News Corp creates executive role to increase wagering advertising ad revenue
News Corp will move to grab a bigger slice of the burgeoning wagering advertising pie with the appointment of a dedicated executive to oversee the wagering sector.
Wagering “an area of huge opportunity for News Corp” says Damian Eales
Simon Anderson, executive general manager of The Daily and Sunday Telegraph, has been appointed to the newly-created role of group director – wagering, reporting to News Corp Australia MD Damian Eales.
Eales told Mumbrella the timing was right to build stronger relationships with wagering companies.
The announcement also comes as pressure is again being placed on the government by incoming senators to legislate a ban on sports betting advertising on TV.
News Corp’s new head of wagering Simon Anderson
Crossbench MPs Andrew Wilkie and Nick Xenophon called on the government yesterday to end sports betting ads on TV.
Any success in implementing a ban could provide a major boost to other media channels, although Eales played down how such a ban could help News, saying any possible changes to the way broadcast laws governed sports betting was not a consideration.
“It’s not really in our thinking,” Eales said.
“In my thinking we’re really very focused on ensuring that for that punting audience in both print and digital, in terms of our sports journalism, our expert opinion about the upcoming game, or our preview of the upcoming race, we have just got to focus on delivering the best information we can provide readers and punters alike.
“What happens in the broader landscape, in terms of betting, is not really my focus.
“It’s hard to determine how those companies will end up spending their money if those channels become restricted to them.”
However, Eales said the lure of developing the wagering sector as a part of the business was unquestionable.
“It’s big and it’s growing and it’s also a very competitive market with many players trying to acquire new business and many players trying to grow their turnover,” he said.
“It’s an obvious thing for us to do in many respects because most punters use our sports content to inform their bets and so through dedicated focus on that wagering customer we think we can better develop products to serve the punting audience and better serve our wagering clients who want to access that audience.”
“Eales said it was “early days” and that the job was now for Anderson to fully develop the role within the business using his own passion for the sector and the knowledge he had of the audience from his previous roles.
“It’s now for Simon to go develop that category so to that extent his role will be focused on leveraging that extensive sports audience, evolving our print and digital sports products to offer punters better information to make smarter bets and in turn offer wagering operators a highly-engaged punting audience.”
Eales said there would be a strong digital focus with phone and online betting rising by 10% each year for the past four years and that News would be able to work with wagering companies to connect them with audiences across all platforms.
“It’s an important category, it’s a growing category and if it wasn’t significant to us we wouldn’t be appointing a dedicated focus to it.”
As part of the reshuffle, Eales also announced Michael Wilkins, former general manager of NewsLocal, has been appointed executive general manager for The Daily and Sunday Telegraph, while Tamara Oppen, former general manager of strategic projects, has been appointed general manager at NewsLocal.
The timing of the announcement comes as the debate on wagering ads on TV was reignited by Wilkie and Xenophon this week, prompting an angry response from Seven West Media CEO Tim Worner, who said the current regulations around TV were strict enough, calling the new suggestions “draconian”.
“We feel like we’re in Groundhog Day,” Worner said.
“Seven and the other networks are already heavily regulated and we are very serious about our compliance. In fact, we undertake self-regulation beyond the provisions under the Code.
“We already have extensive restrictions in place to ensure community standards are met. I have children myself and I am not blind to the concerns. This is borne out by the fact that the incidence of complaints from our viewers on sports betting ads is actually low.”
News maintaining their form of keeping up with 5 years ago.
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So basically the Australian boss of Sun Bets: http://www.afr.com/business/ta.....227-gn5hfg
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