Leveraging Brand To Enter A New Stratosphere

TheScore Bet Coming In With A Bang

For centuries, betting on sports has been a common activity, whether it was betting shillings on a horse race in the 19th century or simply betting on who would win the Superbowl with your friends. However, now betting has changed entirely. Without the need for bookies, most professional sports betting is done online, a market previously dominated mainly by the likes of William Hill, Bet365, and ProLine. Well not anymore.

TheScore, a very well-known sports media company that covers everything from scores, to trade rumours, to general sporting news, from across hundreds of leagues worldwide, is now entering the game. 3 days ago, on April 4th, the Score Bet app launched in Ontario, and it will change everything.

One thing that many betting companies struggle with is attracting new customers and making themselves appear legitimate in the consumer's eye. Most people aren’t always 100% convinced of the legitimacy of certain bets. Is my payment secure? Is this legal? Will I get hacked? All of these are asked of even some of the biggest betting apps such as BetWay, whose app looks like it hasn’t been updated in 10 years. Most gambling companies are then going and spending millions on long-running TV ads to convince consumers that they are legit and should bet with them, often offering a free $10 bet to sign up.

TheScore Bet app is avoiding these issues altogether. Rather than starting an unsecured, unknown betting company from the ground up, TheScore pre-established themselves in the sporting industry in North America, with millions of people downloaded their app already. What the Score has done is ask themselves: rather than waste millions on ad placements on social media youtube, or TV, why not internally promote to the pre-existing millions of fans? And that’s exactly what they’ve done.

Now, on the Score App, users are met with a pop-up asking if they want to download the Score betting app directly from their regular app. Additionally, no longer does sports betting feel illegal online or using some very old and outdated UX design and operating system (don’t worry, you know who you are). theScore constantly updates its design and the UX feels unique to this app and makes the gambling feel safe and secure.

To top it all off, the Toronto Blue Jays have agreed on a 10-year partnership with Score Media and Gaming that will become the MLB team’s exclusive partner. theScore will get exclusive national marketing rights from the team, spanning sports betting, physical and online casinos, and fantasy sports. Additionally, Rogers centre will supposedly be opening a “theScore” branded sports bar and restaurant at the stadium, and will also be introducing co-branding elements in the stadium such as premium seating.

Published: April 8, 2022 - Issue 33 of The Sport Marketeer