Betsson’s Betsafe Seeks To Expand In ‘Vast and Attractive’ UK
This article was originally written by: David Altaner and can also be found here.
Betsafe, owned by Sweden’s Betsson Group, is taking its first concentrated dive into the highly competitive UK sports-betting market with a multi-million pound advertising and media account.
The company is seeking to expand in what it calls the “vast and attractive” UK market, and this month hired Omnicom’s Rocket media agency to coordinate its UK campaign.
“The UK market is indeed competitive, but with consumers simultaneously using more than two betting or gambling brands, there is ample room for competition,” said Marion Gamel, a spokeswoman for the Malta-based company. “Betsson has never shied away from a market because it is competitive.”
Last year, Betsafe ran a “No Bullshit Betting” campaign, designed by the CP+B Scandinavia agency, which told British punters that the odds of winning were against them.
“The Odds Are in Our Favour”, Betsafe still promises on its website. “Betting is simple enough, when you lose we win, and when you win, well we still kind of win as well. Because odds are, you’ll want to keep winning.
“No bullshit doesn’t mean no frills. We’re just honest about it,” Betsafe said.
At about £3.3bn in annual revenue, the UK is the world’s largest legalised online gambling market, but it is also among the most competitive in sports betting, casino and bingo.
Most UK online bookmakers reported profit declines in 2015, as taxes squeezed margins.
The task of growing profitably in the UK market is also being confronted by Betsson’s Swedish rival Unibet, which acquired Stan James Online last year and has promised to join the top three of UK online gambling market share.
In 2014, Stan James and Unibet had less than 2 percent of the UK market, far behind leaders such as bet365, William Hill and Betfair, which all had more than 10 percent each.
Betsson’s stock-market capitalisation is SEK14.4bn (£1.2bn), compared with SEK21.3bn (£1.8bn) for Unibet.
Betsson does not disclose UK-specific numbers, but more than half of “one of our leading brand’s new users” come from the UK, even with minimal marketing investment there last year, Gamel said.
According to Gamel, the company is not making specific targets like Unibet. “We believe the UK will soon represent a considerable percentage of our overall revenue,” she said.
Betsafe previously had advertising partnerships with Manchester City football club and Gumball 3000, a celebrity motor rally.
Betsson, today headquartered in Malta, started in 1963 as a single casino in Gothenburg, Sweden, and later became a slot machine supplier and distributor of Atari video games.
It acquired Betsafe in 2011, Dutch casino brands Oranje and Kroon in 2014, and Georgia’s Europe Bet in 2015.
The Stockholm-listed company is seeking to expand in other countries, including grey markets such as Germany and the Netherlands.
In February, Betsson said it had agreed to pay SEK113m (£9.6m) to the German government in return for past tax on sports betting, running from July 1, 2012 to the end of 2015.
“Betsson still believes that it is not subject to a tax liability, but is opting to declare the tax in order to avoid negative repercussions when applying for a licence in the future,” the company said.
Shares in Betsson rose 5 percent on Wednesday to SEK123 after Carnegie Investment Bank raised its recommendation to “buy”, while lowering its recommendation on Unibet to “hold”.
