The Q1 2024 benchmarking report for UK online betting companies has just been published. Learn how the top 12 UK online betting companies perform across the digital space.
The latest Q1 2024 benchmarking report for UK Online betting companies has just been published. It covers the largest 12 national online betting companies, including Paddy Power, William Hill, 888 Sport, Coral, Bet365, BetVictor, Boyle Sports, Betfair, Betfred, Betway, Sky Bet, and Ladbrokes.
The research gives an inside track on who is winning the biggest share of voice online, and quantifies the gaps, risks and missed opportunities for other online betting companies to increase brand awareness, generate online bets, and secure digital growth. The report highlights year-on-year digital performance, plus winner and loser comparisons across 20+ online performance metrics and quantifies the gaps, risks and missed opportunities for online betting companies.
To see a preview and contents page of the Q1 report, click here. To get a copy of the full report and the key takeaways, please complete the enquiry form or schedule a call. 
Q1 2024 Winners Leaderboard
For a glance into just 6 of the metrics we evaluated these top 12 online betting companies on, check out our quick-look table below;
Continue reading for further detail on this quarter's top and poorest-performing online betting companies, or request a copy of the report for the full review.
What The Industry Research Report Covers
The 70+ pages of research benchmarks each brand based on 50+ metrics and indicators of successful digital strategy, including organic visibility, domain authority, paid media ads, conversion performance, technical performance, site speed, universal search, content, social ads, accessibility, and mobile performance.
Driving Optimal ROAS from Paid Media Channels
Some of the leading players in the space are high spenders on paid media channels such as Google, Bing & Facebook - but have a poor or sub-optimal conversion improvement strategy. Without an optimised, sophisticated conversion strategy that maximises the conversion rate, the return on investment is unsustainable or will underperform. Scaling spend on paid media is not achievable unless the conversion rate delivers optimal performance in the sector. Some in the space have paid media spend levels from 30k+ per month but dedicate minimal resources and budgets to conversion testing. Given the cost per clicks on ad networks will continue to rise, we recommend spending at least 10% of your paid media budget on ongoing conversion optimisation testing schedules to ensure your paid media ROI maintains long-term viability, competitive advantage, and sustainability.
Technical Website Compliance
Savvy digital marketers know that having a technically sound website is an essential component of a successful fully integrated digital strategy - plus a site capable of maximising conversion performance. Trust is essential for online betting companies, so a well-performing website that doesn't lead customers down dead ends is essential for giving a positive experience with the brand at every touchpoint.
In our last report, Boyle Sports flagged 352 4xx errors, and it’s increased this figure to 1,314 in Q1 2024 — the highest volume of all betting companies with Coral at a closer second (1,149 4xx errors). Both betting companies must identify broken links and update them to prevent their linking structure from harming their SEO.
Site Speed & Conversion Rate Performance
When 62% of consumers are less likely to convert if they have a negative mobile site experience, ensuring that your site is quick and easy to load makes a significant improvement on your overall conversion rates. As with ensuring users are not led to 4xx errors and prevented from reaching key pages, online betting companies will want to ensure their sites are fast and accessible, in order to minimise frustration with users.
For Q1 2024, the mobile site speed ranged between 65 and 0, with Paddy Power reporting the slowest site speed. This online betting company should use browser caching and compress images to help increase its site speed. Slow loading times can deter customers from using the site, encouraging them to resort to competitors.
Building Competitive Advantage with Domain Authority
Domain authority is an essential metric for measuring the effectiveness of SEO performance, and helps create a reliable overall gauge of how effective your site is at achieving organic traffic, i.e. ‘free’ traffic that isn’t gained through sponsored ads. Online betting companies can look to collaborating with sports publications in order to build their authority and expand their backlink profile.
A ‘good’ DA really comes down to how your competitors are performing, however it is generally considered average between 40 and 50, good between 50 and 60, and excellent above 60. The DA for this quarter for was high with a range between 85 and 71. All brands scored in the ‘excellent’ zone. Bet365, the company with the highest rating, reported the most backlinks from the highest number of domains. A successful backlink strategy like this can help companies to increase their DA rating, which helps to increase their visibility in search engines.
Organic Performance – Mobile & Desktop
A strong organic performance is strategically important as it ensures your site ranks above competitors for key, transactional keywords. When 93% of your customers won’t go past the first page of Google, your absence or lack of targeting for essential keywords will cost you conversions. We've seen traffic fall across many of the sectors that we specialise in, as consumers are cutting back on treats and luxuries during the cost of living crisis. However, with betting companies potentially being a secondary source of income for lucky, or strategic, punters, online betting companies may buck this trend.
Eleven of the 12 online betting companies reported more traffic coming from desktop users than mobile. With this in mind, companies can optimise their mobile site to help tailor to mobile users. Companies should consider features such as simplified forms, a responsive design, and phone size to help with mobile friendliness.
Universal Search Opportunity
Google Universal Search Results is an evolving opportunity to make your pages visible on a SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Universal results often appear before traditional listings and are eye-catching for users. Universal search results refer to rankings on a SERP that are not the traditional ‘blue line’ Google link, and a brand can appear for universal search results without being strong in standard rankings. As trust is key for online betting companies looking to win new punters, 'reviews' are a smart way of quickly building recognition and faith in their brand. However, results such as 'image pack', used with images of sports fixtures, may be more attention-grabbing from the SERP.
Paddy Power remains at the top spot for overall Universal Search results, scoring the highest in the ‘people also ask’ category (4,100). All companies reported zero appearances for ‘reviews’, and they should look to increase this figure to help them rank in the SERPs.
The Longtail Keyword Opportunity
Longtail keywords are often considered high intent and potentially more likely to convert as a searcher is being more specific. Optimising for longtail keywords also puts your content strategy in a strong position to rank for brand-new search terms as they enter Google’s index. Online betting companies should look to target their most profitable longtail keywords, indicating a strong will to bet on upcoming sports fixtures or other events.
Paddy Power is still ranking for the most longtail keyword appearances, including in positions 4–10, suggesting that it’ll remain at the top for the next quarter, too. On the other hand, Betway reported the fewest appearances for positions 3, however has double the results for positions 4–10 — a sign that search engines think its website is relevant. Small ranking improvements in this section can create lots of extra clicks, and it should track which longtail keywords receive the highest traction.
Facebook Adverts
With the number of Facebook users in the United Kingdom (UK) hitting over 44 million users in 2023, it is not surprising that companies have jumped at the opportunity to advertise on the social media platform. Facebook’s UK digital advertising revenue has been estimated to have breached 2.6b GB pounds in 2019. Online betting companies can use Facebook ads to drive brand awareness around big sporting events and other betting-opportunities, reminding users of the opportunity to place a bet, or advertise special rates and offers.
We’ve included three examples of Boyle Sports’ sponsored Facebook posts. All posts include a CTA to direct readers with an action, which is an effective strategy to help increase engagement and conversions.
Top Social Shares & Content
When it comes to social media and on-site content strategies, it is important to release content that has a longer shelf life. An article is considered 'Evergreen' if it has maintained its relevancy to an audience for longer. It's great for your brand engagement, but great for Google too, who will recognise content which achieves traffic over a long period of time. Online betting companies can look to creating content around sporting events in order to increase brand exposure - even sharing non-betting related content that links to events users can place bets on will increase content shareability.
Bet365 has the largest Facebook page (1.9 million Likes), and many of its posts include visuals to help attract users as they scroll social media. All other online betting companies should replicate a similar strategy.
Website Readability & Accessibility
20% of people in the UK have a disability – 2 million of which are people living with sight loss. In addition, 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have some degree of colour vision deficiency. When websites are not designed to meet these needs, brands lose customer interest as they turn elsewhere.
In our last audit, the highest number of accessibility alerts was BetVictor (13). However, in this quarter, Betfred reported 149 alerts, and it must address redundant text to improve readability and the users’ experience for those with a screen reader.
Get the full 70-page Q1 2024 report
To get a copy of the full report, please complete the enquiry form. If you want to talk to us about accelerating your digital performance, please call us on 01543 410014 or schedule a call with Mike Movassaghi
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