A fundamental shift for betting companies behind the scenes
You want to make the most of the World Cup. Any sports betting company does – it’s the single biggest sporting event in the world (1 billion people watched the 2014 World Cup final) and it only comes around every four years. But the 2018 World Cup isn’t going to be like previous tournaments.
The games aren’t changing. The people making the bets probably won’t even notice a difference. But behind the scenes, there’ll be a fundamental shift for betting companies.
Why?
GDPR.
What changes with GDPR
For the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, you could send reminders and offers to your entire database, no problem. That could be emails, text messages, in-app updates or maybe even direct mailing.
Regulars would get excited. People who hadn’t placed a bet in a while might think it’s a good time to dip their toe again. Even those who’d registered but never deposited might finally get involved.
After all, it’s not every day the World Cup rolls around.
But this year, GDPR’s going to change how you can talk to customers.
If you don’t take the right steps now, then by the time the tournament rolls around you might find yourself scrambling to catch up with everyone else right when the bets start pouring in.
It’ll also change how customers feel about their data. There’s already been a tidal wave of news stories about personal data, and once GDPR comes into effect this will only grow.
Then there are your competitors
The pool of people who bet on sports is finite. It’s why the industry is so highly competitive. There may be more bets from more people during a World Cup year, but there’s no guarantee you’ll get more of that pie.
Your rivals are trying to attract and keep the very same people you are. If they get in touch with your customers to talk about data security before you do, at best you risk being the 2nd betting company to ask for their consent. At worst you risk losing those customers completely. And revenue.
Besides, it’s far more expensive to find new customers than it is to keep the ones you’ve already got, so dragging your feet is an unnecessary risk.
As people realise they have more control over their data, they’re going to expect more control over their data.
The silver-lining
It’s not all doom and gloom. While it’s true that getting consent wrong could spell disaster, the other side is that getting it right becomes a huge opportunity.
With the right attitude, getting customer consent becomes a chance to give your profits a huge boost.
