666Bet to make a splash with £8m marketing drive
CEO Barry Martin says multi-million pound investment will see new sportsbook and casino brand compete with big names "in a very short space of time"
The CEO of 666Bet, a new online sportsbook and casino brand launching on Monday, said he expects the site to compete with the egaming sector’s biggest names within 18 months.
Funded by a private investor based on the Isle of Man, 666Bet is being unveiled in time for the football World Cup and has committed £8m over the next 12 months to marketing in order to establish a footprint in the UK, Europe and Asia.
Chief exec Barry Martin, who has been in the industry since 2001 and ran the Gutshot Poker club and its online site, said the new operator can “do a better job” than many big name bookmakers.
“Within 18 months we will be knocking on the door of the big guys,” he told eGaming Review. “We’ve got a very aggressive approach to marketing and committed a lot of money to TV this year “ £5m between now and the end of next football season.
“Of course it’s a very competitive and cluttered market but I see that there’s a number of opportunities for an operator that is agile, takes customer service seriously “ not just about its interaction with its end user, but the whole spectrum of brand perception and deliverability.”
The marketing push includes signing former Tottenham Hotspur and current Queens Park Rangers manager Harry Redknapp as brand ambassador, who will feature in TV advertising and contribute editorial content to the site along with the likes of actor Vas Blackwood.
666Bet.com runs on Isle of Man-licensed Novigroup’s B2B whitelabel platform and features casino content from Microgaming. Novigroup also runs Novibet.com, a Greece and UK-facing online sportsbook and casino site.
Martin said 666Bet, which will officially launch on Monday 2 June, will receive its operating licence from Alderney Gambling Control Commission within three months.
The UK is the firm’s first target market and it says it will apply for a Gambling Commission licence in due course, however it has set its sights on Asia later this year.
“A lot of people see 666 and think it’s an easy marketing direction with the satanic theme,” said Martin. “But we’re not going down that route. We don’t have to as the brand and story is too strong for that. The nice thing about the number ‘666’ is that it works really well in Asia which is the next market we’re going into.”