G2E Keynote: Barstool Sportsbook CEO on social media’s importance in modern sports betting
Erika Nardini says the key to success is engaging sports fans on a ‘conversational and authentic’ level.
Barstool Sportsbook CEO Erika Nardini took to the G2E stage to discuss her company, focusing on how it has tried to harness the power of media to achieve success in recent years. American Gaming Association President & CEO Bill Miller quizzed her on exactly how the brand had done this.
Nardini explained that, early in her career, she had earned her stripes at big companies such as Microsoft and Yahoo – as well as smaller start-ups – where her roles were always media-focused. She has now been at Barstool Sportsbook for six and a half years.
Nardini commented: “When I got to Barstool Sports, it was a renegade brand, mostly in the Northeast, no one really wanted to give us a chance and the only platforms we had at our disposal was social media.
“As the big tech companies (such as Microsoft, Google and Yahoo) created products, I just helped Barstool take advantage of them and that’s how we grew so fast. That’s why we’ve had such explosive growth in a time of contraction.
“If you want your brand to gain the attention, you need to know how to use social media to get it.”
According to Nardini, the absolute worst approach the sports betting industry could take to customer engagement was for it “to become like the airline industry or the credit card industry, which give offers in a very traditional format, all saying the same things, with bright colors and loud music.”
Barstool Sportsbook, instead, aims to make sports betting conversational and authentic. Nardini commented: “It’s about the connection you have to the team you love, to your friends. It’s important to understand how to harness a conversation with your audience to create compelling content.
“We’ve done it through all our free and publicly available platforms, so the cost basis is very low and the impact is very high.”
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