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A daily podcast delving into the biggest stories of the day throughout the sports betting and igaming sector.
Hello everyone and welcome back to the iGaming
Daily podcast, the marketing part. Here we
discuss SEO, marketing content and everything
else related to make your websites and your
performance better. I am Ivana Flin and I have
two fantastic guests today with me, Jan and
Dean. Jan and Dean, please introduce yourself.
We start with Dean just by alphabetic order.
So please Dean. Sure enough, yes. Yeah, so my
name's Dean, Dean Akinjobi. I'm CEO of Football
Media. Football Media, we're a digital advertising
and sponsorship agency that's worked across
multiple different categories and iGaming is
a huge area for us. We work with brands, enable
them to connect with football clubs and through
digital advertising, sponsorships and SEO based
content marketing. Thank you. And Jan, Jan is
representing Live Casino in Casino today. Fantastic.
Hello everyone. So yes, my name is Jan. I am
head of Live Casino and I would say Live Casino
expert within the iGaming industry. Being in
the industry for over 13 years now. So I think
there is a lot for me to talk about and to bring
to the table. And thank you so much for the
invitation, Ivana.
You're welcome. Today we are going to be discussing
content. How to make content in our very weird
and very narrow niche interesting. You know
that I have a fight with my colleagues all
the time about can we have an original content
in casino, live casino? How can we make sports
interesting again? And I think my two experts
will help me with my point that content is
still good, content is still important and we
can still make it fun. So I'll ask you, what
makes good content for you? Doesn't have to
be just iGaming, but what is a... Catching
good content that grabs your attention and makes
you read more or watch more. Click on the link.
What is it for you that makes a good content
and what learnings we can take from that into
iGaming? Let me start. Sorry, if you don't mind.
So definitely, Joana, I love, yes, thank you.
I love the SEO. I love how SEO basically can
help us, especially, you know, the live casino
environment. Since the live casino environment...
it's very sensitive to work with, right? So
it's not just you working with the robots, you're
working with the RNG, nothing against the casino,
but you're basically working with the real people.
You're working with the real studios, real
people 24 hours seven sitting behind the camera.
And this is for me how I would see SEO creating
the content, creating content that basically,
I never saw for example, to... to boost the
live casino itself, why not to do some interviews
with the dealers, how they feel, how they feel
in the environment itself, and basically the
interviews with the dealers on daily basis.
This is for me to lift up the environment and
to basically explain to the audience we do
that this is the real life environment, streaming
24 seven from the studios across the world,
I would say. So the content for me should be
very catchy, should be really human being related,
I would say. And obviously the expertise from
the casino and Live Casino will help together
with collaboration with the SEO team and its
SEO management to help to build, for example,
the new content is coming to the market. I'm
having the content exclusively done two weeks
prior to the network release. Why not to build
the content around this game, right? point
the USP, but I would still be on the side of
it's live casino, it's a live environment.
That would be for me the interesting content
to have a live dealers to talk about the environment,
how they feel in environment, how they can,
how they would, you know, lift up the live
casino traffic itself. And this is for me so,
such so interesting. And I would love to start
the content using this kind of content with
SEO. I actually like it. It's a great idea
to have interviews with dealers. I never thought
of that. And it's something that does not exist.
But would the dealers from other companies that
don't work for my company speak to me about
it? Would they be even allowed?
To be honest, they will be allowed. Obviously,
there is a certain GDPR which we have to follow,
right? But in collaboration, and that's the
part of not just the casino team, but the collaboration
with the actual providers for who the dealers
are speaking, and this can bring completely
something new to the market. So they will be
able to talk to you, but obviously still we
will need to get the approval from the actual
providers, I believe. The interview doesn't
really need to be, it must be video interview,
it must be face to face. Obviously it can be
interview, you know, you will sit down, write
some nice content. I'm Jeff from This and This
Casino, I'm Bob from This and This from Provider
and this is how I see the live casino environment.
So yes, you will be definitely able to talk
to them. fantastic and maybe we can even do
like with game creators because games are huge.
I mean, people come to our casinos to play
games and there is certain thinking behind it.
How we create game, how we don't create games
and what is sketchy. So I'm definitely going
to try to utilize this. I wish you told me
this in private so I was original. But OK, now
everybody listening to this can steal this
amazing idea, but I love it. So. This is how
to go about casino, maybe a little bit. I like
it in a written form for Google, but for users,
I would definitely go with interview in a audio
or even video if they would not be shy. They
shouldn't be their live dealers. Dean, and
how do we translate it into football or any
other sport? I'm gonna be talking more football
because we are football fan. We all know that.
But any other sport that can make us money.
I mean, tennis is very VIP sport. Hockey is
out there. golf, we can bet on all of it. But
let's go with football right now. Yeah, sure.
I mean, obviously football, what we do, but
if it can be applied to any sports, I think
when looking at live content, I think it's
really around content, meaning to be engaging
and enticing and original. And those are the
three kind of key pillars. And I think what
sports in particular football any other sports,
it does give you is that there's this 24 seven
cycle of content. So how you create this content.
If you've got the ability of having like say
sponsorship or a brand ambassador, that's your,
you know, your point of call, create an original
content, like interview content with them,
exclusive content that can be hosted on site
and also shared on across social as well. And
back linking from a potential football club
and the brand ambassador. But then also on
the wider aspect as well is, it's also taking
it a step further and saying, okay, Because
football and off-sports is 20 or 7, there's
always something going on. There's always something
going on. You see he's gone Twitter, he's gone
Instagram, any, any particular social channel,
and you'll see what's actually trending there.
So that can actually help you create part of
your content strategy to be actually original
and authentic as well. So you're seeing what
fans are talking about. You're seeing the reactions
to particular games and the pre-match content,
and you're actually getting what's actually
trending on social channels and then having
that as part of your content strategy. And going
on to the point about straight interviews,
if you haven't got that ability to, let's say,
a sponsorship club, we can create that content,
have that leaking content from fans, players.
You can actually go and do Vox sponsor fans
and say, okay, well, hey, I'm also fans over
AT saying, hey, we're going to, we want to
do an interview with you. We go down to any
local tea and actually figure out, can we get
your opinion on this particular game, whether
that's video, can we, we'd educate it for our
website. It's all your points of view as well.
So it's really like... figuring out how you
can actually get, because fans about any sport
love to talk about their opinion on who's the
best player, who's the best football player,
tennis player, but imagine being able to actually
get loyal fans like talking about this content
and actually interviewing them and creating
that content on an original basis. And that
would be something that you could uniquely
own and uniquely reward those fans on a regular
basis as well. So I think it's ways of just
looking at creating unique content, whether
we're going down the sponsorship route, whether,
you know, with the club where you've got...
endless amounts of interview content or a brand
ambassador, which you can actually use that
content to be syndicated across your site and
multiple other sites. You can actually put it
across an exclusive interview with, let's say,
Cristiano Ronaldo. Then all of a sudden, the
press want that interview and it's syndicated
across multiple different publications with
backlinks to your particular iGaming platform.
And then the service step is saying, okay, well,
if you haven't got that budget, then say, how
do you engage your fans? How do you reward fans?
Let's think about their opinion. There's this
always... talk about is like, let's look at
these leading influence advanced, they get
them to create content and collaborate with
your particular brand, you know, in a unique
engaging way. So that's kind of the very top
end area that I would recommend really when
creating content, ensuring that's original and
utilizing the channels that you have. And if
you haven't got those channels, and it's like
being creative, saying, there's always someone
out there talking about sports and figuring
out how do you connect with the right influential
people. And the trends are currently happening
in real time and repurposing that for SEO purposes.
And not just SEO, any marketing. I mean, yes,
I'm coming from SEO, but this part is all together
for marketing. I love it. Those are approaches
I never thought of. And I would say most of
SEOs don't because we just keep reusing the
same content, how to play roulette and what
are the odds on football and these and that.
So I think if you want to create an original
content and have an original outlook on sports
or casino, you need to speak to your experts.
Right? So ask your experts, ask Dean, ask Jan,
or anyone you have access to about how to be
original. But where would we put this content?
I mean, it's not exactly, if we are talking
operator, it's not exactly main pages material.
If you are affiliate, you are a little bit
more flexible with structure. So I would say
this would go for sports, maybe to news, so
we can try to score on Google News as well.
But altogether, it's maybe more blog material.
Is Block something you would invest in 2024?
Um, I think that it's twofold really. Um, you
just rather than calling it blog saying content.
So you like, it's content you would invest in
2024. Yes. So whether that's video, whether
it's editorial, whether that's images, wherever,
whatever it is, wherever you decide to put
it, it's just the way of communication. That's
what it is. I wouldn't say like a typical blog
per se, it depends on the purpose of that blog
per se. It's just like, if it's used for SEO,
then obviously it needs to be written in a particular
way. And. posted on particular pages, linked
to a particular waste. But then if it's just
like, you're looking at marketing as a whole,
you just go look at your content strategy. How
do you communicate with this with your audience?
And it needs to be across multiple different
channels. So I will never really, I didn't
look at it as like even blogs, like the web
blogs, in all cases, like communication, how
we communicate, how you communicate. And it
doesn't, it could be republished across multiple
different zones. channels whether that's through
editorial, whether that's a video, whether
that's through images that can be told through
so many different ways just really restructuring
how you communicate with audiences and then
ensuring that your brand is engaging with people
at different touch points essentially. Yeah,
I think this is a time to rethink blogs because
typically when we say blog, we think SEO, just
bring traffic in a keyword you don't usually
target. But I think in 2024, blogs like that
don't work anymore because everything is written
out there. All of these boring strategies and
how-to and big winners and everything is done.
So I think if we're going to be talking blog
2024, even 2025, as you correctly said, then
it needs to be more engaging. So in my opinion,
good blog would be, yes, let's have it for
SEO purposes as well. But as Jan said, we can
have an enticing content with interviews or
the new releases, which is obviously something
we should be tapping into. Or as you said,
interviews with players. But what about memes?
Would memes work in our niche or would it be
too offensive to our players? Do they have sense
of humor?
I've never said so few when they're winning.
But it really depends on the brand. I mean,
like, you know, we're mentioning brand names,
but like, you have to have the authority to
be able to use these means. So if you're like,
let's just say for example, if you're like
Paddy Power, you have the authority because
you've learned that brand authority to actually
use means in a certain way. Whereas as if you
are, I don't know, a William Hill, for example,
you would not use the same means in the same
way Paddy Power would so... It's really about,
it's really like a tonality and what your brand
stands for. So I think that there's a place
for memes, but it also do it in a way that aligns
with your actual brand ethos. Because if you
try to go too far out to that, it doesn't really
work that well. So I think it's, there's a
place for it, but it's ensuring that it's done
in a way that aligns with the brand. Yeah.
William Hill, Mr. Green, the gentleman would
not do a meme. That's true. Can we do it for
live casino? Is live casino something we can?
Memeify. I have a new word, memeify. Can we
memeify Live Casino? I'm glad that's you. Yeah,
I like that. That's right. My English is improving.
I'll be honest. I definitely, listen, I definitely
think that Gene got the spot there. So basically,
why not use the memes exactly? But then you
don't want really, you don't want really, you
know, the customers or let's call them players,
obviously, but in the end they are players.
You don't want to offend them. So it depends.
Like you know, if the player really losing
a lot and he's not in a good mood, I don't think
he wants to see any funny memes, I'll be honest
with you. But definitely I love the approach
of having memes live casino related. Why not
to have a memes with the links? So that memes
will not have just the functionality of being
memes, being funny, being thoughtful. But why
not to add straight away STA links to the memes
when you will direct the players to the site?
Wherever you go to the promo space, to the
new releases place, I love it. I love the block.
And in overall, I love the block because that's
the space for the network basically to get in
touch with you, to basically add the comments
in, to start some discussions. I love the blocks
when basically the discussion is fully open
and you can just go in and give your two cents
to the world with your comments or whatever
discussion it will be. So I love to be honest,
I love the idea. I love the idea for sure.
And Jan is doing blog again in a completely,
completely different way. He would even interact
with people. He would allow comments, which
Google would obviously reward because we are
all going into first, you know, content by users
for users. Um, so we see Reddit growing and
Quora and all of this craziness. So maybe this
is the way, maybe we can make it more interactive,
like us gamblers, right? They have got very
interactive relationship with the people visiting
their sites. And I think maybe this is missing.
and most of operators for sure. So there is
so many ways we can be creative, but I really
like the idea of having someone communicating
and messaging our brand through comments and
through certain interaction with the users.
Now, I know you are not SEO expert, but I'm
going to go there. Google is going crazy this
year with updates because of content. I think
we've been punishing for not being creative.
So if there is one thing you can really recommend,
to think of when creating your content and
summarize what we said, because we have four
minutes. So just, you know, it sounds like
a lot, but two minutes you, two minutes you,
and we're done. What would be the main message
you want people to remember when creating blog
or any content for their website from casino
or from sports? What would be the way to create
content that Google is going to reward that
customers are going to love, and we're actually
going to be faithful to our brand and our messaging,
yet original?
Long sentence, I know, but Dean, go ahead. You
look like you want to say something now. Yeah,
sure. I was going to say Jan, one of the like,
I'll go first. Yeah, I think, I think going
back to what I originally said, it's about original
engaging and then also longevity as well as
something that I'll talk about as well. It's
ensuring that you have content that is original.
So the original producer of the content, whether
that's a brand ambassador or whatever that's.
a fan of a particular sport engaging with that
or influenced that originality. Engaging, ensuring
that content is written in a way that would
be seen as entertainment to a point as well.
Because again, people, they know how to bet,
they know how to date, they know the casinos
and sports but it's like, how engaging is that
content? So that comes with an aspect as well,
can you interact with that content? And the
longevity as well, so the topics that you're
picking as well don't just become Um, you know,
there's, there's topics that can actually ever
green. They're not just happened to be, um,
something just around the cup final or Europe,
just really opinion led concept that can actually
stay across your, your platform for a long
period of time. And then looking at the multi-channel
approach as well, we talked about memes, we
work with a number of them casinos that are
literally just built on telegram and literally
that is me. Mean central essentially. So I think
that it's freaking about where you place this
content as well. and where you were structured,
where you can actually create communities as
well. So this content might not be purposely
for certain content on the website, but then
how about you create these communities on particular
social channels that can actually link back
into your website content, help invest here
as well. You might actually find engaging ambassadors
for your content that are on the likes of Telegram,
different community channels as well. I have
one question here. What is it with Telegram?
What is it with Telegram in iGaming? Why is
it becoming such a huge thing for our niche?
Like I am not on Telegram. I found it extremely
annoying, but it is where the action is taking
place. Why? Why Telegram? Why not something
else? Do you have an explanation? Yeah, I mean,
the fact is like, there is a highly engaged
community. And I think that the ease of setting
up these platforms is... It's quite a quick
and easy thing. Well, so easy, but it's a quick
thing that you can do. Just saying we work
at multiple different telegram casinos. I think
it's just a web-free environment, really. You've
got people that are highly engaged with crypto
as well. So it's the ability to receive crypto
payments, telegram have their own currency,
Tom, as well. So there's multiple reasons why,
you know, iGaming are moving onto telegram.
Yeah. there's multiple different benefits at
the moment. I see a whole new topic. I see a
whole new podcast on Telegram. Okay. This is,
this is coming. People stay tuned. So for sports,
create a beautiful content and don't just think
of ambassadors as the big players, but their
fans. I think this is something people actually
forget. So this is a great learning here. Use
different channels differently, use different
messaging in different channels and use new
spaces like Telegram. And your audience will
grow, but you need to have the correct content.
And what is it for Casino? The two cents you
want everyone to remember, how to stay original
and how to target their audience and speak
to their audience a little bit better. Sure.
So I would say more from the live casino perspective.
So now the games, you know, maybe before for
the SEO to create engaging content, to create
something colorful content. Well, it was not
really possible since the games were very classic
oriented games such as roulette, blackjack,
baccarat. So there is nothing much to talk,
even if you will get the exclusivity, right?
So we will get maybe the content, let's say
one or two weeks prior to the network release.
Please use it, please. Don't just waste the
time. That's why you're getting the exclusive
content. You have enough to prepare for it,
use it. And going back to the topic creative
content, the live casino games are just going
crazy now. So it's not just the classic games,
but now really the big game shows, the big
wheel games. It's just crazy how the games,
it looks like itself, how the studio are built,
how the assets are, how the design. So I think
that it's really easy to create very engaging
content from the live casino side, especially
these days when Really, the providers are fighting
over to have you as a client, to give you the
content prior to network release. And really,
the games are just so engaging. It's unbelievable
how you can really... It's very easy to create
the content around this game. And that's why
I love what you said at the first glance, Ivana.
Talk to your expert, please. Don't just get
the content and try to build something for
yourself. That's why you have a team. That's
why you have a full casino, full life casino
team, sports book team. sit down with them half
an hour and they will open your eyes how basically
they can create the content around the USP,
for example, of each games or, you know, the
markets to target, know which markets to target,
which game type, which might work. So there
is really a lot. For me, engaging live casino
content is like done by this because of the
games and all the content providers are creating.
So that's my two cents. Thank you so, so much.
I actually learned a lot. Yeah. If I can just
point that Jan made about just, I think what's
quite important is that when you're looking
at the content, um, regional content as well,
what you would do in Italy or France or Spain
or England would be very unique to those audiences,
understanding that what works in the UK might
not be as engaging in Italy and France. So
really conceptually, culturally understanding
how engaged that audience are. So it'd be really
almost global in your thinking when creating
content, not one size fits all. That's really
key, that's what I thought as well. And if you
don't mind, Dean, I'm so sorry, I love the
topic you just basically nailed it, because
honestly, sometimes the SEO content, you know,
the SEO is uploading the content on the markets
when actually the game or the content, it's
not even able to be live in such regions. You
know, for example, Sweden, you cannot have
hand-to-wheel games. But I see the content that
Swedish some SEOs are basically adding the
content, which you will be never able to find
as a regulated market, for example, in Sweden.
So sometimes that's why the SEO really needs
those experts to tell them, hey, this is not
a game for this market. They don't care about
this such a game times. They like this. So
that's why I think the collaboration, it's really
super important between SEO and all the other
teams or all the other verticals. I think we
have it. Speak to your experts because as an
SEO you are a marketeer yet you are not an expert
in live casino or football betting Thanks god,
we have Companies that have experts we have
got dean if you don't know much about football
so reach out to him Follow jan and dean on linkedin
because they share a lot of good data. I mean
I learn a lot from them So thank you very much
for joining me. I love this podcast I see so
many ideas for other podcasts telegram being
one of them infiltration marketing being second
Thank you very much and speak to you later.
Thank you.