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Taking the gamble out of Accelerating Growth: Maximising Your Marketing in New Sportsbetting Markets

Published

1 year ago

April 12, 2024

By: Kalen Bushe VP Customer Growth at TrafficGuard

Too many sportsbooks are wasting their marketing dollars. As new markets open, they have to make every dollar count when it comes to winning to new players. Regions like the Middle East and Latin America (LATAM) are opening, and it is critical that sportsbooks optimise their marketing to win market share.

These emerging markets present sportsbooks with a golden ticket to expand into a new region and increase profits. These opportunities are being matched with new complexities in their digital marketing activities. Invalid traffic (IVT) is as a barrier to expansion by draining digital advertising budgets and reducing ROI without sportsbooks recognising it.

IVT encompasses any activity originating from sources lacking genuine user interest, including ad fraud, bots or returning users. While invalid traffic goes unchecked, sportsbooks won’t see the full value of their digital advertising campaigns and lose a competitive edge in new markets.

70% of surveyed iGaming operators reported to be expanding into online gaming markets in Central and South America in the next three years according to a GBG survey. This means there’s a lot to win by getting marketing right and not wasting advertising spend on attracting the wrong audiences, fraud or bots.

They key is to understand potential opportunities and recognise risks in digital marketing. Every sportsbook needs to maximise ROI on every dollar they are spending, and it becomes even more crucial when trying to gain critical mass in newly opened markets.

Bots, Timewasters, Fakers and Fraud

Legislation is loosening worldwide, over the past few years North America has seen numerous states legalise sports betting. Similar changes have happened in Brazil, where online gambling regulations were passed in late 2023. These changes have paved the way for sportsbooks to explore exciting new markets.

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However, sportsbooks are being fed inaccurate campaign data by IVT. This inflates impressions and impacts future ad campaigns as sportsbooks funnel ad spend into projects that aren’t performing as well as it would seem, giving competitors the chance to take the lead in new markets.

IVT includes non-human traffic which typically takes the form of bots powered by artificial intelligence (AI). Bots can create a multitude of fake accounts and use them to exploit promotions undetected. Despite the implementation of rigorous registration verification checks by many operators to combat this issue, it remains a significant challenge. This poses a hurdle for sportsbooks seeking to attract users and carve out a presence in new markets, especially with bonuses, which can lead to a drain on their campaign resources. On average, around 5-7% of sports betting campaigns suffer from this form of media loss.

Bots aren’t the sole concern for sportsbooks in safeguarding against inauthentic engagement. Navigational traffic stemming from returning users, who are already part of the customer base, also poses a significant challenge as they unintentionally deplete budgets. When these users try to reach a site via search engines, they inadvertently click on paid brand advertisements, consequently inflating customer acquisition costs (CACs) without contributing to conversions, thereby causing losses for the sportsbook. Without an effective strategy to manage returning users, optimising campaign value becomes considerably more difficult.

Taking Down Barriers to Growth

For sportsbooks to flourish in emerging markets, the first step is to counter IVT. IVT damages budgets by remaining undetected, therefore it’s crucial that sportsbooks maintain visibility into their traffic.

Monitoring traffic as it passes through systems is key. Through this, sportsbooks can identify any irregularities, such as traffic from an unknown origin. This could be an indicator of IVT, which can then be identified and dealt with before the campaign can be interfered with.

The increasing frequency of non-genuine engagement is difficult for teams to monitor unaided. An ad verification platform can fill in the gaps and accurately pinpoint any threats and mitigate them directly. These platforms work to validate traffic in real-time, determining the origin of traffic and blocking it from entering systems if it’s suspicious to proactively protect budgets.

It is also possible to control the number of times returning users interact with your campaigns without risking damaging the relationship they have with sportsbooks. Setting custom verification rules is an effective method of limiting the number of times an ad can be clicked on by a certain user. Once the user reaches the threshold for clicks, they’re prevented from seeing it, which significantly reduces cost-per-click (CPC) rates.

This can be further expanded upon by deploying shadow campaigns. These are an effective way of maintaining optimal engagement by duplicating current campaigns set up with lower CPC. This funnels returning users away and prevents them from driving up costs. The budget saved can then be committed to growth in new regions.

Winning Big in New Markets

The sports betting industry is opening doors worldwide for sportsbooks to gain audiences in places they never could before. Excelling in newly legalised markets against a multitude of competitors is a difficult task, only being made harder by the interference of IVT.

By tackling non-genuine engagement, sportsbooks give themselves the advantage back over competitors. With full visibility and control over campaigns, their full potential can be realised to ensure sportsbooks can focus on global expansion.

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Tampa Bay Buccaneers Partner with Hard Rock Bet as Official Sportsbook

Published

1 hour ago

August 13, 2025

George Miller

Tampa Bay Buccaneers Partner with Hard Rock Bet as Official Sportsbook

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers announced a new multi-year partnership with Hard Rock Bet, making it the official sportsbook of the Buccaneers. As a Florida based brand and Florida’s only legal sportsbook, Hard Rock Bet will be recognized as the team’s newest Pewter Partner, the organization’s most prestigious partnership level. This union will elevate gameday experiences with exclusive promotions and offers for Buccaneers fans across the Tampa Bay region and beyond.

“We’re always looking for ways to enhance the gameday experience and evolve with the needs of our fans,” said Buccaneers Chief Commercial Officer Atul Khosla. “With sports betting becoming an increasingly exciting part of the entertainment landscape, Hard Rock Bet has quickly emerged as an essential gameday touchpoint for our fans. This partnership brings the best of both worlds — exclusive opportunities and unique in-game app experiences — giving fans more ways to engage, whether they’re watching from home or cheering from their seat at Raymond James Stadium.”

The multi-faceted partnership includes a variety of co-marketing elements with marquee signage, digital, CRM, and social campaigns throughout the season. In addition, Hard Rock Bet Sportsbook players will receive ‘money can’t buy’ experiences at Raymond James Stadium and exclusive VIP access to Buccaneers off-site events. Through the partnership, Bucs fans will also have the opportunity to receive exclusive promotions in stadium and on the Hard Rock Bet Sportsbook app.

“This partnership will elevate the way fans connect with the Buccaneers and bring our players closer to the action through exclusive experiences and unparalleled access,” said Nick Menas on behalf of Hard Rock Bet. “We’re seeing the excitement around the team in the app – as the Buccaneers are among our most heavily bet teams – and are confident we’ll continue to see that level of engagement and enthusiasm throughout the partnership.”

Hard Rock Bet will also maintain a significant presence on Bucs Beach for select games, the beach-themed activation area located on the south side of Raymond James Stadium, beginning with the team’s 2025 regular season home opener Week 3 against the New York Jets. Locally, fans can also wager on the Buccaneers at the Hard Rock Sportsbook and kiosks at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa.

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BetBlocker and Responsible Online Gaming Association Partner to Deliver Free Blocking Software for the United States

Published

15 hours ago

August 12, 2025

Zoltan Tundik

US charity BetBlocker and the Responsible Online Gaming Association (ROGA), an independent association representing 90% of the legal U.S. sports betting industry, are today announcing a partnership to ensure that any American can access free, anonymous to use blocking software.

BetBlocker provides free, anonymous to use, blocking software allowing users to manage their access to online gambling services. The charity has supported over a 150k active users 2025, including over 10k US users.

Duncan Garvie, Founder of BetBlocker, offered this comment on the partnership:

“The single most effective way for BetBlocker to reach the audience that stand to benefit from our tool is via partnerships with the industry. ROGA represents a coordinated by the U.S. industry to improve responsible gaming standards throughout the sector. Having their backing for the BetBlocker project is a significant step forward for our organisation and will ensure that people who want support to structure where and when they can play online will be able to do so anonymously and for free.”

ROGA was established to raise the standard for responsible online gaming through collaboration, innovation, and a commitment to evidence-based practices,” said Dr. Jennifer Shatley, Executive Director of ROGA. “Making resources like BetBlocker more visible and accessible is one way we put that mission into action. We’re equipping individuals with practical tools that support their decisions and well-being.”

BetBlocker’s app is available on Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux and Fire OS and can be set-up in under two minutes. The service is committed to reducing barriers to access to blocking software to improve engagement with this effective gaming management tool. ROGA’s commitment to viewing players as individuals and customizing support to their needs’ aligns perfectly with the soon to be launched Scheduling feature that BetBlocker will provide, supporting players to create profiles to ensures their block is on when they need it.

This collaboration represents a conscious commitment by both organizations to ensure that players who need support to manage their engagement with online gaming are supported with a diverse spectrum of available support options that can be tailored to the person’s individual needs.

About the Responsible Online Gaming Association
Launched in March 2024, the Responsible Online Gaming Association (ROGA) is comprised of eight of the nation’s largest online gaming operators, committed to promoting evidence-based best practices for responsible gaming. More information about ROGA is available here.

About BetBlocker
BetBlocker, a charity registered in Delaware. It is a not-for-profit that provides the only free (to everyone) gambling blocking software and multi-site and multi-jurisdiction responsible gaming mechanisms for consumers. At no cost, the game-changing software empowers users to play responsibly, allowing them to take steps to manage their access to gaming across all devices and platforms. BetBlocker is available all over the world and captures both regulated and unregulated gaming sites and apps.

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ZBD and TapNation forge new status quo in rewarded gaming

Published

19 hours ago

August 12, 2025

Adrienn Sarkany

ZBD, the payments innovator powering real-money rewards for games, has introduced embedded in-game rewards, an evolution in how mobile games use real-money rewards to engage players, alongside launch partners including TapNation and Fumb Games.

Embedded rewards are a new approach to rewards in the mobile gaming industry, taking lessons learned from the rise of rewarded play apps to give any game the ability to incentivize users to play more, for longer and more profitably. Players can now earn real-money rewards inside the game, not a separate app, resulting in triple-digit retention boosts.

This solves an issue inherent in rewards apps which, while undeniably effective, limit the scale at which games can benefit from rewards by only applying rewards systems to users sent to a game from a specific app. Additionally, this system mostly performs well for IAP-monetized games due to the high cost of rewarded users, which are difficult to absorb for ad-monetized titles.

ZBD’s solution changes that. Already successfully integrated into titles such as Idle Bank, an idle tycoon hit by TapNation with more than 12M downloads, it embeds rewards directly into the gameplay experience. Powered by a lightweight SDK, the ZBD model drives improved retention and monetization for titles that monetize with ads as well as IAPs.

Philippe Lenormand, Head of Web3 at TapNation said:

“ZBD is taking a bold approach to boosting game monetization while keeping players happy, which comes at a good time for the industry. Embedded rewards have the potential to transform performance for games, especially those that partly rely on ad monetization.”

Beyond TapNation, the new SDK is already live in 20+ games from 7 other partners, including Fumb Games, PlayEmber and Hazmob. This includes a mix of older games, like Merge Monsters from Fumb Games, which saw a +181% increase in D7 retention after years of little activity, as well as new titles geared towards rewards, like Crypto Idle Tycoon by Ruleks Games, which saw its D30 retention climb by +355% and ad revenue per user by +124%.

Ben Cousens, Chief Strategy Officer at ZBD said:

“Rewards are proven beyond doubt to improve the value exchange between games and gamers, leading to powerful upticks in engagement, retention and monetization. With embedded rewards, we’re unlocking that potential beyond the constraints of rewarded UA channels. We’re using real-money payments to make a game more worth playing. And removing all the complexity that usually comes with payments to create a solution tailor-made for mobile game studios.”

Rewards powered by ZBD are always real money, not just in-game points. To facilitate this kind of money movement for amounts as small as a cent, ZBD uses the Bitcoin Lightning Network. But developers can choose whatever icon and currency name they want to show for the rewards, the Lightning Network is just the underlying payments layer that enables the transactions in real-time all over the world. ZBD has long offered a powerful payments API for studios to craft bespoke reward systems with custom logic, interfaces, and UX flows. The SDK builds on that foundation, transforming what was once an extensive technical integration into a ready-to-deploy layer that gets games live with rewards in less than a week.

Last month, ZBD announced its payments technology had been approved by Apple to enable native Bitcoin microtransactions in the mobile game SaruTobi, making it the first iOS game to integrate in-app purchases using Bitcoin. Now, embedded rewards are making it easy for any game to send microtransactions to players and gain massive performance boosts.