TV advert blitz to raise profile of Sky Bet

Sky Bet, the sports betting division of Sky Betting and Gaming, has spent millions of pounds on the campaign, which was launched last weekend, to raise awareness of the company and its close association with Sky Sports.

It comes as the company is expanding its Leeds headquarters and taking on new staff. The firm, which occupies the ground floor of 2 Wellington Place after relocating from Harrogate in August 2010, is now expanding on to the first floor of the building after taking on staff in its technology and customer contact centre departments.

The firm has taken on about 40 staff in the last 12 months to reach a 260-strong workforce, and expects to take on more staff as the company grows.

Managing director Richard Flint said: “We have seen good growth over the last couple of years, with the move to Leeds helping that. We are growing our turnover and customer base by 30-40 per cent each year. We have plans for further expansion but it’s unclear how many people we will need to take on.”

The expansion, which will see the company increase its floor space from 14,000 sq ft to 24,000 sq ft, is expected to take place in the New Year once the fit-out has been completed. Mr Flint said staff would be regularly moved round the two floors to avoid isolating certain departments.

According to The British Gambling Prevalence Survey, carried out for the Gambling Commission, nearly three-quarters of Britons engaged in gambling last year.

Gambling online on poker, bingo, casino, and slot machine-style games was up from three per cent to five per cent of the 56 per cent who gambled on something else other than the lottery.

Mobile phone betting has seen large growth in the last 12 months and now accounts for a third of all betting activity at Sky Bet.

The firm finally launched a smart phone app in August this year after it was delayed due to restrictions by technology giant Apple. It has had 100,000 downloads so far, which Mr Flint described as a “phenomenal success”.

Mobile products are a particular focus for growth in the next year and the company also has an iPad app, which it plans to develop further. “At the moment the iPad app is a bigger version of the mobile phone app but we are looking to take advantage of the bigger screen and special features of the iPad going forward,” said Mr Flint.

The company hopes that the new advertising campaign will further boost its growth and help it to increase market share.

Sky Bet currently has less than 10 per cent of the market share but is planning to take business from bigger and more traditional players such as William Hill and Ladbrokes through its technology developments.

“The advertising campaign is a much bigger spend than we have ever done before,” said Mr Flint. “It’s a very professionally produced brand advert that reinforces the links between Sky Bet and Sky Sports which we have never done before.”

In addition, the company is launching a new loyalty scheme.

Sky Bet has continued to grow its customer base, adding 100,000 customers to reach over 500,000 “active” customers in the last 12 months.

However, the betting market is becoming increasingly competitive.

“We are finding we can keep a rate of growth through good products, marketing, and customer relationship management. I can’t promise that will carry on forever but at the moment we are seeing a good rate of growth,” said Mr Flint.

The odds are on growth

Sky’s betting and gaming business was founded in 2000 when BSkyB acquired Sports Internet Group in a deal which included telephone and online sports betting company Surrey Sports, along with Planet Football and Opta Index.

Surrey Sports was rebranded in July 2002 to create Sky Bet. In 2006, online betting companies totalbet and ukbetting were consolidated into Sky Bet after BSkyB’s purchase of 365 Media Group.

It remains one of the few sports betting companies in the UK not to operate traditional high street shops. Sky Bet’s customers are typically aged between 20 and 45 and bet an average of £5-£10 at a time.