Radio is a sound salvation

When Elvis Costello sang about radio becoming increasingly commercial on his 1978 hit Radio, Radio he clearly had a point because, according to Sports Broadcast Media’s Gavin Puszczalowskyi and Al Ross, it really is a great advertising medium.

Words by MARTYN ELLIOTT

When people talk about the betting industry working more closely with sports media, they are usually referring to adding live-streamed action to a sportsbook platform. However, Sports Broadcast Media (SBM) is taking a different approach by launching the world’s first independently-owned online-only betting radio station, BettingRad.io.

While the idea of a radio station may have a slightly retro feel to it, no other medium can claim to have as close a relationship with its audience. Get the tone and mix of the content right, and the presenters become an integral part of the listeners’ day-to-day life.

Few within the betting industry are better placed to achieve that than UK-based SBM, which was founded by a group of experienced former BBC, Sky Sports, DAZN, and talkSPORT presenters.

Gavin Puszczalowskyi, Programme Director for SBM, is confident that BettingRad.io has the right formula to connect with bettors and deliver results for advertisers.

“The station carries a mix of the greatest indie and rock from the last 50 years, with regular tips from our independent betting experts as part of their shows,” he explained.

“They use their knowledge to select the best tips and to find the best prices for the punter. We also let listeners know of any new offers available at bookmakers - all the things a punter wants to hear during their day. We’re live and speech-only on Saturday afternoons when Premier League games are on, to react to the changing prices in the markets while the matches are in-play.”

While the station only launched last month, the SBM team has big plans, both to build out from its initial UK market focus and to evolve its content.

“By the end of the first year, we’re expecting the service to increase its speech content to include more live Premier League and Champions League broadcasts,” Puszczalowskyi added.

Designed For Engagement

BettingRad.io is far from SBM’s first foray into the world of betting broadcasting. Despite being a relatively young company, it has already enjoyed significant success working with sportsbook operators.

The production company helps its operator partners to move beyond the match preview blogs, stat packs and direct call-to-action social posts that have been the staple of sportsbook digital marketing for the past 15 years.

It does this by creating tailored video and audio content for operators that helps with brand differentiation and player retention. Its output includes recorded pre-game videos and podcasts, along with live-streamed in-play shows, such as the one that is now in its third season for Sportsbet.io.

The show began life as a live radio tipping service specifically for the Euros in 2021, run from a small rented office near Leeds, but proved popular enough for Sportsbet.io to extend it for the full 2021-22 Premier League season.

It morphed into a full in-vision service, similar to Sky Sports’ Soccer Saturday but with the content designed primarily for the betting community, for the following season and has expanded again for the new campaign.

SBM’s CEO, Al Ross, explained: “In addition to live Premier League and Champions League content this season, we’ve already had live inplay Women’s World Cup shows, there’s a new weekly live interactive EPL preview show with ex-England goalkeeper Paul Robinson and former Liverpool striker Neil Mellor, and there’s a heck of a lot more to come.”

The reason that the operator continues to use and expand SBM’s service is simple to understand.

“SportsBet.io has been brilliant for us, and I can’t say enough good things about their content team,” Ross continued.

“But there’s a compelling commercial reason they’ve chosen to use us more heavily each year - the engagement with the product keeps growing.

“They’ve tracked and tagged viewers of our shows so they know that when we’re on live, viewers stay on their website for 72% longer, place 82% more bets and post 900 - 2000% more often in their internal chat room than non-viewers.”

Sportsbet.io is not SBM’s only high-profile client - it has also worked with Stake. com, GemBet and Star Sports - and the success of its services has driven swift growth for the company, which recently brought its fifth visual studio online. It has also expanded its offering beyond football, and can provide recorded and live content across golf, cricket, tennis and the big four US sports, as well as perhaps more niche betting markets such as esports tournaments, elections and reality TV.

The contact books of the experienced broadcasters in the SBM team means they have access to a host of commentators and ex-professional players around the world and across multiple languages to give the content a local feel.

Reach And Retain

In many ways the type of audio and video content that SBM produces is quite traditional, when set against the attentiongrabbing viral stunts and edgy ads that some marketers prefer.

However, a marketing strategy can only hang around long enough to become traditional if it works. And this is certainly an approach that delivers results - as long as it is done well.

“The marketing teams at sportsbook operators are pretty savvy. They tend to know what they want to achieve and we tailor our offerings to match their objectives,” said Ross.

“Our live in-play products are great ‘sticky’ content for websites, whereas things like features and vodcasts can be either retention or acquisition tools, depending how they’re constructed and used.

“Once we have the brief, it’s down to us to make sure the quality of the product is good enough to cut through in an increasingly crowded online space.”

He added: “Live content is a great interaction tool - using chatrooms or social media to allow audiences to interact with the presenters - but it’s also great at combating the drop-off that operators suffer when games go live.

“Some people will always prioritise watching the game, but there are a lot of punters who would stay on a sportsbook if only they were given a reason to stick around.”

SBM also has an eye on the younger bettor, who perhaps prefers to consume sport in clip form on social media rather than in a longer form.

“We produce what we call BetBites, which is a much more high-octane product where numerous events are expertly analysed with betting tips, but each event is given just 90 seconds. That’s a very social media-friendly offering,” said Ross.

Taking Sbm To The World

SBM showcased its offering to the US market at SBC Summit North America in May, an experience that Ross and his team found “fascinating”.

“In Europe, most conversations are about how to make engaging content that fits with mature betting sites,” he explained. “In the US, the entertainment aspect is already deeply entrenched and we had a lot of conversations about how to develop the idea of betting within an established ecosystem of content, rather than developing content within a betting ecosystem.

“We had a lot of interest and we’re now in discussions with several potential US clients, and also picked up conversations with some

The company is also exhibiting at SBC Summit industry will be able to view its established products and enjoy the official launch of

“I’m not a fan of the term ‘disruption’ because SBM is here to assist in building sportsbooks to become bigger, rather than to ‘disrupt’,” said Ross. “But BettingRad.io has the potential to start a brand new sector in sports betting and we’re really excited to show it off to the industry.”