Between December 17 and January, 70 college football teams are competing in 35 different bowl games. For affiliates, that represents 35 opportunities to reach 70 different fan bases that might normally fly below their radar.
And that’s on top of the legions of bettors who are combing bowl game schedules looking for mismatches and undervalued teams. Because so many bowl games feature non-conference match-ups, sports wagering fans are always on the lookout for quality game previews and bowl related content.
The key to reaching these markets is optimized content, social media and fan forums.
Small Schools
When picking teams to wager on, college football bettors usually look for value in small schools that don’t normally get a lot of attention from the national media. That’s exactly the strategy site operators should be using in college bowl game marketing campaigns for their sports betting affiliate programs.
Let’s face it, most football fans aren’t too excited about Florida International University and Marshall competing in the Beef ‘O’ Brady Bowl on December 20. But for fans of these two schools, especially Marshall fans, it’s a pretty big deal.
Marshall, home of the Thundering Herd, has a 6-6 record. That means a win in the Beef ‘O’ Brady bowl puts them on the right side of a winning season. And if you think that won’t fire up their fan base, guess again.
Optimized Game Previews
Affiliates who spend some time looking at the college bowl schedule and Google Keyword Analyzer will be pleasantly surprised at what they find. The term Marshall Football, for example, gets around 33,000 searches a month, that’s pretty good for a school with only 9,000 undergrads.
An optimized game preview can help attract both fans and bettors, two audiences with huge potential to open accounts. When researching keywords, be certain to find out the team’s various nicknames and mascots. Marshall’s football team goes by both The Herd and The Thundering Herd and that’s what fans will be searching for.
Twitter & Fan Forums
A bowl invitation is a big deal to any school, even if it’s not a top tier BCS bowl (apologies to the Beef ‘O’Brady and Kraft Fight Hunger Bowls). That means fan forums and Twitter feeds start exploding as game time nears. Re-Tweeting your content with appropriate, team-related, hash tags can move plenty of traffic your way, and maybe help you pick up a few new Twitter followers, too.
Posting on fan forums is another great way of drawing traffic to your site, but definitely exercise caution with your posts. Forum members, on any site, are extremely sensitive to advertising pitches and won’t be impressed by your marketing efforts. Just keep your posts informative and include a link to your content. If you’ve done your homework, small school fans and bettors will want to visit your site.
Final Tips
- Game previews are appealing to both casual fans and hardcore bettors. Keep them short, and heavy on the statistics.
- Focus your efforts on smaller bowl games and you won’t be fighting the crowd. Everyone is covering the Fiesta Bowl, hardly anyone is looking at the Gildan New Mexico Bowl.
- Keep your fan forum postings short and free of advertising speak. A well written post with a link is plenty.
- Get your names right. A few minutes on the school’s website and Google Keyword Analyzer can keep your content on track.
For more on Sports Betting affiliate programs, check out our guide to Sports Betting in North America.
What are you doing to get your site ready for College Football’s Bowl Season? Let us know on our General Discussion Forum.