While it is not uncommon for national teams to attract sponsorships from major brands, but it is rare that one would do so with a betting company, and a new kid on the block at that. But 10Bet, who was announced as Bafana Bafana sponsors in July has revealed why this unique partnership ticks all the boxes for both parties.
Soccer Laduma sat down with 10Bet Sponsorship Manager Nick Moyo to talk about this unique partnership.
Nick, It's not every day that we see a betting company partner with the national team. You guys, I think it's the first of its kind, especially from an African perspective...
We had to look at, you know, in terms of what our objectives are as a brand. What we want to achieve and we understand that our customer segments have huge interest in football and we wanted to find the right sort of assets to partner with what speaks back to the nation you know, and I think Bafana Bafana was a great fit for us really because of also what's been happening there internally and how they've transformed the team, not just from the performance point of view, but how they have set goals aside and how everything has been operated there. So it's quite aligned to how we see ourselves as a brand, being ambitious and wanting to definitely drive the passion around the nation and be a brand that's seen as authentic, which I think they are, as well as a team, and they're part of the nation.
What does 10Bet bring to Bafana Bafana in layman's terms ?
No. Look, I think in layman's terms, it's definitely without saying, it is the funding for sponsorship revenue and definitely for us we want to leave it there. There are various initiatives that the team has highlighted that they want to go out in terms of marketing the team itself and what they'll be doing around those matchdays. So we also want to align those with what we want to do as well from leveraging and an activation point of view in the various experiences that we want to create for fans because really this whole ecosystem does need to have the fans at the centre, you know, because at the end of the day, without the fans there isn't the football and the passion and the ambiance in terms of a nation being so passionate about this iconic asset that we speak about Bafana Bafana, so it's important that we include the fans and ensure that we're creating opportunities for them to engage with the team. But I think it's time that we definitely bring that back into the Bafana Bafana space as a brand. And I think as 10Bet, that's what we're bringing, you know, to be the supporting structure for them to help them be able to execute on those plans as well and walk the journey with them.
The reverse side of that obviously is what's in it for 10Bet. How do you guys leverage off of that? Has there been since you guys were announced in July, an uptake in the amount of subscribers and users?
Look, when you come to sponsorship, it's very important to understand that you know, it's really about not only creating meaningful connections with fans - but we also understand that sponsorship has evolved, it moved away from just being about brand awareness, but for sponsors, the value here really is to create and convert the general everyday consumer into a customer, right? So, if you are sponsoring their passion points and whether it's football in this case and the team that they love, you know the opportunities for you to engage with them and at a level that resonates with them as a brand so that they can feel your brand personality and understand what you guys are about and introduce yourself to the fans and the general public. If they're not necessarily interested in football, but so that they can actually be able to understand that, here's a new sports book in the market, that's got sports marketing and online gaming experiences and opportunities for me to engage in. So, it's really then using, you know, the partnership to further drive that mileage in terms of like getting us into the face of the fans or into the into their palms through the devices through downloading our app or going on online channels to actually experience our brand.
