Amaya Gaming is prepping a £10m marketing campaign to promote its new BetStars sports betting brand.
On Thursday, The Drum reported that the Canadian online gambling firm had hired the London branch of Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CP+B) as its lead strategy and creative team to promote BetStars entry into the already crowded and highly competitive online sports betting business. The new campaign is expected to launch in the UK and certain European markets in coming weeks.
CP+B aren’t strangers to the online betting world, having handled Irish betting operator Paddy Power’s creative account for over three years until the Paddsters chose to review the relationship in 2014. CP+B reportedly won the BetStars account after a three-way pitch, with Sweden’s DDB said to be among the other companies vying for the account.
Amaya officially launched the new BetStars brand in select markets in December, after a soft launch in Q1 2015 as just a sports betting tab on PokerStars’ main site. In November, Amaya acquired several BetStars domains, including .com, .net and .co.uk variations.
Also in November, Amaya said it would delay the rollout of “significant aspects” of its new sports product, with a fully-fledged offering not expected until the end of H1 2016. At the time, Amaya CEO David Baazov said Stars’ tentative foray into the sports world had attracted less than 100k real-money active customers and revenue to date had been “negligible,” primarily due to generous bonus offerings to make its product stand out among the UK’s cutthroat sportsbook market.
CP+B’s UK and International CEO Richard Pinder said it was a rare treat to be “in at the start of such a journey for a brand, to help establish it and built the foundations for future success.” PokerStars global creative director Chris Herd logrolled back, saying CP+B’s experience in marketing sportsbooks coupled with Stars’ “gaming pedigree” would be a “potent combination.”
