Sports betting is one of the most profitable industries you can enter. However, the competition in this industry is insane, which makes it incredibly difficult to succeed as an entrepreneur. That’s why a lot of opportunists are focusing on fantasy sports instead, which is a market that is rising unstoppably.

The fantasy sports industry is already worth billions of dollars, and it’s growing fast. So much that the total amount of profit generated by entry fees is expected to reach $5.3 billion by 2020.

If you are one of those people who are planning on starting their own fantasy sports betting site, you need to use proper digital marketing strategies if you wish to become relevant. Here are some of the best ones that you should definitely focus on first in 2019.

1. Focus on Social Media

As you already know, everybody is on social media today. There’s no better way to reach a large number of customers and followers than by improving your social media game.

The three main social media platforms that you should focus on as a fantasy sports betting site owner are Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. These are the holy grail of your SM digital marketing strategy.

Twitter is an integral part in the success of most betting sites out there, including those related to fantasy sports. It allows you to instantly communicate with your customers, post in-game tweets, make frequent announcements, and so on. The same goes for Facebook.

An Instagram account requires a bit more time and more love, but t. It’s a fun platform that allows you to make funny memes, graphics, and post winning screenshots, for example.

2. Build a Large Mailing List

All fantasy sports betting sites should build large mailing lists as soon as possible. This is one of the best ways to keep in touch with your customers. You can use it to let bettors know about new promotions, new betting markets, and last-minute opportunities.

Even though communication on social media platforms dominates the internet today, emails are nowhere near extinction.

Did you know that a good email marketing strategy can bring you a 4,400% ROI in a short time? That means $44 of profit for every $1 invested. But you must make sure not to spam your customers and to obtain their email addresses in a legitimate way.

The best technique for increasing your email list in a short amount of time is by offering value. In return for someone giving you their email address, you can provide them with a complete guide to fantasy betting, for example.

3. Keep an Up-to-Date Blog

Fantasy sports enthusiasts love reading about their hobby. Therefore, a successful fantasy sports betting site must have a high-quality blog section. Apart from providing your customers with interesting and useful content, a blog will also help you improve your SEO stats.

If you plan to outsource your blog to a copywriting agency, make sure to find a really good one. Your content should both provide value for the readers and follow basic SEO strategies like keyword density and distribution, length, ease of reading, and so on.

Some great ideas you can write about in your blog posts if you have a fantasy sports betting site include:

• Season Previews

• Sports Rants

• Team/Player profiles

• Betting Strategies

• Betting Dos/Don’ts.

Having a frequently updated blog is a fantastic way to increase your natural organic traffic. In return, Google will rank your site much higher.

4. Focus on Link Building

Link building is not dead. As a matter of fact, it is more relevant than ever before. However, in 2019, instead of trying to get links from anyone and everyone out there, you should focus on fantasy sports influencers.

If you manage to get a link from a popular influencer, you are guaranteed to see a large spike in your organic traffic.

Link building with influencers is estimated to have an ROI more than 10 times higher than other common forms of digital marketing. However, getting a link from an influencer is far from simple. To have them agree to promote your fantasy sports betting site, you should offer them content that is:

• Interesting and funny

• Relevant at the moment

• Well-written

• Reliable

• Original.

To influencers, time equals money more than for other people. Therefore, make sure to perfect your outreach strategy before reaching out to them.

5. Use Google Ads

As you can see, we’ve placed Google Ads a bit lower on this list than some would expect. If we were writing this article several years ago, this digital marketing technique would be positioned much higher.

However, nowadays, the majority of fantasy sports bettors are younger generations who find ads annoying. A lot of people use Adblock applications nowadays, but there are still many who do not.

If you have already done all of the steps that we have mentioned above, your next step is to invest in Google Ads. Targeted ads are still a powerful digital marketing tool that can increase traffic to your fantasy sports betting site in a short amount of time.

However, before making the investment, you should first do a thorough analysis of who your target audience is and whether you can reach them this way. This digital marketing strategy might end up costing you a bit more, but the expected ROI is quite high.

6. Start Using Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is still a form of cutting-edge technology. Therefore, setting it up might require more knowledge, time, money, and effort than other digital marketing strategies we’ve shared so far.

However, if you are a proud owner of a fantasy sports betting site, there are few better ways to improve your digital marketing results.

An AI system will allow you to not only collect stats and data about the habits of your customers (in a legal way) but also to analyze them and find the best ways of using them. In the near future, AI will be as common everywhere as smartphones are today, so why not start early?

7. Use a Chatbot

Unlike AI, which is still a novelty on betting sites, chatbots are already popping up everywhere. Not having one is a big disadvantage and might cripple your digital marketing efforts.

Chatbots can be used for various purposes, but their main role today is to answer simple questions quickly. Moreover, they can help users complete straightforward tasks without requiring them to do a lot of research.

For example, a chatbot may inform your customers about the current promotions, the main terms and conditions, available payment options, and so on. It can also guide them through the registration process, as well as through the deposit and withdrawal processes.

These are usually steps where many people struggle, so you can put your fantasy sports betting site ahead of the competition by integrating a chatbot on your website.

8. Don’t Neglect Video Marketing

Last but not least, we should not forget about video marketing. Video has been a powerful digital marketing tool for many years. However, the way it is used is constantly changing. It is very different today compared to just several years ago. According to Cisco, videos will account for 85% of all internet traffic by 2020.

But viewer preferences regarding video are changing. High-production techniques are becoming less relevant than content. Therefore, you should focus on providing your customers about engaging fantasy sports betting video content that is simple, fun, useful, and easily digestible.

It’s ideal if you reach out to popular YouTube vloggers and influencers in this niche who will then promote your website and your services. This is a low-cost digital marketing strategy, with fast-growing ROI trends.

Manjunath Chowdary

Digital Marketing Expert, consultant, Mentor and
Director of KandraDigital Marketing
Solutions Pvt Ltd.