betonliamcasey

Category: marketing

  • EGR OP ED: Will ‘Stutter’ be Peter Jackson’s next blockbuster?

    @betonliamcasey

    (NOTE: This Op Ed was first published in EGR Intel. I’ve put interesting links & other opinions in from people, at the bottom of this piece).

    (I’m currently available for consulting or interesting work / jobs / projects – focused on Marketing, engagement, structures & culture & general business performance).

    “Deeds will no be less valiant, because they are unpraised.” JRR Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings.

    I loved Peter Jackson’s early work. The scale of the Lord of the Rings was truly epic – but is a Flutter / The Stars Group – a blockbuster too far? Or will US box-office be the new, new thing?

    This is the deal that puts the rest of the industry on the back foot.  The headlines we’re all used to seeing in terms of industry mega deals can summed up by “bigger is better & scale trumps all…”. But IS bigger better? And what happens to culture? I spoke to mid-senior people in both organisations and the general reaction was big picture positive, but followed with a biiiig sigh and observations around “more of the same battles to the death for people & teams.”

    There are some areas that I think are really interesting here.

    DOES SCALE & REACH SUPPORT POSITIVE CULTURE? The merger of (TSG & Flutter) cultures will be both a) fascinating and b) something that will drag on the culture for the next 2 years. Both companies have been there & done that (in terms of mergers) – but it’s the foot-soldiers / middle management that will both bear the brunt of the cuts and have to struggle through whilst “synergies” get negotiated. High level costs & targets will already be known (in terms of synergies / 140M) – but (I know from experience) that Steering Groups will be kicked off / egos will surface & Game of Thrones will have nothing on internal meetings over the next 12 months. Flutter is the boss here. Dublin is now the head office. Dublin has tended to be more of an historical (Full Tilt related) outlier for TSG, and they only introduced a site CEO this year. Scale & reach seems to be the new paradigm for the online gambling industry butthere is a big (unanswered) question – can positive culture or habits be scaled? Particularly in an industry that has struggled with negative newsflow + lots of M&A + uncertainty over the last few years.

    WHO MATTERS IN M&A? NOT THE END-USER: Speaking of Culture, IF “Culture =’s Brand” then this new organisation will be…diffuse. The reality is that 99% of consumers of Stutter brands will have no idea of any corporate change – or won’t care. This is a bigger news story in Ireland, due to Paddy Power’s brand heritage there – than it is in any other territory. The overall brand portfolio now stretches across Paddy Power, Betfair, Adjarabet, Pokerstars, Skybet, Full Tilt, BetEazy, FanDuel, Foxbet – as well as various sub-brands that sit within verticals in the brands. The best brands that I’ve worked on & with are aligned around a common purpose and mission to do XXX for the customer.

    The sheer scale, weight, technical & budget challenges (and overall integration) means that brand alignment & resource allocation will be a power game as to who can get what, based on their ability to navigate the organisational power structures in a way that puts their brand needs highest. My own experience is that when people are a) concerned for their jobs b) having to compete for shared resources and c) having to navigate new relationships and comms structures – that the focus gets taken off the customer. Only time will tell here – but you feel that there are opportunities for more agile, more aligned gambling brands to deliver greater customer focus (and results) in the short to medium term.

    RAFI WILL KILL IT AS COO: I first met Rafi when he was COO of Playtech. He was always viewed as the guy that would give you a straight answer, wouldn’t fuck around – and then deliver what he said he would. He knows gambling & the industry inside out, and there has always been a general feeling that if you were going to pick an industry COO – that he’d be #1.

    This is notin opposition to him being CEO of a large public firm – but a case of Rafi being most comfortable being down in the absolute detail of the days to day, and not having to be the “BIG VISION, BIG MISSION…” sprinkler of fairy dust on a large organisation. Richard Flint is a great example of someone who combined the ability to inspire (teams) internally, and have enough charisma and slickness to put an acceptable face on an industry that is struggling with reputational issues. My gut feeling is that Rafi will be more comfortable with an inward VS outward facing role. He’s one of the good ones. I don’t know Peter Jackson – but he’s already got a board (eg: Gary McCann) that has ‘been there/done that’ in terms of long term growth and debt management.

    I’m fascinated to see how Marketing gets apportioned out on a Group basis. Flutter moved to MD’s that were brand & territory focused. TSG’s (marketing structure) approach has been more vertically focused – both in terms of product & where the customer sits in the lifecycle. There has been a move from a general online POV, to break down the CMO role into complementary, but more technically focused areas. A Group CMO announcement? I wouldn’t be too sure about that.

    MARGIN MATTERS. WILL POKER MATTER? TSG’s debt weight has been a killer. TSG has consistently delivered some of the best margins in the industry, but over the last few years hasn’t been able to touch it – due to the requirement around  positive cashflow. The converse of this is that TSG’s marketing spend has been the lowest of its (industry) peers – as a % of its online revenue. The theory is that less drag of debt, deeper pockets (budgets) and rationalised Marketing overhead (people & partners) will allow an increase in the % of spend VS revenue – that can help drive top line revenues. However – it’s never as simple as this. I know Poker (for example), has tended to be at the bottom of the list of priorities for Flutter – as general category growth has tended to be focused on the Sports & Casino verticals. ‘Stars has always taken the lead in terms of category-widening (for Poker) – but my gut-feeling is that the Group focus may not allow this (for Poker) – and that x-sell will now be #1, 2 & 3 in terms of Poker focus.

    This probably creates even more of an opportunity for Partypoker (& GVC) in terms of building on the real authenticity that it’s built up in the Poker space over the 18 months or so.  Party’s challenge here – is to maintain Poker authenticity, whilst building more holistic and seamless Poker-driven gambling experiences  – for the more “recreational” type of player. Stars Rewards is a beast at doing this – very interested to see if their model and player experience with Stars Rewards gets used on a wider Stutter group basis.

    THE TERRITORY OPPORTUNITY: I think that this is where this deal gets most interesting. Industry people tend to forget that online sports betting is still a) nascent in many territories and b) has tended to be behind online poker in terms of (early) online adoption. Pokerstars was a truly global operator, before Paddy Power (for example) was of any significant size. If you look at the US as a territory – Poker has been the more “acceptable” face of online – and sportsbetting is only catching up. If you look at the territories below – I’d have a belief that Poker as an entry point – is going to be far easier to gain an (initial) toehold and expand from there. It’s where Flutter are probably most looking to growth – outside of the pure US story.

    THE US IS WHAT MATTERS. Fox Sports + Free To Play. Fanduel + Poker. A Pokerstars legacy that goes back to the early ‘Noughties. Even Full Tilt as a secondary brand? Boots on the ground already in key markets. An Exchange in New Jersey. US fantasy sports marketing experts as part of the Management team. There is very little not to like about where this positions Stutter in terms of the overall US opportunity.

    I’m familiar with the people from TSG that are over there. (Less so with the Flutter team). They are some of the smartest guys in the room & highly motivated to succeed. BUT – there is a question now, as part of an even bigger organisation that has an updated vision & mission – as to whether there will be organisational challenges that will slow up what they want to do. Decisions that have already been made in terms of budgets & resource allocations will be picked over again. Flutter will want to have some of Peter Jackson’s men up close & personal with everything that’s going on. Trust will have to be built up – at the same time that a 10 figure marketing spend is marching out the door in the pursuit of market share / land grab.

    There are still some outstanding questions over who owns what IP, that relates to sportsbetting business procesess (eg: cashout) due to how the USPTO treats IP versus the EU. Firms are circling that one, and it could prove expensive. Positive newsflow about the US will the petrol that will drive the engine of the share price here. It’ll be one to watch that’s for sure.

    SPORTBETTING PLATFORM FIGHT TO THE DEATH: Openbet. Skybet. Betstars. Betfair. Migrations. Integrations. Trading teams. Margin. Trying to see the wood for the trees in terms of technology / market fit – is as much of a political game, as it is in terms of the best technology and capability winning. I know that if was Skybet – I’d be concerned that my expertise was complementary to a core Paddy one. I know that the Trading overhead (in terms of headcount) at TSG. was punching well above its weight in terms of markets / scale per trader. Their challenge was market / platform fit due to TSG historically being a Poker business. Stutter have the luxury of choice, but that brings hard decisions around the big picture. Shoe-horning US sports and the required differences in exotics etc – is not an overnight job & that’ll be the focus in terms of core platform market development for the long term. If you have a “one territory, horse-racing focus” your horizons are…limited.

    FINALLY – the industry is a state of flux. Mega deals have become more the norm than not. If it’s a mega deal to simply acquire tech or skillsets (a la Uber, a la Google or Facebook), it makes sense – as those deals increase capabilities that serve the customer. The mega deals in the gambling industry are driven by “synergies, reduced marketing costs because we can scale more efficiently & greater brand access to territories we don’t currently serve…” – and the reality is that – whilst the drivers are real =====- the clear outcomes as a result, unproven, at scale.

    For example, performance marketing is not binary. Just because you own more brands, and have a smaller Marketing dept(s) doesn’t mean that your acquisition costs will go down. You are still competing against your own & competitor brands. Your (corporate) scale doesn’t mean anything to your end-users other than a greater ability to deliver hygiene factors around security and safety.

    New management + revised territory marketing plans, based on new priorities + decisions around technology + integrations + internal politics + lack of clarity around future structures + the challenge of owned or licensed IP (in the US) + responsible gambling focus + regulatory pressure – all at bigger scale – do not suddenly become easier problems to solve, just because you are the biggest. Unfortunately – creating scale, scales your challenges too.

    I’m looking forward to watching how Peter Jackson’s next epic unfolds. It’ll definitely be big box office – but will it be…good?

    I’m available for full-time work or consulting – details here.

    **********************************************************************************

    Other good articles & resources that are linked to this deal:

    Here is the Flutter-Entertainment-plc-and-The-Stars-Group-Inc – corporate-doc that gives an internal >> external rationale of the deal.

    Here is the investor presentation from Flutter – here.

    Here is the link to TSG’s last investor roadshow and set of strategic priorities – here.

    @brettsmiley breaks down greater specifics on Foxbet and Fanduel & the US opportunity – here.

    @gamblinglamb (Alun Bowden) gives his expert analyst take on his four pillars of risk – here.

    @DustinGouker looks at what it means for everyone else in the US – here.

    Here is where I break down the US IP piece that relates to Cashout – here.

  • Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.

    “You can’t have everything you want, but you can have the things that really matter to you.” —Marissa Mayer, former president and CEO of Yahoo.

    My career has been really important to me. And I’ve loved what I’ve been doing. But sometimes, to the detriment of the things that really matter. Kind of like punching myself in the face. For no good reason.

    I’ve spent a large part of my career both travelling or being away from my (growing) family. I’ve missed birthdays & days out & sickness and all the ups & downs that go with the greatest adventure of them all – bringing up a family.

    The bulk of my experience has been in an industry that is currently going through seismic changes. Consolidation, large M&A’s, re-organisations and regulators banging at the door, like never before.

    My plan was to leave the Stars Group and move into a Marketing leadership role in a (new to me) large blue-chip organisation. My leaving was accelerated by the business I was helping run, being folded into another part of the (Stars) Group – but the new job was offered, I met the people I’d be working with, plans put in place, and a window of a couple of months before the right structure put in place – to bring me on board. Happy days.

    But sometimes, time off can do funny things.

    For the first time in years, I was at home in Dublin for 7 days a week, taking on my share of the ups & downs and really appreciating the amazing job my wife has done, in doing the toughest job of them all – bringing up healthy, happy, well-balanced kids.

    During this very recent period, the right house, in the right place in Dublin became available. “NO – we won’t buy it because I’m going to be working overseas again, and we need to make other plans…” – was my first reaction. And it was the wrong reaction.

    It was typical of someone who was more focused on their own tunnel vision needs & wants around work & career – and less about making what should be the right long-term decision around the most important job of all. Being the best Dad & husband possible.

    So – fast forward 3 months, we’ve sold one house, bought a new dream house in an area where my kids have already spent more time in old-school, outside water fight, ‘don’t come in until we have to send out a search party’ play – than ever before. I’m at home. We are together. And my wife is….content.

    Me? I feel…brand new. And it’s great.

    Great, because I’ve got clarity in terms of what’s important. Great because my health is good, & great because instead of repeating the same pattern and disappearing out of Ireland again – I’m clear that this is where I want to stay.

    Being brand new sometimes means looking back, and making sure that you understand why you are, where you are.

    The gambling industry has given me a great living, I’ve worked with a lot of people a lot smarter than me, and learnt from them – and its given me the opportunity to travel all around the world. But – it’s currently facing into it’s most challenging period since it’s inception.

    The core challenge is clear – how do you operate a business that that has historically turned a blind eye to unhealthy behaviours that impact negatively on people’s lives? It may be a small % of customers / people – but that small % has historically over-indexed in terms of profits delivered.

    In an earlier part of my life, I had direct lived experience of the challenges of addiction. I’ve seen the damage that it can do – and I’ve seen good people familiar to me, losing a battle against life being unmanageable – and struggling to have the courage (or support) to change the things they could.

    I mention this, because this experience has probably given me a deeper insight into the more human side of the enterprise challenge, that is the online gambling industry attempting to change it’s own historical behaviours and genuinely put in place the right type of (both) internal attitude, and external safeguards – to protect the small % of people that are vulnerable to what the online gambling industry sells.

    The challenge (for the gambling industry) is not about designing & devising high-profile, media friendly, player facing support programs – but a deeper one. In my opinion, it’s about taking a value and human trait that’s been sorely missing – and making it core to every activity.

    The value and trait? Empathy.

    I’m not going to lecture on empathy. People and businesses have to be honest with themselves as to whether it’s a value that’s important to them. It’s difficult to prove or show, as it operates on many different levels – but it’s trait that I think that all businesses (particularly those with a heavy marketing focus) and gambling, in particular – need to ask themselves “is this core to our DNA?”. If not – you’re not putting your customers needs – truly at the heart of what you do.

    Empathy is something that I personally took my eye off the ball with, in terms of my own life – and I’m just working hard to reapply it to what’s important. If you keep it front and centre – you make more of an effort to understand (both) what’s important to other people andyou do your best to serve their needs before your own. For example, for me, if I look at the needs of the most important people around me – it’s about staying close to home, as much as I can – but balancing it with the type of work that gives me purpose and focus – so I can, personally, be happy – and spread that happiness around.

    I’m still a work in progress. I’m still working it all out – but I am proud of the work that I’ve done, with the companies I’ve done it with. I want to use that experience (and empathy) to help other people.

    I’m available for consultancy based out of Dublin, happy to travel but with some limits. Betting, gaming, ecommerce, brand, performance & growth marketing.

    Contact me here.

    Or Whatsapp / call on +353 87 1234 371.

    You get the empathy and experience at no extra charge.

  • Full text of my recent EGR article on the (betting & gaming) industry innovation struggle.

    Innovation – why & what’s next?

    Here is the full text of the recent EGR article that I was approached to write on “The industry innovation struggle…”. This was published in the year end EGR magazine (December Issue – link behind paywall here).

    The industry innovation struggle.

    Why & what’s next?

    1996 was a breakthrough for the betting & gaming industry. We saw both the first recognised online sportsbook (Intertops), and the first online casino (InterCasino). Interestingly – not related. Bingo appeared in late ’96 via Bingo Mania. The first recognised Poker Room product was Planet Poker in ’98.

    It took a leap of faith, investment, risk-taking, and significant innovation to get these products to (initial) market, and as the industry has grown and matured, we’ve seen other vertical additions that have included Virtual Sports, Live Casino, Financials & Lotteries.

    These verticals are between 15 and 20 years old. We’ve seen little that’s been adopted into the mainstream of the channel verticals since these eight.  Sample areas of (attempted) vertical product innovation that have had significant investment included Social Betting (PP + BetDash, 888+Magic888 and apps like BetYou and YouBetMe) and Financial Trading, yet neither of these areas command any significant real estate today on the bulk of mainstream Operators.

    I’ve at on boards & in meetings for companies that have products that they believe may be either “disruptive” or brand new for the betting & gaming industry. The first question from industry incumbents & Operators tends (without fail) to be “who are you live with?” – and if the answer is “no-one yet…” the reply in virtually every case tends to be “…come back to us when you are…”.

    If I look at my betonexperts experience, combined with conversations that I’ve had over the last few weeks and months – there is a consistent level of opinion (from Senior industry people) that the industry is really struggling with obvious innovation.

    Reasons? Primarily, the industry is used to clear & consistent ROI from the “easy money” of incumbent products and the industry has been slow to embrace people from outside the industry. We’ve been choosing people from inside the industry to oversee innovation – and that’s meant that the horizons being explored are potentially too inward-looking.

    Some opinions? William Mace, Head of Innovation for Unibet believes that one of the reasons that the industry has struggled with innovation is because “…the industry has simply taken an offline (betting) experience and simply moved it online…”. Carla Maree Vella, CEO of Optimizer Invest (who have invested in multiple start-ups) believes that “…aligning a gaming company to entertainment formats people are familiar with will be key (to innovation)…”. Ari Lewski, Director of Digital Sports Tech (who’s customisable prop bets product has recently been integrated by Coral) said “…the feedback to us (so far) is that Operators see a large untapped area for player betting as there is a disconnect between demand and supply (of markets)…”.

    From a wider industry perspective overall business innovation has been driven via two key areas. The first is the very public M&A environment that’s been prevalent over the last 2 years or so. The second has been the move whereby we’ve seen the powerful Affiliates move directly into the Operator space.

    The most obvious example of how M&A can drive business innovation is the Paddy Power / Betfair merger. The former Paddy Power CEO, Andy McCue was quoted as saying “…The combined company will have increased capacity to develop new betting products and to distribute them across more than four million active online customers in Europe, the US and Australia.” Having a core fixed odds brand (Paddy Power), combined with an exchange brand (Betfair) allows the combined entity to cover all the bases in terms of the gambling demographic. Without this merger, both companies would have been forced to stretch their core competencies to develop attractive product offerings that stretched far enough to cover both the more casual and/or exchange punter.

    One of the best known (and successful) examples of affiliates moving into the Operator space was the CasinoChoice / Costa Bingo family – which has ultimately morphed into BGO Entertainment.

    The move from owning individual portals, to a group of complementary portals, and then making the leap to monetising players directly – has accelerated significantly in the last 24 months. The affiliates that make the leap may not be innovating in terms of product, but the move sends a message to the larger Operators that customers will go to where the best content is – and it’s this content area that looks like a key battleground in the coming quarters.

    Organic search has historically driven much of the highest value customers, and global SEO is rapidly changing to focus much more heavily on quality content VS more traditional SEO tactics. I expect to see even more strong content driven affiliates moving into the Operator space in the back of this, as well as more acquisitions by Operators (of affiliates with strong content) to drive their own content innovation.

    My own work, research & experience has shown innovation movement in a number of key areas. I’ve already mentioned innovation in content – but I see player betting (performance, head to head markets, etc) also an area that’s easily understood and is a clear fit with current Sports markets. It also has a clear crossover with eSports.

    There are also clear opportunities for Operators to improve overall customer experience by studying how the Social Media giants curate and present content. Give people what they are familiar with from another channel and adapt & improve it for betting & gaming.

    AI trading & risk management via improved managed trading services is also an area that’s grown hugely in the last 12 months, and I believe is the future of trading in the industry.  Keith McDonnell (CEO, KMI gaming) made the point to me recently that “…truly innovative areas like DFS and eSports will always be compared to core revenue generators.” And maybe (in my opinion) it’s partly this attitude of “if we can’t generate similar revenues as fast, from something new, we’re not interested…” that this is where the challenge lies with Operators in terms of changing their thinking.

    Final thought and potentially the biggest challenge? Be prepared to embrace risk and make failure ok. Now – there’s an innovation challenge for the industry.

    Liam Casey consults with betonexperts and helps betting & gaming businesses tackle common challenges & help Senior Management get no bullshit answers when they need them. He’s available on a contract, project or long-term basis.

  • The importance of Brand Advocates (Infographic)

    Marketers have to realise that in the modern marketing paradigm that they no longer control the conversation.

    At best, marketers have to provide a framework whereby they can curate customer-focused interactions, measure the responses, and then optimise their brands for improved interactions & results.

    One of the most important areas to support has to the development of Brand Advocates.

    And, in my experience – Brand Advocates can be the difference between you understanding what are the parts of your brand proposition that the consumer truly values – VS a weak feedback loop whereby you can be feeling around in the dark to make changes that you may never know (if you are not data-driven enough) how impactful they are.

    I came across this infographic today – and thought it broke this area down well. Some good data there too.

    Brand Advocates infographic

  • Marketing as Science or Art. Which are you?

    Saw this today. Thought it was a good summary of the paradigm shift to data-driven marketing VS the ever-present need for engaging with customers on an emotional level.

    If you don’t have the right blend of both – you need to get working on it fast…

    Marketing-Scientists-vs-Marketing-Artists

  • Content creation in 2014: what’s next?

    Content creation in 2014: what’s next?