysis.
  • Technical SEO
  • Information Architecture
  • Internal Link Optimization
  • Content Strategy and Optimization
  • Technical SEO Crawls and Recommendations.
  • Google Search Console Expert
  • International SEO (hreflang) 
  • Multilingual SEO
  • Development Team Relations

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).

About Sportsbook SEO

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.

Ready to Level Up Your SEO Game?

I create custom SEO strategies based on your business goals and budget. My Agencies Genuine Media and Honeypot Marketing can provide a fully managed SEO service that takes care of everything from technical audit to strategy design & implementation or take advantage of my personalized SEO Assist service.

Sportsbook Information Architecture

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…

Sportsbook Information Architecture

A Sample (and Simplified) Sportsbook Lines Page Information Architecture

Ready to Level Up Your SEO Game?

I create custom SEO strategies based on your business goals and budget. My Agencies Genuine Media and Honeypot Marketing can provide a fully managed SEO service that takes care of everything from technical audit to strategy design & implementation or take advantage of my personalized SEO Assist service.

My SEO Background

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

 

 

Search Engine Results Page Volatility (Live)

Google Core Updates can cause volatility in Search Engine Result Pages. The sensors below track this volatility, which then indicates that we are seeing changes in Search Engine algorithms. 

Google US Mobile - All Categories

Google US Mobile - Sports

 Search Engine Volatility is high, you may see drastic ranking changes in Google Search Results. Be sure to have your query tracking setup in the tracking tools of your choice (I use SEMRush, but have used AHREFS and Wincher).

The higher the volatility, the more likely it is that a major update is being pushed to Google Search production servers.

US States Offering Licensed & Regulated Sportsbook, Casino and Online Poker

Selecting Sportsbook Keywords, Phrases and Queries

Most sportsbooks select their core keywords in an overly simplistic manner, this is especially relevant for smaller players in this commoditized industry.


Why am I saying sports betting is commoditized?  


With the legalization of sports betting at the State level in the United States, there's been a massive rise in the major players entering the sports betting and poker landscape.


This has also led to more white label solutions, all of which eat away at the relatively fixed addressable betting market. Hundreds of players with the exact same bonus offers, customer service and the same basic services. By the definition of commodity in Merriam-Webster dictionary, sports betting is precisely a commodity.


The problem with the entrace of hundrds of new players into the search engine and business landscape means the relatively small number of players in previous years is now replaced by big brands with deep pockets offering sports betting options to players. 


Fox Bet, MGM Sportsbook, TheScore (owned by Penn Gaming) are just a few examples of this. Big brands and M&A roll up groups like Flutter, with deep pockets, tons of press, ads, and editorial resources make these new competitors are real challenge for the offshore and smaller players. 

Do:

  • Think closely about Primary, Secondary and Tertiary key phrases.
  • Understand your competition, where they're strong and where there are gaps.
  • Look closely at the types of queries your customers are actually searching. This is a nuance and an important one.
  • Create a content strategy that includes your page types, internal linking strategies, and quality content.

Don't:

  • Look at SEO as a quick and easy way to get "churn and burn" customers.
  • Focus on vanity queries like "Sportsbook" and "Sports Betting".
  • Try to be a sports new publication, you can't keep up with media pros. Less is more. Higher quality is more.
  • Try to beat big players head-to-head unless you're willing to invest heavily.

Super Bowl - A Nuanced Query

The Super Bowl is the holy grail of North American sport, in the United States itself, nothing comes close to the NFL and the Super Bowl. 


Every year iGaming owners, executives and professionals go crazy preparing for the big game. From the SEO perspective, there's one over riding strategy: spam the hell out of content, low quality content, social media spam and for the big licensed brands jumping into the sports betting market includes millions of dollars on digital and traditional advertising.


Let's have a look at Google trends for the terms: super bowl lines, super bowl betting and super bowl odds. Almost everyone in the industry lumps these together and comes up with creative topics like: Super Bowl 57 Lines, Odds and Betting


Not exactly a genius move. Looking at the trends below, it's clear that Super Bowl Odds is the major trend among searchers on the day of the Super Bowl. Before and immediately after Super Bowl Sunday, the query is minimal at best. 


Question: does your SEO team or consultant give you generic content mashed up into a single set of messy content, making it harder for Google to categorize the difference between your lines, odds and betting content? 


I'm going to guess, yes, they do; every SEO in the crazy sports betting industry I've met does this and yes there are some of the worst SEO "professionals" I've ever seen in my life in the online gambling industry.


Selecting Your Target Queries Carefully

Create a strong set of Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, Informational, Transactional, Commercial, Navigational queries with a hierarchy of pages tailored to each of these topics in strong clusters. You'll then want to properly internally link these pages to your Primary pages on your domain.


Interested in learning more or getting more detail? You might want to check out SEO Assist or shoot me a message. 

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