Programmatic advertising is the big venture in the US at the moment and seen as many by the silver bullet for US sportsbooks to make money and cut their marketing spend.

Already known as a real tech disruptor, BETEGY’s Creative Studio is the new kid on the block, with the potential to allow programmatic advertising to grow to infinite proportions. With that in mind, we spoke to BETEGY CEO, Alex Kornilov, about how these two innovations married together will provide a boom for ad campaigns in the US.

How is BETEGY’s new Creative Studio going to benefit the US market with programmatic advertising? Will it potentially be bigger there than in Europe?

The main aim of launching Creative Studio was to transform the creation and delivery of banner advertising and visuals for betting companies and the media.

In short, marketing spend on acquisition and retention needs to become far more efficient if any US sportsbook wants to start being profitable five years after PASPA repeal, and this is where Creative Studio comes in.

Our solution is designed to deliver targeted, tailored ads with the utmost precision and efficiency. Given that marketing (and indeed the acquisition of betting customers) is so expensive in the US, we believe that we’ve got the perfect product that can maximise reach and awareness while reducing the bottom line for marketers’ budgets.

In effect, given our product is powered by automation, our technology handles the same volume that would be required by an entire design department. So, without a doubt, we expect to see significant demand given it is exactly a major problem faced by the US right now – the need to greatly reduce the cost of acquisition.

Of course, with that, is the constant expansion of the US online sports betting market and with more and more US states becoming regulated every few months, I expect us to perform incredibly strongly and scale fast. That’s even before we get onto the fact that Creative Studio is super easy to implement in the US, given that there’s no challenge of overcoming the existing legacy systems that are holding back innovation in Europe!

How are US brands going to be able to deploy programmatic advertising with Creative Studio? What’s the use-case for such a product? 

It’s all about personalisation of ads and targeted delivery, and as a result – radically reducing CPA (cost per acquisition) for brands that deploy Creative Studio for their marketing campaigns.

Once you’re saving on CPA, the key is to massively scale your deployment of Creative Studio, meaning that you can then exponentially grow your audience, reach and awareness. Our product is designed to deliver with precision, so that everything is supported by a full-service real-time analytics suite that enables users to identify key sub-demographics as well as evolve their campaigns with live data.

In effect, Creative Studio will transform efficiency and results while reducing marketing spend, as well as putting in-house marketers in the driving seat when it comes to managing campaigns. Not only that, they’ll also be able to significantly reduce their reliance on outside agencies and take control of strategy in-house.

With a projected figure of $133 million set to be spent on programmatic advertising in the US in 2023, can you see any signs already that the figure mentioned might be too conservative?

When it comes to programmatic, it certainly looks like a small number- but this is because it’s still in its infancy, with the technology still being very early in the adoption stage. In many ways, this part of the market is only just developing, and just like any adoption curve for all major technological innovations over the last ten years, that curve turns into hockey stick-shaped growth on a graph when it really takes off.

If we take a step back and look at how much money is being spent on marketing in the US alone in our industry, we’re looking at tens of billions of dollars (at a conservative estimate). Once the benefits of programmatic become widely known and tech begins to enter the mainstream, the money will flood into this method of advertising.

In my view, just like all exponential adoption and growth, we’re seeing spend doubled almost every year, so we’re very much looking at a serious take-off in use, so no doubt within a few years’ time, we’ll be edging towards the first billion-dollar mark, and then even faster growth thereafter.

It’s easy to see why this type of tech offers so many benefits that make it a clear gamechanger – with it already in use by other industries, we’re now at a real watershed moment in the US, especially with the imperative for US sportsbooks to turning a profit for the first time. A product that can radically cut costs and CPA – as well as boost marketing efficiency makes clear sense.

In what states will programmatic advertising have the biggest impact for BETEGY? Can you talk us through your plans for Creative Studio’s North American rollout?

It’s already rolled out and in use! All the features and tech are already being deployed by a select number of our US partners. In short, everything’s already built-in, and it can simply be deployed with a flick of the switch. Of course, this isn’t just limited to sportsbooks and casinos but is readily available for sports media too.

In terms of impact by state, it’s all about demographics and the size of the audience. So, I have no doubt that larger states with significantly greater populations and betting demographics will see the biggest impact. So, the likes of New York and Maryland (for example) will be serious ones to watch, given their populations and the extent of major sports teams in the big four. Maryland, in particular, is a very interesting and intriguing state due to the small area size, but it has a wide range of top-class sports teams and a large population within a relatively tiny space.

Is there anything else that could rival programmatic advertising for marketing spend in the US this year?

The alternative to efficient, targeted spend delivered via programmatic will always be the big bucks focus on major budget ads such as MGM’s partnership with Jamie Foxx, or indeed, major placements during the likes of the Superbowl.

Of course, there will always be spend on tv ads and celebrity endorsements, but I think programmatic will provide a real edge over the competition by offering something that is truly efficient and targeted, which in effect, will complement each other perfectly.

So yes, in many ways – both go hand in hand and deliver in different ways. To my mind, the best strategy would be an awareness raising campaign with a big bucks focus and then programmatic to bring those leads through. However, if you’re a smaller, more emerging brand, I’d certainly advise going with programmatic rather than blowing every cent on a hit-and-miss celebrity endorsement!