Patrick Corkery, Leadstar Media’s North American team lead, speaks to SBC Americas about how the upcoming slate of Thanksgiving football is set to offer a bumper betting opportunity. He explains how this period is integral for the firm and its player acquisition strategy as it can help educate some of the more inexperienced and recreational players.
SBC: How big of an opportunity is Thanksgiving for attracting new players and securing additional FTDs?
Patrick Corkery: It’s a very significant opportunity. With the whole country gathered around the TV to watch the NFL, you know a huge percentage are looking to bet. Last year we saw a boost of nearly 25% on Thanksgiving Day itself and I wouldn’t be surprised if this year there’s even more of a jump.
Not only that, but leagues have packed the sports schedule through the weekend with tons of opportunities for people to bet and sleep off their Turkey hangovers on Black Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We expected big traffic numbers throughout the whole long weekend.
SBC: What type of content works best around Thanksgiving football? Do you roll out new or special content for the holiday season?
PC: We roll out specialized content in different avenues throughout the whole calendar year. Of course, a lot of this comes from working with our partners to try and educate users about any specific promotions they can take advantage of for special occasions, such as Thanksgiving.
Affiliate sites such as ours become important hubs to promote and educate users about these short-term promotions, and that’s often the type of content that generates special interest.
However, I think it’s always important for us to remember that the biggest and most popular questions remain the same no matter the occasion, it’s just the amount of users looking for them may differ. Because of that, we put a special emphasis on polishing our evergreen content when we feel there will be a general uptick in betting activity.
SBC: Thanksgiving football is such a big cultural moment in the U.S. but how do you cut through the crowd and the sheer saturation of content?
PC: I think there are a lot of tricks one can pull in this situation but at the end of the day, our strategy has always been a simple one – provide the best answer to user’s’ questions.
Just by being that much more thorough, rigorous and well-researched in our content, we can usually reach the right audience.
It’s a simple formula, but it’s one that we believe in and that has given us an edge in the past.
SBC: What other sporting activity typically does well throughout the Thanksgiving holiday? Does it differ by state?
PC: You always have the NBA, and in the past few years, we’ve seen some early-season boosts in interest due to the introduction of the NBA Cup. The stakes are higher at this point in the season, which has led to an upswing in NBA-related traffic compared to previous years.
Then, of course, there’s college football. This year’s slate of games on Black Friday in particular looks really intriguing. The University of Colorado football team has become such a huge story in the past two seasons that they are must-watch and therefore must-bet. The combination of them and the Kansas Chiefs playing in the NFL’s Black Friday Game this year should move the needle for the books.
SBC: How has the current NFL season been for Leadstar Media? Have you noticed an uptick in bettors compared to last season?
PC: Yes, this has been an especially strong season for our products. While the market has stabilized in some respects, there’s no shortage of users looking for sports betting operators. With the “post-hype” status of U.S. sports betting, it provides a ton of opportunities for affiliates to go even deeper and provide better answers to users’ questions.
In our North American markets, we’re seeing huge improvements compared to last season, which has a lot to do with the growth of our products. In particular, MyBettingSites US has been a project we’ve really gotten behind and are excited to see grow even more throughout the rest of the season and the playoffs.
