Jamie Hart: Sun Bets failure down to underuse of Sun brand
Former MD says Sun Bets could have worked had it launched as News UK sole venture
Former Sun Bets MD Jamie Hart believes the venture would have fared much better in its first year of operation had the sportsbook embraced The Sun brand from the beginning.
The Tabcorp-financed betting venture posted £13m EBITDA losses before Hart left the firm in February and further losses of £28m in FY17.
Market analysts have attributed the losses to Sun Bets offering a mediocre sportsbook product while hiding behind such a well-established media brand.
But former MD Hart said a major reason for leaving Sun Bets to join Romanian betting giant Superbet was that the sportsbook never utilised The Sun brand in the first place.
Former MD of Sun Bets Jamie Hart
He said: “There are 400 UK-facing sportsbooks, so if you’re the 401st and your product isn’t different in any significant way, and certainly no better, you are going to fail.
“When I came in they had already designed it but asked all the wrong questions.
“They’d gone to focus groups and said what does a sportsbook look like? But the market doesn’t need another sportsbook.
“What they should have asked is, if The Sun did betting, what would it look like?
“Answer that question and deliver that vision.
“The Sun has got such a strong brand. If somebody said The Sun has opened a pub around the corner, you already know what the pub is going to look like.
“It was exactly the same with their betting proposition, it just wasn’t The Sun.
“When customers turn up to a product that is clearly just red, with nothing else of The Sun about it, then you are not being true to that brand.
“They know it’s just a money making operation for News UK, they see right through it and don’t feel valued.”
Hart also made a case that Sun Bets might have fared better as a sole News UK venture, rather than as a partnership with the Australian wagering giant Tabcorp.
Tabcorp has payment obligations to News UK in FY18 of £11.1m and in FY19 of £16.5m and could terminate the agreement in 2019 if Sun Bets does not achieve revenue equivalent to the minimum fees payable.
“It would have been better if The Sun or News UK had just bitten the bullet and owned it all themselves ultimately,” Hart added on the problematic down payments.
“The structure is difficult because you’ve got Tabcorp on one side and News UK owning the brand but with a certain level of minimum guarantees.
“You have got two big companies where nobody really takes ownership of the product in a sense.
“Tabcorp says The Sun wasn’t shouting about Sun Bets enough, but if News UK owned it they could properly integrate it into The Sun experience, but they have never had that chance.
“If they had got it right from the start and made it very much about The Sun, they would have had a better chance.”