Kambi World Cup Insights: Why product is key to retention as domestic action resumes
As the European leagues get underway again, Jonathon Hurst, head of soccer at Kambi, insists product is a major battleground when it comes to holding onto customers
After all the build-up, controversy and excitement, the World Cup is now over for another four years, and it was a fitting end to what was an incredible tournament. Last Sunday’s pulsating final between Argentina and France has been described by many pundits as the greatest ever, with the headlines writing themselves after Lionel Messi finally lifted that elusive famous trophy in his last game for his country.
Kambi has been reflecting on some of the key sports betting trends throughout the tournament, and Qatar 2022 has certainly seen its fair share of talking points from a betting perspective. Whether it was the huge increase to the amount of stoppage time, VAR controversies or extra-time and penalties, sportsbooks have had to be on the front foot on many occasions to be in a position to deliver a high-quality product for end-users.
Luckily for both bettors and sportsbooks alike, we don’t have long to wait for the domestic football season to get underway again. With the World Cup being squeezed into the middle of the domestic season, the Premier League will be the first major top-tier league to restart as early as Boxing Day – a little over a week since the World Cup final. Ligue 1 then kicks off on 28 December and La Liga on 29 December.
Showpiece events like the World Cup are always one of the most effective customer acquisition opportunities for sportsbooks, as shown by Kambi network data which found that 21% of World Cup 2022 bettors on the network were new customers. As I mentioned in my EGR column earlier this year, customer retention during and after a major tournament is critical for long-term success and with the Premier League set to resume in just a few days’ time, compared to over a month after Euro 2020, sportsbooks have a unique opportunity to retain these newly acquired players.
At Kambi, we believe product will be where the customer retention battle is won or lost in the long term and that a high-performance sportsbook with product features that are scalable beyond the World Cup will be vital for retaining newly acquired players.
Take bet builder. As we saw during Euro 2020, a quality bet builder product with a high level of combinability is now a must-have for sportsbooks, and the product once again showed its popularity during World Cup 2022. For example, 25% of all pre-match bets during the tournament on the Kambi network were a bet builder, with bettors benefitting from a substantial increase in both the quality and quantity of combinable player props and stats bets on offer. Which is why 23% of all pre-match bet builders during the World Cup included a stats bet such as ‘player shots on target’, ‘total fouls committed’ and ‘player to get a card’, combinable offers that Kambi plans to roll out to other major leagues throughout Q1.
Bet builder bettors are, on average, also more engaged and likely to be of higher value. During the World Cup, 87% of bet builder bettors during the first round of the group stages returned to place a bet later in the tournament, which was 8% higher than bettors overall. More than two-thirds (69%) of players during the World Cup also placed a live bet after previously placing a bet builder bet.
This is just one example of the critical role product plays in creating loyalty among bettors. However, there are many others, such as providing an in-depth live betting offering, an array of player props and smooth bet settlement that will determine whether customer retention efforts are indeed a success, so it will be interesting to see how efforts to retain customers play out once the domestic leagues get underway.
Finally, as this is the last in Kambi’s World Cup Insights for EGR this year, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has read my articles throughout the World Cup. Kambi looks forward to sharing similar insights with EGR’s readers for other major sporting events throughout 2023.
Jonathon Hurst joined Kambi as a live trader in 2014 having previously worked within the trading team of UK bookmaker Ladbrokes. In 2017, he became head of live football at Kambi, a role he held for more than two years before being promoted to his current role as head of soccer in which he is responsible for Kambi’s soccer trading function.