Interactive SPORTS SPONSORSHIP New channels
This summer, sports betting operator, LVbet, sponsored the European Volleyball Championships in Poland. G3 quizzes Simona Pinterova about the deal
Why did you choose to sponsor the European Volleyball Championships in Poland and how did the deal come about?
Volleyball is one of the most popular sports in Poland, watched by many thousands of dedicated fans. For example, the opening match alone was watched by more than 60,000 spectators, and the entire tournament enjoyed high-profile exposure.
Another attractive quality from our point-of- view, was the fact that the competition took place nationwide, in five different cities – which was great for LVBet, given our 57 land-based betting shops located all around Poland. Of course, the tournament also involved 16 different national teams, so it drew a great deal of attention from all over Europe.
Taken together, these factors made the opportunity to sponsor Eurovolley 2017 too good to miss for LVBet.
The deal with LVBet and Eurovolley Poland 2017 takes a different path to the usual ‘football’ sponsorship. How successful was the collaboration and is the support of ‘different’ sports important in reaching a wider audience?
Given that LVBet are already heavily involved in supporting Polish football, as official sponsors of hugely popular football clubs Wisła Kraków and Widzew Łódź, and official betting partners of Ekstraklasa clubs Wisła Płock, Arka Gydnia and Piast Gliwice, we wanted to do something different. Tough football is undeniably still the most important sport in terms of betting, we see a future of growing betting across a much wider variety of sports, especially as millennials, with different attitudes and interests, start to become the main market demographic. So, we want to show that LVBet is there for fans of all sports.
Tings are looking very good, and we feel it’s safe to say that the collaboration was extremely beneficial to everyone involved; LVBet, the sport and fans. It put LVBet in front of a significant
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number of new people, and we are seeing signs of that translating into new sign-ups and customers.
How do you quantify value for your sponsorship - and do niche sports represent greater value than the flashy ‘big leagues’?
It is important to remember that volleyball is a mainstream sport in Poland and across much of continental Europe. Saying that though, we still feel that it is a sport that offers greater value- for-money in terms of sponsorship – much in the same vein as LVBet’s sponsorship of the Kölner Haie ice hockey team.
Perhaps because there is less money floating around in other sports compared to football, we have encountered more enthusiasm and interest. Tis, rather than the scale of the sports in terms of numbers of followers, may be the real attraction. Being a little less ‘corporate’ in their approach, though by no means unprofessional, has certainly allowed more flexibility and creativity.
Will LVBet support grass-roots, amateur level leagues in addition to the higher-profile clubs and tournaments?
Tis is something we are very keen to do. At LVBet, we genuinely love sport – we are sports fans ourselves – and we don’t want to be viewed by our customers as aloof and detached.
Te underlying ethos behind everything we do is a passion for sports and a passion for fun, and supporting sports at all levels reflects this.
Big, flashy sponsorships are great for ‘Above the Line’ marketing, getting TV and internet exposure, but they are expensive, which restricts the range of things you can do. Whereas grass-roots and amateur level sponsorships are fantastic for ‘Below the Line’ marketing, as we can actually get in there and mingle with fans, tailoring our support and really targeting resources where it will have the greatest effect.
What level of exposure is important in terms of sponsorship, does the sport need high level TV support and coverage, or do you see value in digital and social media coverage too?
In the current environment, we think it is futile to see things in isolation. Mass media is blurring at the edges, with traditional TV coverage merging with internet and social media. Simply spending a huge budget on prestige mainstream TV exposure is unlikely to deliver real, sustainable results anymore.
We see success in the future coming about by cultivating a constantly evolving blend of sponsorships, delivering a million shades of coverage for the LVBet brand.
What types of sports are you accessing for future sponsorship deals and how do you determine the scale of influence and size of audience you’re looking to reach?
We are constantly reviewing the betting patterns of our punters, and our sponsorships will reflect these trends. Football, it is safe to say, will remain an important part of our strategy, as will volleyball and probably ice hockey too, but we have also had promising results with MMA and eSports sponsorships.
At LVBet, we very much believe in making sure we are always evolving to provide what customers really want. As they say, “You can’t fight the waves, but you can learn to surf.”
Simona Pinterova PR Manager, Energybet
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