COURTSIDE TRANSLATORS

The most serious bettors bet 4x a week, but has never once cared about how much they win.

Hmmm… That’s odd.

To make it make sense, here’s what I did:

Camped out at sports bars to observe sports fans and bettors in the wild
Talked off-the-record with bar owners and game presenters at casinos
Studied how betting works and gave the entire creative team Betting 101 session
Artifacts: creative brief, consumer insight deck, persona deck, communications framework.

Challenge.

March Madness is the Super Bowl for betting.

PointsBet wants to be known as the Home of Live Betting, and March Madness presents the biggest opportunity to drive live bets.

However, it’s almost impossible to get noticed when the DraftKings and FanDuel of the world try to shout as loud as possible to make sure everyone else get drowned out of the game.

How can PointsBet, a challenger brand known for its offerings of high-risk and high-reward bets, cut through the clutter and steal a bigger piece of the pie? The brand has identified an opportunity audience: Billy.

Meet Billy.

Billy is anyone but your friend who bets for fun.

They bet 4x a week. Their average stake? $100 and above.

Oh, and they bet on it all. Sports they watch and do not watch. From football, futbol, basketball, WNBA, to Russian ping-pong - you name it, chances are, they’ve bet on it.

Oddly enough, I’ve never once heard them brought up anything remotely close to money or how much they’ve won. But what I did overhear, was stories of wit, gut, and an ick to prove themselves.

Newbies bet with their heart, these guys bet with their head.

“I stay away from betting on my favorite team - it comes back and burns me. I feel like I’m not betting with my head.”
They're constantly looking for an edge over others, even if it means taking great risks.

“It’s like stock, bro. I scrape the Internet for undervalued opportunities, and go all in on them.”
Above all else, they trust no one except themselves.

“I don’t want anyone to tell me this is the best bet. I don’t think they can make a better decision than I can.”

Audience insight.

Billy is always right.

When he bets, he doesn’t think about it as a risk, or just for fun, or even a chance to make life-changing money.

Every bet is his opportunity to prove to everyone, his friends and himself included, that he’s right. That he’s better. Smarter.

Every bet is this glitch in the Matrix, a loophole that he has found in the system. Every bet is him trying to take back control from The Man.

The March Madness Opportunity.

Beneath the chaos of March Madness, there’s an undercurrent of intelligence.

Where the average bettor can only see chaos, our audience sees March Madness as the biggest moment to flex their superior skill. They are actively leaning in, dilligently hunting for that opportunity to rise to the occasion.

The Brief.

Help Billy outsmart the Madness.

Live betting is all about finding moments where the odds don’t match with what’s going on on the floor.

What would happen if we gave Billy the kind if human insights that the algorithms miss out on?

The Activation.