BUILDING A BETTER MEDIA | Sports Betting Operator

Speaking with David Archer, the man behind the success of WhichBookie. By Mark McGuinness

Sports Betting Operator caught up with Better Media Ltd.’s managing director, David Archer, to chat about the growing importance of affiliate publishers in providing betting content review information and creating communities.

David, you’ve been in the business for several years. How have you found the journey?

I started my journey over 18 years ago with the bookmaker Reuben Page. We took that business from six betting shops to 59 and then sold to Gala Coral. It was a great learning experience. I wanted to do it all over again, so we launched Pagebet in 2007 and expanded that business to over 50 betting shops, including telephone betting and online, for a few years.

Better Media Managing Director David Archer

Retail is always a tricky business, with lots of costs, and as I’ve always been interested in digital and online, I launched my first sports book affiliate publisher business with a portfolio of sites including www.freebets.com, back in 2009.

Moving on from that, and having owned several domains, we launched Better Media Ltd in 2016, again focusing on sports betting, of which our leading brands are WhichBookie.co.uk and WhichBookie.com.

Overall, the journey from land-based to online has been a natural progression for many businesses over the years. It has been challenging and rewarding simultaneously, as you meet a vast range of entrepreneurs and visionaries globally.

Why are sports-betting-affiliate publishers like yourself essential to the iGaming supply chain?

Online has created demand and accessibility to a vast variety of services, and from that consumers seek reliable, unbiased, and credible information to make informed decisions about how they may eventually wish to spend their money with that brand. With information, of course, comes too much information or decision overload. Sports bettors are no different to online shoppers in that they seek to find the best deal that suits their needs and obtain impartial advice.

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WhichBookie does what it says in the name. We provide information, comparisons, reviews and independent recommendations from our editorial team about the betting brands listed on our site. We pride ourselves on helping – as a customer-review-style destination – our community to find what’s right for them, including communicating responsible-gambling information. As a business and editorial team, we fully support all the requirements.

How have changes in technology impacted the sports-betting-affiliate business?

Technological advancements have made it easier to start a website or e-commerce business. Ten years ago, you would have required a lot of developers to manage your platforms and content-management software. Now, a lot of the tech is designed to be used by people who don’t have coding backgrounds, so everyone can be a ‘content creator.’

The sheer depth of available tools allows you to experiment and ‘fail fast’ to scale your business goal. However the downside is that, given the plethora of available tools, we are almost in the mindset that tech is ‘disposable’ or becomes ‘obsolete’ too quickly. Tools can be great productivity additions, but you must have a clear business vision and purpose. Otherwise, tools become and are becoming a shiny distraction!

Can sports-betting-affiliate websites remain relevant to consumers?

The short answer is yes; affiliate marketing can account for up to 50 percent of new players to a betting brand’s website. Now, that’s a big number and operators, both big and small, rely on affiliates to generate full-funnel marketing for their brands.

For a punter’s standpoint, as long as the publisher provides impartial information, then there is always a place for brands such as WhichBookie.

What’s on the road map for WhichBookie?

We are attending a host of international industry shows, such as SBC Lisbon and SiGMA Europe, to meet affiliates and brands.

Networking and exchanging ideas are very important to us – we are in the business of relationships.

From a product standpoint we are, of course like many digital businesses, looking at further international expansion in LatAm, and evaluating AI and how it can help our WhichBookie community find relevant information, and improve the user experience. So, there is lots to look forward to over the next few months and into next year.