Flutter marketing chief: World Cup bettors will be more sophisticated than ever

Operators will face a markedly more sophisticated customer during the summer’s FIFA World Cup than in past editions, according to Flutter’s managing director of marketing services.

Speaking at Meta’s ‘Summer of Football’ event on Wednesday, 28 January, Tom Warren suggested player expectations are higher than they have been in a decade, placing an emphasis on operators to nail the user experience. 

He said: “Although a lot of the tactics have changed over the years about how to engage with the audience, I think the customers are still fundamentally looking for a combination of the same factors.  

“It’s important to get the basics right with the UX, especially for those customers who are potentially new to betting during the World Cup.

“Their expectations now for what a good UX looks like are much higher than it would have been 10 to 12 years ago. 

“From an engagement perspective, customer habits have changed over the years, and there’s a chance to build a more comprehensive relationship with customers. The level of sophistication in customers has changed.” 

Warren added that operators need to connect with the emotions surrounding the World Cup, while allowing players to have autonomy over their betting experiences.

He continued: “On top of the more functional stuff, it’s important to tap into the more emotional space, which is where I think the brands can really start to play; how you leverage the positive emotions that people feel about the World Cup, and how you develop the social side of things is very prevalent.   

“We’re going to see a lot of first-time bettors this summer, but for the guys who are who are regular players, the level of curation they do on their own experience now is something that didn’t really exist 10 years ago.

“It was much more about headline offers, whereas now, I think it’s more about making sure the player is fully in control of their experience.” 

Operators will also face the challenge of attracting new customers across different time zones during the World Cup, according to Superbet’s vice-president of group marketing Lish Kennedy.  

Speaking at the Meta event, Kennedy highlighted the challenges of establishing brand loyalty with new players, given that most customers across Europe, Latam and North America won’t all be able to engage with matches as they happen. 

She said: “Developing brand loyalty could become tricky, especially given the time zone split (at the World Cup) and the favourability of the Latam region.   

“There’s an engagement opportunity to drive brand love through being useful, informative, engaging and having a wonderful experience.   

“Serving that will be quite different for a time zone that can engage live, versus a time zone, perhaps in Europe and moving east, that has to drive brand preference through recaps and being useful in other aspects because you can’t watch or interact in a live way.” 

The 2026 World Cup, kicking off in June, will be hosted across the US and North America.

Matches will be played across 16 cities across three countries – the US, Canada and Mexico – encompassing four different time zones. 

Some fixtures will be aired in the UK as early as 3am during the group stage phase of the tournament. 

The summer’s tournament will also be its largest ever edition, with 48 teams competing for the first time ever. 

Kennedy added that new customers should be the priority for operators during the summer’s tournament. 

She said: “We know from the data that the overall betting population is roughly 9%, which grows to around 11% during the World Cup. 

“There’s a lot of people who are new to this industry who are choosing a brand for the first time potentially.   

“The focus is on how you help reassure, drive confidence and persuade those net newbies with your brand.

“Those more regular folks, who engage prior to the event, know your brand and love your brand previously so they may not be an immediate focus.”