Weak personalisation means US sportsbooks are leaving money on the table – report

A new case study has exposed a significant gap between customer betting behaviour and personalised marketing efforts among leading US sportsbooks, with the findings highlighting a missed opportunity for operators to leverage existing customer data for more effective engagement.

Conducted by OtherLevels, a provider of real-time, multi-channel experience platforms for live sports and iGaming, the four-month study in a single US state examined how effectively operators incorporated customer betting patterns – including favourite teams, player props, and wager types – into their personalised activation messages.

The study involved placing 734 wagers of equal value with four leading sportsbooks, across professional football, American football, basketball, ice hockey, and baseball, and the analysis of 401 received messages. The results were stark:

• Only 3.74 per cent of messages promoted a team previously backed by the researchers, despite 471 moneyline wagers being placed on 12 different teams.
• A mere 3.40 per cent of prop-focused messages mentioned a player previously wagered on.
• Only 0.75 per cent of messages mentioned any of the top five most-wagered-on players, even though this bet market accounted for 165 bets.
• Only 1.5 per cent of messages included any mention of the top five most-wagered-on teams.
• A negligible 0.49 per cent of messages even included the first names of the research team customers.

“This expanded study, conducted with four leading sportsbooks in one US state, clearly shows that there is the opportunity to significantly lift customer activation communication strategies on a personal level,” said Brendan O’Kane, CEO at OtherLevels.

“These sportsbooks have data revealing clear betting preferences for teams and players, but this is not yet translating into timely, relevant, and contextualised messaging.

“We know there is a massive opportunity for operators who truly harness their data, converting insights into personalised content that delivers real engaging customer experiences.”

The study also revealed that operators consistently failed to adapt their messaging copy or subject matter to the researchers' repeatedly demonstrated interests. The high volume of generic prop messaging, often promoting star players regardless of betting history, suggests a predetermined focus rather than a data-driven approach.

“The messaging prioritising player prop betting is understandable, but often featured pre-selected players from major sports leagues,” O’Kane added. “While this approach leverages name recognition, we achieve far superior results by tailoring promoted players to a customer’s specific interests.”

OtherLevels has already demonstrated the immense value of truly personalised bet prompt and activation communications. Over a 12-month period, the company measured the impact of 100 per cent automated, hyper-personalised activations for one operator. These communications were built around learned customer preferences and inferred similarities across sports, teams, players, props, and markets, and yielded significant results:

• 16 per cent lift for NBA messaging
• 8 per cent lift for NFL messaging
• 30 per cent lift for NFL on-site engagement

This success was achieved using the OtherLevels Experience platform, which creates compelling, personalised, relevant, and contextual content, then packages it for optimal delivery across various activation channels.