Addison Global CEO discusses MoPlay's Premier League partnerships

When start-up Addison Global assembled a team of senior executives with more than 60 years of industry experience between them – with the mission of launching a sports-led betting business to disrupt the sector – it caused quite a buzz in egaming circles. Around nine months later, in June this year, the Gibraltar-headquartered outfit finally unveiled MoPlay and its mobile-centric sportsbook, powered by SBTech.

As for the unusual and somewhat mysterious name, MoPlay, this was a deliberate move, although a key priority was to shy away from including the industry’s omnipresent word ‘bet’.  Instead, Addison Global leaves it up to the public to interpret the meaning of MoPlay in their own way, according to CEO Juergen Reutter, who previously spent five years at William Hill in various senior mobile, operations and customer experience roles.

Shortly after the launch, Addison Global issued a statement of intent by inking commercial partnerships with Manchester United and Watford. This was backed up with slick and unique online videos involving the players, which all achieved substantial traction on social media.

Indeed, social platforms will play a key role in brand exposure as MoPlay tries to connect with those scrolling on their smartphones during live sport and, in the process, help coax them down the conversion funnel. This focus on mobile, coupled with the company’s ability to “stay lean, think smart, test, fail fast, optimise, digest the insights and move on,” Reutter affirms, could mean Addison Global achieves its original ambition of disrupting the world of online gambling.

 EGR Marketing: You first established Addison Global in Gibraltar last year. What exactly has the role entailed as the business geared up for the launch of MoPlay?

Juergen Reutter (JR): It’s been an intense, enlightening and ultimately rewarding first year, and I’ve enjoyed every moment. Conceiving an entirely new brand and launching into such a competitive industry, was always going to be a challenge. But it’s been an incredibly exciting one. First, we chose the MoPlay name, which was whittled down from a not-so-short list of options, and then we set about creating its striking visual identity. Later, it became about writing a marketing strategy befitting of Addison Global’s wider vision and ambition, and then recruiting a cast of talented superstars hungry to bring it to life.

EGR Marketing: So why MoPlay?

JR: When you are thinking about launching a brand that wants to be disruptive, wants to be different and stand out from the crowd, it is important that your name stands for something different. There were many URLs bought and a lot of trademarks considered. We didn’t want to have ‘bet’ in the name – that was important to us as part of our differentiation.

So we landed on MoPlay and, yes, it can mean ‘mobile’, ‘more’ or ‘move’. But we also don’t want to be too prescriptive about what the ‘Mo’ means because we want the consumers to interpret it for themselves. The ‘Play’ element of our name describes the entertainment component of our offering and which can be attributed to the music or any other industry – it doesn’t scream betting. It was therefore important to have ‘The Betting App’ in there to reinforce that message initially. We hope that MoPlay becomes distinctive in the same way that other industry leaders have done in terms of their association with betting.

EGR Marketing: How will the distinctive logo and branding help with that?

JR: We are clearly different, clearly mobile first and clearly trying to offer a modernised product in the industry. We have a design palette and a visual identity that will appeal to a millennial consumer. We‘ve entered into a very competitive, saturated industry and therefore it’s about bringing a brand to market that feels different and provides a service that is new and exciting.

EGR Marketing: MoPlay was recently unveiled as Manchester United’s and Watford’s global betting partner (including sleeve sponsorship with Watford). What are the upsides to being linked with these clubs?

JR: When it comes to sport, it doesn’t get any bigger than the Premier League. Our ambition is for MoPlay to be a truly global operator, and with an audience of 200 million a week, this is the number one platform for us to embark on that journey. Given that we didn’t even open for business until earlier this summer, we had to convince these long-established football clubs to buy into our vision.

We’re proud to be the first unknown brand in this industry to make such a high-profile entrance in the sponsorship space. As a brand alignment play, these sponsorships bring MoPlay almost instantaneous top-of-funnel awareness. But more pertinently, they bring credibility. In the era of the trust economy, as a new brand this is vitally important.

Addison Global CEO Juergen Reutter

EGR Marketing: The Man Utd partnership was accompanied by a distinctive online video of the players scoring and midfielder Juan Mata using the app. What was the thinking behind this piece of marketing and the #MoveOnUp hashtag?

JR: We were committed to ensuring our Man United announcement stood out, and we wanted to do it in a way that resonated with a modern, millennial mindset. So we were never going to mark such a significant deal with a traditional press release or photo of the two CEOs shaking hands in front of a branded backboard. Instead, our brand and creative team went to Miami to film with the United players during the last leg of their pre-season tour and turned around the resulting video in a matter of days.

The concept was as much about announcing MoPlay as it was about announcing our partnership with the biggest football club in the world. You can see our brand identity shining in amongst the players in a juxtaposition of real world and animated world. We’re incredibly proud of the video creative and the nine million, and counting, views it has achieved across various channels and touchpoints.

Regarding the #MoveOnUp hashtag, this is something we will attach not only to our sponsorships, but also our wider marketing activity. It’s not a catchphrase, it’s our motto – a constant internal reminder to drive standards and innovation. #MoveOnUp works equally well internally and as a consumer-facing message. It’s a simple three-word statement; both functional and emotional. We were surprised a brand had never owned the hashtag before, and it’s great that MoPlay is now in pole position to do exactly that.

EGR Marketing: Most Premier League clubs have betting partnerships (Man United have signed plenty of these deals over the years). How exactly do these partnerships help with brand awareness and user acquisition?

JR: There are many facets to the value of such sponsorships, and for us it’s about maximising each of them. Gone are the days when you could justify expenditure on a football sponsorship simply by putting a logo on a shirt and LED display. In order for the fans to notice your brand and care about your brand, sponsorship in 2018 is about activation. We are activating our sponsorships across all touchpoints, with exclusive fan offers, in stadia match day events, unique content with the players and a series of social initiatives that reward fan loyalty.

EGR Marketing: You are entering an extremely crowded and mature arena, particularly in the UK, so how will you be heard above the noise?

JR: We’re a mobile brand, and so digital content is our core route to market and social media is a core channel. When it comes to social content, we’re keen to ensure we don’t just benchmark ourselves against other gambling companies, but against the best brands in the world. The team have put a lot of effort into creating a tone of voice and visual identity that demands we stand out from the crowd. Now is the time to leverage all of that and make MoPlay’s brand promises a reality.

MoPlay is also the shirt sleeve sponsor of Watford

EGR Marketing: So you don’t see enough ROI from running TV ads?

JR: For us, it’s not the right platform at this stage. One of our manifesto statements is, ‘the world has changed and now we’re here to change the game’. Part of that premise is we believe our target millennials are watching the game – on TV, or even on a laptop – but their first screen is still their phone.

In the UK, Eleven Sports has the rights to stream La Liga and Serie A online, Amazon has just bought a package from the Premier League, Twitter broke ground a couple of years ago with the NFL, and a lot of consumption habits around live sport are changing. Viewers are moving away from the TV screen, and even those who are watching it on TV are then on their mobile phone checking social media or discussing the game with friends on WhatsApp when they come to the ad breaks.

Mobile is the captive platform during half-time, and before and after the game. As a mobile brand, this makes perfect sense for us. Also, from an acquisition and reactivation perspective, if we show up on their phone during the half-time break with an advert, or some branded content, then we are one click away from conversion, rather than them seeing us on TV and having to get through the traditional TV-to-mobile barriers.

EGR Marketing: Being a new kid on the block, so to speak, what advantage does this give you over the established incumbents? Can you be more agile, deploy more radical ideas and/or make decisions quicker?

JR: At Addison Global, although we’ve already grown rapidly, we’re fortunate to enjoy a dynamic start-up mentality. From a marketing perspective, this breeds innovative ideas and quick decisions. It allows us to stay lean, think smart, test, fail fast, optimise, digest the insights and move on. It’s a genuinely inspiring environment to be in and we believe it can be one of our differentiators.

EGR Marketing: The Man United deal coincided with the launch of the dot.com MoPlay site and app, which included Chinese lettering. Can you tell us more about that and why it’s included with your branding?

JR: Our ambition is to become a truly global brand and as such it’s important to appeal to all markets. The additional element of our logo means ‘Millennial City’. The city character is seen as aspirational and upmarket. The millennial character is a new addition to the alphabet. It is in itself esoteric, because if you’re not a millennial you won’t necessarily understand it.

EGR Marketing: What’s the focus for you and MoPlay as the business looks to grow and make its mark on the online gambling industry? And what challenges lie ahead?

 JR: Challenges will come at every corner, but we’re incredibly excited about what our roadmap is set to deliver, as we regularly release updates to the new MoPlay app. From a commercial perspective, further international expansion is on the horizon, and it’s important that new markets come hand in hand with sustainable, scalable practices and processes within our marketing function. Right now, it’s still very early days for MoPlay. We’re up and running, and now the real hard work begins. It’s time to #MoveOnUp