Bots, the Silent Threat to Sportsbook Success

In the fast-paced world of digital advertising, sportsbooks face an increasingly complex challenge. The relentless rise of invalid traffic and ad fraud. The Association of National Advertisers reports the cost of digital ad fraud is an astonishing $120 billion annually. This means stakes have never been higher for marketers in the sports betting industry. As bots and fraudulent activities siphon away significant portions of advertising budgets. Sportsbooks must develop robust strategies to ensure their campaigns are both effective and efficient.

Statista highlights the severity of the issue with recent studies showing that over 40% of all online traffic can be attributed to non-human sources, with bots accounting for a substantial portion of this figure. This not only inflates costs but also skews the data. This makes it harder to gauge the true performance of marketing campaigns. With click fraud rates in the sports betting sector reported to be as high as 20%. It’s clear that sportsbooks are particularly vulnerable to these deceptive practices.

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Sportsbooks must become aware of the methods needed to combat sophisticated bot traffic and ad fraud to maximize their ROI. The solutions available are as varied as they are vital. This means organisations can safeguard marketing efforts and ensure ad spend translates into genuine customer engagement if they start now.

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Investigating Returning Profit Thieves

Targeting ad campaigns to siphon profits is a common tactic used by fraudsters but can also be unintentionally carried out by loyal customers. However, increasing interest from fraudsters means that companies must start to intervene now or risk losing out campaign success to bad actors.

Leveraging free bonuses or boosted bets to attract new customers, i.e bonus abuse, can give you a competitive edge. However, it also opens the door for fraudsters. These bad actors use automated bots to create fake accounts and exploit bonuses. They then divert your funds intended to drive FTDs [First-Time Deposits] without delivering genuine value. Fraudsters can leverage millions of IPs to commit bonus fraud almost entirely undetected. TrafficGuard studies reveal that some sportsbooks are losing up to 36.7% of their Google search clicks to invalid traffic. Some of these cases have exceeded this percentage.

Fraudsters are increasingly infiltrating the market using various types of bots. Beyond those targeting bonus abuse, these bots can carry out a range of harmful activities. They generate fake clicks and accounts to skewing ad metrics and depleting your ad budget. Such malicious bots disrupt online ecosystems, inflate costs, and diminish the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. This poses a significant challenges that TrafficGuard is designed to detect and mitigate.

Returning users or navigational traffic mean that even existing customers can become a source of lost profits for sportsbetting companies. By repeatedly clicking advertisements to re-login, WordStream has found that customers can inflate pay-per-click [PPC] costs by up to 20%. This increases customer-acquisition costs [CACs] and results in significant inefficiencies in PPC advertising.

With events in the summer taking a dominant role in sports betting profits, the amount of money up for grabs is essential income for sportsbooks. The Paris Olympics 2024 is predicted to make $12.1 billion for France alone. If sportsbooks don’t take action to protect themselves from fraud, they risk missing out on the opportunity to maximize ROI and boost campaign efforts.

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Ensuring Campaign Success with Third-Party Assistance

To prevent bots creating losses and allow companies to benefit from the new market opportunities, operators must create a strong layer of defence against fraud. With a reliable solution to combat fraud, sportsbooks can increase user acquisition by investing in the channels that deliver the best results. A few ways in which advertisers can keep track of their marketing efforts and harness the best profits include:

Monitoring Suspicious Traffic Patterns: Continuously analyse traffic for irregularities that suggest bot activity, such as unusually high click rates or patterns that deviate from typical user behaviour. This helps identify and block fraudulent traffic before it impacts your campaigns.

Implementing Strong Identity Verification: Identity verification ensures that the person registering for an account is who they claim to be. This helps prevent fraudsters from creating multiple accounts using fake identities to exploit promotions, bonuses, and betting limits.

Setting Click Frequency Limits for Returning Users: Implement rules to control the number of times loyal customers can click on your ads. This helps manage costs by preventing repeated clicks from inflating your customer acquisition costs [CACs].

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Staying One Step Ahead of Bots

Navigating the treacherous waters of ad fraud is a critical challenge for sportsbooks. Especially those aiming to maximize their ROI, improve campaign results and hit crucial targets. As the landscape of digital advertising evolves, the strategies employed to combat bots and fraudulent activities must keep up. By harnessing advanced technologies such as machine learning, implementing stringent verification processes, and continuously monitoring traffic patterns, sportsbooks can significantly reduce the impact of ad fraud.

Ultimately, these efforts not only protect advertising budgets but also ensure that marketing campaigns reach their intended audience, driving genuine customer engagement and sustainable growth in a highly competitive market. Embracing these solutions is not just a defensive move but a strategic imperative for any sportsbook looking to thrive in the digital age.

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