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betting the farm on social media

August 9, 2012 | Written by Becky McMichael

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If you’re in the gambling industry, excitement is mounting right now over social media usage, specifically Facebook for real betting in addition to driving revenue and engagement as social marketing channels. Whilst Facebook is apparently talking to many gambling organisations about future plans, the first project that saw the social network allow users to bet real money was launched with Gamesys this week. You can bet your life it won’t be the last. Under pressure to deliver to shareholders, Facebook is continually looking for ways to monetise its platform and this is a natural next step.

But how social are these gambling companies anyway and who is best placed to win in the social space when Facebook does eventually open its doors wider? A report today from Qubit (via Econsultancy) suggests that Betfair has the best odds with wide ranging engagement, reach and revenue driven through the five sources it evaluated (Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook and Pinterest).

The report evaluates the UK’s top ten betting sites based on monthly page view statistics from Doubleclick Adplanner. These also include 888, Paddy Power, Ladbrokes, Bet365, Skybet, Betfred, Stan James and Coral.

The QuBit social scores are calculated based on each company’s reach on social networks, which is then weighted based on the average time spent on the website and revenue driven through each source.

Betfair was the only site to have engaged across all five key social networks, with a notable presence on the rapidly growing site Pinterest, which has been found to proportionally drive far more revenue than Facebook. However at the moment Betfair’s account has just 12 followers, despite creating 10 boards with a total of 129 pins. So while it should be commended for being an early adopter and experimenting with Pinterest, it’s unlikely that the social network’s predominantly female user base will be flocking to view the boards in high numbers.

Interesting times lie ahead to see how our behaviour on social networks will change when we can gamble real cash but also whether the context will be right for this activity. My money is on an explosive and expensive new pastime for many of us, how about yours?

The full report can be downloaded from Cubit here.

Tags: Betfair, betting, Econsultancy, Facebook, gambling, Qubit