Operator Tracker Q3 2024: Football comes home – for the big brands

The Olympics kicked off Q3 2024 in style. But as the quadrennial event did not cut through for the wider betting audience, the return of the UK’s domestic football season in August led the various trends seen in this quarter’s Operator Tracker.

Leading the pack, bet365 continues to top several perception and feature metrics, which continue to convert into awareness, usage and favouritism. However, there have been signs of broader shifts in favour of chasing brands, in particular Sky Bet and Paddy Power.

Sky Bet has clawed back some ground on product and brand, with those surveyed this quarter ranking it above last quarter for ‘generosity’, ‘makes sport more exciting’, and ‘relevant’ scores by 6%, 9% and 5% respectively.

It could be claimed that the operator’s inherent brand ties with Sky Sports’ domestic football coverage has provided the basis of this upwards trajectory, but whether this start of the season excitement continues as routine sets in remains to be seen.

Perhaps most notable of those metrics is the 6% hike in ‘generosity’, which has been a key battleground for the major sportsbooks in recent years. That’s not to say bet365 is underperforming in this area, with the market leader also over indexing by 7% in this data set.

However, the two operators hold an edge over William Hill, Paddy Power and Betfair when it comes to the perception of giving back to customers.

Paddy Power continues to keep pace with the leading pack, particularly in the product and promotional spaces. Following the success of its bet builder product during Euro 2024, the sportsbook has carried this momentum into the new football season, with 38% of those surveyed continuing to directly associate the offering with the brand.

Paddy Power also witnessed similar gains in ‘offers & promos’, up 3% on last quarter and 10% on last year, which will be encouraging at a time of year when share of wallet becomes increasingly important. However, it should be noted that bet365 and Sky Bet have also seen similar upticks in this metric.

Among the mid-market operators, BetVictor has continued to trend upwards for ‘awareness’ for the third quarter in a row, while there has been a uniform dip in ‘regular usage’ in Q3 for the likes of 888sport, Coral, Unibet and Betfred, with these customers potentially choosing to jump to competitors, such as Betfair and Paddy Power, which have seen their scores notably increase.

The ‘consideration’ metric, which demonstrates brands that customers may consider using outside of existing accounts – and can imply future success – has seen 888sport (+7%) and Betway (+10%) perform particularly well.

In terms of brand perception trends, bet365 consistently leads the way across the major operators, ranking the best for ‘trustworthy’, ‘relevant’, ‘fair’ and ‘unique’ against Sky Bet, William Hill, Paddy Power and Betfair. However, it sits in third among those operators for its sense of ‘fun’, where Paddy Power leads the way with 39% of those surveyed associating the term with the brand.

One notable final trend from Q3 shows bet365 falling away on its perceived strength of ‘in-play betting’. While still leading the field with an association score of 35%, ahead of Sky Bet on 30%, the sportsbook has seen a gradual erosion in recent quarters, potentially due to customers becoming more au fait with its high standards – or due to competitors generally catching up in terms of coverage and quality of product.

About FairPlay Sports Media

EGR and FairPlay Sports Media have partnered to bring a data-led, quarterly report on brand perception of leading firms in the sector.

These insights are produced by FairPlay Sports Media senior customer insights manager Peter Morris. He has more than a decade of experience working in market research, starting his career working at agencies Ipsos Mori and then 2CV, with a particular focus on brand and marketing research projects.

In 2018 Morris joined what was then Oddschecker, focusing on UK product and marketing insight. Since then, he has expanded his role, heading up customer insight within FairPlay Sports Media, providing intel across all their operations and territories.