Pubs have long been associated with sports, providing a gathering place for fans to come together and share a communal thrill. But, as the reasons people choose to visit pubs shift, the role of sport in driving pub visits is also evolving.
Today, a pub visit is no longer just about the beer. According to data from NIQ, the increasing focus on events and experiential visits now accounts for 39 per cent of all on-premise occasions – up four per cent year-on year. Patrons are increasingly seeking experiences, and live sport is a growing motivator for these visits.
Today’s consumers are seeking a sense of occasion, and that’s exactly what pubs offer. But more than that, they’re looking for an immersive environment and experiences that can’t be replicated at home.
For operators, the opportunity is to capture consumer demand beyond the core bar offer, and transform sports viewing into an occasion that keeps patrons coming back time and time again. Capitalising on this demand is about more than simply showing the game, it’s about creating experiential visits that consider every element of the customer journey.
Supercharge your live sports investment
Sports fans might come for the game, but in many cases, it’s gamification that keeps them there and spending. Tapping into appetite for extra venue experiences is crucial to getting the most out of this demand and a great way of ensuring your offering goes beyond your competitors.
Designed to help operators make the most of this behaviour, Entain Venues’ SportsPick platform is a year-round engagement engine with the capabilities to schedule sports fixtures automatically, run weekly tipping competitions, and even surface live tipping leaderboards on in-venue screens.
One component of the platform is SportsPick Guide, a state-of-the-art automated sports broadcast scheduling system. Gathering all of a venue’s available sports broadcast channels, trading hours and sports preferences, SportsPick Guide delivers a complete and accurate live sports schedule, tailored to each venue’s broadcast priorities.
Taking the hassle out of managing and promoting live sports schedules, SportsPick Guide updates and verifies daily, loading your schedule straight to your website via the dedicated widget. This information can also easily be displayed across social media and digital signage, engaging patrons across integrated platforms and ensuring they never miss a moment of the action.
Fast and cost effective, SportsPick’s marketing tools give venues the ability to promote live sports schedules and increase patron loyalty, but beyond that, the SportsPick Guide also acts as a venue finder – ensuring your venue shows up to anyone searching for a venue showing a particular game in their area.
Increase in-venue engagement
Not only does SportsPick offer automated sports broadcast scheduling, it also enhances live sports customer experiences through tipping.
From fan-favourite footy tipping across AFL and NRL to the growing following of Saturday racing Punters Challenge, SportsPick Tipping competitions offer some of the biggest national prize pools to patrons – made accessible through SportsPick terminals and the SportsPick apps.
Lucrative national prize pools, completely funded by SportsPick, give venues a headline to attract patrons across the various tipping competitions on offer.
SportsPick’s tipping competitions reduce administrative burden by removing the need to record dips, deal with results and update ladders – the platform does it all. With comprehensive marketing assets and automated reminders to patrons, the platform focuses on driving increased dwell time and fostering loyalty.
If you’d like to know more about how SportsPick could work for your venue, contact Entain Venues to discover just how easily SportsPick can simplify and supercharge your live sports investment. Call 1800 344 668, email venues@entaingroup.com.au or visit www.entainvenues.com.au to find out more.