iGaming Daily

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Hello and welcome to this special SBC Awards 2024 edition of iGaming Daily, where we'll be looking at how to craft a winning entry or at the very least, how to give your business the very best chance of success. And this discussion couldn't really be more timely as although the award ceremony in Lisbon is not until 26th September, the deadline for entries is 20th of June. So you've just got a few days left to get your submissions in.

I'm Martin Elliott, project director for SBC Media and joining me today to share some of the secrets of how to win an industry award is Jay Moore, co -founder of Bettenhero. Hi, Jay. Hi, Martin. Thanks for having me. I appreciate the time. Yeah, no, it's good. And...

Nice to have somebody on what we could also brand the special Macclesfield edition of iGaming Daily today. That's right. Yeah, it's been a number of years since I lived there, but I did visit the UK a couple of weeks ago and spent some time in the old stomping grounds. So it's been a while, but I always miss being there. Yeah, well, it's a nice part of the world to live in.

despite the fact that you've moved 3 ,600 miles away, according to Google. So. Yeah, that feels about right. Part by design, but also part by coincidence. Sure. OK. So I should probably point out to listeners and viewers that the reason we invited, you'd say, part today, Jay, is that Betting Hero is a sort of serial winner of awards.

including both Casino Affiliate of the Year and Employer of the Year at the SBC North America Awards, along with four silver prizes at those awards, all just within three years. So a bit of a track record, some nice pedigree there for people to listen to. Yeah, look, hopefully I have some valuable insights to share. We take awards really seriously. It's partly because we are competitive by nature.

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But also it's a great reminder as you're filling these submissions out about some of the accomplishments that you've been able to achieve. So, you know, we look at it from that aspect as well. And we've been fortunate to win a couple of awards in the last two years and be runner up in two or three others in that same period of time. You know, we waited.

to submit our nominations for these awards until we've really established ourselves as a company in space because we wanted to win when we eventually did submit. So hopefully we found a formula now to how to do that, most importantly being a deserving winner, but happy to share some of the tips and tricks that we may have learned. Yeah, I think the other thing is that you quite often say the award wins used for marketing purposes and so on.

So also just great recognition for your team as well internally, isn't it? Almost a reassurance that the work they've done is really worthwhile and progressive and they are working for a leading company as well. So some nice internal benefits for you as well as promotional ones, I think. Yeah, honestly, we look at that as far more valuable. Of course, from a recruiting standpoint, if you win employer of the year, you have a good chance of being able to better recruit the following year.

But being recognized as Casino Affiliate of the Year, that probably means we already work with most of the clients that we're going to work with. So from that standpoint, it's really about recognition for the hard work being done by our employees and obviously the sacrifices that they make. That's why we try and bring as many of our employees as we can to the award ceremonies. Because if we do get up on stage, we want every single person to be up there with us. So you're absolutely right.

Sure. Okay. So before I squeeze you for a little advice for our audience, I want to mention that this particular iteration of the SBC awards is slightly different from past editions. So this year in Lisbon, all the categories in the awards are global. So no, no solely European focused categories anymore. So it really is a chance to...

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prove your company is the best of the best in the international market. So with that, just to get us started, other than actually the basics of reading the criteria before you put pen to paper on it and tailoring your submission towards those criteria, what do you think sort of an overall level makes for a good award submission?

Yeah, it's a great question. It's one I've asked myself dozens and dozens of times because as much as we've had success in the recent past, when we first began to submit nominations for these awards, we weren't successful. We did not win anything, if I remember correctly, until the second or third year that we began to submit. So we learned a lot during that process as well and understanding what needs to be within a submission, but also,

What are the judges looking for? What's going to stand out? What's truly going to differentiate you from the competition? And that's what this is. It's about differentiation. It's about performance. So I think at the highest level, how can you tell a story that's compelling, but also how can you justify the deservedness to win an award based on your performance from the prevailing 12 months?

If you struggle to answer that question regarding a specific award nomination, then you're probably not going to win. There have been awards that we've submitted for in the past and then things have changed in our business and we haven't submitted for, you know, later on because we don't believe that we're deserving to win. And if it's difficult for us to justify how we might win an award, then it's going to be extremely difficult for a judge. So at a highest level,

have a deserving chance to win an award based on merit, based on performance that's gone before, and then be able to craft a story around that message, craft a story around that performance that entices the judge, that entices the judges to read on and believe in whatever the story or the message may be. So obviously it's a little bit of an art and a science,

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combined here, you need to have the art and the creativity to write a compelling story that makes sense in the industry, but you need to have the science that also makes sense based on the actual performance and the data and the supporting facts and figures that justify a winning submission. So those would be the things that I would primarily focus on.

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Martin, did I lose you?

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I think we lost you, Martin. All right, OK, my back. I was assuming that was me. I was assuming that was me. It could have been me, but I was on a screen all by myself. OK, that's normally a clue that it was me. OK, so we... Do you want to start again? I'm not sure how this is being edited. Or should we just... Question again, it's up to you. Let's start with that.

question again, which was.

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So, other than the very basic step of first reading the criteria for the particular award you're entering and tailoring your entry to that, at a sort of a high level, what would you say makes for a successful and compelling award entry? Yeah, it's a good question. It's one that

I've asked myself many times because as much as we had success in the recent past with these submissions, we did not start out by nominating ourselves and then winning right away. Yeah, I believe that you have to deserve that right to win and you have to deserve that based on earning the right to win. So from our standpoint, the way that I look at these nominations and awards in general is it's a combination of an art and a science.

the art of being able to craft and create a really compelling story that the judges are going to be able to read into and believe in and agree with or disagree with. And then obviously the science behind actually deserving the award itself, having the facts and the figures, the data, the analytics, the insights, whatever it may be that tells the industry that you are the deserving winner of that award.

For somebody that can combine both of those things together, you're going to have a really good chance of success. But for somebody that can only tell a really good story, but there's no supporting evidence, or for somebody that only has supporting evidence, but doesn't have the ability to put that into context within the industry, it's going to be harder to win an award. So when you think about those nominations themselves, finding a balance there is really important. The qualitative and the quantitative insights that ultimately are going to...

result in a deserving winner? Yeah, I think that's right. There are lots of companies in this industry who are doing a really good job that provide an extremely good service to their customers and so on. But you have to, there's a little bit more to it than that to win the award is you have to put the effort into the entry itself. So part of it is little things like,

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filling out the entry form in the way that it's designed and not just downloading a bit of information from the website and uploading it because a judge might be looking at a hundred submissions in your category before putting together the short list. So that's, you know, make it as easy as possible for them to digest that information. Yeah. If I could interrupt, I mean, one of the things that I think about when submitting these awards and up until this year, I've submitted every single award nomination on our behalf.

This year we've engaged with a PR firm who help us to put the finishing touches on the award nominations just to save honestly on time because there are a lot of nominations that we're putting forward. But up until that point everything was coming from me and I basically signed off on every single nomination that we had. And the first thing that I would challenge myself on is on every single award nomination have I completed every single section and have I done so?

to the level at which that we're going to be satisfied with. And what that means is if there is an ask for a supporting document or a video or a quote or a comment from a client, I will fill in those gaps first because everything else can be backfilled, i .e. the story or the justification or the facts and figures. But it's really important to have a piece of data or a piece of insight in every single box that's on the nomination form.

If you start there, then you know that at least you're not going to miss anything. That's probably where the judges are going to rule out nominations first, is who took the time to make sure that the nomination was filled out correctly. Martin, did I lose you again?

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You're back. I'm back. I wasn't sure if it was you or me that time because I'm looking forward to passing this to someone in our video team to edit. Yeah, this is going to be a photo. We'll see what comes out at the end. Yeah. Yeah. OK. Yeah, so let's go back to it. So, yeah, you're absolutely right. Part of it is making sure you do a thorough job on that submission.

And also, you know, the evidence, providing some evidence to back up your claims is hugely important in this because most companies have a good marketing department who can tell a good story. Can you prove that? So we've actually changed the awards forms for the first time moving on to the Lisbon Awards in September. Essentially four sections now. First one.

is provide a sort of a short overall synopsis as to why you think you should win, why you meet the criteria. And the second part is what we're calling the competitive advantage. So we're asking how your product or service has given your business a competitive advantage, or perhaps it helps to give your customers a competitive advantage. And then after that, we're moving on to what we call really the

the proof, the evidence. So the section with some facts and figures to back up your nomination. And then finally, can you give us a success story? Can you evidence that your product or your service has been hugely successful? And then in an ideal world, if you've got a customer who will give you a testimonial for that, or perhaps if you're going into the employer of the year.

category, which you've had success in the past, do you have some support from your employees to state what a good company you are to work for? So it's all about using those four steps to build that story, to show the judges why you're such a deserving case in there. And

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Although we have changed our system from the one we used in New Jersey a bit earlier in the year when you had some success in the casino affiliate of the year category, I was looking back at your entry for that a bit earlier on and you kind of hit all those things in that submission without having those prompts all the way through. So I'm not going to read out or share the submission because one thing to say about these things is...

They are confidential. The judges have signed agreements to say they're not going to share the information in it. So you can share some proper commercial data with us and it'll go no further. But I was just looking through this. The story you've told about the huge number of new depositing customers you've delivered. How you've done that as well is really interesting.

And then you fold that up at the end with a glowing reference from one of your partners there. So really, overall, it's a compelling story you've told there. So I just wonder if you perhaps can tell us a little bit about the thinking and why you chose the particular information you had in that submission. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, it's interesting as the submission form changed for a global awards coming up, you know, we looked at our nominations in years past and actually agreed that that we were doing something quite similar to this format. Anyway, certainly some changes here to be made. But but ultimately, the format that we've been using has been quite similar. And really, it comes back to my background in recruiting, which sounds crazy. How is there a correlation between recruiting and

award nominations, but it's much like building a resume. So in a resume, in a good resume, you will tell the company that you're trying to work for what you can do. Then you'll tell them how you did it, and then you'll tell them what you did. That's kind of how a resume is formatted. And that's very much how an award nomination should be formatted in our opinion as well. So we'll tell you about who we are. That's the synopsis. We'll tell you about...

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what we do, that's the description, we'll tell you about how we did it, that's the facts and figures, and then we'll tell you about what we did again, and that is the supporting evidence for the case study of success. So in this case, and for us in particular, we are, we're quite a unique company. We are traditionally seen as an affiliate, although we provide a lot of services that no other affiliates provide. We also do the, even the affiliate part of our business, we do that very differently than competition.

For example, we are truly an omni -channel affiliate. We have digital assets, just like any of the larger affiliates that are in this space. And we also have an enormous offline affiliate base with our live activation teams. So the first thing that we always need to do is actually introduce our type of affiliation to the judges, to our clients. Because if they're not familiar with us, then it's going to be a little confusing. So we try to introduce who we are and then tell them what we do. And then we back that up with

performance of facts and figures, not many affiliates have acquired over half a million customers in the last six years. So we're in a very small group of affiliates in that respect, especially the way that we've done it with most of those happening in person. And then to cap that off, we want to also show the industry, the judges that this is not a novel idea anymore. This is something that is widespread. Every operator uses this type of acquisition effort and retention effort.

And if we can get a strategic partner to provide some supporting evidence on our behalf, that's only gonna be more compelling. It's always more valuable to have someone else sell your story or sell your product or service than it is to sell it yourself. So that's what we try and incorporate. So I appreciate you making those comments and taking notice. Again, we've been working on this type of award nomination format for several years and it seems to work for us pretty well.

Yeah, I mean, one thing that really stands out, which our audience can take away from that, I think, is particularly if you're a supplier, you've done something that is genuinely groundbreaking, is very different from what everyone else is doing. Just take the time within your submission to explain what it is and how it's different so the judges can get a grasp on it. Don't make an assumption that the judge will have heard of you and...

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understand what you've done. So it's that two level, on the two levels really. Tell us what it is and then prove to us that it's worked and then you're on your way then to, you know, at the very least being competitive against all the bigger names and, you know, perhaps some more established names. We've had some over the years, this hasn't just been about the biggest companies winning.

the biggest categories. We've had some companies at the time who were quite small when some of these categories and have gone on to do some great things. I would put us in that category, to be honest. Last year, when we were at the North American Awards, we thought we might have a chance in one of the categories that we were shortlisted for. Those categories came and went as we were sitting at the award ceremony.

The final category that we were shortlisted in was employer of the year. This was the category that we pretty much written off in terms of our ability to win because we were up against some amazing companies, companies that I know intimately because they're clients and partners of ours. I know just how amazing that they are and they're much, much larger than us publicly traded or certainly two, three, four, five X the size of a company that we are.

This was not the award that we thought we were going to win moving into the evening. It was the award we won. And honestly, it was one of the most rewarding evenings of our existence because never do you think as a small to medium sized business that you're going to have the ability to beat large scale companies that have been around for decades in an employer of the ward category, which in our opinion is the most prestigious ward award in the in the in the offing.

If we could win one award every single year, it would be the employer of the year award. There's no question. Yeah, that is a great category to win. And yeah, there are always some sort of, you're up against the PLCs and so on, you know, the really big brands and that so. But you've showcased two things here. One, you've put together obviously a compelling entry to get onto the shortlist, because I can tell you.

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There's a lot of competition to get onto the shortlist in that category. But also, coming back to your original point right at the start of this, you've actually done the work to build up compelling case for it because of how you operate all throughout the year, how you organise the company and the success you've had. So thanks for taking the time to join us today, Jay. Hopefully...

Everyone in the audience has picked out some nice tips, some things to go on as they finish off their award submissions in the next few days. I know you've already submitted for this year. So in many ways, thanks for giving your competition some tips on how to beat you, I guess, in this. We should have waited to do this podcast for maybe another week or so. That's OK. The competition is good. And look,

There are so many deserving companies to win these awards. Honestly, most of the shortlisted companies could win these awards every single year. It's almost unfair that there's only one winner. We just happen to have found a formula that works for us in writing and building the award nominations. And look, if that's the only reason we win, if that's our differentiator, then I don't mind if anybody else wins as well, instead of us. But hopefully we win because of the performance that we've

that we put down every year and obviously the award categories that we nominate for are relevant and we're deserving, we believe that we're deserving winners of those categories. So hopefully we're winning for those reasons, not just because of how we formulate the submissions themselves, but it's key to have a good submission that supports it. And if I've given a couple of tips here and there, then I guess those, my competitors can buy me a drink at the awards dinner later in the year.

Yeah, well, I will I will look forward to seeing you that dinner in Lisbon in September. But yeah, just for a go one final reminder, final deadline for submissions. And, you know, I think I think we know that typically there are extensions and extensions, but genuinely final day for award submissions this year is June the 20th. So please, if you want to enter and you want to be part of that.

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big celebration of the industry on September 26th in Lisbon. Please get your entries in as soon as possible. Other than that, thank you for listening and thanks again, Jay, for joining us. And we'll be back again tomorrow with another edition of iGaming Daily. Thank you. Perfect. Thanks. Thanks.