What Role Does A Casino Product Play At An Online Bookmaker?

If you’ve been around online bookmakers for a while, you’ll likely have noticed that many also offer a casino product, just a click away from their sports betting platform. The synergy between different gambling products makes sense, but it’s not always immediately obvious why the likes of Bet365, Ladbrokes, Betfair and others would offer a casino product when they’re known primarily as sports betting brands.

While of course there are strong commercial incentives for bookies to offer a casino product too, the role this plays for online bookmakers is worthy of further exploration. The same also works in reverse, with casino sites regularly choosing to add sports betting to their platforms, and the reasons behind these moves are similar on both sides.

In this article, we’ll look at why bookmakers are offering casino gambling to their players, as well as other gambling products, and the role these ancillaries play for leading sports betting sites.

Selling the Same Customers Twice

Online bookmakers tend to be linked to their sporting heritage. The brands we just mentioned, Bet365, Ladbrokes and Betfair, are all immediately synonymous with sports betting – you don’t think about Bet365 without thinking about sports. As a result, you’d expect Bet365 and other similar platforms to be sports-led – no prizes there. But in reality, these companies are corporate gambling brands, entities in their own right that are licensed to offer gambling products including, but crucially often not limited to, sports betting.

For online bookmakers, finding new customers is a constant uphill struggle. Advertising restrictions, regulation, market saturation, fierce competition – it all combines to make finding new customers a challenge. Once bookies have secured these customers, it makes sense to cross-sell them, to maximise the value from their marketing spend.

These are people who are already interested in gambling, and are already comfortable doing so with that particular bookmaker – who better then to provide their casino gambling than the bookmaker they already know and trust. Offering them a chance to bet on more gambling products, for example an online casino, is a simple way of cashing in twice on the same market.

Cross-Promoting: Sports to Casino, and Back Again

Similarly, when you’ve got big sporting events happening throughout the year, like Championship fights, the World Cup, Wimbledon or the Grand National, the chances are high that many predominantly casino-focused gamblers will also fancy a flutter. Providing them with this service actually improves the customer’s experience, as well as the bookie’s bottom line.

There’s also the cross-promotional benefit of having a casino. Some customers are primarily interested in sports betting, but some are primarily interested in casino gambling. With so much effort and marketing spend invested into brand awareness and name recognition, having offers on both sides of this coin potentially doubles the interested market. Now bookies can win over people searching for casinos, as well as people searching for sports betting. When you consider it all in light of the commercial realities facing betting companies, it’s a no brainer to offer both. 

The crossovers are not just limited to sports betting sites – casinos also go the same way, often bolting on sports betting platforms to give themselves the same market coverage in the opposite direction. Even casinos and slot sites without a sportsbook product often offer sports-themed games to attract sports fans. Slot sites often add slots with sport themes, such as Firekick Multimax, Hot Shot Megaways, Marvelous Furlongs and even jackpot slots such as the Sporting Legends collection.

Incentivising the Crossover

Operators sometimes take additional steps to encourage players to play across both verticals, with the help of cross-promotions. These can take a variety of forms, but typically include the chance to play in the casino to win a free bet for any sports market, or free spins as part of a sports betting welcome offer. The cross-promotion sometimes even extends to loyalty and VIP schemes, which can offer benefits and rewards across different gambling verticals to the most loyal players.

Having different products on the same site helps sports betting sites and casinos reach new demographics, allowing them to grow into new markets by promoting to people who are already interested in gambling. In an industry where marketing spend tends to the higher side, having something new to sell to existing customers, as well as a way of drawing in more new customers from other areas – it’s worth its weight in gold.

While some sites will remain predominantly sports-led, or casino-led, having crossover products makes a lot of sense. But beyond the operator’s reasons for offering multiple products, it’s actually in the customer’s interests too.

The Customer Angle

Ultimately, bookmakers should always be looking to do what’s best for their customers. Providing complimentary services can actually improve the experience for the customer, as well as driving new revenues. This is definitely the case with bookies offering casino and slot games – it’s just a more rounded offer to customers, providing more forms of gambling entertainment for those who wish to explore it.

So next time you see a casino bolted on to your chosen bookmaker, consider how it’s working well for everyone – for you as a customer, as well as the operator, as a business.

Who knows – you might even fancy a spin or two yourself if you’re feeling lucky.